After a completely still night the tent was still very wet when we packed up and left. Immediately onto the very busy road, cycling was not pleasant as you were constantly on edge. Even though the towns are nice as a cyclist I would bypass it completely it is not safe with the heavy truck traffic.

After around 10 km of what would normally be very nice countryside cycling we pulled into a rest area, here Rick had stopped to give his dog a break and grab a smoke. We chatted a while then asked if he could give us a lift to Portland. He very kindly said yes, the bicycles and our things just fitted in.

The next 60 km we found very easy never even breaking into a sweat! Even as a car (Ute) driver not wanting to travel at 110 km/h the truck drivers would catch Rick up then be flashing their lights for him to hurry up or pull over, they really need to remember it is a public road not their road.

As we drove along Rick told us about working for the Bureau of Meteorology spending a lot of his time in Antartica supporting the scientists / meteorologists there, very interesting.

Rick on his way back to Tasmania

Eventually we arrived in Portland, said a grateful farewell, reassembled our bicycles then pedaled a short distance to the caravan park. Next to our tent is a large eucalyptus tree and there was actually a Koala again wedged between branches fast asleep with her young one holding on.

Mother and baby

Thanks to our lift we had plenty of time to walk into town and along the seafront. At the boat launch there was a large seal, who swam around just waiting for any fish scraps which it must get even with a threat of a huge fine for feeding wild animals. Talking to a local they have had to shoot seals as they became quite aggressive expecting to get fish when a boat came in.

Begging for food

Also swimming waiting for scraps were three huge stingrays, it must have been one metre across.

Stingray

As a port the many logs we have seen speeding past us on the road trains leave here on ships along with what looks like gravel.

Lots of logs

One of three huge ships being loaded in the port

Tiled sculpture on Portland sea front

Once we had done our walking around and some food shopping it was back to the caravan park for our meal and a spot of reading, puzzling and blogging before dark.