Sunday, September 27th, Portland

Greetings!

What a great day so far.  After some wonderful breakfast treats at Mahalia's Coffee headquarters in Robe, we took a drive out to a coastal point where the town had erected an obelisk long ago to alert passing ships.  A loop trail provided craggy cliff views, and we met some bicyclists for a stimulating conversation on New Zealand, surfing, and being Americans traveling.

Following the closest coastal route, we've begun to see animal protection signs for koalas and wombats on the side of the road.  We've yet to see either, but did nearly miss a kangaroo.

We're in Portland, just a little ways down the road from Robe.  The ocean stretch from Robe to Portland is called the Bonney Upwelling.   The winds here blow from November to March from the southeast, causing surface waters to drift away from the coast. They are replaced by cold, nutrient-rich water from deep off the coast, originating in Antarctica, which feeds phytoplankton, which feed the krill, the favorite meals for pygmy blue whales.  When Pat was last here, she took a photo of a pygmy blue whale (gorgeous wall-size shot in our closet, showing two seagulls in the whale's plume) in the harbor off Albany, surprising many onboard who had never seen one outside of this area.

I've posted several times since the last I put one up on Facebook and Google Plus.  Thought it was a bit too much to put each one up, so I waited for a while.  You can always see them all by going to the general website (http://gfpktravels.blogspot.com).  Here's a link to the photos we took today.
Sunday, Sep 27th, Portland