The main thing we noticed today was how much worse the roads are in Victoria than South Australia. Almost as soon as we crossed the border, we were running over potholes and badly completed patches.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
We awoke to an overcast day. The caravan park is close to town, so I took Leo for a walk along the main strip. As well as the usual gift shops, post office etc, I walked past four cafes, all open at 8am in the morning and all with customers. I can just imagine how busy they would be in peak time.
I didn’t go in for breakfast, as checkout time for the park was 10am. On past experience, we’ve left the park either just before, or just after the 10am time, and we didn’t want to make it any later.
We’re continuing our drive home today, and plan to head to Portland. Originally we were going to travel to Mount Gambier and stay there, but as Mt Gambier is only 1.5 hours away, and Portland is 3, we figured we’d prefer more time in the car on one day and one less setup/packup of the van.
Maybe we are getting better at it, or maybe it’s because we didn’t unpack much last night, but we were on our way at 9:30am heading to Mount Gambier.
On the way, we passed a lot of tree plantations all in various stages of growth. I remember seeing a lot of those when we last came to this area for Databook.
We arrived around 11am and decided to stop for a while and grab some lunch at a bakery. After driving slowly through the town looking for one, I thought it might be easier to search online. I found this amazing little bakery really close to us called the Wehl St Homestyle
I bought a shepherds pie with bacon and it was delicious! The also had some cinnamon doughnuts with custard in the middle that I also needed to try (also delicious). Teresa ate the rest of the prosciutto sandwich from yesterday. Again, it was great to stop the car, open the caravan and comfortably sit to have lunch.
Portland
After lunch, we finished the trip to Portland returning to our home state in the process (yey!) and losing 1/2 hour because of the time zone change.
I don’t remember much of Portland from last time I was here (Databook again), but I do remember the large port and parks along the shore. Both were still here, and the caravan park we selected is in the middle of town and close to the shore.
It was almost empty – the park owner even said “You can even park over two sites if you like”. We chose a spot away from the amenities and with a partial view, and rested the rest of the afternoon. After two solid days driving, we were both quite tired.
At 5pm I thought I’d take a look at the beach, and took Leo along for the walk. At the park, we are on the top of a 25 meter cliff. There is a road on one side, and a park on two sides. There is a well constructed set of stairs (which Leo loved running down) down to the beach. From the number of dogs on the beach when we got there, it seems as if this beach is Portland’s dog walking beach. I’m not surprised it is… with a cliff, rocks, and the ocean bordering three sides, and the information center on the fourth, it’s a really safe place to let dogs off their leash and know they won’t be hit by cars.
Just before dusk, two cars arrived – one towing a caravan and the other a trailer that converts into a tent. Although there are plenty of empty sites available, they proceeded to setup right next to our site. Maybe they were trying to get the same view we were. Looks like 2 grandparents, 2 parents and 4 kids aged from 1 to 8. Teresa and I were a little miffed they setup right next door. I wonder if we’re turning into old fogeys? Other than some noise setting up, they have been relatively quiet, so all good. They just stole our view.
We had a healthy dinner of pork (the leftover from our anniversary meal in the Barossa) and salad and retired early.
We’ll take a look around Portland tomorrow and probably take the caravan to Warrnambool on Friday.
Portland for Databook. Do you remember David we had an overpriced and underwhelming dinner at a restaurant near the foreshore. I think it was seafood, maybe crayfish.
Check out the Anderson blog for their adventures in Portland at the beginning of their 3 month trip to S.A.
What a lunch David, Teresa’s was certainly healthier. You could not have eaten that awhile ago.