Halls Gap

The rain and wind have lifted and been replaced by a cloudless blue sky and heat, heat, heat. We set sail for Halls Gap today. From Tower Hill we decided to plow north two hours to Dunkeld and into the Grampians National Park. The flat fields of hay and grazing cattle we had been driving through suddenly and spectacularly turned into the sandstone ranges of the Grampians.

Our first stop after the visitor's center was the Sundial picnic area where we began a hike through Devil's Gap to the Pinnacle, also called 'the step at the top of the world'. To get there we climbed past enormous, wind-carved boulders of mushrooms, arches and stacks of pancakes. From the top we looked down over a sprawling valley. Further over we looked down 'Silent Street', a stretch of boulders that climbed straight up from a deep chasm and led over a cliff into nothingness.

A climb to 'The Balconies' was our next excursion. Also known as 'The Jaws of Death' these two massive cliffs hang one on top of the other, ending far out over the valley like two pointed jaws bones. When we arrived at the precariosly balanced rocks we walked cautiously to the edge of the lower bone, and looked over Australia.

Part of the fun of this trip is the people we meet. On the way up to the Balcony, we met Cathy, an Australian biochemist with plans to work in Boston next year. It seems we keep running into people bound for Bean Town. When we ask people if they have ever been to the U.S.A and what area they've liked the best, the overwhelming response is Boston. It makes me feel good that I can say I live there (though currently only by virtue of a storage shed and a P.O. box). Everyone we've met, including a Malaysian girl in New Zealand who had never before left Kuala-Lumpur, has heard of Boston.

We did one other hike we did in the Park; that to the top of Mount William. I would have enjoyed doing more, but I'd come down with an Australian cold. I'm not sure that differs from any other cold, but since I'm in Australia I'll call it an Australian cold. Included were a sore throat, blocked ears and that overall achy feeling. So, given my 'delicate' condition, we decided we best relax so I'd be fully recovered before embarking to Indonesia on the 20th.

Relaxing when there are so many things around to see is difficult for me. But one advantage to a slower pace is a chance to see a lot of wildlife. One place we chose to relax, Zimstein's Picnic Area, left us surrounded by kangaroos. Cockatoo parrots covered the trees where we ate lunch in Halls Gap; wallabies posed for pictures on the road side, and on the railing at the cafe where we ate pizza, we were inches from laughing kookaburras. kookaburras. Australians may consider these animals run of the mill, for us they are exotic.