Walkers:Dina, Helen, Linda (leader) and Lothar (Saturday and Sunday) joined by Clive, Coralie, Diane D, Janice and Mabel (Saturday night)
Photos: Lothar's:-
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Report:
The decision to change Saturday night’s camping venue was made
after the weather forecast was atrocious for the weekend. A cabin was booked
with the plan to go out to the hotel for tea.
The order of walks was also changed on the day after we
arrived at Halls Gap and saw the clouds gathering momentum. After coffee Lothar,
Helen, Dina and I took a car up to Wonderland Car Park and walked down to Halls
Gap. The first thing we noticed was how slippery the rocks were so progress was
pretty slow. The second thing we noticed was that it was extremely noisy, then
we realised that it was the noise of gushing water. Water was gushing down
creeks and water courses and waterfalls were truly magnificent. We all agreed
that we had not seen the Grampians in all this glory, we have all been walking
the Grampians for years but this was breathtaking, another thing that made
progress slow. Along with the water comes the growth of plants. We did not see
any orchids but there were some beautiful wattles everywhere and some delicate
grevilleas which were amazing.
After lunch we headed up to Sundial car park to continue on
for the afternoon. By the time we reached the Pinnacle the weather was coming in
again so we did not hang around for long. From the Pinnacle the going was very
slow; we were slipping on rocks and just in awe of the waterfalls and creeks.
We had virtually only just arrived at the cabin when Coralie,
Mabel and Di arrived. They were cold and wet so we rushed them into the shower
to warm up. They had walked with Janice and Clive for the day but were happy to
join us for the evening. Then to our surprise Janice and Clive also arrived at
the cabin. Clive had decided that it was too wet, cold and miserable to be out
in it.
The following day saw us head off into 3 different directions:
1) Coralie, Mabel and Di went back to Warrnambool.
2) Clive and Janice went back to Mt Rosea to walk down to
Borough Huts; I hope they crossed the creek safely.
3) Helen, Lothar and I left a car on the Dunkeld road and
drove up to the Mount William car park. We were shocked to find snow lying on
some logs and rocks around the car park and boy was it cold. It took us some
time to find the start of the track, as it had only recently been opened after
the bushfires. The track gradually made its way down. A lot of the time the
track acted as a creek course for the water and we had to balance on the edges,
many times we had to cross creek beds with water up to our ankles. Then in the
distance we saw 2 huge waterfalls coming over the face of the cliffs in the
distance, something we had never seen in that part of the Grampians before.
I must say that this weekend held my enthusiasm for the
Grampians like never before. It was like the ancient feature was being cleansed
after years of searing heat and drying winds.
If you get the chance to go up for a day in the near future
please don’t hesitate - you are in for a surprise.
Thanks to everyone for sharing the occasion with me, it was
truly magic.
Linda
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