Halls Gap
**I’m not separating the entries into days, as this was only a short trip, so as a result this may be a longer post than typical**
It’s a long weekend, which means we’re off again on another trek with our good friends at ASAP Adventures, Amy and Anthony. Due to some particular unforeseen world events, we have been unable to fulfill Drew’s gift from about 5 years ago, but this weekend, we finally made it happen.
We started our road trip heading towards Ballarat, stopping at 1816 Bakery to try their pies, as is tradition (overall about a 2 on the 4 point scale, would eat there again, nothing too special – but we might be broken after the New Zealand quality pies, who knows?), met up with Amy and Anthony here and started on towards our accommodation in Stawell.
We stayed at a quaint little motel in Stawell about 20 minutes from Halls Gap, and after a very wet and rainy drive, we dropped our things in the rooms and headed towards our first itinerary item – Seppelt Winery, to take the underground cellar tour. We met our tour guide Ricky and learnt an incredible amount of history about the region and how the winery ended up in the hands of the Seppelt family. We saw a showcase of old bottles, letters, portraits and articles, all rich with history. He next took us down to show us some of the heritage buildings and the machines used in the manufacturing process, ensuring to explain what every piece accomplished in the production line in vivid detail.
Finally it was time to head underground! Since spending a little bit of time in caves in recent trips, I have found that I really enjoy the feeling of being underground, so I was truly giddy about this part. This is where Ricky told us that these cellars are the biggest underground wine cellars in the Southern Hemisphere, holding over 3 million bottles! As this is a heritage sight now, it’s not truly used for this purpose anymore, with the majority of the bottles being for display purposes only and filled with water, but there is a small locked section that holds real bottles just for the owner.
The tour concluded with a cheese board and a wine tasting, which I wasn’t really keen on as I’m not typically a wine drinker, but all 4 of the options were surprisingly tasty, with none of the sharp tang I usually experience with wine! You can probably tell that I have no idea what I’m talking about, but all I can say is that I enjoyed them. We may have even left with a bottle of their Prosecco to take home, purely because Ricky suggested it to be a good mixer with gin, so we will see how that goes!
We finished off day one with a bite to eat at the motel restaurant and hanging out in one of the rooms, making quick plans for the next day, playing video games and just overall relaxing, which is exactly what the doctor ordered.
This weekend away hasn’t been as go-go-go as we usually tend to be, meaning we haven’t had any early mornings. So day 2 started at about 9am, where we headed into Halls Gap (known indigenously as Budja Budja) to grab some breakfast from the bakery. It was bitterly, bone chattering-ly, soul cracking-ly cold today, so we ate fairly quickly, grabbed some drinks and snacks from the local grocer and headed towards our destination of the day – Halls Gap Zoo. Today was the day that prompted this weekend away, as Drew was given the gift of the meerkat close encounter for his 30th! This was the first thing on the schedule, so we quickly went through the ticketing office, grabbed our animal feed, and headed off towards the enclosure to wait for our keeper Reese.
I was lucky enough to have been tacked onto the gift so that Drew had someone in there with him, which I will be forever grateful for. There were two other groups with us; a group of 4 kids and another older couple. Kids went first, where we saw what not to do, then the older couple, where we could see what a calmer energy would do, then it was us.
I could feel the excitement radiating off Drew, peaking when he sat down and Reese handed us our little bowls for the meerkats to eat out of. We were immediately covered with the tiny fluff balls, listening to their cacophony of chattering chirps and deep growls while waiting for the morsels to be deposited in their trays. While I was trying my best to focus on what Reese was telling us while also being entirely distracted by how unexpectedly fluffy their coats were, we learnt was that we were in a pen with 5 boys, as the zoo hasn’t been able to secure a breeding permit due to their “high risk of escape” and the position of the zoo within a national park. We got caught up talking to Reese about many things, where we definitely pushed the boundaries of how much time we were allowed in there, to the point where one of the meerkats snuggled up and got extremely comfy on Drew’s lap! It was honestly perfect, and I’m so glad I got to share that experience with him!
Once we literally pushed the little one off Drew’s knee, we went off to explore the zoo. Halls Gap Zoo is one of the most bizarre zoos I have been to. It is a privately owned zoo which holds a huge variety of creatures from giraffes, white rhinos and cheetahs, to lesser known or rarely locally seen animals like elk, fallow deer and long horn cattle, as well as the Australian favourites like wallabies, kangaroos, dingos and quokkas! It was honestly such an interesting experience, and a group of some of the healthiest looking animals I have seen. I highly recommend taking the time to visit, and if you have the chance, participating in one of the experiences they offer and baring witness to the passion and love the keepers have.
