Cape Nelson and Cape Bridgewater

Access to the "two capes" is through Portland. Cape Nelson is a rocky windswept outcrop jutting into the Southern Ocean with a lighthouse erected on the point. There is nothing else to say of it. Cape Bridgewater, on the other hand, is also a windswept rocky outcrop, with only two forms of vegetation being able to exist there, but there is also a very beautiful beach on a sweeping coastline to the east of the cape.

The lighthouse at Cape Nelson. You will notice scaffolding around the light due to maintenance operations. The result was that this is as close as to the lighthouse as any tourist could hope to get.

The ever present Southern Ocean swells crash into the rocks at Cape Nelson and cascade into the air.

Very similar to the previous photograph, same effect different location. This is Cape Bridgewater,

Also at Cape Bridgewater is a formation known as 'The Petrified Forest'. The rock casings that formed around tree trunks millennia ago are very evident.

With the sparse vegetation of Cape Bridgewater in the foreground, beyond the car park you can detect one of the reasons your electricity bill is getting larger by the quarter. This is only a small section of the "subsidised and uneconomic wind farms" that are all over the western Victorian coast. On this day the blades were basically stationary.

The very beautiful beach at Bridgewater with the Cape in the background.

Portland

Portland was a city we didn't camp at but we visited on several occasions, on shopping or sight-seeing expeditions, from our base at Saw Pit Reserve. Portland lays claim to being the first permanent European settlement in Victoria. Therefore it has a long history and heritage dating from 1834.

Portland Bay, from a high vantage point, with the city to the right and the harbour to the left.

Our high view over Portland was from the vantage point of the Portland Lighthouse.

Jude and I were sitting quietly at the Portland waterfront, enjoying a great cup of tea, when suddenly, there was a tumultuous crash and we were almost under this huge tree branch. Mighty glad there was a toilet close by.

Housed with the Tourist Information Centre is the Maritime Museum. This Sperm Whale skeleton is one of the main exhibits there. Portland was once a major whaling and sealing port. Sperm whales are also known to beach themselves on the coastline just to the east of Portland.

Commercial fishermen caught something bigger than they could handle when they netted this huge Great White Shark, believed to be one the largest caught in this area.

The south-western coast of Victoria was one of the most treacherous seaways for the old mariners, now remembered as The Ship Wreck Coast. All the prominent capes and bluffs hosted light houses. They would have used prisms similar to this one. If this prism was manufactured today it would cost around $1,300,000.

This retaining wall with a mural along it's entire length, depicting the nautical history of Portland, separates the CBD above from the waterfront precinct.

Portland is also noted for it's popular little tram seen here heading back to the depot.

Cape Otway

It was a cool and sometimes drizzly day but we decided to embark on a tour of parts of the Cape Otway National Park. In these areas if you wait for a perfect day you will miss on seeing anything if you only have a short visiting time.

We had followed a decline in the path into Elliott River and reached this small stream running through the forest. As you can see there are many ferns growing in the damp atmosphere of the forest.

The path arrives at a fork and one must make a decision! The left fork leads to Shelly Beach. This is a very small beach and is devoid of shells. I am puzzled as to the name for the beach? The sea was very quiet today but I can imagine waves pounding the sandy beach on wild days.

We back-tracked along the path from Shelly Beach and then followed the path option to the right. Along the way we caught this glimpse of the southern coast and Cape Otway through the trees.

Very close to the mouth of The Elliott River there is a small but pretty waterfall. There is a track that will take you to the falls.

This is the unspectacular entry to Bass Strait by The Elliott River. You can make it out through this pile of rubble.

About 10 km further along the Great Ocean Road you will arrive at the entry to 'Maits Rest'. This is a small reserve very close to the main road and it is only about 20 to 30 minutes to walk through. What this park lacks in distance it makes up for in being a great example of a temperate rainforest. You are walking through a forest of massive tree ferns. This photograph is of the beginning of the path, I didn't take my camera into the walk as it was very wet and there was a drizzle of rain.

We arrived at the Cape Otway Lighthouse only to discover that there is a substantial fee to enter the grounds to get a close-up view. A fee that we and many others were not going to pay. Hence, all you get is this far of photograph from a distant look-out point. The lighthouse sits on the most southerly point of the State of Victoria. We did hear later that if you tell a little white lie and state that you are from the town of Colac or some other nearby town you will be granted free entry. We never got to test that theory.

As you enter the Cape Otway National Park, there is a large colony of Koala. Some are photogenic, like this one, and struck a pose for the many cameras.

Another Koala wondering what I am doing at the base of his/her tree.