A great looking day but the wind will kick in later. Before we go let’s look a bit more around Coonalpyn. There is more artwork here than just the Silos – which are so good.
Let’s start with a visit to the Silos Cafe for breakfast and another look at the Silos themselves.
Next is a railway underpass that has been fitted out with murals to brighten it up.
Lastly, the Golden Eagle. A pixel style pic using coloured squares of metal placed on a dull chain link fence. Well done the Men’s Shed for working with the Artist.
That’s done that, time to head off down McIntosh Road. A sign advises no services for 48 ks. “Cold and Wet Road” turns off ours. That would be a good name for a Tassie road in winter.
The first 10 ks whizz by. Flat road, no wind, nice views. Then the wind turns to a westerly (as forecast). Later there is a nice hill to climb and then the road turns into a set of rolling hills. The soil is very sandy – could these rolling hills be dunes? Traffic light to nonexistent, it is a day for rolling along and not to worry or hurry. It was OK until the front gear changer decided to play up.
For the past 2 days I only needed the middle ring but today I wanted to use the big one. No chance, it just would not push the chain up onto it. Then I needed the small ring and the chain fell off. Nothing new there, it has done that once a ride as a regular feature. Today though it was hard to set manually onto the ring. What’s going on? I guess some maintenance is required.
The monuments turn out to be markers showing the route of the gold wagons. The South Australian diggers in the Victorian goldfields were somehow digging for the SA government. Not sure how that worked. But. It is said on many signs that Adelaide would have gone broke if the gold stopped arriving. Troopers were stationed along the route to protect the gold and those trooper bivvies often led to a town developing.
The speed limit signs for Meningie came into view and it turned out to be a tiny town with a big internet presence. The first several businesses were all about driving and agriculture. Equipment sales, maintenance and useables. Further down was a small supermarket and a cafe. I continued through to the caravan park. A glum affair. The owners also run a cheese factory and cafe. I put the tent up and then visited the cafe. It closes at 1500 hours and I bought a coffee 10 mins to closing without realising. At 3pm was asked to leave!
So, to sum up, a glum but large caravan park, uninteresting town, nearly dead fruit and veg in the shop and not much in the way of walks beside Lake Albert. I had planned 2 nights based on the internet profile but will move on tomorrow instead.
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