Portlandia

They actually show Portlandia on TV here. I wonder how it translates if you are unfamiliar with Portland, OR, and "keeping it weird."

But this post is about Portland, Victoria, which is just 97 km from us. It was our last day with our loaner car and Kate will be leaving Warrnambool soon, so we wanted to get up the coast a bit. It's a fairly significant port with lumber, aluminium, and wind being the major industries. Andy, Kate, and I stopped for lunch and a walk down by the marina where we watched as the members of a charter fishing boat cleaned tuna at the dock and fed scraps to at least one happy seal and a couple of stealth 5 foot-wide sting rays.

It's hard to see, but one of them is actually waving to us. :-)

After lunch we headed just outside of Portland to the lighthouse at Cape Nelson and the beach at Cape Bridgewater. Beautiful water and vistas.

The stone is worn away in stalagmite shapes. Or griffins if you have an imagination.

It was cool and a bit rainy, but that didn't stop us from walking the beach or the surfers from riding the waves.

Both places also had massive wind farms which were fascinating in a different kind of way. The juxtaposition of gigantic metal turbines behind ancient rocks once thought to be a petrified forest was something to be remembered.

Each direction I turned, I was mesmerized by movement. I could have stood at the edge of the water watching the waves crash for hours. The force of the backwash created a counter-wave and made the resulting explosion against the rock even more dramatic. Nature is endlessly entertaining.