Portland and Surrounds

At Portland we saw the beach for the first time since May last year (at Newcastle).
Its very windy here, lots of wind farms around. We visited the small but vey good Botanic Gardens. Unlike other Bot Gards they have nearly everything named. they have a Dahlia Festival in march , so they were coming on. They had the most roses I've seen. we found my favourite "Tequila Sunrise". We also saw Sunrise, so I wonder if it was a parent of TS? I did not see my other favourite "Tiffany".
We did the ride on the tourist tramway. They never had trams, but they got these from around the state in decay and restored them. A track was laid through the town and now is quite popular. They have a running commentary along the way.
We have also found we can use our Health Care Concession Card in Vic, where it was not accepted in NSW. Save some $, so we are more likely to go to an attraction when we get a discount.
We did a lot of hiking around the coast line. from Portland you can do the 250klms Great South West Walk. we did little bits of it! We hiked to the seal colony & through the coastal enchanted forest. We also saw the amazing petrified forest, which is not petrified at all, just looks like tree trunks. They say its sand formations, fascinating.
The picture of the truck is at the big Port. Its unloading woodchip, and somehow those trucks stay up at 45 degrees whilst the chip falls through to a hopper, then onto a conveyor belt to fall in a stockpile .
We are now at Dartmoor, which has Cedar & Cypress trees felled but carved into figures by a chainsaw artist. Depicting the war, one has scenes from nursery rhymes. Pics next time.