11 February 2012 - Deserted beaches and Cape Nelson

A later start this morning, the kids did not wake up until 7.45am, which was great. After breakfast we headed across the sand dunes and off to the beach. The beach was deserted as it is quite remote. The SE wind that has been with us for a couple of weeks was in full force. Definitely not swimming weather but still great to have an entire beach to ourselves. We collected some shells, jumped off the rocks onto sand and went hunting for pipis or cockles as they are called in this part of Aus.

It was hard to keep the feet in the water for too long so the pipi hunting was short lived. The Southern Ocean is certainly not the warmest of the oceans surrounding Aus. Not surprising given there is not much between us and Antartica.

In the afternoon we heading down to the town of Portland and out to see the light house at Cape Nelson. Unfortunately the light house was closed for repair and we did not get a tour but we had a nice walk around the cliff tops.

The area is covered by large wind turbines and Lachie's windmill obsession was well fulfilled. We also visited the Yellow Rock, another popular sight in the area. On our drive around the coast we saw at least 5 echidnas by the side of the road. Not an animal you see very often to it was great to show the kids. You can also get quite close to them as they have an ostrich like tendency to stop and curl into a ball thinking you can't see them. No risk of being picked up by me though with those spikes. Emily was determined to cuddle one and did not see the spikes as a deterrent. Fortunately she won't touch anything new without Daddy picking it up first so the echidnas were quite safe.

We had a short drive around Portland but it seems like quite an industrial town so we did not stay long. It is actually Victoria's oldest town and does have quite a bit of history, by modern Australian standards. It is also home to the Portland aluminum smelter which apparently uses 20% of Victoria's electricity. The power from the wind turbines that we saw goes straight into the smelter. A guy at our campsite reckoned it was all a 'green hoax' as there is a dedicated line to the smelter direct from the La Trobe valley that supplies more power than the site actually needs so the wind turbines are just for show. Who knows but I'm sure someone is claiming carbon credits somewhere along the line.

We headed back to our campsite and the kids played on their balance bikes before dinner. They are getting quite daring on the bikes which is good to see.