Day 76 Portland

It was cold when we went to bed but who knew it would get down to 7.5 during the night, and it’s January. Isn’t it supposed to be warm in summer?
The cold must have affected us because we appeared to have saved our worst car-to-van hook-up for day 76. The packed the van up without any trouble but for some reason I failed to understand, we couldn’t seem to get the tow ball located under the corresponding hitch on the caravan. There was some sort of communication breakdown and with a stream of cars lining up to get past us, things became a little tense. Jacqui managed to find the tension release valve when she also found the local Beachport Jewellery shop. The owners were keen to relieve Jacqui of as much tension as was required to make the days travel easier to deal with.
We arrived at Mt Gambier in time for an early lunch and we then went in search of the Umpherston Sinkhole. Anyone who comes to Mount Gambier must go to see this thing. Apparently, some 15 million years ago, water eroded the limestone under the present sinkhole and with an earth tremor or some similar event, the roof collapsed into the hole. By the early 1800’s, the water table had lowered and the owners of the land, Mr & Mrs Umpherstone decided to landscape the bottom of the hole. The result is spectacular as we hope the pictures show.
Both before and after Mount Gambier, we noticed what appears to be thousands of hectares of pine forests and also the corresponding logging trucks. I’m not sure who owns the forest but with Carter Holt Harvey having a processing plant at Mount Gambier, my guess is that most of these millions of trees are destined to end up as toilet paper or tissues. As we drove through the coastal forests, we saw the differing stages of the trees with hectares of seedlings, then hectares of saplings and so on through to freshly cleared earth. They almost looked like steps in the landscape.
After Mount Gambier, we finally crossed out of South Australia and into Victoria. Without intending to be disrespectful to South Australians, we all heaved a collective sigh of relief as we crossed the border. We haven’t had a great time in SA other than our time in Streaky Bay. It’s been cold, wet, and fairly dull and we’re all keen to move around the coast into some warmer weather before our final border crossing back into NSW.
We arrived at Portland in the afternoon and had a drive around before heading for the van park. Portland looks to be a thriving community and it’s a pretty town in a great coastal setting. Formerly a whaling town, the locals have turned the town into a major whale watching location and tourism appears to have delivered the money to stop the place from fading away.
We finished setting up the grabbed the boys and walked into town for look around. We roamed along the harbour front and around the main commercial streets before settling into a waterfront pup, The Gordon Hotel, for dinner. We followed dinner with a quick visit to the travelling fair where the Zach and Tom survived the rollercoaster. Jacob and Jacqui joined them to test the Dodgem Cars before we convinced Jacqui to trust the rollercoaster herself. We survived and everyone had a good 1st day in Victoria. Tomorrow should deliver us our first view of the great ocean road.
Cheers,
Jorg