Wet Wet Wet

It rained overnight in Warrnambool and the tents are soaked through again. Waking up to these cold and wet mornings is really starting to get me down. The rain eases temporarily so off we go again.

On the advice of the campsite owner there's a local whale nursery worth checking out. We find the location and there are dozens of people with binoculars but there's a notable absence of whales. A local is selling photos of whales from years past for only $5. No thanks.

The first stop for today is Port Fairy, which is where we would have camped last night if the light had lasted a bit longer. There's not much reason to linger so we head onto Portland and then north to the Prehistoric Forest.

The Prehistoric Forest turns out to be a misleading name. The rock formations do look a little bit like tree trunks but apparently they're formed from chemical reactions to the limestone. It's a spooky environment. Almost no plant life grows on the rocks and the whole area is on a high cliff dropping into the sea. The site is barren and desolate and lifeless. I get the feeling I'm standing on the Moon with its cratered surface.

More impressive (to me) than the "forest" are more of these fantastic wind turbines. They're only a few metres away from the road and they are simply massive. I picked up a brochure in Portland with technical details. The blades are over 30 metres long and the entire windfarm produces one eighth of South Australia's electricity needs.

We continue to head north. The intention is to camp in the Coonawarra wine region. The rain starts falling again and the roads are slick. Fortunately this is an agricultural area where the roads are very long and very straight, so we get up a good speed and cover a fair distance. However going fast through a winter drizzle is doing nothing for my mood.

We pick the first camping ground we find in Penola. The forecast for tomorrow is more rain. Bah. I'm looking forward to the unbearable heat of Western Australia.