PURPOSEFUL PORTLAND

Early Morning at Henty Bay Beach

Well here we are in Victoria! Before I tell you about Portland tho’ let me just touch briefly on our boat trip. On our last Saturday in Mt Gambier we took a drive down to Nelson and jumped on a boat to take a cruise up the Glenelg River. The river meanders in and out of both SA and Victoria and takes in quite a pretty scenic run. The cruise takes you to the Princess Rose Margaret Caves and then returns to Nelson. As far as cruises go it was OK. The cost was app $30 per head with a small seniors discount of a couple of dollars. The couple who ran the tour were a little pedantic; stressing the discount could only be obtained with a Seniors Card and not a Pension Card???!!! Oh well – they had been running the cruise for some 15 years and I think they were ‘over it’.

A Little on the Tired Side!

The boat was OK, I think it was called the Glenelg Endeavour or some such and like the owners had seen better days. The river was quite pretty however and the limestone walls along the way were spectacular in parts. The owners fed the ducks and swans along the way with slices of bread, much to our amazement – they would not be able to do that at home! Needless to say, the process was quite successful as we were eagerly followed along the way by a plethora of water birds. We didn’t go on the cave tour at the end as neither of us are cave enthusiasts and the thought of delving deep into the bowels of Mother Earth doesn’t thrill us. We enjoyed instead an ice-cream at the pretty park alongside the caves, and the antics of the variegated Fairy Wrens which live there. We are rather fond of these sorts of cruises and so weren’t disappointed but I would hesitate to recommend the trip to others.

Limestone Rock Face Along the Glenelg

So, Portland, well...........this is not what we would call a pretty place, although it does have its beauty spots. The town is purported to be “Victoria’s birthplace by the sea” as it saw the first established European settlement in 1834. Not an awful lot of that first settlement is left to see but a few notable remnants do survive today. Essentially however, Portland is a working port and fairly heavily industrialised; Portland Aluminium is a big part of that industrialisation, occupying 500 odd hectares of land with a further 100 hectares occupied by associated buildings and roads. The plant employs over 600 souls and is ostensibly one of Australia’s largest export earners.

Some Vestige of The Past Remain

We were interested also to see enormous piles of woodchips waiting at the port – the logs are trucked in here and chipped up before being shipped out.

I must say in support of the town and the powers that be here, they have done the whole thing quite well and the place abounds with parks and open spaces capitalising on the scenery of the bay and surrounds.

Accross the Bay to The Industrialised Port Area

Fishing is also huge here, and it includes trawling, abalone, crayfish and squid sectors. They say that Portland supplies up to 40% of Victoria’s fishing haul.

Portland also ‘boasts’ a large wind-farm which they say, when completed, will be the largest in the Southern hemisphere. I must say winds-farming appears to be eminently suited to this rather windy area.

We are staying (for 1 week) at the Family Park out at Henty Bay, some 6 ks North East of the town of Portland. There is a story attached to the park which is very run down. It seems it was owned and run by a couple and the gentleman passed away some 3 years ago. The woman, poor soul was compelled to keep running the park pending the sale. It took her 3 years to get her price and the sale has just taken place. Of course all of this is hearsay! Anyway, Family Parks has just taken over, only days before we arrived. As a result of this the park is a little topsy-turvy at the moment, but, we have absolute beach-front and now that the crowds have abated somewhat, we have a very private little piece of paradise. When we arrived the park was awash with loudly active family groups, all of whom had descended on the place for a fishing comp held last week-end. I must say watching their antics did make me miss our own mob, who I’m sure would have given this lot a run for their money in noisy antics. Most of the families were from the country and the kids were wholesomely ‘normal’ – skidding around the park on their bikes and driving most of us nuts with their screaming and carrying on. I must confess to being a crabby old woman just once and directing a loud “Oy” at one young miscreant who was intent on breaking down most of the lovely windbreak protecting us from the worst of the ocean ‘breeze’ that gusts in here most afternoons. The young man in question gave me such a poisonous and resentful glare when he next rode his bike past the van we were nervously expecting to find a rotten fish or something similar secreted in the exhaust pipe or some such.

