Hollow Cave & Red Cave

With 169,000 hectares of space, and Victoria’s 4th largest national park. There are plenty of places to explore in the Grampians.

Down in Victoria Range, you will find Hollow Cave & Red Cave.

Don’t expect however an easy bushwalk.  With no marked path, you will have to bush bash your way around to find these hidden gems.

To get to Hollow Cave & Red Cave, park at the Buandik campground.

From there, an informal walking track ascends from the south side of Goat Track.

This area was burnt in the 2013 bushfire.  The regrowth makes it difficult to navigate.

Look out for pink tags on tree branches and rocks.  Even then you will wander off course.

Allow approximate 3-5 hours return depending on weather conditions, for this 5km return trek.

Hollow Cave

Not to be confused with Hollow Mountain in the Northern Grampians, Hollow Cave can be located approximately 1km from the Buandik campground.

The southerly winds have eroded the brittle sandstone over millennia, causing it to hollow out, and thus getting its name.

While hiking to Hollow Cave we stumbled upon the original Billy & Red Geocache.  It was UV damaged, cracked, and waterlogged. So we took the original log and put it in its replacement log.

We believe that it’s either fallen due to the windy conditions at the top, or someone has tossed it.

From the cache location, you see our next destination; Red Cave.

Before tackling our next destination we stopped for lunch inside Hollow Cave, soaked in the views of the Victoria Range and the cave itself, before deciding which would be the better way to traverse to Red Cave.

Red Cave

Approximately 700m from Hollow Cave is Red Cave.

700m doesn’t seem that far, but it is one serious bush bash and lots of rock hopping and climbing to get to Red Cave.

The view and experience from the top make the hike well worth it.

While I didn’t see any snakes, I did get bitten by a jumping jack.  Those little buggers hurt, so do take caution.

There are many ways to get to Red Cave.  You could do a vertical climb if rock climbing is your thing. Or you could do what we did and take a slightly more sensible, but longer route, following the ridge line.

Not for the faint-hearted, to get access to Red cave, we had to crawl / bum shuffle along what we like to call “the ledge”.

Just don’t look down.  Once past the dreaded ‘ledge’, it’s only a short rock hop to the cave.

Red Cave gets its name due to the oxidization of the iron content in the sandstone.  This causes it to have a red/orange appearance.

Approximately 2-3 times the size of Hollow Cave, Red Cave is more sheltered from the southerly winds and has a lot more goat poo.

While visiting here, don’t forget to sign your name to the Yawning Red Giant log book, if you know where to look that is.

I’m glad Tom and I took the time to do explore these two caves, the experience was worth every bruise, cut, and bite.