What a day to write about!  With a hot day looming, we rose VERY early - slightly reluctantly from a comfy bed, but made easier by the smells of breakfast and coffee prepared by our lovely hosts.  We rode off at 5am in pitch darkness and misty rain.  We encountered the biggest hill of the trip so far at about 5:10am...that seemed to go on and on and on... this was compounded by the fact that we couldn't see when it was going to end.  As day broke we enjoyed sweet reward as we had entered the beautiful Grampians National Park (Gariwerd in Aboriginal language).  400 million year old rocky mountains loomed either side of us, glowing in the sun.   The heat was rising so we were thankful for shady trees lining the road and it was straight to the ice-cream shop when we arrived in Halls Gap.  Ginger ice-cream:  highly recommended.  Plans for hiking and exploring were postponed due to the heat.  Most people 'slothed' along the trail to the rock pools 1km out of town for some cool relief.
-Libby