Portland

Portland is a cute town, and the western-most point that we reached in Australia. We stayed in a really cute seaside inn. This old church is in the center of town.

When we got in, we drove to nearby Port Nelson. First, we went for a short walk to the lighthouse and along the coast.

A short drive away, we found the Enchanted Forest – with some enchanted views.

After being enchanted, our final stop was at the Yellow Rock.

The next day, we went out to Cape Bridgewater and took a really long hike, again, on the coast.

We saw this boat get tugged onto shore by a tractor – kinda cool.

There was a wind farm along the way, which we saw a lot of in Australia.

We reached the top of the highest coastal cliff in Victoria, at 130 meters high. At the very end of the hike was a colony of fur seals, playing in the water and sunbathing.

Our last stop in Cape Bridgewater, on the western side of the cape, were the blow holes and the misnamed “Petrified Forest.”

At the time of day we saw the blow holes (low tide), they were more noisy than visually cool – the waves force air into voids in the rocks, and the air gets compressed and violently pushes the water back out – there’s a loud boom and some spray. Very cool to hear, not as impressive in a picture.

Next was the “Petrified forest” – which is a mis-nomer. Originally, it was thought that these tree-like stumps were part of a forest that became stone. Modern science has shown that when water drained into the rock, it formed “tubes” of even harder rock – and these used to be under ground. Then, the wind has eroded the rest of the softer surrounding rock away, leaving these previously underground “tree trunks” above ground. Pretty cool geological feature.

Just another gorgeous day in Australia!