Into the Jaws

We had a slow start to the morning… mostly due to some rain.

 But rather than be stuck inside, we were able to get a game of mini golf in without getting drenched. The mini golf is quite unlike others we’ve played in that it has a distinctly Grampians theme and feel to it. This means lots of foliage, rocks and holes modeled on and named after local landmarks.

There really was a forest feel to the course with plenty of water obstacles to… again, like the Grampians themselves! Just like ‘real golf’ we lost a couple of balls in the water traps! With so much greenery, overhanging trees and bushes I was surprised that all of the ‘greens’ were leaf litter free… it must be a big job cleaning them regularly!

On a more competitive nature… the results had Daz out front, with Ethan in second, Jet third followed by Zac and Gemma.

We returned to the caravan for some lunch and a discussion about where to for the afternoon. This trip really has been a make it up as you go adventure and so far it has not disappointed.

We found ourselves driving up Mt Victory Rd again, this time heading for the Reeds Lookout carpark. From there it was a flat easy walk of about 20 minutes to the ‘Balconies’… formerly known as the Jaws of Death. The name was changed to give it less of a ‘you won’t return from here’ vibe I guess.

I’m sure, since our last visit way back in 2003, part of the top jaw had broken off. Nevertheless, it was a grand view not just of the Balconies but across a vast valley of green/blue trees with countless peaks in the distance.

On the walk back to the car park, we stopped at a clearing where many people have built stone towers. It now resembles a city for Smurfs. The kids were keen to add to it with some of their own rock architecture… so that is what they did!

We looked at the view from the fire lookout at the top of Reeds lookout and with a curtain of grey mist coming in, it was obvious we would not get to witness a great sunset on this evening. So we escaped the cold and went back to the caravan for dinner.

Waterfall Wanderings

MacKenzie Falls are probably the best known of the many waterfalls in the Grampians, and possibly the only one that flows all year round. Our first stop on this morning’s outing was MacKenzie Falls. We were greeted by a huge carpark – testament to the popularity of the place! There is a newly completed toilet block and the remnants of the old kiosk which was lost in the bush fires about five years ago. Ironically it is just the fireplace that remains.

We began the walk to the base of the falls. No more than a kilometre, but down hill all the way, much of it on steep slippery stairs. Slippery from rain, but also slippery from the fine mist of spray emanating from the falls.

Near the top, we stopped at the Broken Falls Lookout which cantilevers over the gorge. From there it was a steady as you go descent to the base of MacKenzie Falls. 

Once at the base of all the stairs, it’s a simple matter of crossing the creek over the huge stepping stone boulders to look across the basin of water and up the towering rock faces with the water powerfully plummeting from the top. It is pretty impressive!

After enjoying the area for a while, we began the heart pumping ascent back up the stairs. Once at the carpark, we caught our breath and decided to walk to the MacKenzie Falls lookout – which was a simple, reasonably flat walk to a look out that overlooks the whole valley. The falls look so much smaller from this spot!

We again found ourselves at the large car park which was quite crowded with vehicles. That was our cue to move on to somewhere quieter. We had a quick stop at Lake Wartook – another man made dam / lake. It was not as picturesque as Lake Bellfield in my opinion.

Next, we kept driving and found ourselves at Zumsteins picnic area. Another place with an interesting history, Walter Zumstein, a beekeeper began picnicking and camping at this spot on the MacKenzie River in 1912. He was a pioneer of the tourism industry, quickly establishing a camp ground which became a popular place to holiday for many, many years.  Walter built 3 cottages and even a swimming hole. Unfortunately the cottages were extensively damaged in the same fires that took out the kiosk up at the falls. It appears there is work going on to restore the cottages. There is plenty of signage which tells the story of Walter Zumstein and his Scottish wife. He sounds like he was not only a pioneer of the tourism industry, but he was a pioneer greeny as he used to give kids who visited a sapling which he had them plant, then if they returned they could check out the growth of their adopted tree!

We took a short walk along the riverside, as well as took in the story of the Zumsteins.

We then returned to the caravan for lunch before setting out on another waterfall adventure in the afternoon. Another short easy walk found us at Silverband Falls. Very different from MacKenzies, but picturesque in their own right. A single band of water plummets off the top of the rocky cliffs, to a stony creek bed below. We could walk on the stones right up and almost under the cascade.

Another fun day exploring the beauty of nature in the Grampians!

We belong in the zoo...

Zoos and children go together like apple pie and custard – and for us adults this was a great day too. We spent most of it at Halls Gap Zoo. It was a very hands on experience compared to most visits to the zoo. Read on and find out.

Zac has wanted to do a ‘Meerkat Experience’ for a while now and they are booked up and hard to get into at Melbourne Zoo, so when we heard you can do the experience at Halls Gap, we locked it in as somewhere to go.

We got there on opening time and looked at some of the animals. We noticed a red panda, Gemma’s favourite animal. It was low down in its tree and it was feeding. We’ve only ever seen them as small balls of red fur high up in the trees, so this was quite a treat. We stayed and watched the red panda, snapping lots of cute photos.

Soon it was time for Zac’s meerkat experience and he was able to have 3 of the little critters crawl over him and feed them their breakfast out of his hands. The smile on his face said it all. It was a wonderful experience. As parents, it was wonderful to watch!

A large part of the zoo is through various enclosures, many of them open so you can wander with the animals. You can also feed a number of them from the bag of pellets you get on entry to the zoo. So that’s what we did over the next couple of hours.

The ostriches were a couple of real characters, following us up and down their fence line, pecking at arms if they ventured too close. How do you describe the sensation of being pecked by an ostrich? It’s not easy to do, but imagine if someone used a couple of thick books and clapped them on you… well it was sort of like that.

We found ourselves back at the red pandas at around 12:30 after having a bite to eat ourselves. The same keeper who took Zac into the meerkats was due to give a talk about the red pandas as well as do some training. The two red pandas were both young males, and are recent acquisitions by the zoo. Jet explained Gemma’s love of red pandas to the keeper and she had words with her boss and next thing, Gemma was in the enclosure hand feeding Mohan the red panda! Amazing! The zoo hope to offer a full ‘red panda experience’ in the future. Gemma was a guinea pig trialling how it would work!

Hand feeding the wallabies was another highlight for the kids, especially the one with the joey in its pouch!

There were tiny piglets who enjoyed a pat. Feeling their little noses was really cool, soft but firm, leathery… again hard to describe! Cutest bacon I’ve ever seen.

After the zoo, we decided to take a drive up Mt William, which is the highest mountain in the Grampians. Amazing views in a number of directions. The road stops nearly 2km from the peak and the walk is described as strenuous. We opted not to do it, but enjoyed the views from where we were, and with a few stops on the drive back down got ourselves some good pics.

That night we enjoyed another camp fire, this time we also cooked our sausages and potatoes in the fire. We were joined around the fire by friends we coincidentally bumped into who happened to be staying in of the park cabins.