Rocks & Water – February 2020 – Go…See…Do…Be

We took several day-long trips to explore parks and coastal areas in western Victoria and beyond.

Grampians National Park – Following the suggestions of a park ranger, we focused on four areas of this large park, featuring over 167,000 hectareas of sandstone mountain ranges, Aboriginal rock art sites, waterfalls, and wildlife. The Balconies rock formation provided us with an incredible panoramic view of Victoria Valley. Several weeks prior to our trip to Grampians, park employees added a sturdier, less-climbable fence so visitors could not easily adventure out onto the large sandstone ledges. We were not even tempted to scale the 2-meter high barrier.

We took quite a bit of time to explore the trails and viewpoints at Mackenzie Falls, described on the national parks website as one of the larges and most spectacular waterfalls in Victoria. We hiked down to the base of the year-round falls first and ended our trek at the viewing platform above the cascades.

Grampians, which became a national park in 1984, is one of the richest Aboriginal rock art sites in SE Australia. We drove to two of the five caves featuring paintings of people, hands, and bird tracks. Both sites included heavy-duty fencing to protect against vandalism. The Gulgurn Manja Shelter displays red ochre emu prints and handprints created by the Jardwadjali people thousands of years ago. Gulgurn Manja means hands of young people.

At least the protective fencing included reinforced openings for taking unobstructed photos.

The unusual Jarwadjali artwork at Ngamadjidj Shelter displays 16 human, possibly dancing figures created with white clay, instead of the typical red pigment. Historians have not discovered the meaning of these rock paintings in the shelter, which is often referred to as the Cave of Ghosts.

The protective fencing at this shelter somewhat blends in with the rocks.

During our busy day at Grampians National Park we saw a variety of birds, four wallabies, and an echidna that tried desperately to hide from us in an old tree stump.

Discovery Bay Coastal Park – This beautiful, 10,000 hectare portion of Australian coast covers parts of two states, Victoria and South Australia. Our favorite features include the tall layers of jagged rocks by the water, the hollow tubes of eroded limestone that look like a petrified forest, and a calm inlet of water where seals like to play.

Crags Coastal Reserve – We walked along not-so-steep portions of these coastal cliffs and we had to stop numerous times to take photos of the stunning panoramic views. Unfortunately we didn’t see any of the many seals or fairy penguins that live along this part of Australia’s southern coastline.