These are the Grampians, my friends. And they are worth climbing, to the end…

I’m not the first one to put my hand up for a hike. Particularly not one marked medium… or hard. But the Grampians, well, they are kind of ‘spesh’, as the Australians say.

And so, we traveled to Halls Gap and spent 2 glorious days and nights kicking back, hanging with Kangaroos and taking some seriously amazing walks.

The most noteworthy of these walks was the hike we did to the Pinnacle. It’s the most popular of the trails in the area, and with good reason. It’s f-ing stunning.

You basically scramble up rock face by following a series of tiny pointed triangles that keep you heading in the right direction (if you get it right). Every once in a while you run into a person who confirms you’re headed the right way. And often, you see lizards who confirm that you’re still hiking in Australia.

it’s not an easy trail, and in the sun it’s a bit like I imagine hiking on Mars would be. But at the top… holy %*+&$. Views for days!

But the Pinnacle isn’t the only notable view in the Grampians. And so we rode our ‘hikers high’ over to the Balconies for sunset.

It was all so amazing. Our first ‘top 10 day’ in a couple of weeks. And it inspired us to hike harder, and live larger!

And so we found ourselves on this known hike in Port Arthur, Tasmania. A 4-hour loop on sandy hills to a pretty scenic beach.

we climbed through a penguin rookery (the most complicated Australian word we’ve heard to date!).

And we were feeling pretty good about things until this snake popped up!

So what’s the moral of this story? Basically this country is full of stunning hikes. Some of them have snakes and bugs. Some of them have spectacular views. And we’re lucky enough to have a couple more weeks to try them all.

We’ll keep you posted on the cliffs we climb and the friends we meet along the way!