nev
Super Térrarist
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.
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.