Day 7: Ballarat to Halls Gap

Evening viewers, yes the blogging sidekick's been called up to the plate to give the latest on "the trip". Awoke to a bloody cold morning (1degree), got organized and left Ballarat for the Grampians. It was a beautiful misty fresh morning, as we left Ballarat we drove under the Remembrance Arch and onto Remembrance Drive which was lined both sides with trees. At the base of each tree was a metal plaque with a name of one of the fallen soldiers from the area. Let me tell you that there were thousands of trees each with it's own name at it's base. It really made you think of the sacrifice they made for all of us, and are still doing so. It was a very pleasant drive through pasture land and forest and we arrived at Big4 Parkgate Resort at Halls Gap at 12 noon. Halls Gap is a beautiful little tourist town nestled in a valley with steep mountainous country on either side. This is bush walking country and that is exactly what we were going to do, albeit with 3 balls and chain being towed along. We visited two waterfalls before the sun set. The first was a short walk through the bush to Silverband Falls. The Grampians suffered severe rain and flooding in January this year and it was extremely evident of this by the amount of debris, ripped out tree trunks and boulders that had been chewed out of the river bank and bed. Our next walk was to McKenzie Falls, which is a much larger falls. The walk took in a lookout over the gorge and about 300 steps down to the base of the falls. The kids showed a lot of determination walking back up the steps to the carpark and were rewarded with an ice cream. It will be an early night for the East clan as a full day of getting back to nature awaits tomorrow. Blogging over and out.