Sunday, April 22, 2018

Apr 23: The “Scenic” Route

Today was a shorter day, but definitely more hills. In fact it was quite rolling the whole day. Nothing terrible though.

This morning I woke to pea soup fog. I decided it would be a good idea to wear my rain jacket, as much to keep the moisture off me as to increase my visibility to drivers. I’m always greatful for the headlight and taillight on Tilmann.

Portland is over there...someplace.

Staying at Henty Bay was perfect as I only had to backtrack about 300 meters to get on the “Scenic Route” to Nelson. The road was C192 instead of the Princes Hwy. It turned out that the “Scenic Route” was not too scenic, unless your idea of scenery is log trucks. Yes, this was also the “Log Truck Route” (there was even a sign). 

What timing, huh?

I got one, and only one view of the ocean. 

That’s it!

At this viewpoint, I talked to a gentleman named Mark. He told me all the logs were going to Portland to be exported. Apparently, it is a bone of contention as the timber used to be milled here, then shipped. There were two mills, now only one is in operation. He blamed the state government. All I can say, is there were a lot of trucks hauling logs. Mostly the empty trucks were going my way, and the loaded were going the opposite. 

I was on the lookout for kangaroos, especially after I saw the tail of one as it bounced into the bushes. Sadly, that was the only live one I saw. I saw about three dead ones. As there wasn’t much to see, I finished the day fairly early—in time to get a late lunch of fish and chips in Nelson next to the caravan park. Tonight I’m camped on the Glenelg River which dumps into the Southern Ocean not far from here. There is a very large pelican swimming around as well as a black swan or two. By the way, the fog did burn off, and it was a nice warm day.






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