It was a bright sunny morning when we set foot on our four hour journey to the Grampians National Park. I was driving one car, and Adi was driving the other. Halim was my navigator of the day.. so while the others were sleeping soundly at the backseat, Halim had the task of keeping me awake and thus all of us alive XD
It was miles and miles and miles of empty barren land... kinda like those scenes in American movies where people are driving interstate where you have a stretch of endless road with huge empty plains/desert on either side of the road.
Once in a while we would pass by farms and rolling hills with lots of sheep/cows/horses.
We stopped at Ballarat about two hours away from home for some food while waiting for Adi to arrive.
I wasn't feeling too well so Wins took over the wheel for the rest of the journey while I slept in the backseat. Mia took over as navigator as well.
I woke up to ... even more farms and barren land with no mountain in sight.
After a while, out of nowhere a huge range popped up on our left. It was awesome, and thus the sua kus (us) began taking out our cameras and snapped away at the mountain. We reached Hall's Gap around 2 and stopped at the tourist info center and a petrol station to refuel. It was raining at this point so that kinda blew. And sucked.
Mountain on our left covered in mist
I took over the wheel again from there and we proceeded to Reed's Lookout and Borocca Lookout because those were the places where we didn't need much walking, just driving. After about 10 minutes on an extremely NARROW and WINDY road with lots of panicked "Wun slow down slow down, cliff cliff!", there were no signboards indicating that we were anywhere near. So I told my navigator to check the map again because we might have went off to the wrong trail. Indeed we had. So we stopped anyway at Silverband falls and treked about 650 m to the point of the waterfalls. It was sort of unique because the waterfall seemingly disappeared into the ground. There was no river in sight. Probably underground. We hung out there for about twenty minutes before going back to the car and finding Reed's.
Hike through shrubbery to Silverband falls
The falls that disappear into rocks
My passengers! Hehe
It was another long windy road uphill to Borocca look out. And we had to drive through creepy looking forests and fog-enshrouded paths (limited visibility=even more panicked passengers) to get to where we wanted to go. My windscreen started fogging up from the INSIDE and whenever i lifted a hand to clear it Halim goes WUN NO ILL DO IT U DRIVE. =.= We didn't have the knowledge to use the mode because we from Malaysia mah. The other car had the benefit of travelling with Shusaku once to Philip island so coming from a country which has 4 seasons too, he had taught them what to do. We weren't so lucky. We tried the air con. It became foggier. We tried the heater. Foggier. Wiping it frantically didn't work cos't fogged up as soon we it was rubbed. Fucking dangerous too and I think I must have drove at like 30 km/h. When we reached, we were severely disappointed. There was nothing to be seen.. we assumed it was a nice scenery because the mist covered everything. It was so blardee cold and misty and rainy... We left after a short while because there was no point.
A view of what we had to drive and walk through.. Nothing much to see cos' of the mist
Creepy forest
More creepy forest. It looks like the Forbidden Forest in Harry Potter doesn't it. Makes for a wonderful desktop background though =)
The "View" from the Lookout point. More like eternal oblivion. The rocks drop into nothingness. I'm assuming its a couple of thousand feet down.
There were three options left at that point, Reed's Lookout, Pinnacle, and McKenzie falls. We decided that if Reed's sucked then we would go straight to the waterfalls. So down we went again and through another windy road to Reed's. Reed's was so much better (probably cos' it was lower). The scenery was awesomee, and from the lookout point we could see miles and miles of the valley below.
It was getting close to dark at this point and there were fears about having to drive down the mountain in the dark, with no street lamps and no cellphone coverage so we decided to pick up the pace and be down at Hall's Gap by sunset. The falls were beautiful amid a short hike through the forest and for a while there was panic because Carol couldn't find her car keys. That led to us thinking how the heck we would solve the problem with only one car( that can fit five people tops) and ten people. She rushed back on the trail with us urging her not to panic and the others stayed behind to hunt for the key. Soon she found it .... (thank god she found it) and it was dark at this point so we decided to go back down.
I couldn't drive anymore because I was zoned out by this point and tired beyond belief (probably cos' I was on drugs -panadol rocks!) so Wins' took over again. The journey down was much much slower without the benefit of sunlight. I think we were about halfway down and I was fast asleep before I was jolted awake by screams of "DEER WINS DEER LOOKOUT AAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH". He avoided the deer thank god. Apparently it was fucking huge (Halim said it was almost as wide as the car) and there were three of them which leapt out into the road looking to cross to the other side.
What driving blindly must look like
Wins got us home safe and sound=)
I slept all the way to Ararat (about an hour away from Hall's Gap) when the other car signalled for us to stop. We were suppose to have dinner in the city but the unexpected stop delayed us. And we all woke up from our slumber and saw the other passengers from Carol's car alight and rush to the front bonnet and peeped down at the bumper. Halim said "I see Carol's mouth saying Oh shit."
Curiosity got the better of us. So our car went down and asked what the problem was. It turned out that our car avoided the deer, but another deer jumped in front of Carol's car and she ran over it. The force made a huge dent in the front bumper of the car and crack. We were worried sick at this point because of the possible cost of damage we had to incur. So we hurriedly ate at one of the restaurants in the town and mulled over the possibilities of paying a couple of hundred each for the damage (which would suck honestly). Carol felt so guilty at this point but it wasn't her fault.. stupid deer lol. At least the car didn't flip over and the damage was minor compared to what could have happened if she veered off to the left (fell into cliff) or flipped over.
Wins drove us all the way home while Adi took over the wheel in Carol's car.
My butt was aching from sitting in the middle at the back for three hours and at one point I was leaning forwards sleeping.. Vaguely remember Halim pushing my head back and saying something about breaking my neck lol.
