What happens after the party is over?- heading home...the slow way. Day 1-Monday October 5th 2015

Since we are still on long service leave- and simply because we can- we took the opportunity not to rush, but to wend our way home on the roads less travelled (as we love to do when we can).

Having said goodbye to Adrian an hour or so earlier, we finally left Harrowfield on the dot of 10 am.   First stop the local service station to add $180.00 worth of diesel fuel to our tanks. Not bad considering the fact that we hadn't filled up since before leaving home.

Over the entire ten days in Ballarat we had not had a good look at the lake , so we thought that since we were now in meandering tourist mode we would do a circuit and take a look. A few years ago when we visited here the lake was dry but today we were not disappointed. It looked glorious on this beautiful spring day.  Lots of people walking the path around the lake, the coffee shops doing a roaring trade with alfresco being the order of the day as the balmy sunshine filtered down. The water was right up to the height of the boatsheds. We spotted a strange machine out on the lake and figured it was a trash collector. It seemed to be driving across the lake, stirring up water and pushing it through a filter to pick up rubbish.(Kay has since told me that this is, in fact, a weed cutter-which drives across the lake-thanks Kay)

Our next stop was the botanical gardens where we enjoyed the poppies and tulips, the sculptures in marble, the camellias and the sculpture walk edged with bronze busts of each Australian Prime Minister.The last two are missing at the moment.

Julia Gillard

We drove out through the wonderful avenue of honour-an impressive memorial to the Australian  servicemen and women. 

This was the first of many different road views on the day. 

It was a warm day (38 degrees C) , but it didn't matter as we drove in air conditioned comfort and didn't notice it unless we were out of the car.

We were thinking to stop at the lookout at Ararat for a cuppa, but the hot north wind reminded us of another time when the wind at the top there grabbed the door on the landcruiser and caused damage, so we opted to stop by Green Hill Lake on the way into town instead.   This is one of the lakes looking dry at the moment-with only a large puddle in a grey mud basin -not so picturesque. I do love having the ability to just pull over when we feel like it and have food available from the fridge and drawer in the back  and hot water for a cuppa from the thermos. The cache nearby made up for the view, but the family news by phone of an emergency dash to Perth for Ross put a bit of a dampener on the day.

From here we decided to make our way to the Grampians via a road we had travelled less often.

Driving into Halls Gap always feels great-with the craggy rocks of the Grampians towering over you as you enter the township. It was busy there, and all the tourists were trying to find a bit of shade to eat their lunch, so we sat in a rotunda and chatted to a walker who had just completed two days of trekking in the Grampians while we shared his shade and ate our bakery treats.

A quick loo stop to the  public toilets revealed an unexpected and enjoyable bit of local art in the form of a sheltering divider on the outside of the decking surrounding the building.   All etched out of thick steel, with the light from  behind forming the picture against the rusted metal background. I enjoyed these panels greatly.

We then headed out of Halls Gap, taking the road that cuts across the North of the Grampians (Victory Rd). This is a winding road which offers wonderful glimpses of steep rocky slopes and thick forest. The roads leading to many popular Grampian walks and lookouts turn off of this road and we couldn't resist detouring to the Boroka lookout for great views back over Halls Gap.

Once we left the lookout we were tempted into taking a little track which showed on the map (off to the right) . And boy was this a treat!!!! This area has been fire damaged to an extreme extent and is now coming back . As we drove we marvelled at the ability of the bush to regenerate and enjoyed the beautiful colours of the young leaves in the sunshine.

As we came close to Smith's Mill campground we came across a little stream cascading over a tiny spillway as it gurgled along. A small grassy patch was so inviting that we pulled in and made ourselves a cuppa, reclining on the grass beside the stream and marveling at the new growth and clear water.

Smiths Mill Campground is actually pretty cool. We stopped to use the loos and discovered that there is also a bucket shower (with rose attached) .

 The shower is the small building to the right of the toilet block.

This pic does not show the chain used to lower and raise the bucket to enable easy filling.

A short deviation to Lake Wartook allowed us to admire more distant views and reflections

before we headed onwards, past the magnificent views of drops down to the MacKenzie River (easier at the moment to see the sandy winding path many metres below due to less vegetation in the way) , past the fire damaged Zumsteins (I wonder how the tame roos managed in the fire?) -And finally wound our way  out at the other side of the park on to the flat Victorian plains.

From here we zigzagged our way via some back roads and some back tracks to the Little Desert National Park,

where we drove in over about 8 km of very sandy track to Broughton Waterhole-Here we found one family camping.  We set up across the waterhole from them -throwing out our swags behind the low bushes, but still having a view of the roos coming to drink at the waterhole from our folding chairs as we lounged in a stiff north breeze with our drinks in hand waiting for the sun to set.

Photos of the sunset reflections in the waterhole and reheated  leftovers made for an easy life, and we sat discussing life, the universe, and everything and enjoying this extra escape night in the bush, before falling into our swags to enjoy the star show from a horizontal position.  Because it was so warm I could be comfy with just mesh zipped on my swag to keep the bugs away, but this gave me a wonderful view of the night sky each time I woke, of the sliver of moon,  and then of the beautiful dawn colours as day began again.

Tiny plants growing in the Crack in an old picnic table

Bees having a drink at the waterhole

Sunset

Dawn (from my swag)

That's enough of the tale for today.  There are things at home that need to be done.
Tomorrow I will aim to tell the tale of day 2 on the way home. For now,  I'm signing out.