Strange Rocks

Spring break started on Saturday so the majority of the college has gone home or off traveling.  Since I don’t leave for Perth until Wednesday I spent the day watching movies and basically sitting around my room.  I didn’t want to repeat this on Sunday, so I checked out the Parks Victoria website for a natural place to visit.  With the criteria that this place be close to the city and near a bus or train station, I eventually settled on the Organ Pipes National Park.

After a healthy brunch Sunday morning I took a half-hour train ride out of Melbourne Central to Watergardens.  I saw a Safeway from the train station so I headed over for some trail mix and granola bars to eat on my hike.  The supermarket was at the end of a huge shopping mall called “Watergardens Town Centre.”  I’ll leave discussion of that name up to you.  It had to be almost a mile long, and absolutely full of people.  It took well over five minutes to walk the length of it, and the experience was overwhelming and a little disturbing, not to mention disorienting.  I don’t mean to be melodramatic or high and mighty, it’s just that walking through the mall was not at all what I envisioned for my nature walk.  (I checked the directory and it has two Safeways.)

This field didn't look as big on Google Maps.

Almost there.

I finally made it out of the mall and headed towards the Organ Pipes.  It turned out that the walk to the park was way longer than the actual hike.  It took over an hour to get there and I had to walk along railroad tracks, cut across fields, make it over a couple drainage ditches/streams, climb over barbed wire, climb under barbed wire, and cross the highway.  I think I trespassed three separate times, but I eventually made it to the park.

What I found there after the jump...

Pipes were down in a gorge.

The Main Attraction.

Since it was a Sunday I shared the park with a number of picnickers.  If it was a weekday I’m sure I would have had the place to myself.  I walked past the picnic tables and down the road to see the sights.  It took no more than 15 minutes to get to the Organ Pipes.

For all those dying to know.

I took a few photos and I asked an elderly couple to take one of me and the pipes.  As I hand my camera to the woman, the man asks me, “Do you play the organ?”  Uh…really?  The organ?  Who in god’s name plays the organ?  Well, now that I think about it… But anyway, he couldn’t come up with anything better than that?  Did he expect me to be a devout organist on a pilgrimage to behold the god-made Organ Pipes?

Me and da pipes.

Then the lady takes the photo of me and she tells me, “I made sure I got your feet in.”  Well thank god.  What a relief.  No one would have recognized me if you cut off my feet.   Plus she managed to catch me right as I’m awkwardly trying to put my hands into my pockets.  Just an overall masterpiece.  At the next strange rock formation, the Rosette Rock, I took matters into my own hands and got this work of art on the first try.

There's the moneymaker!

This one may have been the coolest rock formation.  If I were the Rosette Rock I would be pissed that the Organ Pipes get all the attention.  The Rosette Rock is basically the same thing as the Organ Pipes, but 360 degrees of it.  The last formation, the Tessellated Pavement, was the least impressive but still worthy of a few pictures.

Tessellated Pavement.

Was the trip worth it?  I'd say so.  It got me out of the college and the cost of the public transportation was only $3.10.  Pretty good for two tram rides and two trains.  Would I recommend the trip?  Maybe if you're an organist.