It’s the final day of our 3-day Great Ocean Road & Grampians tour with Groovy Grape. Today we’ll hike Hollow Mountain in Grampians National Park.

Tour guide Leith begins by drawing us a map of the area.

The path starts out easy enough…

Not too far into our hike it becomes apparent we’ll need to use two hands to navigate particularly steep areas. With Matthias’s help, I hide my umbrella in the bushes to retrieve later (what was I thinking bringing an umbrella on a hike?!) and we continue up the trail.

I love that Matthias and Ayumi are posing the same way in the photos below. That was not planned.

There she is — Hollow Mountain in all her glory. We’re getting closer to the top.

We pass through a tunnel of sorts; it’s wide and the ceiling is quite low to the ground.

Pretty soon we near the summit. Can you make out the car park in the distance below left?

There are lots of little pools at the top. My favorite is the upside-down heart-shaped one you see a few photos down.

John and Thomas celebrate at the summit.

Me and my favorite new German friend!

Matthias points dramatically into the distance.

Matthias is awesome because when I ask him to pose “like a koala eating eucalyptus leaves,” this is what he does. What a good sport.

On the way back to the car park we pass through the same narrow, low tunnel. This time there is a guy practicing climbing with ONLY HIS FINGERS. Like, scaling up the side of a cliff hanging on by the pads of his ten digits.

He demonstrates his skill to Matthias, who then makes a beginner’s attempt.

Meanwhile, Thomas, John, and Ayumi continue climbing down to the base of Hollow Mountain.

Here’s a blurry shot of the aforementioned guy lifting himself up with his fingers as Matthias looks on.

I pose with John, Thomas, and Ayumi.

Our group slowly continues. By this point Anna and Michelle (who were with us at the summit) have already returned to the car park! Leith gets nervous when it takes the rest of us so much longer. At lease we have these photos to show for it?

Leith organizes our final lunch.

And that’s a wrap on our Great Ocean Road & Grampians tour! Major thanks for Groovy Grape for hosting my trip. They’ve already put together a video using some of these photos:

This post is sponsored by Groovy Grape Getaways, who cater to the adventurous backpacker looking for a fun and informative trip. These photos were taken on the Great Ocean Road & Grampians tour. Opinions, as always, are my own.