Grampians N.P. (Hall's Gap)
After our night at the end of the Great Ocean Road we headed north to Hall's Gap (still in Victoria) to the Grampians National Park. The day started off beautifully with blue skies and when we got to the Gap we had come into a thick fog. We found out that we couldn't check into the hostel until 5pm (which was fine b/c it has turned out to be my fav. hostel so far) and so had most of the afternoon to explore the area. The little town is the tourist hub for the N.P. and has a small main street with a supermarket, a couple cafes, one restaurant and some touristy stores. We spent some time exploring the National Park Visitor's Centre and then were going to go on a short 2km walk but got distracted by all the kangaroos just hanging around the Visitor's Centre (well, I am the one who gets distracted by the kangaroos and Brendon just watches me as I take yet another picture of a 'roo)!! We also took a drive up the hill to some lookout points and small hikes and did one hike to a waterfall. We went to one of the lookouts but you could see absoloutely nothing because of the fog...but we did go back the next day and got our pictures!
On the full day we were in the Grampians we walked the Mt. Stapylton 9.2km return walk. It was mostly up steep rock and so was quite challenging. Closer to the top we even had to do some scrambling which was almost like rock climbing without the ropes. For me, a little bit scary! The views from the top were nice and we enjoyed a nice cuppa (cup of tea) and our lunch.
The hostel was a YHA eco-hostel and so very environmentally friendly. They built the hostel to maximize sunlight in the winter months and maximize shade in the summer months. There were tons of windows, some covering whole lengths of walls. The last morning we were there I went into the kitchen for breakfast and watched as a kangaroo fed on the grass just outside (until a huge truck passed by and startled it)! The atmosphere was great at the hostel...nice music, amazing kitchen facilities and 2 wood burning fire stoves...just an overall nice place to be!
The pictures are not letting me upload them to the blog for some reason so I will post this now and try to post extra pictures later.
posted by Kristin and Brendon at 5:16 PM
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