Post-covid Portland Plunder

[nev]

After not having had the bikes out of the garage for 6 months, we took the post lockdown opportunity presented and took a 4 day weekend off work and went for a ride. Getting away from home was priority 1 and the bikes were just the transport so we didn't do a whole lot of km or hit many roads, except those required to get out to western Victoria to the city of Portland.

We coudln't get away from home till 10am so we took the Ring Road and Calder Hwy out of town to make time. After heading through Woodend and Daylesford we headed to our planned lunch stop. The small town of Blampied in the flat western plains of Victoria is a strange place to find a hotel called the Swiss Mountain Hotel. Lunch here was excellent.



We headed through Ballarat and south west from there, steering clear of most major settlements. A quick stop for a cold drink in Caramut



and a bit of this



and we arrived in Portland in the late afternoon, after a trip of just over 400km.

We stayed 3 nights in Portland and didn't move the bikes once they were parked at our hotel.

Portland is not on the way to or from anywhere and not somewhere we'd ever stopped for longer than it takes to fill a tank with petrol, and it occurred to me before we left that we had spent much more time in Portland Oregon than Portland Victoria.

some of the sights of Portland were..

The harbour entrance



Dock area





The large dark piles on the left are bluegum woodchips, and the lighter stack on the right is pine woodchips. There are also many large stacks of cut trees ready for export.



School on the beachfront which used to be a convent.



Tourist tramway snakes it's way through the foreshore parklands.









Spent a lovely sunny Saturday afternoon sipping beers





Being the first settlement in Victoria, Portland has some of the oldest buildings including this school house from 1856



Found a Bill's trough in the Botanical Gardens



The tram museum had a few model displays





There are 4 koalas in this tree on the main street if you look closely enough.



Obviously some meddling kids investigating a mystery.



Nice door handles on the karate school



Travel agent looking forward to travellers coming back with a funny sign



The trip home on Monday was a hot one, with the temps over 30 for much of the day.
We stopped in Tower Hill for a break in the shade





In addition to the Emus also spotted a koala in a tree here and a snake crossing the road on our way in.



We again avoided most of the towns on the trip back, stopping in Beeac at the Farmers Arms hotel where we tucked into a superb bangers and mash.







In comparison to the green grasses of western Vic, closer to home, around Mt Cotterell it was very dry at our last stop before home.

[Paul n Dixie]

Great ride and report! thanks for sharing
The pictures at Portland provide concrete evidence of your time there,
did you cement any friendships?

[glitch]

Love that!




Thanks for the "ride-along", had read about the tramway but didn't know it was still/ again operating.
Somehow Portland has never figured in our travels, maybe it's time to change that.

[greybeard]

Where's the pic of the cement works?

[Williamson]

Thanks for sharing Nev.

Originally Posted by glitch

Somehow Portland has never figured in out travels, maybe it's time to change that.

Well, Nev did say ...

Originally Posted by nev

... Portland is not on the way to or from anywhere and not somewhere we'd ever stopped for longer than it takes to fill a tank ...

I suppose that if people are still wanting to travel, and whilst many, many OS destinations are gunna be off-limits for a year or two, many people will be taking an opportunity to explore Victoria and other States.

There are not many places in Victoria that I have not visited, but many were for work (in the VicRoads days), so not much sight seeing was done - other than what can be achieved in a 2 hour lunch break. So I suspect a road trip is in order.

And then interstate, many places to see. One of Helen's cousins and husband have been on the road for two years, they reckon they haven't seen it all yet.

And today's reports on an AUS/ NZ travel bubble sound encouraging, but the devil will be in the detail.