Day 15: Tuesday, February 19, 2002
From Warrnambool to the Grampians

House in Port Fairy

We slept a little later than usual today, but somehow we managed to pack a lot into the day. Our goal was to get to the Grampians, a national park. We started out in Warnnambool, along the western edge of the Great Ocean Road. We had been thinking we'd go back to Cheese World, since Walendo wanted to check it out and get a tour, but the woman at the hotel desk said it wasn't much to see — no tour, just some cheese you could buy. Instead, she said it was worth checking out Port Fairy, which the guidebook had also said was an especially nice town. Walendo was skeptical cuz we'd seen a lot of towns that were supposedly very nice, but she said this one really was worth seeing. She also suggested we go to Tower Hill, an old volcano where you could also see some wildlife.

Walendo eating at Port Fairy bakery

First we drove around the downtown of Warrnambool and discovered that it had a fairly large downtown. It seemed like a really good size. It would make a very good base for seeing the Great Ocean Road, since there were a bunch of restaurants and plenty of shops. Then we continued on to Port Fairy, which was a much smaller town. We followed signs to the downtown, which seemed nice enough but not really special. So then we went to the water where there was an ordinary looking peer. Dunno, it didn't seem that special. The one thing that was especially nice was that a lot of the houses had lots of flowers in front. we stopped along one block and I took pictures of many of the houses, since nearly every one of them had a nice garden. We had noticed a nice looking bakery in the downtown so we stopped there and I got a loaf of bread and Walendo got what they claimed was their "famous" egg and bacon sandwich. He thought it was pretty good. (The bread was nothing special, though.)

Koala

We got back in the car and went back the way we came, looking for the road to Tower Hill. It turned out the map was deceptive about where it was, so we ended up circling around it, going through some tiny towns and winding up back along the main ocean road again where the entrance was located. We drove down the small road and parked in the first lot, figuring we'd check out the ranger station to see where we could find wildlife. This turned out to be a tiny little park. The ranger suggested a hike, but told us we could probably see some koala bears and emus if we walked a few yards over to the picnic area.

Koala dozing

We did and sure enough, we saw two koala bears hanging out in the crooks of a Eucalyptis tree. They're pretty lazy creatures — they sleep for 19 hours a day, and apparently they have an extra bundle of fur on their butts so it's comfortable for them to sit in the crook of a tree. The display said that their diet consists entirely of Eucalyptis leaves and no other (or few other) animals can digest those leaves. So I guess they don't have to work hard for their meals, which is good, cuz they sure seemed phlegmatic. Still, they were adorable, and we took gazillions of shots. Another couple was there too, and the woman walked over and handed the lower bear a bundle of leaves. The bear reached down to take it, but then lost interest on the way to putting it in his mouth.

Two Emus at Tower Hill picnic area

Walking around the picnic area were three giant emus. Well, they're probably normal sized for emus, but they're giant. Much taller than I am. At one point, one of them walked right up to a picnic table where some people were having lunch, as if to say, "So? What are we having?" It was amusing. I followed the emus around to get some pictures (they moved a lot faster than the koalas) and then we sat for a bit.

So? What are we having?

The emus made a sort of gutteral purring sound that was interesting. We tried to immitate it later, without much success. We also noticed a bright blue bird hopping around, and Walendo was enjoying the bird calls, lots of pretty ones. We considered going on the walk, but since mostly we had been interested in seeing the animals, we decided to move on.

We drove north through more pretty farmland for about an hour until we got to the southern end of the Grampians. It's pretty flat in the area south of it, and you can see two big slanted peaks sticking up out of the land from far away. We arrived at the park through Dunkeld, and then drove north another 67km to get to Halls Gap, the main town in the park, where we'd booked a hotel.

Mountain Grand Hotel Grampians

First we stopped at the Info Center, where we bought a map (the park is free, so I guess they collect money by not providing a free map) and spoke to the woman about good places to hike. She suggested driving to various spots and then mentioned a few trails where we might see wildlife. Then we drove into town, about 1/4 mile away. Frommer's had recommended the Mountain Grand Hotel, which it said had been upgraded and catered to businesses doing retreats. We had booked in advance, concerned that there may not be many places to stay and they might fill up, but as we drove in, we saw that there were lots of hotels, so we didn't really need to worry.

