11 Feb: Warrnambool to Portland via Port Fairy.

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Ship dreams of sea.
We took a while to leave Warrnambool. First breakfast. Than a walk along the tree lined streets to the library. 

It's a grand library, complete with green room and coffee shop.

After coffee we walked home beside the sea. It was midday before we rolled out of town and we still hadn't finished yesterday's Melting Moment.  Oh well, biscuits for lunch it was then.

We had to get going because I had some unfinished business to attend to. Back in 2019 we rode the Warrnambool to Port Fairy Rail Trail and while Roger finished the whole thing I only got as far as Koroit before getting side tracked by BD, a good cup of coffee, and a complicated car shuffle. Seeing as we were now driving right past the Rail Trail it was time to finish it off.

Right, let's finish this off!

 

I was soon deep into rural scenery compete with cows, sheep, bulls, and sculptures.

Past many old stations where only the name remains.

Aah the serenity!

Dairy is the rural activity of choice along the Warrnambool-Port Fairy Rail Trail,

but there were sheep too.  Sheep were harder to photograph: they ran away.
 

Arriving in Port Fairy I needed to ride an extra 2.5km to make a total of 20 for the day, so took a quick spin out to the sea past Battery Point.

Don't point that thing at me!

It was tricky riding on that skinny bit of smooth concrete.

Back in Port Fairy proper I joined Roger at the village green. The Jazz Festival was in town so we hung around and enjoyed the music and a spot of people-watching.

Old guys playing good music.
 

We couldn't stay in Port Fairy for the night because a) the Festival folks had already booked all available space and B) we really needed to start covering more than 30km/day if we wanted to get to South Australia in time for our next house sit. Evening saw us deep in wood chip territory, settled in Portland with a beautiful view over the deep water port, the ships in dock, and the town tucked in the curve of the bay.

Portland exports wood chip from the thousands of hectares of pine forest in SW Victoria, and the dock and export facility is right next to the centre of town.

Our camp was perched up on the headland, exposed to the wind whichever way we turned.  We put on some extra guy ropes, parked the car upwind, and went to bed with the sound of flapping tent in our ears. 

Grand old buildings in Portland.

Comments

  1. JasmineFebruary 21, 2023 at 7:29 AM

    Mmmm, sleeping in a tent in windy weather is my least favourite camping experience.

    ReplyDelete

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