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Published: January 31st 2011
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It's "A Grand Day Out" said the kangaroos
Had they ever seen wind turbines before we wondered? Monday 24th – first of all congratulations to my brother Rod and his wife Tania on their 41st Wedding Anniversary.
On Monday we moved on to Portland - the Top Tourist Caravan Park was handily placed on the way into town and as it seemed to have a long line of empty ‘en-suite’ sites we thought we might as well have one. The park was noticeable for its “boat washing” facility so we wondered what we might expect to see. We were to find out later in the day as a number of sea-going fishing boats were towed through the facility and thoroughly washed down. This went on until quite late into the evening. The caravan park was obviously popular with fishermen as the process was repeated throughout the few days we were there. Anyway, we were soon set up and eating our sandwiches and then we went off to what is almost always our first port of call, the Information Centre, and the staff were excellent as usual.
Portland is dominated by a huge aluminuim smelter and grain silos and although they were difficult to ignore, the remaining areas around the harbour were very pleasant. These days it’s
also a large centre for small sea fishing boats like the ones we saw at the caravan park. We quite liked the town, spent some time wandering up and down the main street and then did a bit of grocery shopping in Woollies. Later on in the evening we strolled in the water-front park and took in some of the grand old buildings nearby.
Tuesday 25th and a big happy 10th birthday to Charlotte, our nephew Grant’s daughter (and hi also to sister Amy). We hear you had a big birthday party so we hope you had a good time.
It was a cloudy, chilly morning but armed with our anoraks we drove the 18kms to Cape Bridgewater. It looked a very pleasant place with a lovely 4 kms beach with some surfers patiently waiting for the right wave but generally, perhaps because of the weather, things were fairly quiet. We drove on up over the steep hill towards the giant wind turbines, about 20 of them. We were making for a car park which gave access to a seal colony (a long walk away), a blow hole and a petrified forest. Partly because of the weather we
"Those wind turbines are everywhere!"
even near historic Cape Nelson Lighthouse decided against the long walk to the seal colony as we thought we might be able to take a boat trip there. The cliff here is the highest in Victoria and the seas in the area are treacherous. A sign told us about two of the many shipwrecks that had taken place along this stretch of coast – The Marie and The Jane both went down in the mid 1800s. We made our way to the blow hole which, because of the high ocean swell, was quite impressive. Once we spotted precisely where it was, it was easy to see the steam-like gushes of spray almost every time a wave struck. A short stroll then took us to The Petrified Forest – a series of rock formations which looked like fossilized tree stumps but which are now known to be hollow tubes of limestone eroded as a result of millions of years of rainfall. The coastline here has been classified as the second most important section in Victoria, the first being along the Great Ocean Road. Both these areas are extremely fragile and are gradually disappearing into the sea. As we walked back to the car we saw the strange
sight of a line of kangaroos making their way up the rocky slope near some of the wind turbines – a rather bizarre mixture!
We had just made it back to the car when the rain started and it just got heavier and heavier. We made our way back to Portland via the Fawthrop Lagoon and nearby caves. We had a quick cuppa in a nice café in the centre of town and Graham had an iced tart called a “neenish” which we found out is an Australian speciality. The rain continued for the rest of the day and at times was torrential so we just relaxed. It clearly didn’t put the fishermen off as the boats paraded back through the Caravan Park for their washing down.
Wednesday 26th was Australia Day, a Bank Holiday and fortunately the weather was much more pleasant with a dry, warm day in prospect. We drove out of Portland in a slightly different direction, this time to Nelson Bay and stopped briefly at Yellow Rock Lookout and then went on to the area known as The Enchanted Forest. We completed the 45 minute walk winding our way through groves of rare Moonah
trees. It does have a magical air about it and with glimpses of the sea it makes it a special place. By now it was lunchtime so we drove on to Cape Nelson Lighthouse intending to eat our sandwiches but instead we were lured into Isabella’s café (which used to be the stable block for the lighthouse) and enjoyed a delicious lunch there. The pony-tailed proprietor seemed slightly mad. When we ordered lunch with “a pot of tea for two” he promptly whistled the tune of ‘Tea for Two’ and danced a jig. There were plenty of other people lunching there so they must have known what he was like! The café was named after “The Isabella” which was yet another of the many ships to perish off the coast.
Driving back towards Portland, Graham spotted the signpost for ‘Gannets’ at Point Danger and Lawrence Rock. It was a few kms along a gravel track but at the end, after a short walk, there was a good viewing platform. With our binoculars we had a reasonable view of adults and young out on the point. The main population, which was probably a couple of thousand, was a bit further
out on Lawrence Rock and it just looked as though the rock had been white-washed. We saw a huge Wedge-Tailed Eagle fly low over the closest nesting site but all youngsters must have been closely guarded as it flew off empty handed.
Still harbouring thoughts of trying to see the seals at Cape Bridgewater we drove back that way but were persuaded to stop at the beach where there were hundreds of people gathered. A singer/guitarist was entertaining the crowd by the beach bar/café and everyone was enjoying the Australia Day Bank Holiday. It was great to see so many Aussie flags being flown. I went off to have my customary paddle while Graham chatted to a local who explained that, if the weather was good, this was a usual Australia Day activity for the people of Portland – and jolly entertaining it was too. The boat trips weren’t operating today so we never got to see the seals but hopefully we’ll get plenty of other opportunities as we travel round.
Back at the caravan park we were tempted to clean the car in the boat cleaning area which we had seen others do. However, lots of people
were there again using it for their boats – there always seemed to be a boat being cleaned. We felt that there were so many they couldn’t possibly all be staying on the CP! But as there was a barrier and, like us, people needed a “fob” to get in, they were obviously regular users. They seemed to have all the kit imaginable – steam cleaners, pressure washers etc. It’s probably something that needs doing frequently to get rid of the salt water inside and outside the boats. So we sat and enjoyed other people working hard and meanwhile poor Sweetie and PIE remained unwashed!
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