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 6th 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.
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