The Grampians

For the first time, we travelled with the Fiedler family from Colac to Wannon Falls. It is great fun travelling with another family. We spent the whole trip talking to each other on the CB radio.

The Fiedlers following us.

We arrived at Wannon Falls to discover that they have changed the campground rules so that you can only stay overnight. We had planned on staying there for a few days so it messed up our plans a bit.

Wannon falls is a nice little campground. There are drop-loos, lots of space and a nice shelter with fire pits and a camp oven.  Julie got very excited when she saw the camp oven. She is very good at baking and we all love her home-made goodies.

After setting up, the kids got their bikes out and had a play. We all helped Molly ride her bike without training wheels for the first time and had a big celebration when she did it all by herself!

Rasmus and the kids collected firewood and after dinner we toasted marshmallows over the campfire. Before going to bed, Rasmus put the coals from the fire pit into the camp oven so it would be ready to bake bread in the next morning.

While the kids were doing schoolwork, we were all surrounded by the delicious rustic smell of homemade bread baking in the oven. We all stuffed ourselves on tea and hot bread for morning tea, then went to the water hole to cool down. After a swim in the water we packed up and headed to Cherrypool.

Cherrypool is located at the back of the Grampians, and the campground is not far from the Henty Hwy and next to the Rocklands River.

We set up our caravans so that they faced each other and we were able to pull out our awnings so they made a big covered area. We put up our fence from the ends of each van so we had a big secured, covered area for the kids to play safely in the shade.

It was really hot while we were at Cherrypool, so we didn’t do a lot. We spent a lot of time trying to keep cool, which was difficult with limited water and no power.

Sam and Ben discovered how easy it was to catch carp in the river so spent quite a lot of time practising their fishing techniques.

We spent an afternoon driving around the area and found some caves with old Aboriginal paintings in them.

After being at the hot, dusty campground for a few days, we decided to head into Horsham and find the local pools. It was wonderful to spend the afternoon swimming and to be able to have a nice cool shower and wash my hair!

From Cherrypool, we headed around the Grampians towards Halls Gap. We spent the night at a rest stop at Dadswell Bridge, and then went to a caravan park in Halls Gap.

We were greeted by an Emu when we pulled up and he followed us to our site. Marvel wasn’t too keen on the friendly emu but the emu wasn’t bothered by Marvel. That was until one day when Marvel got off his lead and decided that he had had enough of the emu drinking from his water bowl.  Marvel was quick, but the emu was quicker! I had to check Marvel’s mouth to make sure he didn’t have any tail feathers in it, but the emu managed to get away without harm.  He was back again the next day to continue teasing Marv though!

It was Will’s 8^th birthday while we were at Halls Gap, so Dan’s parents came up to spend the weekend with us.  Before they got there, we spent a day at the Halls Gap Zoo. For Kasper and Will's birthdays we paid extra for them to go into the Meerkat enclosure at feeding time.

The Zoo is small but full of interesting animals , most of which you can feed and pat.

When Dan's parents arrived, we did a bit of sightseeing and walked up the Grand Canyon which was great fun. Will decided that he wanted to give me a heart attack and not stay to any of the paths. He chose the harder route over the rocks and had so much fun clambering up the side of the cliffs. I put my foot down when we got higher and made him stick to the path. He still managed to find a few caves and crevasses to climb through on the way.

We celebrated Will’s birthday by throwing him a party. We had 6 very excited kids, party games and lots of junk food – all the ingredients for a successful birthday party.  We spent the afternoon of Will’s birthday in the swimming pool, and then walked to the pub for dinner.

Almost as soon as the party celebrations were over, the heavens opened and showered us with a huge downpour.





We said goodbye to the Fiedler family and they continued their journey west. We decided to stay for an extra few days in Halls Gap. It had been really hot for most of the time we had been there and I didn’t feel like we had seen everything I wanted to see.

We spent a couple of days relaxing and then took a drive over the Grampians to McKenzie Falls and Wartook Reservoir.

We are now heading back home to crash at mum and dad’s to spend some time sorting through the caravan. We are still very overweight and have to get rid of some more of our stuff to try to ease the weight on the car.