Day 36: 5/2/13
It was hard to get up this morning as the other people in the room were all still in bed! Luckily I had a shower last night so I didn't have to get up too early!
I got picked up anyway which is always a good start to the trip. We picked up a few more people and then started to drive. The guide told us that there were no major views today so to sleep away on the bus. So I closed my eyes and slept a little for the first two hour stretch. We stopped at a fuel station then and got back in the bus for another two hour stretch! The guide got out at one stage an started checking the tyres- not a good sign! There were a lot of road works too slowing us down! We stopped at the border between South Australia and Victoria for a photo and toilets. Then we stopped a short while later at a town park to have lunch which was hamburgers cooked on the free barbecue they have there. A lot better than wraps!!
We drove through Little Desert national park then which was very small but showed what the landscape would have been like here before white people came. It was basically covered in trees and bush. The other areas we passed were all farm areas as white people burned and cut down all the trees to make farms. The farms are really yellow though as they are making hay, but also because it is dry. Now and again you can see huge long machines that spray water on the field and those ones are a bit greener!
We also passed a big rock, way bigger than Uluru, in the middle of fields. Years ago the sea covered this part of Australia and this was an island at that time.
We stopped then at McKenzie waterfalls which is in the Grampians. The man that discovered the Grampians was Scottish so they were named after the Scottish Grampians. The McKenzie falls are the only waterfall that's permanently there. We walked down a little to see a view over it. There were over 400 steps to go to the base of the waterfall and then back up again so I passed on that! I'm really tired today so I wasn't going to do it! I went to the Broken Falls instead and then walked 1km around the water falls to get a panoramic view of McKenzie falls. It looked lovely from that side anyway!
Then we drove to Reids lookout where you can see the lake on one side that provides the water for the waterfalls- lake Wartook. On the other side you could see marsh land and miles of trees around. It was quite like Tasmania or New Zealand. This marsh area is a special place for te aboriginal people. When they are born they are given a symbol as well as a name and this place is sacred for the crow people- they would have to come here for a ceremony every year.
We drove to our hostel then- no more swags! It's a little cabin with the Grampian mountains all around. It's in a village called something like Halls Gap. Our guide said its a popular place with tourists and Australians because of the scenery but also the wildlife, eg kangaroos, wallabies, emus, etc come right into the village. We could see kangaroos in the field beside us.
We had some time free before dinner and I replaced my bag because there was stuff just stuffed in at the top from the last few days. There's also sand all over it! Dinner was noodles and stir fry which was lovely. I helped wash up and then people were standing chatting for a while. There's about 14 on this trip. There's two English guys, a Canadian guy, a girl who's Italian but lives in America so speaks English with an American accent and then all the rest speak German!! We are quite outnumbered! Some are from Switzerland and Austria but they are all German speakers.
I didn't hang around too long this evening as I'm really tired and I wanted to have a shower before bed to save time in the morning. There's only one shower aswell so it will be very busy in the morning! It's still not an early night really as its half 10 already and I'm still not ready for bed!