Kinda awesome. We're planning to go back there during summer but I don't know if the others are up for it anymore after what happened hahah.
It was miles and miles and miles of empty barren land... kinda like those scenes in American movies where people are driving interstate where you have a stretch of endless road with huge empty plains/desert on either side of the road.
Once in a while we would pass by farms and rolling hills with lots of sheep/cows/horses.
We stopped at Ballarat about two hours away from home for some food while waiting for Adi to arrive.
I wasn't feeling too well so Wins took over the wheel for the rest of the journey while I slept in the backseat. Mia took over as navigator as well.
I woke up to ... even more farms and barren land with no mountain in sight.
After a while, out of nowhere a huge range popped up on our left. It was awesome, and thus the sua kus (us) began taking out our cameras and snapped away at the mountain. We reached Hall's Gap around 2 and stopped at the tourist info center and a petrol station to refuel. It was raining at this point so that kinda blew. And sucked.
Mountain on our left covered in mist
I took over the wheel again from there and we proceeded to Reed's Lookout and Borocca Lookout because those were the places where we didn't need much walking, just driving. After about 10 minutes on an extremely NARROW and WINDY road with lots of panicked "Wun slow down slow down, cliff cliff!", there were no signboards indicating that we were anywhere near. So I told my navigator to check the map again because we might have went off to the wrong trail. Indeed we had. So we stopped anyway at Silverband falls and treked about 650 m to the point of the waterfalls. It was sort of unique because the waterfall seemingly disappeared into the ground. There was no river in sight. Probably underground. We hung out there for about twenty minutes before going back to the car and finding Reed's.
Hike through shrubbery to Silverband falls
The falls that disappear into rocks
My passengers! Hehe
It was another long windy road uphill to Borocca look out. And we had to drive through creepy looking forests and fog-enshrouded paths (limited visibility=even more panicked passengers) to get to where we wanted to go. My windscreen started fogging up from the INSIDE and whenever i lifted a hand to clear it Halim goes WUN NO ILL DO IT U DRIVE. =.= We didn't have the knowledge to use the mode because we from Malaysia mah. The other car had the benefit of travelling with Shusaku once to Philip island so coming from a country which has 4 seasons too, he had taught them what to do. We weren't so lucky. We tried the air con. It became foggier. We tried the heater. Foggier. Wiping it frantically didn't work cos't fogged up as soon we it was rubbed. Fucking dangerous too and I think I must have drove at like 30 km/h. When we reached, we were severely disappointed. There was nothing to be seen.. we assumed it was a nice scenery because the mist covered everything. It was so blardee cold and misty and rainy... We left after a short while because there was no point.
A view of what we had to drive and walk through.. Nothing much to see cos' of the mist
Creepy forest
More creepy forest. It looks like the Forbidden Forest in Harry Potter doesn't it. Makes for a wonderful desktop background though =)
The "View" from the Lookout point. More like eternal oblivion. The rocks drop into nothingness. I'm assuming its a couple of thousand feet down.
There were three options left at that point, Reed's Lookout, Pinnacle, and McKenzie falls. We decided that if Reed's sucked then we would go straight to the waterfalls. So down we went again and through another windy road to Reed's. Reed's was so much better (probably cos' it was lower). The scenery was awesomee, and from the lookout point we could see miles and miles of the valley below.
It was getting close to dark at this point and there were fears about having to drive down the mountain in the dark, with no street lamps and no cellphone coverage so we decided to pick up the pace and be down at Hall's Gap by sunset. The falls were beautiful amid a short hike through the forest and for a while there was panic because Carol couldn't find her car keys. That led to us thinking how the heck we would solve the problem with only one car( that can fit five people tops) and ten people. She rushed back on the trail with us urging her not to panic and the others stayed behind to hunt for the key. Soon she found it .... (thank god she found it) and it was dark at this point so we decided to go back down.
I couldn't drive anymore because I was zoned out by this point and tired beyond belief (probably cos' I was on drugs -panadol rocks!) so Wins' took over again. The journey down was much much slower without the benefit of sunlight. I think we were about halfway down and I was fast asleep before I was jolted awake by screams of "DEER WINS DEER LOOKOUT AAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH". He avoided the deer thank god. Apparently it was fucking huge (Halim said it was almost as wide as the car) and there were three of them which leapt out into the road looking to cross to the other side.
What driving blindly must look like
Wins got us home safe and sound=)
I slept all the way to Ararat (about an hour away from Hall's Gap) when the other car signalled for us to stop. We were suppose to have dinner in the city but the unexpected stop delayed us. And we all woke up from our slumber and saw the other passengers from Carol's car alight and rush to the front bonnet and peeped down at the bumper. Halim said "I see Carol's mouth saying Oh shit."
Curiosity got the better of us. So our car went down and asked what the problem was. It turned out that our car avoided the deer, but another deer jumped in front of Carol's car and she ran over it. The force made a huge dent in the front bumper of the car and crack. We were worried sick at this point because of the possible cost of damage we had to incur. So we hurriedly ate at one of the restaurants in the town and mulled over the possibilities of paying a couple of hundred each for the damage (which would suck honestly). Carol felt so guilty at this point but it wasn't her fault.. stupid deer lol. At least the car didn't flip over and the damage was minor compared to what could have happened if she veered off to the left (fell into cliff) or flipped over.
Wins drove us all the way home while Adi took over the wheel in Carol's car.
My butt was aching from sitting in the middle at the back for three hours and at one point I was leaning forwards sleeping.. Vaguely remember Halim pushing my head back and saying something about breaking my neck lol.
Kinda awesome. We're planning to go back there during summer but I don't know if the others are up for it anymore after what happened hahah.
