We got a late start again, we’ve become very slack at packing up and moving, although you can bet that someone will always choose that time to come and have a chat with you, often once you’ve already got the leathers on and ready to go.

The weather has done a complete turnaround, it’s now hot and a hot north wind is blowing. We were talking tonight and figured that we haven’t had weather this warm since we were around Carnarvon.

We stopped outside of Bordertown to check the map, we thought the border would be at Bordertown but it’s not, it’s about 10km further on. We had some lunch while we were stopped.

When we got to the border we stopped for some photos, the only one we need for the ABCs now is J, because I don’t think we’re going to get an X.

The visitors information centre gave us a map of town, some brochures on what to see and pointed us in the direction of the Harley shop and the caravan park.

After visiting the Harley shop we arrived at the caravan park and set up, the park is fairly empty and the lady in the office gave us a bit of a discount, which is always nice. The park is in a good central location, I went out for a walk to the shops for a few groceries. The botanical gardens are next to the park, we’ll have a look there another day.

First stop was MacKenzie Falls. From the carpark it’s a 30 minute walk down a steep path, a lot of the way there are stairs. It’s a popular spot and there were many people at the base of the falls, but most people are obliging and will step out of your way so that you can take photos.

Just after we reached the bottom of the falls it began to rain, people scrambled for cover under rock edges and into little caves. We had a nice little spot out of the rain all to ourselves, the rain didn’t last long.

After climbing the stairs back up to the carpark we went for a walk to Broken Falls. Not as spectacular as MacKenzie Falls but very nice.

There was one more walk to do and that was to a lookout with a high vantage point over MacKenzie Falls. All the while we were walking to this lookout we could hear distant thunder; I was really hoping that we’d avoid riding in a storm on mountain roads.

We had some lunch and continued our ride to Reed Lookout and The Balconies. Reed lookout is only a few metres from where you park and has wonderful view out across The Grampians and a lake in the valley below.

We took the 1.5km walk to The Balconies, another scenic spot overlooking the mountain range with some stunning rock formations beside the lookout. Unfortunately the view was very hazy, I thought that it may be due to all the cropping that is happening in the area at present, Tony thought it may be the moisture in the air.

Continuing our ride through the mountains we came across a sing pointing to Silverband Falls. We decided to go and have a look.

Another walk! We walked quite a few kilometres today. This waterfall is set in a lower part of the Grampians and the area is more lush and green, with many ferns including tree ferns and maidenhair ferns.  The waterfall cascades over the rocks in a narrow band and then disappears under the ground and reappears further upstream.

We were now only about 20km from Halls Gap so we thought we’d go and have a look around the town and have some afternoon tea. It’s a very touristy town; there are many holiday houses and units for rent.

It was 3.30pm when we arrived and the coffee shop and bakery were surprisingly, already closed. I’d really fancied a Devonshire tea, but we had an ice-cream and a softdrink instead. We looked in a couple of shops and headed back to Horsham.

We walked our little legs off and Tony was pretty tired from riding the mountain roads all day, but it had been a pleasant day of sightseeing.

Our ride took us to St Arnaud and then around to Stawell, past lots of properties where farmers are in the process of harvesting their grain crops. We stopped at St Arnaud tourist info centre; we didn’t find anything to interest us so we continued on our way. It was a nice day just to have an easy ride in the sunshine.

After lunch we spent quite a bit of time cleaning the bike and trailer. What an improvement, the trailer hasn’t been cleaned properly in ages. They both sparkle now, for how long I don’t know.

We went to the Horsham Club for a meal, on Thursday they have Pizza or Pasta and dessert for $9.90.

We found out on the news why it had been so hazy yesterday; fires had been started by the electrical storm we had heard.

There’s quite a good shopping centre in Horsham, they have a lot of the major chain stores. We called into Harvey Norman to get the photos for the ABC printed but they were out of photo paper and expecting a delivery today, we thought we’d call back later.

While we were in town we had a look through the Horsham Regional Gallery. I had an exhibition of my photography there a couple of years ago and never made it over to the gallery at the time.

We grabbed some groceries and went back to the caravan park for lunch.

We got the call to collect the bike, which had needed new brake pads as well as the service. While we were out we went back to Harvey Normans to see if their photo paper had arrived, it hadn’t, so we went to a camera shop. Harvey Norman is much cheaper per print than most places that’s why we were trying to get them done there.

It’s finally all done, the prints are in an envelope and the entry form is filled out, we have every letter of the alphabet except X and every state border except for Tasmania, and it’s on its way to America.

Late afternoon Tony and I went for a look at the Botanic Gardens which are right next to the caravan park. We’d been waiting all day to see if the weather would improve; it’s been hot and blustery all day. With no sign of improvement we thought we’d go anyway, its not far to come home if it starts to rain. The gardens are small but very nice; they were designed by the same designer as the Melbourne Botanic Gardens.

After the gardens we continued our walk along the river on the other side of the caravan park.  There is a walking trail with a couple of nice footbridges crossing the river.

Not long after we got back to the tent the rain started. It didn’t last too long but a couple of hours later it started in earnest with thunder and lightning as well. It would have to rain when tomorrow we’re packing up the tent for an extended period.