Training: The Grampians National Park, VIC

For a university assignment of mine, I needed to visit an Aboriginal Cultural Centre. I googled it and found there was a beautiful one at The Grampians National Park: Brambuk. So, as we do, we planned a weeked away, complete with accomodation that had a gas fire place and a spa in the living room. Ah....training for Everest Base Camp has never been so luxurious. Until my stomach bug kicked in that is. In hindsight, the stomach cramps were probably the best training I could have for trekking in Nepal when the goat curry I'm sure to eat flips my stomach upside down.

Day One

- Reed Lookout/The Balconies: 2.1km return: 27 minutes

This walk was very straight forward. Flat, well-marked, short. While Chris was tempted to venture out onto the over-hanging rock, my talk of slipping, combined with his mild vertigo, thankfully deterred him. 

- MacKenzie and Broken Falls: 2km return: 1 hour (including photographs)

Stairs, stairs and some more stairs. I told myself it was perfect preparation for Adam’s Peak. Just like every other flight of stairs we will walk up and down between now and Sri Lanka. We spent quite a bit of time at the base of MacKenzie Falls. Chris got some stunning long exposure photos of the dramatic waterfall before we traipsed back up the stairs to the top. We then wandered over to Broken Falls where 
Chris ventured off the beaten track in search of the perfect photo.  

- Ngamadjidj Shelter: 300m return

The walk to Ngamadjidj Shelter is a very short loop which takes in some ancient Aboriginal rock art. As the original reason for visiting The Grampians was to check out the Aboriginal Cultural Centre (Brambuk), we thought this walk fitting. 

- Hollow Mountain: 2.2km return

The first half of the Hollow Mountain walk is stock standard. 
Stairs, a hill and a few rocks to scramble over. The second half is anything 
but. It consists entirely of rock scrambling and it fantastic fun. Follow the 
yellow arrows which are painted on the rocks, past the people practicing rock 
climbing, to the stunning views from the top. A perfect place for a packed lunch 
of, in our case, leftover homemade pizza. Ahhhh....

 Day Two

- The Pinnacle: 8.4km return: 3 hours 30 minutes (including almost passing out a few times)

I’m sure that even if I was well The Pinnacle walk from Halls Gap 
would have been challenging. There are a lot of stairs and a whole lot of uphill 
walking and then some rock scrambling. When you have a stomach bug, this walk 
seems never ending. When we set off from Halls Gap I was feeling average. As we 
walked and the altitude increased and the sun’s intensity grew, so too did my 
stomach gramps, nausea and light-headedness. Let’s just say that today we 
practiced a walking pace that is probably similar to that which the lack of 
oxygen on Everest will induce. We made it though. And as we scrambled up the rock path that is the last few hundred metres, the magnificent views silenced my stomach enough for some fun photos.