My dh Dave and myself spent 3 nights and 4 days holidaying in Portland. We were given the holiday for free as part of the Take a Break Holiday program provided by the Uniting Church and the Wimmera Drought Relief Fund, its aim was to give farming families a holiday which they normally could not afford.
We left home on Monday 20th March and visited Dave's friend Cliff (his brother Lenny is in a hospice, as his cancer is advanced) we then visited his parents before setting off for Ballarat. We stopped for coffee and cake at La Porcetta in Ballarat then head off for Portland via Hamilton.
We reached Portland by 4.30 that afternoon, we headed straight for the tourist information centre for maps and info on what do to in the area. We got to the Portland Bay Lodge around 5.30pm. Dave sat in the car whilst I got shown to our room. (Dave was so looking forward to a romantic holiday as it was our first without children) Graeme our host showed me to our room...a single bed and a set of single bunks, with just enough room to get around, there were communal showers and dining area. The meal was delicious, there was soup, then roast beef and dessert. We went back to our room as there was no TV or radio so we spent the evening playing cribbage. The next morning after a feed of bacon and eggs we went sight-seeing. We went to Cape Bridgewater and viewed the petrified forrest, the blowholes and the lighthouse. We then drove to Nelson which is 5km from the SA border and had lunch overlooking a tidal creek. We then drove back to Portland and toured the Motor Museum and drove around the city centre. We called into a fishing shop and bought some bait and spent the next 2 hours sitting on the breakwater fishing. We headed back to the Lodge for dinner, then after a short nap we went fishing off the boat ramp which was about 50 metres from the Lodge.
The next morning we went straight down to the breakwater and fished there until we got sick of tired of losing all of our sinkers and hooks. We set off for Narrawong as it sits on a tidal creek, we stayed there for about 1 hour, we got a few bites but nothing on the end of the line. We headed back to Portland to the boat ramp as there was a bit of beach to fish from. We stayed there for 4 hours, I caught a little bait fish and saw 4 sting rays swim about 1 metre from where I was standing. Dave spent most of the time sitting on a deck chair reading a magazine and drinking a beer. We went back to the lodge for dinner then spent the remainder of the night sitting outside with a few other couples having a drink.
Thursday morning arrived and we set off for Apollo Bay as we were planing on spending the night. We stopped off at Warnabool so I could see the whale nursery (wrong time for whales though) we then had lunch at Port Campbell. The next couple of hours were spent driving along the Great Ocean Road admiring the fantastic scenery. We arrived in Apollo Bay and booked into a Budget Motel overlooking the beach. We walked up to the shops and bought a waffle ice-cream to eat whilst walking along the beach front. There was kilometers of beach and only 1 man fishing, so back to the car we got our rods and tackle box/bait and back to the beach we went. I caught 4 sand crabs and 2 baby whiting (I threw them back as they were undersize), Dave caught 2 large whiting but we were unable to keep them so back to the water they went. We spent around 3 hours fishing, it was lovely standing in the water with a rod.
We went back to the Motel, got cleaned up and went down the street to a local cafe for dinner.
We were up early the next morning and set off for Geelong as Dave has friends there he wanted to catch up with. Just out of Lorne dave was feeling car sick so I had to slow down, I was having fun driving around all the sharp bends it was just like rally driving...lol
We spent the morning in Geelong then off to Wallan where my girlfriend Sue lives, we had a cuppa and a chat before heading for home, arriving home to some very excited dogs around 5.30pm. It was an exhausting but very enjoyable holiday.