The beach here provides a lovely little walk if you are prepared to dodge the tides that block the sand in places. All the beachfront here has been reinforced with large rocks, evidencing we assume, some serious erosion of the sand banks in times past. Early morning walks provided us with a couple of sensational shots – the morning light being exceptional here.

The town boasts an historic Cable Tram – founded in 1996 the restored and modified 1885-1940 tram, now operating on diesel runs a short but scenic tour of the bay, foreshore and historic sites. The whole thing is operated and run by elderly volunteers. The trip we took had a venerable lady doing the ‘talk-over’ and we were amazed to see her (not quite nimbly) jump out of the tram to ‘trot’ into the middle of a fairly busy road to flash her red flag at oncoming traffic.

Refurbished Cable Tram

Our Venerable Tram Girl

We visited the Railway museum/ come tram depot during our tram trip and once again I was sorry we didn’t have our grandsons with us, as the working model trains included a very busy Thomas bustling along the tracks.

Thomas and Friends Model Railway

One of the recommended day trips from Portland took us out to Cape Bridgewater, a pretty little seaside village some 20 odd ks west of Portland. We enjoyed the drive and the oceanic views along the way. I think tho’ that after the beauty of Port MacDonnell this paled a little in comparison.

Tiny Beachside hamlet of Cape Bridgewater

All in all we have enjoyed our stay here. One week was an overkill, but we booked longer than necessary simply to ensure a bay somewhere over the Australia Day long weekend. As the kids go back to school here next Tuesday, we should now have an easier time finding ourselves good spots to stay.

We leave here on Sunday and head to Warrnambool where we will start our exploration of the Great Ocean Road and surrounds. I am really looking forward to The Great Ocean Road.

DD has booked our passage on the Spirit of Tasmania for a day trip on the 17th Feb. I have to admit to really wanting a night voyage, however, due to the size of our combined van and vehicle they had a little trouble finding room for us, so we had to take what was on offer. We have only booked one way at this stage and are very pleased with the price of $810 for ourselves and our rig.

Now we have a date for our departure, we will have to be a little more structured with our times. I was a little worried we had not left ourselves sufficient time to really see the Great Ocean Road until DD pointed out we have 3 weeks to cover only 300 odd ks and it has taken us only 4 weeks to get here! I guess we will cope.

Fresh & Blustery Morning Henty Bay

All in all, everything is going fine and pretty much to plan. We are finding now that we have the odd day in which to do very little at all, and I think that is essential to our continuing enjoyment of our sightseeing. If you are seeing outstanding sights every single day I think your enjoyment palls somewhat after a while. Every so often we need to stop and have a day just for correspondence, maintenance, reading, sleeping, chatting, sleeping, ..........................what, oh sorry – yes I was being a pratt, but you know someone has to do this stuff just to give the younger ones something to look forward to.

Don’t forget to surprise each other from time to time and until we talk again, look after yourselves. Steph

Stunning Roses at The Portland Botanical Gardens

Sorry about the layout above - the draft shows it completely differently and I have no idea how to fix.

Mesmerizing Mt Gambier

The Blue Lake

How many of you know about Mt Gambier? I have to admit I didn’t. I had heard the name of course and always knew it existed, but I didn’t know it was special, and special it certainly is!

The town itself, for the West Australians, reminds me quite a bit of Albany. It is well ordered, pretty, neat & tidy and rather up-market. It would seem a great deal of money has been spent to attract the tourist dollar to this town. As Mt Gambier is pretty much a must do for those travelling between SA and Victoria I assume it sees a great many interstate travellers. There is just so much to see here. So much in fact we decided to stay for a whole week.

First and foremost, this area is volcanic. I must confess I had no idea we had any volcanic areas in Australia. The last eruption here was only some 4500 years ago – quite recent in geological terms. A very tall conical hill overlooks the town and as we pulled Jezzy up the tall hill, we spied on our left an amazing sight. The peak of the hill is missing and the centre is concave. In the middle of the inverted cone is a large peacock blue lake. I kid you not! The lake is a deep, bright peacock blue.

