TUESDAY 10 FEBRUARY     PORTLAND

This morning, the drilling rig has gone – totally disappeared! I feel really cheated not to have seen it go. I wonder if they lay it down flat somehow, or it sails off standing upright?

This caravan park does not get any cleaner or more pleasant! The cleaning of the amenities is very sketchy. The owners’ feral son is quite an unpleasant child of maybe ten years old. He rides his bike around ferociously and with disregard for people. On Saturday night he was actually driving a car around the park – quite dangerous. I think he reflects his father’s attitude to the customers!

We activated the bikes for the first time here and rode east to Narrawong, which was a very enjoyable  ride along back roads with little traffic. Narrawong village looks quite pleasant, and the caravan park there much more pleasant than anything at Portland. It is by the sea and a sandy beach, and abuts the little Surrey River, where it flows into the ocean. John could see little whiting in the Surrey River – he sees them as bait fish! There is a sandbar across the river mouth that is keeping them in there. Next time we are in these parts, we will definitely stay here!

We cycled a total of 22kms – a fair workout.

After lunch, drove into Portland and went around to the docks, where we watched a fishing trawler unloading its catch into boxes of ice in a semi-trailer. Bound for the Melbourne fish markets, one presumes.

Drove out on the Lee Breakwater, past people fishing. They did not seem to be catching anything. The Breakwater is the other arm that encloses the Marina, across from the main pier.

Portland was the place first settled by white men, in Victoria. It started as a camp for seal and whale hunters, from the early 1800’s, some of whom made permanent homes. In 1834, the Henty brothers sailed across from Van Diemans Land (Tasmania), with livestock, looking for good grazing country. Others soon followed and spread out into the fertile plains of the Western District. So Portland was a sea port, from the beginning of our history there. It is an easily accessed,  deep water port and some argue that it should be further developed for cargo shipping, to augment – maybe even eventually replace – Melbourne, where the relatively small Rip could limit access. Who knows?

We drove to have a look around the area where the Alcoa aluminium smelter has been built, in an industrial area out on Point Danger. From memory, there used to be a small airport there? The Alcoa plant looks quite clean and modern – very different to their plant at Point Henry in Geelong, which is old-style industrial grotty.

Came back to camp along Hanlon Parade and the Dutton Way. I remembered that, back in the mid 70’s, part of this road kind of fell into the sea, due to a landslip, and an engineer friend of mine was involved in coming up with a solution to prevent further disappearance of the coastline along here. I guess it worked, because the roads are still there!

The drilling rig is coming back! I could see it from the hill behind the docks, with two attendant tugs. It was moving very slowly, and wallowing. It feels a bit like an old friend has come back! By nightfall, it was back where it used to be and all lit up again.

Tea was steak and mushrooms, with strawberries after.

There was a huge full moon tonight. We could actually see it, so the cloud cover is much reduced.

Phoned my old friends E and A. We are invited to go there for lunch, tea, overnight stay, on Thursday. I look forward to seeing them again.