grampians

we awoke to learn of our shared dream. quick brekkie and then into the bus to spend a few hours exploring the grampians (gariwed).

the sight lines in the national park were spectacular, with jagged mountains and unspoiled wilderness as far as the eye could see. tons of animals. 80% of the aboriginal rock art sites in victoria. the park from where we entered basically marks the beginning of the great dividing range. prior to leaving we had been told to forgo seeing the grampians as the damage from the bush fires was too great. these people could not be more wrong. the landscape was an incredible contrast - the trees and earth scorched black, and from this green vegetation beginning to spring up out of the trees and soil. it was so much better to see the vegetation this way as everyone has seen a regular forest. but how many times has someone had the opportunity to see the regrowth of a national park at the time when the flowers and vegetation have begun to emerge again? the green looked so colourful. it looked like life. again the contrast was striking. we took in the views from boroka lookout and reid's lookout, and then visited mckenzie falls (highest waterfall in the park). the latter was a challenging climb down to look at the 11m of falling water. lastly we visited the jaws of death and the balconies (sandstone cliffs). looking out over a park the size of ireland and there is no development or human interaction. crazy.

time to leave hall's gap so we caught a new bus. 400km later and we had arrived in south australia, a new time zone, and adelaide.