PORTLAND TO SOUTHEND TO BEACHPORT

 

Monday 5^th March  We left Mount Gambier heading back to Portland for a 2pm appointment with Victoria Roads to get the caravan registered in Victoria. We stopped off in Dartmoor to see the wood sculptures.  What an amazing little place.  We were really quite taken aback by them all.  We parked in The Avenue of Honour and were quite awestruck by the sculptures done by chainsaw artist Kevin Gilders who created a row of masterpieces from the remains of 9 atlantic cedar trees planted in 1918 as a memorial to those that served in WWI.  The trees were going to be cut down as they were a safety risk, until Kevin worked his magic turning them into permanent memorials.  They were all sanded by hand and depict a nurse, soldiers, grieving mother with a telegram in her hand, guns and are a very impressive feature of the town and now a popular tourist destination.  They are so smooth that they look as though they're made from marble.

Further along on the village green Kevin created another masterpiece with his nursery rhyme tree, featuring over 20 fairytale characters which is just stunning, along with smaller sculptures of animals on the posts by the bridge and on the grass verge of the village green.

We also checked out a free stopover listed in the Camps 6 book.  It’s a huge area at the end of the town by a river and it was pretty busy there.  We were told there’s a freshwater spring on the other side to fill up your water tanks and that there’s no restriction to how long you camp there.  Most spots are 24-48 hours maximum stay.  We will definitely keep that spot in mind if we’re that way again.

We got to our appointment in Portland and everything went very smoothly with very friendly and helpful people in Vic Roads.  Our caravan in now registered in Victoria for $38 per year instead of the exorbitant $650 in NSW.  With our saved money we headed straight for Aldi to stock up on beer and wine as there aren’t any Aldi stores in SA or WA.  Richard’s very happy with their Smith and Clyde beer at $29.99 per carton and I’m equally happy with their Precious Earth range for $2.49 per bottle.  We’ve saved heaps of money being in Victoria.

We had time to spare and went to visit the Botanical Gardens in town that we’d missed on our previous trip.  There were rows and rows of gorgeous roses and dahlias of all sizes and colours.  It was really quite a spectacle.  We didn’t know there were so many varieties and colours, some very vivid and others magnificent two-tone. The town was hosting a Rose Dahlia Festival that weekend and it was great to see them in all their splendour.

We were thrilled to learn that The Endeavour came into Portland Harbour the day before and we went down to the harbour to admire her.  It’s a recreation of the original ship sailed by Captain Cook and is doing a tour all over Australia.  Tours were available from 1 – 4pm.  We arrived there after 4pm and were disappointed not to be able to go on board.   We couldn’t imagine anyone having to climb the rigging to unfurl the sails as it’s just so high up.  Not for the feint hearted.

We also learnt that the Queen Mary had sailed past Portland the previous day.  What a busy place Portland is at the moment. 

We stayed overnight again at Henty Bay Caravan Park and Sally was in her element chasing rabbits straight away.

Tuesday 6^th March  - We left Portland for a 2 ½ hour trip to our next destination Southend-On-Sea Tourist Park.  We couldn’t wait to get there to compare Southend in Australia to the one in England (we knew there would be many differences) and it was a bit of a giggle that we just had to stay there to tell all our pommie friends and share the humour of it all with them.  We knew it was going to be pretty laid back when Richard had tried to book it a few days before we got there (it was a long weekend in Vic/SA so we thought we should pre-book).  The owner said “no worries mate don’t bother we’re not that busy – just rock up when you’re ready”.  We did just that and what a character the owner was – very chatty and friendly and told us straight away “we get a lot of you blokes here taking photos by the sign”.  He also told us the owner of the caravan park in England had emailed him jokingly wanting to swap beaches.

It was a fairly small caravan park with a standard $26 per night flat rate all year.  We had a choice of either the caravan park with power or the foreshore grassed area opposite the park with no power for $16 per night.  We loved the foreshore area as there was a terrific, unobstructed view of the beach.  We booked in for 2 nights and went to the far end of the foreshore area and parked the van looking straight out onto the ocean with an access walkway opposite us.  It was like our own private oasis and it was just gorgeous.  I could lay in bed and watch the ocean!!!

A sign we passed by on our  way into the town told us the population of Southend was 283!!!

We went for lots of lovely beach walks admiring the clear turquoise water.  There was absolutely nothing at Southend except for a general store cum post office/garage on the corner of the road.   We absolutely loved it there and will definitely go there again.

Thursday 8^th March  We left Southend for our next destination Beachport Caravan Park.  This was our shortest drive between destinations so far.  It took us a total of 20 minutes to get there.

Beachport is a pretty big caravan park, facing the ocean and is very popular with golfers as the golf course is the other side of the road. It has a few shops, cafes and a pub at the top of the hill.  We were hoping to find some live music or entertainment over the long weekend, but were disappointed. The cafes and eateries offered very basic menus so we cooked at home every night and saved our money for the next place we visit. 

There are some lovely coastal walks by the light house and a cycle path to the surf beach.  There are also 2 very pretty coastal drives with stunning scenery and lookouts.

Beachport has the second longest pier in South Australia and took about 15 minutes to walk along it.

This caravan park also had the $26 per night flat rate and takes dogs year round.

Next Week:  We will be going to Port Willunga about 4 hours drive from Beachport.  This is 45 minutes drive from Adelaide Airport.  I’m flying back to Sydney on Thursday for a 5 day stay with Hayley, Karina and Adam to go to our dear friends Paddy and Mary Joyce’s 50^th Wedding Anniversary celebration on 17^th March (also Paddy’s 72^nd birthday and St. Patrick’s Day).  I’m really looking forward to being there.  Port Willunga is near a beach where “clothing is optional”.  I’m sure Richard and Sally will keep themselves amused whilst I’m away.

Stay tuned to hear all about the 50^th