Camping and Rock Climbing in the Grampians

After the Dunkeld horse races, Zack and I spent the night camping in the Grampians with Todd and Alena. I was excited to have found American-style marshmallows at the South Melbourne Market, so we could make proper S'mores!

The boys went scrounging around the campground for some wood and came back with several dead trees. In no time at all, they had a huge fire going!

We enjoyed our S'mores and played with some sparklers before going to bed. We also enjoyed stargazing, as there were thousands visible from our campsite. And I finally found the Southern Cross constellation in the sky!

In the morning, I caught this kangaroo licking the leftover chocolate from our S'mores off the tray. Yum!

We spent the morning rock climbing. As usual, I was not very good at it, but I made it up every route I tried (just a lot more slowly than everyone else!). Here's a picture of Zack doing a climb, but the camera was on a weird setting, so that's why it looks strange.

After some climbing, we hiked over to where we were going to do some abseiling. On the way, we found an echidna, and our rock climbing guide said we could pet it (I had always thought they were too sharp to touch). It felt like running your hand over a bunch of little plastic knitting needles.

Then we did some abseiling in the same spot we had done it when we visited the Grampians in March. It wasn't scary at all this time, and I went a lot faster on the way down. That's me at the top of this picture!

It was a beautiful weekend for camping and climbing, and we ended our time in the Grampians with a delicious lunch at a little cafe at the Mount Zero Olive Grove. I bought some of their delicious oil, along with lentils and falafel mix. So yummy. Though it's more than a three hour drive from Melbourne, we love spending the weekend in the Grampians!

Dunkeld Country Cup

A few weekends ago, we went to the Dunkeld Country Cup horse races. It was less crowded than the Tatts Cox Plate we went to back in October, and a little more laid back in that we could get right up to the fence and see the horses run right by. Thanks to Alena for loaning me her fun hat/fascinator!

Nigel and Zack placing bets.

We went with our friends Adam and Emily (who had Colorado friends visiting), Nigel and Kristy, and Todd and Alena. Everyone brought food, so we had a nice picnic to enjoy between races. Zack and I would usually place $5 bets on each race. As usual, we won some and lost some-nothing too major in either direction.

Alena organized us getting an "umbrella package," so we had a table and seats reserved for us to use all day. It was nice to have a place to set our stuff and relax and eat.

Depending on the length of the race, sometimes they started right in front of the audience. In this particular one, a horse got pretty rowdy in the starting gate and the jockey fell off and hurt her wrist. She and the horse had to drop out of the race.

It was a beautiful Saturday in a very pretty setting, and we had a great time at this country race. Along with Todd and Alena, we spent the night in the nearby Grampians National Park, camping and then rock climbing the next day. But I'll leave that for my next post!

Nigel, Kristy, Scott, Cierra, Emily, Adam, Alena, Todd, me, and Zack

Goodbye Grampians-Other Random Pictures

Well, I already posted about our Mount Stapylton Loop hike and rock climbing days in the Grampians, but there are some other random pictures and stories I wanted to share, so this post is for that stuff!

Here is a cool plant, which Google tells me is Banksia spinulosa. I took this picture on our hike on Saturday.

We stopped at the Ngamadjidj (meaning "white person"-don't ask me how to say it) Shelter to see some aboriginal rock art. These drawings were done with white clay.

Mackenzie Falls is one of the most visited places in Grampians National Park. It's a pretty huge waterfall, and you go down a decent number of steps to get to the bottom of it. We enjoyed cooling off our feet in the chilly water after our hike.

There were lots of kangaroos around our campsite, especially early in the morning and at dusk. This one let me get pretty close before hopping away.

There were also a ton of kangaroos on the roads in the Grampians. Emily, our expert driver, was able to maneuver around them. We had one close call with a little brake screeching, but no animals (or humans) were harmed! They were gathered by the hundreds out in the fields, and we had several hop across the road in front of us.

Zack still remembers how to make an awesome campfire. This picture is from Saturday night after our hike. We drank some ciders and made S'mores, which is very un-Australian. We used graham crackers sent by my mom from the US; I never knew that was just an American camping tradition! We played a game of Rummikub with Emily and headed to bed in our tents. In the morning, the birds were SO loud and woke us up pretty early!

