The Legend of Hanging Rock

There is a legend that still lives in the backwoods of the state of Victoria in a place called Hanging Rock. In the year 1900 on a Valentines Day a group of school girls and their teacher went for a picnic to enjoy the scenery around what was then known as Mt. Diogenes. The group of girls and their teacher were never seen again and their strange disappearance has never been explained or solved.

We decided to brave the mystery and took a journey to this mythical place last Saturday and this is our story of what we discovered at Hanging Rock.

The road leading up to the mountain was a beautiful beginning to a perfectly sunny day.

Driving and eating a pear. And I thought driving on the left side was gonna be hard. (notice the nice spider webs in the rear-view mirror. Gotta love the farm car!)

Afton insists we include kissy photos in every post, so get used to it family and friends. We just arrived at the base of the rock and needed to start the journey off right.

The tree looked so inviting. How could I not swing from it's welcoming branches?

The modern schoolgirl reaches the base of Hanging Rock.

Beautiful picture. Oh...wait....what is that scrunched in the corner there? Looks like a man in pain....he should work out more.

Nope. No teacher or schoolgirls here.

Most people can't hold up an entire boulder with their finger. Most People.

Afton can do it too!

We had a choice between taking the ramp up and the stairs. The stairs looked a lot more fun. Apparently this is a mountain in Australia. Um...the rockies don't have any stairs that I'm aware of...

My Precious....

I forgot my climbing gear. Guess putting my foot over here on this far away rock will do.

This picture reminds me of a childhood movie I loved..."My side of the Mountain"

Anybody? Anybody?

Break time with fresh strawberries and warm chicken and avocado sandwiches from the small bakery in Romsey.

We saw our first Kanga and Roo at the picnic area. We were just watching the kangaroo when little Joey popped his head out. He eventually emerged and was jumping around his mom and was boxing with her and chasing birds. Something spooked the mom and Joey went bounding full speed and dove head first into her pouch. We were laughing so hard! What a cool moment!

We were crawling through the caves and had an eery feeling that the teacher was near, but alas, it was just rocks.

This is a random picture out of sequence taken later that day in our front yard. Just don't know how to move it. Where is my Afton when I need her for blogging.

How beautiful is this view from the top? There is a 360 Degree view of the surrounding countryside. Absolutely gorgeous! Thanks for taking the backpack for the tough part of the journey honey, you carried it well.

Random Picture of our front yard number 2. I was trying to be artsy with the camera, thought auntie Mena might be proud of me. (Thats the second time we have mentioned you Mena, better get some brownie points for this)

After much searching and jumping from rock to rock you can tell by our confused faces that we didn't find anyone. We did, however, have a blast discovering new paths down the mountain and enjoying the spectacular views. As for now, the teacher and her schoolgirls will have to picnic a little longer.