climb every mountain.

Grampians.

peace. challenge. funny moments. great company. great sights. and a great experience.

Kudos to Oppie for organising the trip and getting everyone together, even though it's just the four of us. it was GREAT fun. considering that somehow, we were all the eldest of our families and there was this great sense of mutual understanding somehow. we didn't have to wait long for each other and everyone had a great sense of time. we waited for one another when the going was tough and walked along in silence, taking in the scenery.

all in all, it was a nice, short holiday.

but since i want to update my blog about this wonderful trip without all the photos that Kei has (the funny ones, char... just for you...) and all my wonderfully adventure looking pictures in Kei's and Wenhao's camera... just make do with all these photos for now!

Day 1:

after leaving Melbourne at 630am (?) after a very dramatic night in IH... we reached Grampians close to 11am and started this walk up Mt Abrupt. for a person who hasn't been exercising much in Melbourne, walking 3.3km uphill was.. quite a challenge for me. i found myself huffing and panting all the way up, even having to stop quite a bit. i think the rest got a bit worried for me... haha. but i got used to everything ;) so this is the view we had from the peak. :)

and. the lunch we had, for... the first 2 days :) a bit blurry. but super healthy! yet lunch was disrupted by stupid flying ants which find human flesh interesting and new and deciding to repeatedly sting us. and so we left the peak and went down....

so after a tiring walk of 6.6km... we decided to drive to the info centre, find out which walks are open/close and then we drove up to Boroka's Lookout. thankful for the short walk. it was just... 10m from the carpark. ahha. and after that we checked into YHA eco hostel and prepared dinner! (photos coming soon)Day 2:

after a GREAT sleep..(i slept at... 1030pm) we went on to conquer 3 mountains the next day.

First up: Grace's recommendation- Hollow Mountain. The name is as such because there are a lot of caves. had some interesting time trying to follow the arrows to find the 'window' to the best view from Hollow Mountain yet we, erm, got lost. 'cos there wasn't any arrows pointing towards the great view that was described in guidebooks. and so we went up around the other side to the peak ... quite an, interesting walk i must say... scrambling up rocks and walking along cliffs. =x

and yes, this is me, up at Hollow Mountain's peak.

so after the unsatisfactory climb up Hollow Mountain (which was 2.2km return), we went up on Mt Stapylton aka "duck mountain" as I call it because of this: (what we saw on the way up)

or, "fly mountain" as wenhao calls it... (which means all the mountains in grampians can be renamed that.. cos flies were EVERYWHERE)


so that's me on top of Mt Stapylton. yes. i look terrified of letting go... but it's really high okay! took me a while to gather the courage to just keep walking and not bother about the high cos since everyone's walking it should be safe.
we had a nice long rest at our favourite cave (which i didn't have a photo of... ) and had our lunch there... before beginning our descend. hehe.

then! we went on to Mt Zero. was quite a short and easy walk up the mountain and by the time we got up it was almost 5+ and since it was getting dark, it was pretty cold up there. by the time we all got down, my knees were practically crying out to tell me to stop going downhill.
and this is the car that drove us all the way up the gravel and sandy Mt Zero road from Halls Gap.
and we all went back and had another great pasta dinner... and turned in early for the day as well. :)

Day 3:

Decided to stay in the central Grampians and do the touristy stuff. So we went on the only walk that's opened in central Grampians- The Pinnacle. Was a fairly long walk since we took the walk from the canyon and then we did the forest loop before going back down...

and we had a few interesting stops: 1. Silent street. hm.
and once we reached the top: we saw this rock and went, 'we have to take a lion king photo!!!' but that didn't quite happen. =x
.. and then i decided to be poseur and took this shot:and on the way down we saw this very interesting formation: and we did take quite a few photos in it. hehe.

and so after doing that walk, we drove back down to the super tourist areas.

1. McKenzie Falls.
i should compare this with the postcard i bought. it's sad how the drought in Victoria has resulted in such ... sparse water now :( like i finally see the extent of the drought! yeaps, we took lots of photos here... even jumping on a rock in front of the fall :) (but it's all in Kei's camera) hehe. can't wait to lay my hands on them though. we spent a great deal of time just lying down in the shade having lunch before beginning the arduous ascent back to the carpark and to the kiosk for a nice ice cream hehe.
and this is ... on the way to the Balconies after McKenzie Falls. We were.. quite bored. since it was a flat track, we decided to hop off and do some funny stuff. i went on this rock and took a super long time to get back to the main track. =x
and then we reached the Balconies, took a few photos and then went over to Reed Lookout for the sunset. :) little did we know that the change in temperature is so great, that by the time we ran back to the car, we were all sufficiently frozen to want to get back to YHA to have a quick shower and headed out to find a place to have dinner. and being an 'enclosed' tourist place, it was pretty hard to find a spot in restaurants which have a good name... and thank goodness we found a place where we waited an hour plus for our food (cos they were short-staffed). ended up people-watching and actually managed to predict when we'll get our food .hehe.


Day 4:

Last day! went up on the highest peak of Western Victoria- Mt. William. standing at 1167m above ground. very steep uphill climb! but the view... rewarding.
okie more updates later!!!! :) going to sleep.

i'm at peace with the world. after 4 days of it. :)