Grampains National Park (3 nights)

This national park had a big fire in January this year so the northern part of the park was closed but there is still heaps open for access.  We camped at Jimmys Creek, a very well laid out area with pit toilets and a funky bush shower (I used it but the boys seem to be comfortable going 3 days without a shower!).  For two of the 3 nights a family from Mornington Peninsula were camped next to us, it’s the school holidays in Victoria and they were giving their recently acquired camper trailer an outing.  The kids all had a blast, there were also four boys from Geelong there so it was great fun for the boys.  We had some good laughs while yarning around the camp fire, eating olive damper and roasting marshmallows.  Kangaroos and kookaburras hung out at the camp as well, quite social creatures, the kookaburras in particular are attention seeking and very loud with their evil laugh, but I adore them!

the two camper trailer families

The bush shower

industrious children

The days were stunning, warm and sunny but the first night was a frost!  We did some good walks and got amazing views across the park.  There were lakes and waterfalls – heaps to see! We saw another echidna, he walked out in front of us on the track, we stopped, he saw us then turned around and walked back into the bush, it was classic!  There weren’t any koalas to be found here due to the fire and recent floods which was a shame.  There is a town in the middle of the park called Halls Gap, it was very busy due to the school holidays with people everywhere eating the local treats, ice creams and fudge.  We had a wind up radio with us so we tuned in to find out the election results – interesting!

View over Halls Gap township

cool lake

views looking south over the Grampains