Its the long weekend due to the Queens Birthday and on Monday every Aussie thanks the lord they are British. So I decided to take the opertunity before heading off east or west to go to the Grampian mountain ranges in North Victora.
Before the Grampians I went back to the city and visited Blender Studios which is a studio for an ausie stencil artist called Haha quite possibly one of the best stencil artists in the world behind Banksy ofcourse. They were gearing up for an exhibition in Sydney which was a bit of a bummer sonsidering I'd just come from there, but I like street art and this is the place to be, most street artists from around the country head to Melbourne.
I took the chance to go to the South Bank just as night fell. Every hour outside the Crown Casino there is are several gas towers that flame up in a display that's worth watching, this time i managed to get better photos too.
Back to the Grampians, I got up there late afternoon which didn't give much time to see of do anything so it was an early start Sunday morning, which I chose to do the most demanding walk of the day up to the Pinnicles it is a 5km round trip up and over rocks past the Grand Canyon and through the Silent Street, personally i found the walk the best part, the scenery was ok bit didn't overlook anything spectacular. But the way to the top was more scenic.
From the Pinnicles I stopped off at Boroko and Reid lookouts and took the short walk to the Balconies which had the best view of the 3 lookouts. From there I headed to Mckenzie Falls which is one of the better waterfalls i've been to. It was well worth the hike back up the steps to see the falls up close.
Before returning back to the motel, it was turning dusk so hung around to see the kangaroos to come out in numbers to feed. There was also a doe and two fauns in the woodland that didn't seem to perturbed my me scrambling through the undergrowth trying to get a better photo.
The next day before heading back to Melbourne I stopped off to climb Hollow mountain and climb was an apt word. You have a gengle incline to the base of the mountain having to negotiate boulders and rocks, but from there you have to climb up large fallen boulders and up a rock face to the main attraction the hollow caves in the mountain. I went further to the top of the mountain where it was really windy, coupled with the fact it had been raining it was not the best conditions to be up there but there was a sense of achievement once I'd got to the top. Geting back down was harder than getting to the top, as the rocks were quite smooth and slippery but i made it back ok and then headed to Mt Zero.
Mount Zero wasn't quite as hard as Hol low Mountain, but the weather changed and it started to raing quite heavily which made it quite uncomfortable to negotiate the rocks and slippery surface. The top was a bit underwhelming since the cloud was so low you could not see more than about 20ft in front. There were better veiws of Hollow mountain half way down Mt Zero underneath the cloud.
I'm currently in Melbourne organising the next trip to Tasmiania which will be the next installment
