Dunkeld

Today we checked out of Halls Gap on yet another perfect day and started heading for the southern Grampians. Our first destination was Mount William - the highest peak in the Grampians.
We had been told by the friendly lady at the Information Centre at Halls Creek that the climb from the carpark to the summit was on a sealed road, so we took advantage of the escooters for this and managed to use them to great effect, passing several seasoned bush walkers who eyed us off with what appeared to be a mixture in equal measures of envy and distain.
The view from the summit was again fantastic, the pilot in me noting that there was an Airservices aviation VHF repeater station located here through which I would be probably communicating tomorrow.
The escooters managed to turn what would have been a 2 hour round trip into around 45 minutes, despite the fact that the steeper sections on the way up required pushing rather than riding the devices.
After giving the brakes on the scooters a thorough workout on the way back down to the car, we then headed towards Dunkeld at the southern tip of the Grampians range and made a quick call to the Information Centre for some more local knowledge. An excellent cafe was found just across the road for a late morning coffee to fortify us for the climb ahead and then we proceeded back to the carpark to tackle our second summit for the morning - Mount Sturgeon which commmands wonderful views over Dunkeld and beyond.
The young lady at the Information centre was hardly an ambassador for bushwalking and mountain climbing.
“ I’ve read that the Mt Sturgeon Climb is worthwhile?” I asked.
This question was followed by a slight pause….’ Yeah, the view from the top is good . . . But when I’ve done it, it just seems to go on and on and on … and then when you eventually get to the top, all I could think was…now I’ve just got to walk all the way back down again . . ‘
With such n inspirational testimony we decided it simply had to be climbed. And it was definitely worthwhile.
On entering the track, we observed (and used) a special boot washing station with accompanying signage explaining that by doing so we would be protecting the local flora and fauna. However, it would seem that the local fauna didn’t play by the same rules as they seemed to have no interest in protecting us. A few steps up the track after the boot washing station we encountered an aggressive bobtail lizard, and on the way down we surprised a juvenile ‘wriggling stick’ in the middle of the path. We managed to escaped unscathed from both encounters and made it safely back to the car.
The 3 hours the ‘information lady’ claimed it took her to do the walk was done in 2 hours 20 minutes (with 15 of those minutes spent enjoying the view from the top) - so I’m guessing bushwalking is just not her thing.
We then checked in to our BnB at Dunkeld, Loss magicked up some lunch again (it was now nearly 3pm) and then we set off for a drive west of the town of Hamilton to take in two waterfalls. These were really quite good - the Nigretta and Wannon Falls - and then we took a leisurely drive back to Dunkeld to prepare for our dinner booking at 8pm at the ‘2 hatted’ Royal Mail hotel.
Fortunately for the wallet, the premium restaurant experience was fully booked so we settled for the less financially damaging but very enjoyable alacarte restaurant.Read more