Grampians National Park

Woke up in our “tiny home” in Halls Gap to check out and head in to the main part of Grampians National Park for our day o’ fun here! We had a good breakfast in a little diner in “town”, and admired some of the local flora and fauna.

Reeds Lookout and The Balconies

Our next stop was Reeds Lookout, which offers a beautiful panoramic view of the Grampian mountains, the forested valley below, and the 100 mile long hiking trail that goes through the park. As you might imagine, we saw many backpackers making all or parts of the 13-day trek. I am truly fascinated by the terrain of so many places we’ve been in Australia- it manages to be both scrubby (like a desert) and rocky like something we’d see in Arizona or New Mexico back in the states, but also lush and green and full of trees. It is an interesting mix that I don’t recall seeing quite like this before. We saw lizards sunning themselves and some beautiful birds today.

Fireflies > Fires and Flies

Well, we are definitely not in Tassie anymore. We had read a while back about forest fires devastating parts of this area, and today we saw frequent reminders of that destruction. Of course, nature always perseveres so there was a lot of regrowth already, but we passed many blackened trees and burned out areas.

In addition, the black flies are back, and they are very persistent in dive bombing our faces, noses, ears, and eyes. I threw out our fly nets after we left Uluru, foolishly assuming (hoping?) I’d never need them again, yet here we are. With temperatures in the high 80s and the black flies swarming at almost-but-not-quite-Uluru levels, this gal was DONE almost before we started. I did make it to most of the spots on our planned list, but not all!

Broken Falls and Cranages Lookout

Mackenzie Falls

Rob, God bless him, is made of hardier stuff then me, so this is him heading out on his own for the remainder of the hike to Mackenzie Falls. Godspeed, little buddy. I will await you in the air conditioned car.

Grand Canyon (the Aussie version)

Rob, stoked at having conquered Mackenzie Falls, quickly moved us on to the next stop on our Grampians Day, the Grand Canyon of Australia. I must say it was, in fact very canyon-like, but the “Grand” part was a bit of a stretch. See the pics below and decide for yourselves?

The Venus Baths

Our last hike of the day was one I was excited about because the carrot dangling at the end of the stick was a swimming hole and water rock slide! We schlepped through the hot and buggy forest, with crickets or cicadas (?? Do they have those here?) that were so loud we couldn’t even hear each other talk at times. Video below of the incredible cacophony!!

The Venus Baths are actually some naturally formed rock pools that are fed by a mountain stream. The water is brown just like the tea tree lake we stopped at previously, but this water is supposedly brown due to natural sediment and minerals from the erosion of the surrounding hillsides and creek beds. Either way, there were multiple pools with ice cold water that felt fantastic on this hot, hot day. The place had a bunch of people soaking and swimming and enjoying the area, and it was a really nice stop.

The Giant Koala!!

Another ✅ on our list of “Big Things in Australia “ today! As we were meandering through the mountain roads on our way to our stop for tonight, we came across The Giant Koala!! Definitely a little stroke of serendipity for two kitsch lovers like us! Sadly the “Koala Cafe” was closed, but we got to see the most important part!

Bordertown Wildlife Park

I had read about this neat little Wildlife Park in Bordertown, South Australia that was on our route. It is free to walk around and look through the fence, but it is not open to the public to come inside the fence. The big deal at this particular park is that they have white kangaroos! They are not albinos, but actually a type of western gray kangaroo. The park also had peacocks, wallabies, and supposedly emus (though we didn’t see any). There were also tons of beautiful birds!

On the Road Again

The sun set as we finished our drive to tonight’s stop, the fancy schmancy (not!) Keith Motor Inn. 😂 Here are a few more views of roadside sights and the incredible sunset tonight.

Thanks for adventuring with us!