We took our first stop in Ballarat. Cold, grey, wet. About as exciting as Ballarat can get I’d imagine. First problem of the trip was encountered here; us having reached our daily account limit before even beginning the journey left us cashless at the ATM. A typically country wait at the bank saw us emerge 20 minutes later with cash for the next few days, and a 20 litre jerry can from the disposal store to make up for the rather lacking fuel tank.
We moved on at about 3:30 after lunching in a park, and arrived at Horsham, via the Giant Koala, around 6:30. Lumpy, the barman at the Grand Hotel abused us for ordering pints and cheap food, jovially it seemed, although we couldn’t be quite sure, and at 7:30 post-tight arse dinner it was time to find a place to rest.
Slightly difficult in a one road town, and we weren’t paying $22 for the Horsham camping grounds, so we looked at the Lonely Planet and took a long shot on a $2 a head place outside of Natimuk. Good fucking call! The place is amazing – what looks to be a rather extensive system of volcanic plugs and other interesting vulcanised bits of rock cragging their way up and out of the otherwise dead flat western plains – apart from, of course, the spectacular Grampians catching the dying, golden rays of the sun over to the east. These geological masterpieces, the Arapiles, are a rock-climber’s paradise, with giant organ pipes to scal, gnarled boulders erupting up and a beautiful monolith that the moon is currently rising behind.
We arrived just on dusk, so were treated to a sensational sunset behind the pipes, turning the air gorgeous rosy hue, and the birds making their final run for the day were coming out in every colour imaginable…galahs, cockatoos and rainbow lorikeets were the main characters, and the others were either Indian minor birds or unidentifiable.
We really couldn’t have asked for a more special start to this trip; such a truly magnificent setting to spend our first night. Bedding down at 9.15’s a bit strange though.