Tiny room at Mountain Grand Hotel

Don checked us in (he was the guy I'd spoken to when I made the reservation) and the place was interesting. It's a big, old fashioned rambling building that has been upgraded but has some old flavor to it. Lots of sitting rooms, which is nice. Our room, though, is tiny. Just enough room for a bed and some night stands, and no fridge, which is a shame cuz it was pretty hot. There's not really any place to put our suitcases; I ended up putting mine in the closet. Still, it's a nice looking room with a nice quilted bedspread, so I guess they went for looks more than convenience. It was more expensive than other places we'd stayed, so in the end, we probably would have been better off in one of the more standard motels in town. We were both pretty hungry, so we put our stuff in the room and then went for some food. We ended up going to the local grocery store and getting some cheese and sandwich makings, and then we drove up to a picnic area listed on the map to eat. Very pleasant. We saw two large birds in the tree near us, and Walendo threw them some bread from his sandwich, which he really shouldn't have done, but it allowed us to get some nice pictures.

MacKenzie Falls Grampians

After eating, we continued along the route recommended by the ranger. First we drove to the end of Mount Victory Road to get to MacKenzie Falls. Along the way, we saw a round animal slowly making its way across the road. We slowed down to see what it was and it was a porcupine! I think that's the first one I've ever seen outside a zoo. Cool. At MacKenzie Falls there are two walkways to the falls (both about 1km long), so first we took one that led you to a nice high view of the falls from across the ridge. With my zoom lens I was able to get some nice shots of it, I hope slow enough to get the soft effect of running water. We could see people by the falls, so I wanted to get the closer view. We took the other path, but first Walendo bought some homemade ice cream at the little stand set up at the entrance. It was chocolate hazelnut, very creamy and quite good.

MacKenzie Falls Grampians

Anyway, the walk to the base of the falls is listed as "strenuous," because there are a bunch of steps that go down to (and then back up from) the falls. That was fine with me. Walendo went part way and then read his book while I climbed down the steps with my camera. It really is a beautiful falls, very active with several levels and with lots of pretty green vegetation along it. At the bottom of the falls is a big pool of water and large flat outcropping of rock. Lots of people were hanging out on the rock area, and after a while, a few of them swam into the pool out to the bottom of the falls. It was pretty hot out, so even though the water was pretty cold, it must have felt refreshing. I took tons of pictures of the falls from down below. I was glad I had the wide angle lens so I could get the whole thing in a vertical shot. With the polarizer on and long exposures, I'm hopeful I'll get that soft, graceful effect of the water.

MacKenzie Falls Grampians

After enjoying the scene a while, I climbed back up the steps. It had me breathing hard, but nothing too bad. I joined up with Walendo and we walked back to the car. It was a nice highlight. Next we drove on to the trail to the Balconies, two outcroppings of rock. Again, it was about a 1km walk, also on a well maintained trail, this one through a eucalyptis forest. (We looked for koalas but didn't see any, but apparently they're hard to spot. The ranger said they like the smooth bark Eucalyptis, which helped us search, but no luck.) We got to the end of the path and sure enough, there was the outcropping. It was just two giant pieces of rock jutting out from the ridge, with an expansive view over the park. It was nice, but nothing all that amazing. Some kids we had been walking near climbed over the railing to stand on the balconies while their friend took pictures. We walked back to the car, and then continued on.

Wallaby

The ranger had said we could see lots of kangaroos along a walk down near the ranger station if we went at the end of the day near twilight. Sure enough, shortly after we started on the trail, we saw a wallaby just hanging out. I took lots of pictures. Then we saw a couple of kangaroos, and then a couple more, and eventually whole fields full of them. They let you get about 30 feet away, popping up on their hind legs to check you out and then they'd go back to eating grass if you stayed there. If you got much closer, they'd hop off. We both took lots of pictures, though the light was failing and I had slow film, so we'll see how well they came out.

Kangaroo

Early along the trail we'd met two Americans who were trying to find the trail, and then we ran into them again later. We chatted with them for a bit. They wre from Texas and Michigan and one of them had just moved to Melbourne, and the other was visiting him. One of them was going up to Heron Island next week for just two days, so we gave him some pointers on what to do, since we're such pros. It was nice to chat with them. We continued on and then made our way back to the car. By the time we got back to the hotel it was about 8:45pm. Worried that places might be closing, we first checked if the hotel restaurant was open, but it was dark. Then we walked across the street to one restaurant and the woman said they were closed, saying "It's close to 9pm, much too late to..." I guess the end of the sentence was "serve dinner." We walked on to the next place, also closed. The grocery store closed at 9pm (we'd asked when went there earlier) so we rushed back there, but the guy was just locking up. Every place in the entire town was closed up at 9pm, including the gas station so we couldn't even buy drinks. Sigh. So we went back to the room and munched on the food we had with us — mainly cheese and crackers, plus I had some chocolate covered tea cookies for dessert. Not much of a meal, but enough to keep us from starving. The hotel comes with a full breakfast, so we'll probably get our money's worth tomorrow. It's served from 8am to 9am, so I suspect the eating hours are pretty limited. Better get to sleep so we can get up in time.

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