Blogs from Grampians, Victoria, Australia, Oceania - page 2

13-19 April 2011 We arrived at The Grampian National Park to find that 80% of the park was closed due to widespread flooding and landslides back in January this year. This was a little disappointing but didn't put a downer on our time there at all. The Grampians is something else! Such a special national park - if only these walls could talk! We did a lovely walk to a waterfall where we stopped for a picnic, lots of 4WDriving where we stumbled on some interesting wildlife including emus and saw some sacred Aboriginal Rock Art. The bush camping at Plantation Campground was awesome (gotta love Alex's damper..) The troopy nearly got taken out by a wild deer at one point too which was interesting. Leaving the Grampians we back-tracked to Melbourne where we stayed with ... read more

The next day we set off with the intention of heading towards the Grampians National Park in order to do some hiking. Luckily, along thew way we were able to spot a few more of the well known rock formations including the grotto, probably my favourite, the Arch and London Bridge, now partly collapsed so that it no longer resembles the London Bridge. We then headed straight for the Grampians. Unfortunately there had been some quite extensive flooding in the area during January. Whilst the area was now safe, as a result of the flooding some of the roads were closed. This meant that we had to take a detour along the way in order to reach Halls Gap. It was whilst we were taking one of these detours that someone, who shall remain nameless, managed ... read more

Just back in Melbourne after 4 days in the Grampians about 200 miles north west of Melbourne Climbed to the Pinnacle and went to the Aboriginal rock drawings Had a great trip to Sovereign Hill Gold Mine with a trip 60 feet underground into the original mine workings. Very interesting as well as a nice bit of respite from the 32'C on the surface Our last day with Claire tomorrow before we say goodbye until May next year when she comes back to UK for Matthew's wedding. She's got her flight booked and got a good price with Qatar although it's still a lot more to buy a flight from OZ to Uk rather than the other way We are spending the last evening at the night time market at Victoria Markets. They only started last ... read more

Ahoy there me hearties ….we greet you this time from the Glenelg Highway in Western Victoria where we are making our way towards Mount Gambier on the SA coast. We’ve had a couple of comments from people having to guess where our path will take us next and over the past 3 weeks, our route has kept even us guessing! Our route and timing has been largely determined by the weather and one thing is for sure, we will certainly remember Victoria for its cold wind and rain. I’m told Summer is well and truly on the way in Brisbane with 30 deg temps … down here we’ve barely made it into the teens for most days. The very faint tans that we acquired in outback QLD have long since disappeared. Despite the weather, this little ... read more

Au menu de ces derniers temps, beaucoup de rencontres avec pas mal de grimpeurs notamment allemands et Trad climbing entrecoupées de quelques séances d'escalade sportive. Le Trad climbing est une pratique bien différente de celle que nous avons pratiquée jusque-là, puisqu'elle consiste à affronter des murs vierges de tout équipement à demeure, donc pas de spits, pas de relais. Enfin, les Australiens ont une approche plus pragmatique du trad que les anglais, donc ils posent des spits lorsque il est impossible de se protéger en « natural gear ». Le trad-climbing est une pratique à mi-chemin entre la grimpe, l'aventure et la mécanique, consistant à partir dans une voie lestée d'une bonne dizaine de kilos d'accessoires que n'aurait pas dédaigné le divin marquis! Quelques moments épiques, et peut-être les plus adrénalitiques de ma maintenant plutôt longue ... read more