Portland to Mount Gambier & Beyond,

Still trying to catch up on our holiday shots.

It is hard to beleive it was only two weeks ago, since we were visiting these places.
We left Warrnambool, and headed accross to Portland for a night and saw some of the most beautiful beaches this country has to offer. Much nicer than our beaches back home, just think it would be the chill factor that would stop you swimming here.

Portland was a really pretty place, reminded us a little of Gladstone back home, probably because of the aluminum smelter and port. Spent the afternoon driving around looking at the town.

We also went here,
These beaches were pristine. just loved them - probably some of the nicest beaches we have seen.
It was at Cape Bridgewater that we also got to visit this forest. Very very unusual, but quite spectacular in its own way.

This remarkable forest is right on the edge of the coastline at Cape Bridgewater with the wind farm directly behind it. We spent a couple of hours here just wandering - was absolutely fascinating.

We also stopped and had a good look at the Blowhole here, although the tide was pretty low and it wasn't working too well. Obviously many many years ago this area had a lot of volcanic activity as we could seem seams of basalt around the coastline.
After leaving her we took the scenic drive back into Portland and checked out this lovely lake and caves.
We left the following morning and headed to Mt. Gambier.

What a lovely city - both Steve and I could easily live here. We got to catch up with my good friend Ali and spend four days with her and her lovely family,

Mt. Gambier is such a pretty place and big enough to have everything at your fingertips, but not too overcrowded. It is pretty central to everything too, half way between Melbourne and Adelaide.

We were absolutely taken by the Blue Lake - I think we drove around it every day we were in Mt. Gambier. It is totally spectacular especially with the sun shinning on it. It never ceases to amaze me that The Blue Lake and the Valley Lake are both in the same crator, both within a couple of hundred metres from each other, and yet such different colours. Also the Blue Lake is not blue all year round. Over a couple of days in November, it changes from a grey colour to this vibrant blue, and then around March April it changes back to its dull grey colour again.

Mt. Gambier also has some amazing sinkholes - which they have turned into beautiful Gardens and picnic areas. Cave Gardens is right in the middle of Town, near the new Town Library. We got to visit both of these places whilst we were there.

Saturday morning we met up with Ali's mum who had just returned from Canada, and had morning tea in the Cafe at the new town library. Lovely place to visit.

One of the other places we fell in love with in Mt. Gambier were the "Umpherston Sinkhole Gardens" These are stunning - and you can also visit here at night as they are lit up and you can feed the possums. We didn't actually get to do it as it was wet most of the time we were in Mt. Gambier.

The pictures tell it all. Gorgeous gorgeous spot and we spent a good couple of hours just wandering around here enjoying the beauty.

We were really sad to leave Mt. Gambier. It was like the end of the journey for us. Everything now led to us returning home. We left here the Monday morning before Christmas. We were made to feel such a part of Ali's family that it was very hard to leave. More so I think because Qld and South Australia are a long way away from each other and we knew we wouldn't be getting back any time soon to see everyone.

We had a long and wet trip back to Ballarat. It was also a very cold trip and the temperatures seem to plummet again. Back to the thermal underwear, heaters and doonas, as the temperatures dropped. In fact it actually snowed that night on Mt. Bulla in Victoria. The sudden change in temperatures was something we found hard to get used too.

Ballarat is a pretty place, although we didn't get to do as much sightseeing here as we would have liked. Too wet and too cold, so only managed to take a drive on the last afternoon we were in town. We had planned to go to Soverign Hill but it was raining most of the day, so really didn't think that it was worth it.

We left Ballarat a couple of days before Christmas for the drive to Melbourne. We were both pretty excited as the kids were due to arrive the next day. It was almost four months since we had seen Chloe, so we were really looking forward to her and Pete's visit, and showing them some of the sights of Melbourne. Will leave that to the next post though.

Need to go get some washing off the line before the rain comes and it gets dark.