Glimpses of The Blue Lake on the Approach to the CP

We were not entirely surprised by the appearance of the Blue Lake as we were heading towards the Blue Lake Caravan Park (Big 4) and I guess the name is a bit of a give away, but really, peacock blue!! It seems that the lake is a greyish colour during the winter months, but miraculously in the month of November, it suddenly turns this amazing colour. Apparently the colour change is controlled by a process called scattering and absorption, more than that I won’t tell you as a) I don’t understand it b) it would take too long, even for me and c) it is very Complex and Confusing. I prefer to think of it as beautiful and leave it at that.

There are a couple of other largish lakes nearby but none of them has the amazing blue hues. The area is a tumble of steep volcanic hills containing lakes. The countryside surrounding the town flows away into the usual undulating paddocks we are more accustomed to seeing. It seems that this particular volcanic trail ends in the ocean just south of Port MacDonnell some 30ks south of the town. Other associated fault lines wander across into Victoria. The Victorian line however is quite a bit older than the fault line of which Mt Gambier and it’s mate Mt Schank form a part.

The Mount's Other Big Lake

The town provides some breathtaking drives and look-outs from which to view the various lakes and volcanic landmarks. For the physically inclined there is a rather steep walk/run/ride around the Blue Lake – we thought it a bit pointless as views of the lake are rare from this walk.

Part of the volcanic activities created numerous sink holes throughout the area, one of these, the Umphertson Sink Hole and Gardens are within the town boundries as are the beautiful Cave Gardens right in the centre of town. Both these gardens are quite spectacular and well worth a visit. I have to say the Umphertson Sink Hole really tested my crook knee, but I refused to be defeated and clambered down into its damp depths. We were surprised to spot a couple of possums wandering around under the rock overhangs that surround the sink hole. The place was also busy with bees which had made hives also under those overhangs.

Bee Hives Set in the Rocks of the Sink Hole

Speaking of bees and knees and things, our tummy upset disappeared after a couple of days at The Mount as the locals call this place. In fact, mine was very minor indeed and really caused me no inconvenience so to speak, DD’s however did linger for a couple of days and we had to be a little careful about travelling too far from ‘conveniences’. Just as he had finally recovered from his indisposition, guess what, our barefoot boy stepped on a bee! This was just after we had seen the little boy from the van next door do just that. Not only had we witnessed this mishap, but we (me) had gone out of our way to warn all surrounding parents about the bees. The lawns here have a little white flower growing in them and it is these flowers to which the bees are attracted. What can I say? Boys will be boys. I must also say that I had in the past considered my lad to be a little whimpish on occasion, but this time I was most impressed. The sting was in the arch of his foot, and it was very red and inflamed for a couple of days, but the boy carried on regardless without so much as a whimper. Well, just one whimper really and it was a very quiet one!

Umphertson Sink Hole Gardens

Amongst the attractions in the town is the Library. According to the literature the Mt Gambier Library is hailed as “the best smaller city library in the world”, and Sue you will be proud of us, we did visit the library, albeit briefly, and it did appear to be pretty special.

Also in the centre of town is an interactive centre, called The Main Corner. The centre contains quite a good Art Gallery along with various other attractions. Currently they are showing a movie, locally produced, called Volcano. The movie, along with everything else in the centre is free viewing. We went along to have a squiz and were quite impressed. Although the movie, we felt, went on a little too long, it was well produced and informative. The young man who narrated the whole thing was a bit of a dish but had a bad habit of jumping around like the proverbial jack-rabbit. We felt quite exhausted and not a little diminished after viewing the movie.I
I hope that Victoria is a generous with food prices as SA. The price of a meal here is exceptionally good. Before going to view Volcano we nipped next door to Jens Hotel and had a ‘lunch special’. We chose a chilli prawn pasta dish which unbeknown to us included 2 large portions of deliciously light garlic bread. The meal included a really good salad bar and cost all of $10 per head – at home we would be looking at spending at least $30 each for this meal. Of course the low prices don’t encourage ‘being good’, but at least the food was good.

