We took a road trip through the Grampians National Park, renound for rugged mountain ranges, rich cultural heritage and breathtaking scenic views. The park is famous for its variety of walks, from a leisurely stoff to a challenging hike up to the mountain peaks. The reason for coming here was because of its many walks on offer.

Our first impressions was that it was very scenic and that there was an awful lot of bush walking that you could do up here, and that we might even see the odd Kangaroo!! We had a really beautiful day to start off the walking, which made it even more perfect. Halls Gap, the most central town in the Grampians was where we based ourselves to start the popular 5 hour walk to the pinnacles lookout. The walk to the top was very different to what we had seen so far, offering stunning views of the surrounding bush. We started our walk, passing some Paraquettes, slowly inclining up to the Venus Baths, a small river flowing along side us. Kate was quite upset that she decided to do the walk in some uncomfortable shorts, so after a quick change (into Paula's towel!! haha) she was back on form!! The walk to the top was a good climb, passing through the middle of a large canyon, stopping at the cooling chamber to take a rest, a cliff over hang shading us from the sun, what a relief it was too!! We carried on following the coloured arrows to the top, through narrow rock formations and were rewarded with stunning views of the flat landscape on the pinnacle lookout, overhanging the cliff. The lake we had passed just before arriving into Halls gap looked gorgeous and blue.. and to stand up on the lookout was a little daunting considering how high we were!! It was definitely the most impressive walk we had done in Australia so far.

After a hard climb it was time for lunch before we headed back down a slightly different route.. still offering some nice scenery. At the bottom we sneaked into a camp sites' shower block (OOPS!!) and then headed to the lake for some fishing and dinner. Down by the lake we were accompanied by some Kangaroos, bloody big ones at that!! which was awesome. However again we had no luck with the fishing so that didnt last long, haha. Chris did the unforgettable whilst driving to the campsite that night, and hit a 'roo's tail!!! We saw the kangeroo hopping past, smashed on the brakes, and luckily only clipped the end of its tail.. phew!! We saw pound signs before our eyes, but luckily no damage to the camper! We were quite shook up afterwards, and decided it would be best to drive a little slower. Trouble is in this country they are everywhere! Eventually we found a campsite, Jimmys Creek and decided to chill out with a movie for the rest of the night in the back of the camper.

Whilst at the Grampians we also visited a few lookouts, Reed Lookout and Boroka lookout. which gave great views of the Grampians National Park. We also visited 'spectacular' MacKenzie Falls, however because the rainfall had been pretty low the falls weren't at their best. After exploring the waterfall we went and got ourselves another shower and then had the biggest 3 scooperice cream we have ever had, it was huggeeee!! It was one of those amazing wafer cones with rolo flavour, mint choc chip and chocolate cookie, dipped in a bucket of hundred and thousands, what a way to end our trip up into the grampians. That afternoon we headed back down to the coast through Heywood, down to Nelson where we camped up for the night in Mt Richmond national park at a free campsite. Chris and james thought they had hit the jackpot when they had found a short cut to the campsite but to cut a long story short, they got us lost, took us down a ridiculously bumpy unsealed road into the forest to what seemed like a dead end and then luckily a local lad on his BMX sent us in the right direction letting us cut through his families farm, over his huge BMX track to get back onto one of the main roads that would lead us to the campsite, hilarious!! What a nightmare. It was after this that they had both learnt that short cuts are called this for a reason! If itwas easier to go this way they would be the normal route! Anyway that night the lads collected some wood for a fire and we relaxed with some beers and some campfire games. james and paula introduced us to fire on which kept us entertained for a while haha. Basically you got a stick out the fire and let the flame go out. One it was out you had to blow on it to relight the flame. If you couldn't relight the flame you were out. You would keep doing this until the flame would no longer relight leaving an outright winner!