Left Daylesford today to head towards Melbourne. With a long weekend coming up and not realising until too late has meant we weren’t able to get accommodation on the coast which is where we should be heading. the only place we could get into has been on the outskirts of Melbourne in a suburb called Craigieburn (20kms west). Doesn’t work out too badly as we want to go to Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary (55kms north east of Melbourne) and the caravan/camping show starts at Caulfield racecourse on Tuesday so we’ll hang around for that then head to the coast after the long weekend. It seems anywhere within 2 hours drive of Melbourne in any direction is choccas this weekend with many parks been booked out 12 months in advance. En-route we stopped at Hanging Rock. This rock was made famous by the narrative Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay written at the end of the 18th century and later became a movie. It is about a group of schoolgirls and their teachers who went for a picnic at the rock and three of the girls and a teacher mysteriously disappeared. There is no proof to the story and it is just a legend. Get the movie, it is very good. The rock is said to be one of the best examples in the world of a volcanic feature known as a mamelon. It was formed six million years ago when a particularly stiff type of lava formed a rounded pile of layers on the surface as it was squeezed through a narrow vent in the earth. The lava in Hanging Rock has a particularly high soda content and the action of rainwater has resulted in an unusual rock known as solvsbergite, or soda trachyte. This type of rock is only found in outside of the region in Norway and Sweden. Since its formation, the mamelon has been exposed to considerable weathering and erosion, resulting in the unusual rock formations that can now be seen on the site. The summit is 718 metres above sea level and 105 metres above the surrounding plain. Anyway didn’t really know what to expect and it was just lovely. Lots of trees and ferns amongst the rocks and much greener than we expected. There are steps and a tarred walkway to the summit which makes it easier to climb and the view are very pretty from the top. Unfortunately the pictures don’t do it justice but gives an idea of what it was like.
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