I really wish I could have spent more time exploring this place, but with the negative wind chill freezing us solid, we left and headed to find some food. Since it was a public holiday, we really didn’t think they would be able to seat us at the bustling Halls Gap Hotel restaurant, but they were able to squeeze us in, where we had some nice warm food and drinks to defrost! By the time we finished up, it was still early in the afternoon so we decided to make the most of it and head out to a couple of lookouts while we had a break in the wet weather. We aimed for Reed’s lookout, which offered us an incredible view over the valley of the Dryden mountain range. The wind was blasting by this point, and the air was even colder, so we took but a few moments here, then aimed to head down the track just off the same car park to the Balconies lookout.
The path was putrid. So boggy and slippery that Amy and Anthony opted to stay in the safety and warmth of the car, while Drew and I trudged towards the lookout (completely willingly I should add, I get this huge eagerness while out in nature that tells me I can, and should, do anything I want in a effort to see as much as I can. Only sometimes, that strategy might give me a little too much confidence). Luckily, after about 100m the path improved and the rest of the walk was pretty east. The view from the Balconies was pretty spectacular. On the right hand side you have an overhang of two rocks jutting out, backdropped with the rolling mountain peaks, and on the right you have a wide view of the valley. We were able to see large walls of clouds whip through, and spot the rain in the distance, it was quite lovely.
The last viewpoint we saw was just up the road from the same car park, but this time pathed, so no treacherous walk to get there! This one was the fire spotting tower, which also has a helipad, as well as my favourite view of the day. This was the highest point you could get to, which gave you a close to unobstructed view of the area, and if you leant up against the railing just a little bit, you could experience what I believe was the closest thing you could get to flying while both of your feet were on the ground. But it wasn’t long until those clouds we spotted at the Balconies started making their way over, and the flying feeling started being tainted a bit with raindrops being pelted into your face. So we took the hint from Mother Nature, and started making out way back down the mountain.
I think the cold took it out of all of us, so we spent the evening hanging out in one of the rooms again, with a dinner made up of cup noodles and eggs. It was actually so nice!
I woke early on our last day way, and made the best of the time by rugging up and enjoying the sun and a coffee while watching the wildlife hop on by. Once the others joined me, we packed up the rooms and the cars and started our trek home, visiting a few pit stops along the way. First up was a tiny attraction just a few minutes down the road from the accommodation, called The Sisters Rocks, which is a cluster of granite boulders that has become a sight of interest since 1866, where early settlers started carving their names into them. Nowadays, the rocks are covered in graffiti and artworks depicting anything from the names of young lovers to colourful murals. This was a really cool place to explore and see all the old names and dates from decades ago. It was unfortunately tainted by a few racist images, which is just a result of being something created by the public, but I found the area fascinating. Somewhere I found particularly interesting was the area around the main road-facing edge of one of the boulders which appeared to receive the most layers of spray paint over the years, also had paint chipped off where you could see the layers and layers of peoples contribution to it.
We kept heading towards Halls Gap township to pick up some breakfast and explore the area a little more. We stopped at the same bakery as yesterday, but got to sit and enjoy the area a little more with the improved weather. As we ate we were able to watch the commotion around one of the umbrellas, where people were looking up and taking pictures. On each of the 4 points of this umbrella, we had 4 truly Australian characters of rosellas, a pied currawong, a cockatoo and a kookaburra. I’m sure it would have made any tourists day, it sure made mine! Once we had finished our food, we made our way towards the last thing we had to tick off in the area. Venus Baths is a stretch of water where small pools have been formed from by Stony Creek, and where first nations people have been bathing for thousands of years before becoming a popular swim spot in modern times during warmer months. The weather during our visit can be described in many ways, but warm is not one of them, so we only came across a few other people during our visit. The walking track towards the Baths was stunning! Walking past the cabins at the camp grounds and the kangaroos nibbling on the grass, we were headed into the national park area. The trail followed the creek, with parts bordered by steep cliff faces and large boulders. It wasn’t long before we got to where we were aiming for, which I have to be honest and say, didn’t really compare to the walk there. We came out onto a flat, rocky surface that has the tannin stained creek flowing over it. You can see where the flow of water has worn the “baths” into the rock surface over time, with pools scattered throughout. A&A chose to sit here and enjoy the water sounds and the sit down, but Drew and I decided to explore a little further up the creek and see what we could find. We didn’t get very far though, scrambling over rocks, we got about 20m around the bend before the slick rock surface felt too dangerous to continue scaling, so headed back.
We were all pretty tired by this point, so that was the end of our short time away. We stopped off at a favourite pitstop of ours breaking up the drive home with a visit to Ballarat Vintage Collectables Market, but that was it! I have made it a goal of mine to see more of my own country, and this little weekend away had fueled that even further. There is such a rich history here that I know embarrassingly little about, and hope to learn, even tiny bits at a time.
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