All tucked in for the night behind the Portland tram station. A nice little campsite that is free for 72 hrs for all self containted motorhomes.

It is a great little spot with toilets, a dump station and only a few minutes walk to the centre of town.
Portland is another harbour town with a history of whaling and sealing back in the day.
Today it is fishing, tourism and the export of aluminium driving its economy.

The town is getting ready for its ANZAC day memorials with many stores having ANZAC window displays commemorating the service of locals. Kelly and I have always been touched by the effort that smaller Aussie towns put in to commemorating this date. In fact one of the most moving ceremonies we have seen was in the small Victorian town of Beechworth.

We arrived late and spent the afternoon wandering aimlesly through the town before checking out the cool whaling history display down at the information centre (and they even let Juno in…he was particularly interested in the whale skeleton…giant bones!)

In other news, once again COVID-19 is splattering its way into Australia (not helped by our glacial vaccine rollout and Luddite reluctance to address its airborne propensities). Kelly and I are keeping a close eye on the latest virus news. Things are in a potential state of flux and we even though Kelly is now fully vaccinated, we do not want to get stranded due to unexpected lockdowns. This is not over …by a long shot.

Tonight, things could be worse. Kelly has a glass of Gin at hand, I am examining a glass of rather captivating yet subliminally cheeky cabernet (I have no idea what I am talking about) and Juno is dreaming of chewing on giant whalebone.

I think evenings in Ripley are my favourite times. Safe and snug in her ample belly. Everything we need without excess. Good music, good food, we could be anywhere and we actually are.

This is as far west as we will be travelling this trip. Tomorrow we turn north and east in search of those smaller hidden towns.