As I don't have a car, I had to be inventive with my travel arrangements. I managed to get around my transport dilemma by booking myself onto a one day tour to The Grampians on the Friday and then I would be dropped off at a hostel, where I'd stay for two nights and then the tour guide who was coming out on Sunday would pick me up in the evening before his group headed back to Melbourne again.
On the way to The Grampians we drove through Ballarat and stopped briefly by the lake to have a cup of tea. Ballarat was at the heart of the gold rush in Victoria and more importantly...was where Libby Kennedy moved to for a while to bring up Ben, before heading off to China and letting her parents look after her son (although I would much rather be looked after by Susan and Karl than Libby if I had the choice). It was very gloomy and the middle of winter but I can imagine in the summer the area around the lake would be really lovely.
By the time we arrived at The Grampians the weather had cleared up, we had pizza by a beautiful lake and then we went exploring waterfalls, stunning lookout points and a really interesting Aboriginal Culture Centre. Our tour guide was absolutely brilliant and I ended up chatting to him loads about all sorts of things including the fact that his tour company had recently teamed up with two ladies and they were now doing a clean up the beaches tour of the Great Ocean Road. He also gave me loads of useful information about the best hiking trails and places to eat in the little town where I would be staying for the next two nights.
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| Lake Bellfield |
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| Brambuk Information and Cultural Centre. The mountains in the background are the ones I tackled the next day! |
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| The Balconies overlooking the vast eucalyptus forests of the Grampians |
I was dropped off at my hostel at 6pm and greeted by a super friendly woman who showed me to my room. I asked her if there was a TV as I obviously needed to watch Neighbours and she gave me directions to the lounge. At 6:15 I ventured out of my room, made myself a cup of tea in the largest mug I've ever seen and entered the lounge (which had a roaring fire going and the most comfortable sofas in the world) at which point a man turned around and immediately asked me if I was the Neighbours girl!!! It's nice to know that it takes just half an hour to get typecast...even over here!
Over the next few days I did some serious walking, including a grueling four hour hike to the get to The Pinnacle lookout point (on a very misty day so there wasn't much to look out onto). The next day I went up the opposite mountain and was able to see a lot more when I reached the top.
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| What a view! |
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| I don't even need to go to New Zealand to experience Middle Earth! |
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| A much better view than the day before. |
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| Darcy Tyler's bar and grill |
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| I really hope Shane Rebecchi puts one of these signs up on his wee generator. |
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| I see Tim Collins is trying to compete with the Robinson's hotel empire... |
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| ...and there's room for all in Ned's bed! |
I appreciate this blog post is more about me boasting that I climbed several mountains rather than anything hugely Neighbours related although I did try to keep it on topic as best I could. I've actually hopped over to Sydney now for a bit and I'm not really sure how long I'm going to be there for or when I'll be going back to Victoria but I have really really enjoyed exploring Melbourne and the surrounding areas and I was quite emotional when I left.
My little trip to The Grampians was the perfect way to end this leg of my journey and I met some really lovely people in the three days I was there. I would thoroughly recommend taking the time to explore this beautiful part of Victoria if you can and I've left some helpful links below.
Autopia Tours - tour company I used for the first day and my transport back to Melbourne
Grampians Eco YHA - the most wonderful hostel you'll encounter in your life. Really family friendly and also has free eggs in the morning freshly laid by the resident chickens!
Trash Bags on Tour - small start up tour company that cleans up the local area as they explore
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