Day 5 – Grampians

Boy was it a windy night.  Chairs got blow over, and around 4am I could see the car awning ….that was such a good idea at 2pm yesterday…. is flapping about and one of the guy ropes appears loose.  Nothing for it but to pack it away, not a pleasant job at 4am.  It nearly got away from me, but was OK in the end.

We’re not up till around 8ish.  Breakie and a slow packup, it just such a sensational spot.  Finally, around 10 we pull out.

We’ve still got a bit of the Wallaby Rocks Road, off this is a track called Lauder Track, it is part of the overall Grampians 4×4 Loop, but is marked as very difficult and watching some youtube vids, is just too much for me to want to attempt.   In the end the track is blocked off, not sure why, maybe it’s even more of a problem now.

We loop on some of the dirt roads.  As it’s really hard to follow the directions the 4×4 guide has, we take a wrong turn and we backtrack via Hines Track, at least we get to see the other end of Lauders.  As I’m driving first, we round this bend and there is a Emu in front of me, it bolts, but follows the road.  After a few hundred meters I slow right down so the thing will get off the road.

Most of the roads are just regular dirt, until we hit Sawmill Road and Victoria Range road, this takes us from about 200m up to 900 and is a good fun track to drive.   Onto Goat Track which winds it’s way back down the mountain, and offers some fantastic views.

Here we cross over the main road dividing he left and right sides of the Grampians and make our way over to Henman Track, this is long, around 30-40ks or so.  The day is starting to get on, while only 150 odd k’s they’ve been hard driving and after an early start we’re all buggered.  We spot a small campground a little further south called Wannon Crossing, there seems mixed messaging if it’s a free camp or you need to book and pay, lets say I don’t think anyone here booked!   We pump up the tyres ready for some more highway driving tomorrow.

A great fire and a little earlier to bed.