Hollow Mountain

A friend told me about a walk in the north end of the Grampians where you climb through the mountain to get to the summit – Hollow Mountain it was called. I was fascinated and decided to check it out as soon as I could. That was way back in 3 BC (before children) and a week or two ago I finally hiked Hollow Mountain in the company of my eighteen year old son, the youngest of my children.

I had read Tyrone Thomas’ description of the walk, which takes in the summit of Hollow Mountain and then continues over Mount Stapylton and returns over Flat Rocks.  I had, however left his book at home and so we settled for the shorter walk up Hollow Mountain and return – about an hour or two of walking.

The track starts easily enough through some pleasant bush before starting the climb. I had read that this was an exhilarating trek but didn’t find it all that difficult or scary – maybe I’ve done a bit too much climbing for it to bother me. It was fun however and the views were great. We came across one cave that we realised later we could have used as a short cut through the mountain but instead we continued on around the wide ledge that surrounds the northern slopes. The final climb was an easy scramble to a windswept peak with great views in all directions. But the wind was cold so we soon descended, stopping to talk to some boulderers on their way to the cave, which I noticed had chalk patches all over its roof.

I was disappointed about the lack of “climbing through the mountain” until we came to a point on the track where there were two direction arrows painted on the rock; an orange one pointing the way we took and a faded red one pointing into a cave. Thinking that this might be directions to the hollow part of Hollow Mountain, and it being only a short walk so far, we decided to investigate. We were soon scrambling around a series of wind-scoured caves, finding ourselves on edges over deep gullies and looking out at cliffs and valleys. The mountain is actually hollow – well part of it.

After scrambling around a bit we decided it was time to head back to the car, so we went … maybe that way. No. How about this gully? Nope, doesn’t feel right. Eventually, scrambling down, under and then through a gap, we emerged onto a rock platform which might be connected to the rock platform where the walking track is. So, left or right? Let’s go right. No, that leads to a small cliff that would pass as impassable and hurt a lot to fall off. Back we go, left, until we eventually found a track marker.

On our descent we came across another group heading up. We patiently waited while various member of the party were coaxed up one of the narrow, edgier, bits of the path and arrangements made for the one person who decided not to move along much further. My son bounced down as soon as space was available and I quickly followed, gently twisting my knee in a way my orthopaedic surgeon wouldn’t approve of.

I’ve decided to call this walk a training run at the full walk as described by Tyrone Thomas, which takes in the route we took to Hollow Mountain (with the option of crawling through the boudering cave) and then through the caves and on to Mt Stapylton. Given that between hearing about the walk and walking the walk I’ve been able to raise two kids to adulthood, it might be a while before I complete the circuit.

And of course photos were taken, one of which ended up on the weather report of ABC News for an entire weekend. That’s another one minute and twelve seconds of fame.

The view, as seen on the ABC weather report

Inside the mountain

New Holland Honeyeater, back at camp

The Wall of Fools, near Hollow Mountain

POSTSCRIPT

After Hollow Mountain we did a quick walk out to The Balconies in the central Grampians. Great views on a very touristy style track. We also found where the park rangers store all their rock cairns when they aren't using them to mark tracks.

A sea of rock cairns along the way to The Balconies