The Grampians...

We took an exciting camping trip a few weekends ago to the Grampians in Victoria. It is a huge national park that has a broad diversity of flora and fauna, wildlife, and rock formations. We did some great hiking, and saw some very neat rock caves painted with Aboriginal rock art. We also had a great campfire and enjoyed hanging out with our friends Ginger and Paul at the campsite as well. The park suffered a very extensive big bush fire about two years ago and it was very visible. So we made sure to use extra special caution when we put out our campfire. You could see the charred markings form the brushfire on trees, however, there was much new growth starting to happen along the forest floor. Luckily, none of the surrounding towns sustained any damage.

More information about the Grampions region can be found at online at www.thegrampians.com.au



Extensive view of the Grampions mountain range.



Kangaroos hopping away upon are arrival near Asses Ears pass.



Large yellow farm fields of canola grow all throughout this region.



Patrick, Kim, Ginger, and Paul at the base of the Pinnacles hike, before starting the climb up through the canyon.



Ginger and Kim enjoying a cool little waterfall stream.



Looking up to the sky through the burnt trees at our campsite.



Kim and I on the summit of the Pinnacles.



Kim showing of her bouldering moves.

Birdwood the Giant Rocking Horse...

We took an interesting daytrip a while back to the Adelaide Hills. We took a scenic drive up through the Torrens River Gorge up to do some hiking and visit the Chain of Ponds winery. We continued driving on and later came upon the silliest thing I have ever seen. It was a statue of a giant rocking horse in the town of Birdwood. It is apparently the biggest one of its kind in the world. It is built in the parking lot of an interesting shop called the Toy Factory which sells quality hand made wooden toys. There was also a small enclosed park in the back of the shop that had tons or peacocks, chickens, ducks, and other birds wandering and squaking all over the place. You could purchase small bags of feed to hand out to the animals. South Australia is truly unique, where else could you do a little wine tasting, climb a giant rocking horse, by some small wooden toys, and hand feed a few domesticated peacocks all within a few hours.




The giant rocking horse in Birdwood. I circled Kim in red in the bottom left to give you a sense of scale.



This sign show exact distances to Birdwood from various cities in North America.



I couldn't resist this photo. It's not everyday you come across five peacocks all perched together on a fence.

Glenelg Beach...

One thing we really like about living in Adelaide is the close proximity to the beach. Glenelg beach is a nice spot we go to fairly often. It is only a ten minute drive away and we can also take a train right there as well. Nothing beats walking on the beach in the late afternoon or evening and hearing the ocean waves roll up on shore. Since the ocean lies to the west, the sun sets over the horizon out to sea making for some amazing sunsets. We definetly will miss this when we get back to Denver!




Glenelg Beach in Adelaide.



Kim enjoying an evening stoll along the beach.



Interesting beach front apartments with a giant shark mouth for the entrance.