Kangaroos live in the mountains

That's right, kangaroos live in the mountains. We learned this fact during our long weekend excursion to the Grampians. A weekend in the Grampians is similar to a weekend trip to Shenandoah Nat'l Park outside of DC. Its about a 3 hr drive and once you get there the scenery is amazing. I'll put a lot of pictures in the posting, but they will not do the scenery justice.

The trip was a much needed break. You'll notice the picture of Melissa below - yes, there were a few stops for meditation. The drive up on Saturday was secretly planned out by Melissa. I say secretly because only she was aware of our stops on the way. When I suggested a stop in Ballarat for an early lunch she was in complete agreement. [I later learned that was because she had planned this rest stop all along!] Ballarat is an old gold-mining town. It was nice, and there is one thing that I remember very distinctly about Ballarat. The water is disgusting! We made the mistake during lunch on Saturday. Melissa forgot and made the mistake a second time when we stopped in on our way home Monday. I did not. Karma for keeping the plan a secret. On Saturday, we also planned to stop at a winery that offers cellar tours - something we've never done before. A wrong turn by the driver [me] and poor navigating skills by my co-pilot [Melissa] meant we missed the cellar tour time. Again, karma for keeping the plan a secret!

Sunday was all about hiking. There is a 9km roundtrip loop from Halls Gap [based of the mountain] to the Pinnacles [top of a major ridge]. The picture at the beginning is overlooking Halls Gap from the Pinnacles. The original plan was to do the loop as it brought you down the face of the ridge - very cool. However, due to bushfires last summer, that part of the trail was closed to hikers. So we retured to Halls Gap on the same trail. If you check out the pictures on picasa, you'll notice there were several wardrobe changes as it went from cold to really cold. You may also notice that I got a haircut between our trip to Tasmania and this trip. The haircut actually came before RJ's christening; it was suggested that I cut my hair prior to the big day and who am I to argue.

After a long day of hiking, we walked around the town of Halls Gap. When I say we walked around, I mean from one end of town to the other is about a 5 minute walk. It's not that big. Tired and hungry, we tried to grab a little snack to tide us over until dinner. However, we missed afternoon tea and were too early for dinner. We split a brownie from one of the cafes and bought chips and salsa to take back to the bed and breakfast.

So I mentioned that kangaroos live in the mountains. There was no shortage of kangaroo sightings on our drive back to the B&B. We even got up close and personal with one. A pair jumped out of the brush, and as I was able to dodge the first, I was unable to dodge the second. I hit the little guy but he kept on hopping. I stopped to see if he was OK, but he had already disappeared in to the bush. We hope he made out alright but it just highlights how stupid these large hopping rodents really are. We need to be careful on these trips because we're always using rental cars. [We don't have a car in Melbourne.] There is nothing worse than totaling a rental car on a stupid kangaroo. We escaped this encounter with a few cracks in the bumper [that Hertz did not notice ;-)]

Monday was the trip home. Nothing too eventful other than Melissa drinking the gross water in Ballarat.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lissmurr/GrampiansTrip