The Grampians, Tourism Victoria

Melanie Ball likes to explore Victoria feet first, and in this extract from her new book, Top Walks in Victoria, she reveals her favourite short walk in the famous Grampians National Park.

Hollow Mountain Walk, Grampians National Park

WALK: 3.1km return
TIME REQUIRED: 2 hours
BEST TIME: Any time but there is little protection up top in wild weather
GRADE: Moderate
ENVIRONMENT: Sandstone outcrop
BEST MAP: This one
TOILETS: Pit toilets at Hollow Mountain carpark
FOOD: None – bring your own
TIPS: Wear loose clothing or you might rip your pants asunder

On a scale of 1 to 10 for adventure and scenery, this walk top scores with outdoor fun lovers of all ages. Part walk, part rock climb, part grandstand, this is the most-fun short walk in the Grampians, if not Victoria.

One of several walks in the northern Grampians, far from the crowd-pulling Wonderland area and Halls Gap, the short Hollow Mountain climb is just that: a climb, with pitches ranging from gentle to hand-over-hand up and little flat ground. Which is why children love it, often getting up and down at mountain-goat speed and with a sure-footedness that embarrasses (and sometimes terrifies) more cautious mature walkers.Lots of adults, however, can and do get to the top, but this walk is not recommended for anyone with vertigo or dodgy knees or who is uncomfortable clambering up rocks.

The fun begins in Hollow Mountain carpark (where there are pit toilets), off unsealed Mt Zero Rd, about 36 kilometres north of Halls Gap via unsealed Mt Zero Halls Gap Rd. From the carpark the walking track heads south towards lumpy red-and-grey natural stonework.

The Disneyesque brown-and-yellow orchids sometimes seen just near the carpark are leopard orchids, one of more than 900 indigenous flowers identified in the Grampians, 20 found nowhere else. The tiny cup-shaped white flowering shrub among the desert banksias along the first section of the walk, which in flower give the impression of a dusting of snow, are Grampians thryptomene.

After a brief warm-up through thryptomene, grass trees, desert banksias and eucalypts, on a sandy track with occasional steps, the real climbing starts, initially up a rocky spine to the foot of a sandstone cliff , stained with iron and cracked and undercut by time. From here you clamber up, over and between great lumps of stone tucked against the leaning cliff. Navigating these giant stepping stones is when your clothes are most at risk, from ripping when stretching a leg or from rubbing on coarse stone if you’re more comfortable working up (and down) rocky slopes on your backside.

Above here the going is easier but still far from flat. Stepping up the mountain’s rocky face brings you ever closer to a monumental wall of layered ochre rock, which is eventually right in front of you. To the left of the wall is a separate, massive cracked rock – or two rocks – at the base of which is a dark opening. This is the ‘hollow’ that gives the mountain its non-Aboriginal name (Hollow Mountain’s Indigenous name is Wudjub-Guyan or ‘spear in the middle’, so perhaps the cave is a gaping wound).

From inside the cavern you get a fabulous view, framed by the cave mouth, of Mt Zero, another hill you can climb, and the Wimmera Plains, their rows of olive trees and fields of canola stretching to the horizon. Out of the cavern and around this rock to the left, you enter an often-windy stone-walled corridor leading to a sudden drop-off. From the edge you can see along the cliff and down to a rocky demise.

Turning back, walk along the rock wall, passing the hollow rock and the track down to the carpark and following a trail of arrows painted on the rough stone. As you descend to the wall’s end, look left and you’ll see sky through a window in the wall. You might also see silhouetted figures, often hanging upside down from the ceiling. These are not bats!

They’re boulderers, mostly young men and women who rock climb without ropes, seeming to defy gravity as they crab across walls and low ceilings of caves. Walkers in the Grampians often see groups of people to-ing and fro-ing from bouldering sites with climbing mats folded in half on their backs.

Arrows lead around the end of the wall and up a rock slope with a crazy-paving pattern, past the entrance to the cave you looked through below (stopping to watch the boulderers gives you a good rest/drink stop). You might also see other groups of climbers working on stone overhangs further up. At the top of the rock slide the track loops left and up more rocky tiers.

Up top, 300m above the carpark and well clear of any protective trees, the rock has been – and continues to be – worked by wind and water into extraordinary shapes, often with sharp edges, and hollowed to depressions that collect rainwater that reflects the sky. The Mt Difficult Range (which has more great walks) reaches to the south of you; to the west and north are plains.

From here you retrace your steps, around the wall, down the natural shelving and over the boulders, for a cruise back through a sea of thryptomene.

Victoria offers a jaw-dropping diversity of bushwalks through areas rich in natural wonders and colourful human history. Experienced travel writer Melanie Ball has hiked every track in this book for walkers of all levels of experience. There are walks for each part of the state, including the renowned Wilsons Promontory Lighthouse loop and salt lake circuits in the Mallee region. Most of the tracks can be completed in a few hours, but there are some more difficult multi-day walks for those wanting more of a challenge. For each walk there is detailed trail information, a map, photographs and beautiful illustrations of fauna and flora that you’re likely to see along the way. Find out more!