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Published: April 3rd 2013
Tuesday, 2nd
We said goodbye to Koroit today and headed west to Portland, and after a brief stop at the Portland Info Centre, we headed to Cape Bridgewater. We had heard of the petrified forest and blow holes. There is also a large fur seal colony at the point. We nearly missed the treat of the forest and blow holes because of a poorly written article which indicated that this was a three hour walk.
The day was windy, cold, and plenty of decent showers. Fortunately the lady at the info centre advised that the three hour walk is to visit all three attractions, with the seal colony being the remote part. The Blowholes Road has a good car park and is only 100 meters from the blowholes, and 300 meters to the forest.
The road from Koroit to Portland was really good and mostly flat, passing through dairy and sheep farms. There are quite a few cute old buildings along the way. Some farm houses, dairy sheds, and a heritage listed hotel at Yambuk.
Along the way we see a variety of humorous things like letterboxes and sculptures etc.
Todays funny thing was the shoe fence - hundreds of shoes.
Every town around here seems to claim the best, oldest etc as part of their history. Portland claims to be the oldest settlement in Victoria. It had its origins in the whale trade, so that may well be true.
We were really enchanted with the waves at the blow holes. There are three formations in a row that send huge plumes in the air when the seas are running from the south east. We struck it just right. Even at low tide the surging torrents are fascinating.
After stopping there for quite a while, we walked to the forest which is a mixture of petrified trees, petrified coral, and other formations that give the appearance of an alien planet. Modern progress reasonably adjacent to the reserve has 29 wind turbine units whirring around. No harm there except framing photos gets harder, or creates its own new opportunities.
A heavy shower headed our way so we returned to the MH for lunch. Half an hour later the rain ceased, sun came out, tide came in, so we went for take
two down at the blowholes.
We could have stayed for hours, such was the intoxication of watching the surging tide, crashing waves, plumes of foam. The cliff face would be the best part of 30 meters, and the spray went over the top. One picture is a close up of the action of the back wash of one wave hitting an incoming roller. These were quite spectacular. The couple of movies I took give a better impression, but too big to load here. So the photos will have to suffice.
We photographed a local fisherman returning to Portland – quite a bumpy ride for a small craft.
Tomorrow we will spend a little more time in Portland, a busy little town of 11,000. There are a couple of Portland photos today with the steely cold sky making an interesting seascape.
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Mum & Dad
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Rough and rugged
Good photos but rough seas and rugged coastline. Fascinating stuff. Weather changeable here sun, cloud and windy with just a little shower. Huge crowd at Aldi some had been waiting since 6.30am!! We did not stop too busy. Cheers US2@136