This is the second post about our road trip from Adelaide to Sydney (see first post here). The Grampians National Park in the Australian state of Victoria is about 100 kilometres north of the coastal town of Warrnambool. Anyone who likes to combine beautiful hikes with a good infrastructure will get their money’s worth here!
Dunkeld: The southern gateway to the national park
Dunkeld is a nice little town and basically the southern gate to the Grampians National Park – so the perfect starting point. Here you can find hotels, a camping site, a real bakery, cafés and restaurants etc. We especially liked the visitor centre! Besides the obligatory information about hikes and activities in the region, there are also free, unlimited hot showers. This makes the camper’s heart skip a beat!
In Dunkeld itself everything is still flat, but you can see Mt. Sturgeon and Mt. Abrupt rise in the background.
Near Dunkeld we spent the night at Freshwater Lake on a very basic but free campsite and climbed Mt. Sturgeon the next day.
Climbing up Mt. Sturgeon
On the right, next to Christiane, you can see Dunkeld in the background
Road to Halls Gap
The road to Halls Gap is the C216 and leads from Dunkeld along the mountains (which are lined up like pearls on a string) to the “centre” of the Grampians. Here we got a real roadtrip feeling, because there was a new view behind every turn. Along the road there are several camping sites or smaller parking bays from which one can start hikes.
Halls Gap
Halls Gap is the center of the Grampians. Countless accommodations and campsites are offered for every budget. There is also a visitor centre and a beautiful park next door with lots of public toilets and drinking water stations.
Halls Gap from above
We again opted for a free campsite just outside Halls Gap. The Plantation Campground can be reached via an 8 km gravel road, has very clean long drops and lots of wildlife. We liked it so much that we spent two nights here.
Shower
“King” at the Plantation Campground
Hikes in the Grampians National Park
There are countless hikes in the Grampians National Park.
We chose the wonderland circuit, where you also high trough areas of the famous Grand Canyon ?
Of course, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to compare the Australian Grand Canyon with its American counterpart (which we will visit in about a month).
Also the rest of the hike was really great.
We would have liked to spend a little more time in the Grampians, for example, to take a look at the Aboriginal paintings on the west side of the mountain range. But there is still so much to see on our way to Sydney and the Great Ocean Road was already waiting for us.
