Having re-read my Ararat Trip – Day 1 post, I’m pretty sure I won’t win any literary prizes any time soon… very uninspiring prose indeed!
So, let’s try something a little different today, try and rein in the left side of my brain a little and give my right brain a chance to have a say. Although, having said that, I’m surpirsed either side is working efficiently after our first night ever in the new van. A combination of our caravan park being less that 100 metres from BOTH the major Melbourne-Adelaide truck and train routes (half a dozen freight trains and well over 500 semi trailers during the night), along with an ultra hard, never-been-slept-on-before mattress and it was no wonder I awoke with a splitting headache!
Hmm, sounds like I’m whinging already (ha ha)! It wasn’t so bad though – even a bit funny for the first two or three hours (we even commented about opening the windows at either end of the van to let the freight train through!) – and a good early lesson for young players like us: when looking for a place to set up camp, take notice of your surroundings.
Still, it didn’t dampen our spirits and we were off early to spend the day in the Grampians National Park, taking in Moysten, the spiritual home of AFL football, and Halls Gap, at the doorstep to the Grampians, along the way.
A couple of short stops, to walk among the spectacular sandstone rock formations and take in the scenic views, before we made our way to MacKenzie Falls for lunch. This was followed by a short but steep hike down to the bottom of the falls themselves.
[Pictures]
After a full day’s activities, we made our way back to ‘freight train central’ via Stawell, for another night of peaceful slumber… being broken only by the regular earth shattering blast of each freight train’s air horn as it passed through the centre of town (and, strange as it may seem, the insessant sub-woofer like rumble of the constant flow of trucks along the Western Highway actually became quite soothing, so much so that you really didn’t even notice it after the first 4 or 5 hours of lying in bed waiting to fall asleep…).