After such a long day yesterday, the prospect of some long walks today wasn’t terribly inviting, but I got up early to face the music anyhow. On my way to the bathroom I spooked some kangaroos that were hanging around the campground, and watched them hop away.
We had a quick breakfast and made our way to Hollow Mountain, which was a nice, somewhat technical (although not very challenging – even Natalie, who only had flip-flops on her feet managed), hike up the mountain. Later, we went on another walk, this time to the Pinnacles. It was a simple walk, but uphill, and therefore a little tiring. Some great views at the top, which helped make it worthwhile.
We stopped for less than a minute to take in the Giant Koala, which was hardly worth a picture. Australia is fond of big things, it seems. We did our best to eat all the remaining food at lunchtime, near Mackenzie Falls, then descended a few hundred steps to check out the falls themselves. The climb back up from the falls was listening to Tatiana express her hatred for stairs, and mine and Philipp’s general agreement. We rewarded ourselves with some ice cream treats, then headed back to the bus and on our way to Reid’s Lookout, which was reminiscent, but a little nicer, than the Blue Mountains near Sydney.
Last stop on the tour was Brambuk Cultural Centre. I thought about bringing my camera, while I checked it out, but decided against it. The reward was a bunch of kangaroos hopping about, as well as a deer, which was quite surprising to see. So I didn’t get a picture, but they were nice to see regardless. They seemed very tame, so I can’t really say I’d seen them in the wild.
Half of the tour group (Brittany, Tatiana, Katrine and Martin, Jonas, and the Diggler) were heading to Adelaide, so we dropped them off in Ballarat to catch their connecting bus, then headed back to Melbourne. I was hoping to catch a bus to Canberra that night, but we arrived too late, so I booked a room in the same hostel as Leen and Philipp (The Nunnery), so as not to add a third guest to Amy’s roster (her sister had arrived over the weekend). We picked up Dean’s brother, Max, freshly pickled at the St. Kilda festival, then headed to the hostel. Philipp and I went and grabbed some cheap pizza at a place called Bimbo’s on Brunswick Street, then went to bed. It had been a long weekend.