Winter Wonderlights!

It came time to pack up and head towards home, however Jet had secretly arranged a little detour for the journey home – we were going to spend a night in Ballarat and visit their Winter Wonderlights and Blood on the Southern Cross – something we’d never done before. We have visited Sovereign Hill a number of times, but never in the middle of winter for the Wonderlights and never for the night show. The purpose of this surprise was a celebration of our 15th wedding anniversary which was just a couple of weeks ago.

We stopped near Ararat for a morning cuppa by the roadside and then found ourselves in Ballarat, all set up at Eureka Stockade Caravan Park – where kids stay free in winter – in time for lunch. Lunch was fish n chips.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the dusty streets of Sovereign Hill along with tens of thousands of others who thought a sunny but cold winter’s day was a good day to be out!

When dusk fell, multiple kilometres of fairy lights came on, trees were illuminating trees, making them various shades of blue, purple and pink.  Old cottages were also festooned with fairy lights, and the odd looking hay and wire reindeer took on a much more attractive sight.

In Main Street, thousands gathered as fake snow fell (it was actually bubbles – so it felt like we were in a car wash or dishwasher!). Colourful lights illuminated the buildings. It was all on a grand scale and followed the story of a mischievous ginger bread man being pursued by red coat soldiers, kind of like Shrek meets the gold rush. The light show was amazing and mesmerising. We wandered up and down and relished in the atmosphere. The chill of the evening just added to the feeling!

We checked ourselves in for ‘Blood on the Southern Cross’. This light and sound show has been running since 1993 and is set to close in a couple of weeks for a major upgrade. Having never been before it was a good opportunity to check it out. No photos were allowed, so there is nothing to show for the experience!

Feeling very cold by the end, we headed back to the caravan and warmed up. It would be a frosty old night, but we stayed warm and snug… tomorrow it’s time to head home, unpack and consider our options for the next trip.

Koalas and Fish

Before we knew it we were wondering what we would do for our last day in the Grampians. The weather forecast was positive so we embarked on a whole day outing. We wanted to go back to Zumsteins and walk to Fish Falls, but decided to do a loop drive.

A great way to plan an outing is to look at the map on geocaching.com… which we duly did. A planned route ready to go and lunch and snacks packed, we set off.

Initially we headed away from the Grampians, a few km’s back towards Stawell before turning left onto Fyans Creek Rd, heading towards Lake Lonsdale. Our first caching stop was at the old Greenhole Bridge…. A bridge going nowhere as it was in a very dilapidated state! Very scenic little spot though. Got some photos, signed the geocache log and continued on.

Mt Drummond Rd took us back to the Western Hwy where we turned left and headed to Dadswell Bridge for an immersion into a culture of relative tackiness. We’ve seen it numerous times, but never stopped for a closer look… but today we did stop and look at the Big Koala!  Looking at it closely... and it looks a little sad! There was a random chicken wandering the car park, which is right next to the main highway between Adelaide and Melbourne. If this chicken chose to cross the road, and you’d have to ask why it did… I don’t think it’ll be more than very flat schnitzel.

Also in Dadswell Bridge, we took a rough track into the scrub to find another cache. Then it was another quick pick up… cleverly disguised as a drink bottle, before leaving the highway and heading back towards the Northern Grampians.

This area proved to be a highlight of the day. Under a blue sky, we found ourselves in the Hollow Mountain car park. From there we took an easy 1km walk to Gulgurn Manja which is another old Aboriginal art site. The name means ‘hands of young people’ and the artwork, coincidentally is made up of mostly children’s ochre hand prints.

Lovely little area – rocky, but the colours seem different to the rest of the Grampians, more oranges and yellows. There were an assortment of winter wildflowers and some grass trees among the stringybark.

We completed some of the Hollow Mountain walk as well. This is a haven for rock climbers and you could hear them out enjoying their hobby today. Other than scrambling a few boulders, we stuck to the tracks!

Further along the orange dirt road we stopped at the Mt Zero picnic area where we had lunch. Alongside the picnic area was a bare rocky area that we climbed to take in the wonderful vista, with Mt Zero looming in front of us.

We drove around the side of Mt Zero Rd, past olive groves and back to the sealed road, the Northern Grampians Rd which leads back to Zumsteins. We called in at Laharum for a cache and admired the outline of the rugged Grampians across the sheep paddocks. We also found on in Wartook where we successfully made a herd of sheep and a matching herd of emu take flight to the far end of their paddock.

We also took another little bush track in Wartook, looking for a cache. It was meant to be the site of the remnants of an old Cobb & Co bridge. We found the cache in an old tree, found the river nearby but could not see any trace of an old bridge.

Back in the Zumsteins car park, we set out on the 4.6 km return walk to Fish Falls. It largely followed the valley and MacKenzie River, with a few easy climbs.

These were about our 6^th falls this week and were unique and lovely in their own way. There were multiple layers and various pools and rock shelves. We were able to explore all areas as the path continue past and ends up back at MacKenzie Falls.

After enjoying Fish Falls we walked back to the Zumsteins car park.

Our final goal for this grand day out was to revisit Reeds Lookout and hope for better luck with a sunset. We got there with the sun a huge yellow ball, low in the sky. As it looked hopeful we hung around. The golden light looked great on the mountains. The sky was in hues of blue, purple and grey. Eventually the sun slipped over the distant mountains and we enjoyed some orange and yellow across the sky. It was very cold by this stage – down to just a few degrees, with an overnight expected to be around the zero mark.

From Reeds, we wound our way back down Mt Victory Rd, to Halls Gap and a well earned rest and dinner!