Grampians

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

In the Grand Canyon

Another view of the trail

We had to walk under the boulders.

Dagan taking a moment on the "turtle rock".

A view of some of the stairs.

Yes, this is part of the path.

I'm headed up the crevice.

Adam coming up the stairs.

They are headed out to the edge.

We are at the Pinnacle.

We went bush walking today. Our first was the hardest. We hiked to the Pinnacle. It took 1 1/2 hours for us to get to it. We walked through the Grand Canyon. Sydney thought the path was great because it seemed like we were going off roading. You walked along the large rocks. You looked for the painted arrows to show which way to go. They have added hand rails and steps in some places. After the Grand Canyon, we kept going uphill through the woods and up a path with lots of steps. Once we got to the top of the gorge, we followed the path around it. This started a steep climb over more rocks to the top. At one point, we walked through a crevice in the rocks before ascending the last part to the Pinnacle. The view was amazing. They have built a fence around the edge of the rocks sticking out over the edge, so you can get a 360 degree view.   It took an hour to walk back down.  Adam and I decided that it was harder going down because you really had to watch your footing. The steps were steep and sometime slippery from the sand.

View from the Pinnacle

The pinnacle is on this ridge.

"The Balconies"

After our hike, we went to town for lunch. We went to the bakery. Then we headed back up the mountain. We stopped at Boroka Lookout. At this one, we were able to see the ridge where we hiked to the Pinnacle. Then we went to Reed's Lookout and the Balconies. Our last stop was Mackenzie's Falls. We went to the lookout instead of climbing down to the bottom.  None of us were up to climbing the steps on the way up.

Dagan next to a flowering kangaroo tail

Dagan thought I should carry him.  HA!

Can you tell they are related?

We returned to our cabin and relaxed a bit before heading out for dinner. At dinner, we decided to order the kangaroo rump.  It was surprisingly good. That was a first for all of us. When we got got to the cabin, it was cold enough that Adam started a fire. It actually is in the low 40's at night.

Tomorrow we start the trip back to Wollongong. It is around 11 hours. We are breaking the trip up and making one more stop on the way home.