Sussing out the Silos

A full day on the road through the wheat bealted Wimmera whilst touching the Mallee was an effortless yet eventful affair. After brecky at another Cafe we bade farewell to the fallen giants and headed north into the wilderness of the wide flat brown land in search of painted monoliths.

First stop was the very impressive pole shed. Named (possibly by marketing agents) as the Stick Shed it is a lasting remnant to the cleverness of our last war era forebears. More poles than you can poke a stick at.
We then headed off through the flat plains of Malcom's territory slowly coming to the understanding of why life is not meant to be easy. This is a harsh land with a harsh climate and the soil is baked and blown away by our clever attempts to bend it to our will.
The silos are strategically located along the train lines with the obviously smart engineering of providing local storage pending collection into rolling stock. They dominate the skyline and are prolific. This is the wheat belt after all, so it's not unsurprising that there are heaps of these out here.

A few years ago a bright spark had the notion of using them as canvases thus creating a whole new industry for the area. Tourism. Who'da thunk. And so we travelled the mostly well made (but sometimes narrow with rough edges) roads slowly heading north and taking snaps of the artists efforts to capture the feel of the land, the people and their relationship to each other along the way.
Absolutely fascinating and a very pleasant day out. A significant variety of thought processes and execution is on display. We literally had the whole trail to ourselves. Thus we could take snaps without some annoying stranger getting in the shot.

The landscape started to get very interesting around Patchewallock as the Mallee started to show it's wares, unfortunately though time was against us and the pool at Sea Lake beckoned so we skipped Snow Drift and headed south east only to be attacked by possibly the most vicious march flies on the planet at Lascelles. Interesting conundrum... take the photo whilst being bitten in multiple places at once or hightail to the safey of the car whilst spinning appendiges like a dervish.
After that heart racing experience, it was a short hop from the Sunrasia to the Calder where the really impressive Sea Lake mural was a highlight as was the cooling dip in the motel pool. Which we had to ourselves.

Following that we sussed out the situation at lake Tyrrell. Having the heat baked salt lake to ourselves was great but way too uncomfortable to hang around. Back to the local rubberty for Pizza night (Monday - restaurant closed) another quick cooling dip before heading back up to the lake to catch the famous sunset whilst enjoying the squealing cackle of excited tourists overriding the imposing stillness that has been a feature of this place for millenia.
Curiously, as soon as the the sun dropped below the horizon (no green flash) so did the noise levels. Native flocks of galahs behave in the same manner, not sure of the connection there - but it could be primordial.

And so back to the hotel, which being on the outskirts of town is somewhere between 8th an 10th gear on the B-doubles. Needless to say we hear every cog spinning freely before the clutch kicks in. Not complaining though. It really is beautiful place situated in an extraordinary landscape.