Our B&B “Tolka Cottage” on Tolka Stud, just 30 minutes drive from Casterton, on the Glenelg Highway, in the southwest area of Victoria was chosen as a summer escape, with places of interest easily accessible. The original Victorian farm cottage, now tastefully restored, sits on rustic farmland just above the Glenelg River, which winds lazily towards the estuary at its mouth at Nelson, almost on the border of Victoria and South Australia.

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Nelson, popular with holiday makers, campers and boating enthusiasts, has a wide stretch of wild ocean and the more sheltered estuary beaches of white sand and river views.

Penola, in South Australia and very close to the Coonawarra wine region, is another pleasant town to explore having old limestone buildings and a row of pioneer cottages and a small lavender farm in Petticoat Lane, brought to life by the National Trust. The Coonawarra wineries sit along a small but extremely suitable area for grapevines and produce some of Australia’s most prized wines.

Travelling east from Nelson there is a wide bay with ocean beaches and a rocky cape, Cape Bridgewater, with a colony of fur seals, blowholes and an area of petrified forest. The city and deep harbour of Portland is close by. Portland, one of Victoria’s first cities, first settled by pioneers, the Henty brothers, boasts solidly impressive bluestone public buildings, churches and houses and is an important industrial port.