PORTLAND TO MOUNT GAMBIER

The Petrified Forest

Cape Nelson Lighthouse

The Gannet Colony

The Blue Lake

Mount Gambier Rose Garden

Umpherstons Sunken garden

Looking up from Umpherston's Garden

Another View of the Garden

Portland Harbour





Tuesday 28 February   We left Port Fairy at 9am.  Our next destination was Henty Bay Beachfront Caravan Park in Portland, Victoria.  It was a very quick 55minute trip to Portland.  Henty Bay is located 15 minutes from town and was a small park, part of the Family Parks Group.  When we pulled into our spot there were only 2 other caravans already set up.  We had a beautiful beach view from our front door.  There was only a small area of sand to walk along as the water reaches up to the big stone break wall.  It was a very pretty spot with a grassed walking area behind the rocks.  The area was full of rabbits and we lost Sally many times scurrying off into the bushes in pursuit of bunnies. She was having fun and enjoyed chasing them and sniffing around their scents.

Once we had set up and had lunch we went into town to look around the harbour and visit the Tourist Information Office to find out the local attractions.  We got some maps and drove around to Port Danger to visit the only mainland Gannet Colony where you can see over 6,000 pairs nesting in the colony.  You really need binoculars to view them as close access is restricted by a fenced area with guard dogs on the other side.  There were lots of birds perched on the point.  The first thing we noticed was a very strong smell which wasn’t particularly pleasant. Gannets have a big wing span and make quite a ruckus all together.

We then went to Cape Nelson Lighthouse.  Its 32 metres tall and dates back to 1883.  It’s still in operation today and offers daily tours inside.  There were many revamped cottages that you can rent out. There’s a 5km coastal walk around the lighthouse.  We stopped at Isabella’s Café which was quite an experience, like a time warp.  It’s run by an elderly very camp theatrical type man.  The walls were adorned with old musical show posters and the background music was very “Broadway”.  Very quirky, but fascinating.  I had the best prune, apple and coconut home made cake (minus the recommended cream and ice cream).

On the way back to Henty Bay we stopped off at Portland Strawberries to buy a 1kg box of freshly picked strawberries for $13.  We also sampled strawberry wine that tasted very much like sherry.  They also have a range of local chocolates and products.  The strawberries were yummy and sweet and we couldn’t help ourselves pigging out on them on the way back to the caravan.

Wednesday 29^th February   It was a really windy day and we drove to Cape Bridgewater hoping to see the fur seal colony by boat, which was the major reason we wanted to visit Portland.   Inflatable boats go out to visit the seal colonies.  As it was such a windy day with big swells we decided against taking the trip.  You can do a walk down to the colony along the cliffs going to a viewing platform 70 metres above the seal colony  This takes 2-3 hours return and there’s no guarantee the seals will be there.  Yet again, reluctantly, we decided not to do the walk. The weather forecast was the same windy conditions for the next few days.

We took a drive out to Bridgewater Lakes which was very pretty.  It’s used for water sports and fishing.  We had morning tea overlooking the lake accompanied by two Aylesbury ducks.   We also stopped off at Tarragal Caves and took a 50 metre climb up to the main biggest limestone cave.  There were lots of smaller caves beside it – quite an unusual sight.

Thursday 1^st March (first day of autumn)    We went to The Petrified Forest. At first glance it looked like rows and rows of stone statues.  In fact it’s the remains of tree trunks that have a fossilized appearance over time.  We commented that it looked like the moon surface full of craters or a set from the movie Mad Max.  It stretched for a long way and was a different local attraction, quite eerie really.

The Blowholes are beside the Petrified Forest and are similar to the ones at Kiama where the sea foam spurts up through the rocks at high sea.  Although it was a very windy day, they weren’t spurting very high.

