Grampians 26-30th of September (2008)

What else would a LUMCer do on grand final weekend other than get as far away from the CBD and a television set as possible. I can boast that I did not know the result of this years grand final until the Wednesday after the event.

Alex, Pete and Myself walked, scrabbled and at times hauled ourselves to the top of Mount William from Sheep Hills and across the major Mitchell plateau and down to Wannon Creek taking in some magnificent views along the way.

Photo: View from top of Mount William looking to Major Mitchell Plateau

Driving up Friday afternoon stopping at George’s Fish and Chippery in Ararat for one of the cheapest burgers with the lot around and set up camp at Borough Huts Campground for the night.

Day one: was filled with inclines, rocks and brilliant weather as well, climbed (or walked in part along a sealed road) to the top of mount William across a few hills and up the very steep rocky side of the Major Mitchell Plateau. The campsite on top of the said plateau had everything one could hope for: a creek for water, a clear area for tent set up and a toilet to top it off! Once we settled into our tent and the wind picked up we realised what was missing. The only thing we heard for the rest of night was the sound of the metal toilet door banging against the wall. Note missing piece of the pie: a device to keep toilet door shut.

Photo: Pete and Alex walking ?? not quite sure where we are :P

Day two: involved a lovely amble and part rock scrabble across the plateau and a rather steep descent down into the Valley to camp at the Jimmy Creek Campground. This bogan sounding campsite was in fact in the middle of a reconstruction site for the new Jimmy Creek Campground and so we left the Tonka trucks to find a nice spot beside the river and set camp for the night. Here we learnt an invaluable lesson about using the club tents ultra light weight option: when leaving out the inner, the footprint aka random tarp must not poke out under the edges of the fly, else water on top of the tarp sticking out of the tent can travel into the tent and make your thermarest and other stuff wet.

Day three: Having learnt a lesson in movement of water the night before we walked along a management track to pick up the car in what was a reasonably boring and undulating track in comparison to the days before.

On our last day in the gramps we meandered up Mt. Rosea to have a lunch with a view before returning to the car to drive home. Special mention to Alex who made a valiant effort to walk with very sore feet up and down those really steep sections! And of course to the Grampians for being so pretty.

Photo: Well alex looking out towards mount Lubra from semi summit of Mt. Rosea.