Jens Hotel - Great Counter Lunches

Port MacDonnell is a pretty little seaside town some 30 odd kilometres from Mt Gambier and we took a drive out to have a look. It appears to be a lovely little spot and would most likely be a great place to stay, although I’m not sure they have a van park there. As in many of these towns, there is a coastal drive which must have cost a pretty penny to construct. We enjoyed the drive and have some lovely photos as a result. The Limestone Coast, of which Port MacDonnell is a part, is notorious for ship wrecks. It is easy to see why when you spot all the reefs surrounding the coast.

Amazing Coastal Scenes Port MacDonnell

While we were driving to Port MacDonnell I spotted a little sign indicating the home of Adam Lindsay Gordon – we saw the same sign when we were returning from the ocean drive. I knew the name from mum and granny. From memory he was a favourite of my granny and I think also of mum. I felt obliged to go and have a look, well........what an experience; only I think for the literary and dramatically minded! We had stumbled on Dingley Dell, the once home of our very own poet, Adam Lindsay Gordon. If you don’t know who he was, I leave you to do your own research. We wandered around the old cottage and tentatively rang the bell as prescribed by the sign. Within a couple of moments we were joined by an energetic gentleman who launched immediately into his ‘performance’. I say performance because really he was extremely flamboyant and dramatic. In the very small confines of that old cottage, he was to say the least, a little overwhelming. The ‘presentation’ was fascinating however and very educational. If you are game to experience this one, allow at least an hour. As we do not wear watches on our travels (it’s a kind of a self-imposed rule) we don’t really know how long we were there, but we estimate between 1 to 1 ½ hours. The gentleman, Allen Childs by name demanded our attention (I tried to wander off at one stage only to be reprimanded stoutly) entirely and at the end of the experience we were quite exhausted.

At Dingley Dell - Once home of Adam Lindsay Gordon

We stopped in Port MacDonnell (known incidentally as the cray-fish capital of Australia) for a bite to eat. $6.80 bought us a good size serving of flat-head and chips – excellent value if not excellent nutrition! After lunch we drove over to the little seaside ‘town’ of Nelson. We had planned on staying at Nelson after Mt Gambier and wanted to check out the van parks there. Sadly we were not particularly impressed with either of the parks or the place itself. We decided to pass on staying there, but will return on Saturday as we have booked the local boat trip on the Glenelg River. There are a couple of other things we want to check out in the area and will probably take a day trip from Portland (our next stop) to see these points of interest.

Crystal Clear Waters

All in all, we are really enjoying Mt Gambier. The Big 4 CP where we are staying is spacious and well set out. The park is full of magnificent old trees and we are very close to the lakes. The air here is fresh and clean and except for yesterday when we were subjected to a testing 41 degrees, the temps have been pleasant and the nights refreshingly cool. There are quite a large number of families here, but due to the spacious nature of the park, they all have their own space. As with many Big 4 parks there is a huge jumping pillow here and it is a pleasure to watch the children happily playing outdoors. The sound of their laughter echoes around the park and makes one wish to be young again. It’s marvellous to see how well and quickly kids make new friends.

Big Spacious Park with Loads of Space

Ah well, I will let you go now. We leave here on Sunday, in fact we leave SA on Sunday and head across the border into Victoria and Portland. We will gain another 30 minutes when we cross the border, so up half an hour earlier and it will be dark somewhere around midnight no doubt. Only kidding, it will be dark somewhere around 9pm. Oh joy! We have made the unusual (for us) move of booking in advance for 1 week in Portland. We only did this to make sure we had a home over the Australia Day Long Weekend. Hopefully the park there will good – it is supposed to be right on the ocean, so here’s hoping.
Until next time, watch where you step, and bee happy (sorry!) Steph & Doug



More Coastal Scenes