Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Back from the Grampians Forum at Halls Gap

Not sure how good this collage is as I am terribly tired, but here is a small piece of what we did and saw.
Lower left is part of the basket exhibition at the Ararat art Gallery celebrating the 30th anniversary of Douglas Fuchs 'floating forest' presented in partnership with the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.
A fascinating exhibition that I think will haunt me.
P and I had left home at about 7.30 and drove, being hindered by road works etc, and finally got to Ararat around 3 pm. We then took the back road through to Halls Gap and found our accomodation which was great, any one going to Halls Gap I recomend Tim's Place.
Unpacked and had a bit of an explore and then off to the first event of the weekend, a gallery opening and a meal, we were home in bed really early.
Saturday was hot, total fire ban and here we were in the midst of trees and scrub and rocks. First day of my class with Keith Lo Bue who was teaching us connections using steel wire. It was very informative and the class was fun, lots of lovely class mates and a lot of hammering went on.
Another evening out that night as there were stalls from those who were participating and a meal afterwards. Again we were not late.
Sunday was hot and getting humid. We had a lot to cover as we had to show to the other classes what we had done over the 2 days. That is the top left hand photo, mostly what I did as I dont think I should show the others work. As I left the hall which got unbearably hot and humid with so many people looking at the other class stuff I heard a rumble of thunder and then it poured with rain, I was soaked by the time I got back to the car to drive back to our class rooms to pack up, and even wetter by the time I had done that.
We didnt go out to eat that night but had a scratch meal, watched a bit of tv and fell into bed ready for the long drive home the next day.
I wish I had had more time to really see what was on offer as there were galleries I would have liked to have seen but it was so hot all one wanted to do was go home and have a drink and collapse in a heap!
Most of the rest of the photos are of that drive home, we firstly went through fog and low cloud over the Grampians and into the Wakool valley, stopping on the way to take photos and they are the center top, the center bottom and the middle left.The rocks are absolutely sensational and so were what views we could see.
We went along back roads to Horsham and then more back roads to go to Nhill going past Mt Arapiles, which are the other photos, we stopped there for a walk, still early morning and no climbers out, there had been a bit of rain in the night too, the party of kangaroos were looking at me, we saw so many kangaroos on that drive through the Grampians but luckily we didnt hit one. Mt Arapiles is the best southern hemisphere climbing so I was told, a bit for every one.
Click to enlarge the photos.
After once more being held up by road works and at the ferry we arrived home tired by about 3.30pm.
I havent done a lot today, cleaned up, washed, put away, it is a lot of effort to drive over and back and have two very intense days of classes. Very nice to have P as company on the long drives and in the apartment.
My spell checker doesnt want to work, sorry about those mistakes.
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1 comment:

ArtPropelled said...

Amazing scenery! How wonderful to do a workshop with Keith Lo Bue. From what i can see in the tiny photo, you learned a lot and have quite a few pieces to show for it!