#64 – Practice your landscape photography at Hanging Rock, October 12, 2013
Sometimes it’s nice to reflect on your day when you go to sleep and discover that your day turned out totally different from what you expected when you woke up. It’s fair to say that I’m not the most spontaneous person. Lists run my life and I feel good about it. The fact that this very blog post is part of a list that runs my free time activities for a year should be evidence enough. However, yesterday was one of those instances where I benefited from going with the flow.
Fran is visiting us and we did the usual tour to show her around on a Saturday morning: Brunch in South Melbourne, veggie shopping at the market and taking a stroll through Melbourne. Not very exciting, but a nice way to show off our neighbourhood. The weather was playing along nicely (thank you Melbourne, I’m always very grateful when you are not acting up weather-wise), which made it a very pleasant morning. Coming home we decided to consult the list for inspiration to go for an adventure outside of Melbourne – the weather was just too perfect for not going on a road trip.
Fran (the non-Melbournian) came up with Hanging Rock, which I dismissed by reflex “Too far away, it’s in the Grampians”. As it turns out: It’s not! Not even close. Now I can say with confidence that my lack of geographic knowledge is not limited to just European countries and their capitals, but confidently extends well into Australia.
Hanging Rock is an area approximately 80 km north-west of Melbourne and a few kilometres north of Mount Macedon, a former volcano. The area is perfect for having picnics. Kids running around and people playing a game of Cricket create a very British atmosphere. We contributed our part and had a little picnic with leftovers from Friday’s BBQ and some scones. Not quite high tea, but close enough for an outdoor activity.
In the middle of the area is the rock formation, something like mini Alps that elevate to about 100 meters and provide a nice view of the surroundings. It sports quite a few distinctive rock formations, including the ‘Hanging Rock’ itself, a boulder suspended between other boulders, which you have to go under to get to the summit. Other rock formations have such lovely names as the Colonnade, the Eagle and the UFO.
The walk to the summit is about 50 generous minutes return and is very doable even in thongs/ jandals/ flip flops. We were quite excited when starting our hike, because a little girl came down from the rocks totally enthused about having seen a koala. Unfortunately, it was a sneaky koala that we weren’t able to spot even with most vigilant observation of the trees. The view from the top is quite stunning especially since we had virtually no clouds in the sky.
The park closes at 5pm. We took the ranger’s advise and visited the Camel’s Hump on our way back. Camel’s Hump is the highest peak of Mount Macedon and reaches to 1,000 meters in altitude. Rumour has it that sometimes it’s even covered in snow. It is about 5km from Hanging Rock, provides further beautiful views onto the Melbourne skyline in the distance and some more opportunities for landscape shots.
After returning home, we tried to come full circle and watch Picnic at Hanging Rock, a 1975 movie based on a 1967 novel by Joan Lindsay. The plot focuses on a group of female students at an Australian women’s college in 1900 who inexplicably vanish at Hanging Rock while on a picnic. I gave up watching after 5 minutes. Too much David Hamilton meets Woodworthy Manor for my taste. Fran fell asleep half an hour later. Only Harriet was persistent enough to make it painstakingly to the end, which left us wondering: who is responsible for the movie’s 7.5 star rating on IMDB.
After all, it was an unexpected day with the uncommon combination of strolling in urban Melbourne and hiking in nature. Melbourne, you are so much fun in sunshine.
