Day 39 – Arapiles
I’m not saying that the fact it felt like -5 degrees when we woke today influenced our decision to move on. That was already the plan. But it might have, if we weren’t going to. Regardless, we somehow managed to pack up in the bitter cold (numb fingers!) and say goodbye to Smith’s Mill campsite and the Grampians.
Today, we continued​ the theme of rock climbing tourism and drove the town of Natimuk and on to Mount Arapiles State Park, site of arguably the best-regarded crag in Australia. I’m coming back for a proper climbing trip later this year, but I couldn’t drive past the area without at least a walk around. And it was indeed an inspiring site (for a keen climber). Here is the family admiring The Pharos area:
The Organ Pipes:
The Watchtower:
We also found time to scramble up some boulders. Jamie was inspired to ditch his shirt for the proper dirtbag boulderer look:
Leah managed some good traversing in sneakers:
Yeah, I did some bouldering also. I even ticked sine actual routes.
All told, much fun and I thank the family again for indulging me a bit. After lunch, it was time to head on to our final destination for that day, Naracoorte National Park. This was a bit of a late discovery, but should be interesting. It’s a World Heritage-listed site, renowned for the fossil beds in the caves there. After a brief stopover in Edenhope for coffee and cake, we moved on to Naracoorte NP.
The site is lovely, and the day ended with dinner and a roaring camp fire. Perfect.
