Great South West Walk Day 13, Mallee to Portland (finish), November 2021

I was awake at first light but lazed in the hammock for a bit and got up just before 6am. All was quiet in the camp. I had a good sleep on a lovely night with barely any wind, no rain and not too cold.

Without rushing the last morning pack-up of the trip, I was still out quite early by my standards, on the track by 7.20am.

Kept me warm and comfortable on 8 out of 9 nights camping

The walk into Portland was a bit of a mixed bag. Some nice coastal walking along with obvious signs of industry; wind turbines and the Alcoa Aluminium smelter within sight most of the day.

The walk to Portland and the ever present wind turbines

A nice section of the walk was through the Enchanted Forest with its gnarled tree trunks and branches providing lots of shade.

Pipeline from the smelter to the port
On to the Portland foreshore
And the finish line!

I thoroughly enjoyed this walk. I’m glad I had a rest day in Nelson to give my body a break and to sit out the only really bad weather of the 13 days. Each of the four sections of the walk, forest/river/beach/capes, provided plenty of variety and interest. I was happy the blisters did not get too out of control and I was able to keep walking without them becoming too distracting. Of the 9 camp sites I was able to hang the hammock 8 times, a good result I thought. I would definitely recommend this walk to others and would do sections of it again, maybe next time canoeing along the Glenelg river.

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