Grampian National Park and Ballarat with photo blog #8

We did a quick drive around some of the little historic streets in Port Fairy before heading north (along the north edge of the Tower Hill Reserve as it turned out). It’s a bit of a long drive to Hall’s Gap, but through farm and ranch land. At some point along the drive we realized that we could see the silhouette of some of the Grampian ranges in the distance. They were quite striking.

We stopped in a small town, Dunfeld, just at the southern edge of the park and went to the visitor center to get some maps and suggestions. They recommended an arboretum just out of town – we stopped at the bakery and got a meat pie and sausage roll for lunch. Unfortunately, the meat pie was mostly potatoes – different than all the others during our time in Australia.  We had lunch and wandered around a small lake before continuing north.

We got into Hall’s Gap a little early, but the room at the hostel was ready for us – a family room with ensuite bathroom. It was a bit crowded with two sets of twin bunks that we didn’t need in the small room. However, the main lounge and kitchen adjoined our room and other than a couple of gals from Europe and an Aussie traveling on his own using the kitchen just a little, we had the place to ourselves. We had time to walk into town to get some food for dinner and breakfast and were set. The weekend manager made sure to come tell us to quietly come see the kangaroos who forage in the backyard around sundown. About a dozen, including joeys, were there, with another 30 or so in the ball field just beyond. They were fun to watch.

Our one day in the park was full, with hiking down to a beautiful waterfall, then around almost as far to an overlook that includes the smaller ones above. Just a few years ago there was a bad wildfire that raged through the canyon – evidence of burned trees all around. It’s amazing how resilient this forest is, though. Many burned trees are still alive with new growth. I don’t know if it’s considered rain forest up in the higher parts, but definitely has some of that vegetation and seems to grow quickly. The geology is kind of surprising. Driving along it looks like folding layers of lava, but it’s actually sandstone that has been pushed up through the eons – but I’m not sure why it’s black like lava flows. We stopped at several other overlooks as we wandered our way back into Hall’s Gap. Our stay at Tim’s Hostel in Hall’s Gap was really nice – simple but with good kitchen cookery and tableware – it was a comfortable stay for us.

Our next day was a fairly short drive to Ballarat. We had a private room booked in an historic home (modernized significantly on the inside). The family used the upper level, which included a large lounging area, leaving the lower level for guests. We shared the kitchen and it worked well. The youngest child was a boy the age of our grandson and it was kind of fun to watch the child-like behavior of this almost teen. We spent our first afternoon at the botanical gardens. We had hoped to borrow their bikes but it was a really windy day so we drove a short distance to a large city lake and the gardens. The Conservatory features seasonal flowers through out the year and we just happened to be there the week after their begonia festival – the begonias were amazing. The garden also had numerous California redwoods, mostly Sequoia but some tall trees as well. It was very odd to see these trees that thrive in a rain forest surviving very well in this much drier environment – they aren’t something thar transplant well and are huge. We really can’t quite imagine how they’ve managed to grow them.

Ballarat is a city founded during the Australian gold rush. It has beautiful buildings from those days along several streets in downtown. Our house was within easy walking distance, so we had a nice day of wandering with a self-guided map – a lovely small city.

Ballarat is about an hour and a half from Melbourne’s main airport, which is on the north side of the city. It made Ballarat a perfect overnight ahead of a mid-afternoon flight. It’s not the normal route to the airport, so we wandered around a lot of farm land and some interesting windy roads through some tiny towns. We began to worry about being able to find gas for our rental car, but then the village right before the airport had a truck stop – worked perfectly. Our flight on Virgin Australia was an okay flight but for some reason, our seats had been changed from the ones I requested to the very last row. The gal at the front counter was able to adjust so we were one more row forward, with seats that leaned back. That made the flight a lot more comfortable. The meal we were served was not very good at all, but thankfully our friends in Perth had a late dinner planned and all was well.

Our Australia time is two-thirds over – hard to believe.

Stan's photo blog #8

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19pxbE4y2RLPqs71eXL2MFuUEGulVftmK/view