Grampians Hike - Day 1

We met Jo in Halls Gap and set off at about 11:45. It’s been a long time since I’ve visited the Grampians and I’d forgotten how busy it could get in summer! The town was positively heaving and so was the track up to the Pinnacle, which was our first goal. This meant we had haul ourselves and our giant packs past hundreds of thong wearing tourists who had in many cases parked in the car park quite close to the top, while we had slogged all the way up from the town.

 It took us about 2 hours of steady climbing but we eventually made it and joined the hoards of drone-flying smokers admiring the views over Halls Gap and a large part of Victoria. 

Thankfully the next section of the track took us away from the masses and along the ridgeline through delightfully sandy and rocky trails which wound their way through interesting rock features. It was really lovely terrain. 

We  made it to our first campsite by about 4pm. This campsite had been exclusively built for the Peaks Trail hikers so it was pretty darn nice & the kids were happy to have a platform all to themselves.  

I forced Jo and Jon to attempt to re-create the promotional picture on the brochure (see below).

Hmm.. upon refelction ours was a bit different but almost as good.  At least it looks like Jon and Jo are still friends!

Of course all the real detritus of hiking (stinky socks, food bags, plastic plates etc) was hidden behind the tent!

I also made Jo recreate a photo from the early 90s as she sat in her 27 year old tent in her 27 year old thermals..

The rest of our evening was spent relaxing, reading, eating and admiring the views - all in all it had been a pretty fantastic day.