Do you ever just feel like you want to escape the busy city life of Melbourne and enjoy being in nature for a day? We couldn’t agree more with you! That is why the Grampians Day Tour is one of our tours that you shouldn’t miss out on.
This tour is only suitable for early risers: the tour guide picked me up at 7:00AM. However, it is totally worth it for an amazing day like this. My tour guide, Patrick, asked if I wanted to sit next to him in the passenger seat. That meant epic views right in front of me: how could I say no to that offer?!
After Patrick picked up all of the people joining the tour for the day, we were finally headed to the national park!
Our first stop was after 1 hour and 45 minutes, in a small town where we had a nice morning tea with some biscuits. This was a nice opportunity to meet everyone who was on the bus that day since during the ride you are not really able to speak to everyone. There were some people from the United States on the tour, some people from Canada and a lot of people from Europe as well. This diversity made the tour really nice since you also get to discover different nationalities as well as cultures.
After the small morning tea, it was time for Patrick and us to hit the road again! Patrick asked me if I could help with hosting a fun game during the ride to our second stop: the Brambuk Aboriginal Cultural Centre. We played a game where Patrick would play different themes songs from movies and TV series and we would have to guess where it was from. I could really tell that everyone enjoyed this game since it made the remaining time that we had until we reached the second stop go by much faster.
As I already mentioned, our second stop was at the ‘Brambuk Aboriginal Cultural Centre’. I really enjoyed visiting this centre since it taught me something about the local indigenous art, heritage and natural environment.
After the visit to the cultural centre, it was (already) lunchtime! While we were visiting the cultural centre, Patrick went to a pizza place and bought a few pizzas for us. However, this lunch break was quite eventful since it was very windy, so we had to hold on tightly to the pizza boxes.
After lunch, it was time for the real deal: we were heading up to the mountains. Our next stop was at the Boroka Lookout, where we had a breathtaking view over the mountains of the national park. At this stop, there were 2 viewing points where you could enjoy the magnificent view of the national park. It is quite funny that along the way to these lookouts, we did not really meet a lot of tour cars or cars in general, but at these kind of ‘hot spots’, all of the tourists can be found.
Then, our journey continued to another amazing viewpoint: the ‘Jaws of Death’ also known as the Balconies. At this stop, there were also two amazing viewing points of the national park. Besides that. we also took a walk of about 15 minutes to the amazing lookout point where could enjoy a panoramic view of the Balconies as well as the national park itself. This is the perfect spot for good pictures of nature at the Grampians!
After seeing the Balconies, Patrick drove us to the last (and probably the best) stop of the tour. It was time to witness the amazing ‘MacKenzie Falls’. At this stop, there are different options to do since not everyone is able to walk the many steps which lead down to the base of the Mackenzie Falls. For the people who did not feel like walking the steps, there was a nice viewing point on top of the Falls where you can admire the view.
However, I was ready for some adventure and exercise; I decided to walk down to the base of the MacKenzie Falls. And guys, I can assure you that the hike was 100% worth it. Down at the base, I was able to admire the fascinating view of the enormous MacKenzie Falls and its glory! I would definitely recommend walking down the stairs to see the MacKenzie Falls from a different view.
After enjoying the majestic view of the Falls, unfortunately, it was time to see goodbye to the Grampians National Park and head back to the city of Melbourne. During our ride back, we were stopped by some hungry emus, who were loving our leftover pizzas that Patrick was feeding them!
If you want to experience the Grampians magic for yourself, check out the tour here. Happy travels!
