Ballarat • Grampians • Healesville • Kangaroo Island • Ocean Road 

Phillips Island • Tasmania • Wilsons Prom • Misc

Day 1

Well I have finally seen wildlife in Australia, wildlife that is actually wild that is.  This weekend I went to the Grampians.  The Grampians are roughly 3.5 hours away from Melbourne.  I drove up last night and spent the night in Ararat. On the way into the Grampians I saw my first wild kangaroo, I also saw my first kangaroo round kill. 

While driving through Halls Gap I noticed a mob of kangaroo in a field behind Halls Gap Log Cabins.  I decided to go in and book a room for tonight.  The cabin is very nice.  I think it is actually bigger than my apartment in Melbourne.  I spent at least the next hour photographing the kangaroo.  They are not tame but they are not too afraid of people.  Getting with 20 feet is fairly easy.

Afterwards I went up into the Grampians and saw the Silverband Falls, McKenzie Falls, the Balconies and a number of other scenic outlooks.  I also went over to the Little Dessert.  It was a wonderful day.  I finished to off by taking more pictures of the Kangaroo when I returned to the cabin in the evening.

Day 2

Last night I had the best sleep I have had since coming to Australia.  I live a rural area at home.  My apartment in Melbourne is right by an expressway.  I have trouble sleeping to the sounds of traffic and sirens at night.  I suppose I will eventually get use to it but it hasn't happened yet.  Sleeping in the quite of the Grampians was heaven.

I awakened to the calls of the Kookaburra, went out and photographed the kangaroos again.  I even got shots of a couple mothers with joeys in their pouches.  There are flocks of cockatoo flying overhead as I photograph.

After breakfast I went to the Halls Gap Wildlife Park.  It is similar to the one at Ballarat.  I feed and photographed the wallabies.  They also had a family of dingoes.  Dingo pups are terrible cute.  I should not admit this but I stuck my fingers through the fence and got licked by a dingo pup.  The mom was actually friendly too.  When she came over I held my hand up about an inch away from the fence.  She stuck her nose through and licked me also.  I want a pet dingo.

As I sit in my apartment reviewing my photos I look out the window at the cityscape and feel trapped again.  Cities do that to me, all concrete, steel, and glass.  I don't know why anyone would choose to live in a city.  I long to be someplace close to nature.  Someplace where I can walk outside and see a deer or a kangaroo.

Two weeks after I was in the Grampians a bush fire ravaged the area.  Halls Gap (where I originally spent the night) was in the news for days as the fire threatened to destroy it.  I went back two weeks after the fire.  The main road through the Grampians was still closed so I could not revisit the area the way I wanted to but I did get pictures of the devastation at the edge of where the fire went through.