Check out my hunky husband!

We drove by this giant koala on Sunday, and I just had to get a picture for Morgan, my koala-loving sister. Anybody who knows her and is reading this should tell her to get the working holiday visa and get out here for a year!

Anyway, we had a wonderful weekend in the Grampians, and we'll be back for sure! Yes, our zip-off pant legs are around our ankles in the picture below, and it looks dorky. Don't judge us!

Rockin' Rock Climbing

On Sunday in the Grampians, we all went rock climbing with a 3/4 day group lesson. I had only done it a few times before and never on real rocks...just in a gym or on a wall at a camp with my students. I was definitely not very good at it, and I was SO sore for a few days afterward. The hardest part was not using my arms to pull myself up; you're supposed to use your legs to push yourself up. It wasn't easy for me, but I did three climbs and conquered each one (though it took awhile!). It was pretty cool to be outside and enjoying the beautiful view from the top of a rock face you just climbed. Below are some pictures of each of us:

I'm pretending to know what I'm doing here.

Zack is almost to the top.

Todd was a natural.

Alena uses the corner to her benefit.

Emily's done this before-she was good!

It was interesting to note the differences between the (limited) climbing I'd done in the US versus how things work here in Australia. I'm used to the knots in the rope being triple checked and all sorts of verbal commands being required, such as "belay on," "belay off," "climbing," etc. Not the case here! The instructor double-checked our knots, and we did have back-up belayers, but we were pretty much on our own for most of the time. I never felt unsafe; it's just strange how lenient things are outside of the United States. I guess the fear of lawsuits isn't so high!

After we took some turns going up different routes on the rock, the instructor took us abseiling. It was scarier than I thought it would be, but once I got going, it was super fun. Basically you step off a cliff backward and "zip" down the edge of the rock. You let a rope slide through your gloved hand to determine the speed that you go down. I went a lot faster than I intended, but that made it exciting!

I'm having fun going fast!

Zack enjoyed the view on the way down.

Bring on the Tough Mudder race!

Rock climbing is something I probably never would have tried, but I'm glad I did. It was a great way to spend a day with friends in the Grampians!

Grampians are Great!

I will fully admit that we are total Colorado snobs. Australia is gorgeous, but in a completely different way than our old home. We used to spend our weekends mountain biking, snowboarding, hiking, whitewater rafting, snowshoeing, and camping among some of the most beautiful 14,000+ foot mountains in the world, and it was amazing. So we sometimes find ourselves snickering at the so-called "hikes" here in Australia. Mountain biking among the kangaroos is a unique experience, but the word "mountain" is a rather inaccurate term. And we won't even go near the overpriced bunny hills they call ski resorts out here. But you know what? We went to the Grampians last weekend, and we were truly impressed!

Zack had this past Monday off from work, because it was Labour Day. We took advantage of the long weekend and drove about three hours outside of Melbourne to camp in Grampians National Park. Emily came along with us (Adam had to work), and we met up with Todd and Alena as well.

On Saturday, all five of us did a beautiful hike called the Mount Stapylton Loop. It was 12.2 km, and it took us about five hours to complete. But we stopped a lot to take pictures, eat lunch, fool around, etc. The hike was awesome: great views, some rock scrambling, cool formations, perfect weather with bright blue (dare I say Colorado-ish?!) skies, and fun friends. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

Boy shot-Todd and Zack ride the "camel" rock.

Girl shot-Emily, me, and Alena-sitting pretty near the top of Mt Stapylton.

We attempted several times to get a decent jumping picture with all of us in it.
This was the best one. We had fun trying!

We definitely want to go back to this area of Victoria. Zack and our friends were musing about how the Grampians is what they pictured Australia would be like when they came over here. For me, it just reminded me of Colorado, and that made me happy! I'll have a couple more Grampian posts coming up about camping, the waterfall, and our day spent rock climbing, but for now, I'll leave you with a picture dedicated to our Colorado roots...Zack doing the Tim Tebow pose!