Friday 2^nd March   We left Portland at 9am.  Our next destination was Mount Gambier – 2 ½ hours further along the coast and into South Australia.  We stopped at Nelson for morning tea. It was a beautiful small town along the river where you can hire out huts right on the water.  5 minutes on from Nelson, we crossed over the border into South Australia and had to get rid of any fruit and vegetables we had left into the collection bins.  There’s a fine of $5,000 if you’re caught so it’s just not worth taking the risk. When we got into the town of Mount Gambier we stopped at the local Mobil garage to try and get a site at The Showground.  They don’t take advance bookings, so it’s a case of first come, first served. They were fully booked that day as the town was hosting a big rodeo show on the weekend.  Powered sites are only $20 per night, so it wasn’t hard to understand why they were booked out.  (We later kicked ourselves as Richard forgot to ask about unpowered sites as we now have a generator). The Showground is within walking distance to town.  We booked in at Kalganyi Top Tourist Caravan Park, supposedly 4 stars, 15 minutes from the town centre.  We were right on a main road, next to a dusty building development and we weren’t very impressed.  We were thankful we were only staying for 3 nights.  The park was quite small and laid back with older style accommodation, painted in dark, drab colours.

We came to Mount Gambier specifically to see The Blue Lake.  It’s one of the lakes in the three craters of a volcano that last erupted over 5,000 years ago.  We thought it was a bit of a beat up that the lake is supposedly so blue and were very amazed by the vivid azure blue crystal clear water that we looked down on from the viewing platform.   Our first impression was that someone had dropped tonnes of “blue loo” into the water.  Each November to late March the water mysteriously changes from a darker steel blue to the bright blue we saw.  It’s thought to happen because of special algae that grow in the lake.  We were very grateful to see it before it went back to its darker colour.  The lake is about 70 metres deep and holds 36,000 million litres of water, enough for at least 10 years water supply for the city.

In the centre of town we saw The Cave Garden.  It’s a sunken garden that’s floodlit at night.  It’s a popular picnic area and has a beautiful rose garden around it.

Saturday 3^rd March  We visited Umperston’s Sinkhole.  It’s also known as The Sunken Garden.  It was owned by James Umperston, a local grazier and his family in the 1880’s.  When he retired in 1886, he started the massive refurbishment transforming it from the lake that he used to take his family on, to a beautiful sunken garden.  It fell into disrepair and about 30 years ago volunteers from Friends of Mount Gambier uncovered some of the tiers that James had started and set about the daunting task of completing James’s vision.  There are huge hydrangea bushes planted throughout the garden and the top walls are covered with long dangling blankets of ivy.  Going down the steps underneath the canopy of hanging ivy, there’s a lookout platform with spectacular views over all the terraces of magnificent hydrangeas and tall tree ferns.  There is even a bbq and eating area at one side with a small waterfall running to the bottom.  It was definitely worth visiting and staggering to imagine how the workers actually transformed the area into such a tourist attraction.

At night the gardens are floodlit and you can come and feed the possums.

We had intended going to the rodeo in town but the weather turned really cold, wet and windy and we decided against it.  Shame as I’ve never been to a rodeo before.

Sunday 4^th March   We visited Englebrecht Caves.  There are tours of the caves every hour for $12 per person.  They are a series of caves under the city and were first explored in 1884.  Until 1979 the area was mainly used as a rubbish tip, until the Lions Club restored and beautified the site.  There are floodlights and viewing platforms inside the two chambers that are open for tourists.  The caves are visited by many cave divers and the Cave Divers Association helped to map the cave system.  The tour lasted about 45 minutes and was very interesting and informative.  The caves are surprisingly big inside and very quiet and cool.  It’s hard to distinguish where the water level starts as the water is so clear.  They are “dry” caves so don’t have any stalagmite formations growing.  They are too cool for bats to live in or spiders.  Many fossils and artefacts have been unearthed there.  It’s quite interesting to see the different colours in the strata levels inside and the number of “solution holes” of varying sizes formed by acid water eating through the limestone.

Next Week:  We’re heading back to Portland overnight to register the caravan in Victoria for $38 per year, as opposed to $700 in NSW (the difference being Government taxes!!!).  Then we’re back in South Australia at Southend-On-Sea for 2-3 nights (for all you Pommies reading this blog that will be interesting to compare the differences to Southend On-Sea in England).  After that we’ll be heading to Rapid Bay for 5 nights free camping.   Stay tuned for another interesting blog.  Love Marian, Richard and Sally