After what seemed like forever to be getting away from around Melbourne we felt now that all was done on the caravan that we could start to head towards South Australia.  From Heathcote we did a 150 kilometre drive to St Arnaud.  We stayed in a great little caravan park that was pretty cheap and small with great facilities.  This was another surprising little town that we thought would be only a few buildings and not much else.  As with most towns over this side of Australia they are very surprising when you get to them and lots have some great history with old buildings still preserved and some excellent walks.

St Arnaud has a great little heritage trail that you can walk as well as some great character buildings in the main street. Its one of those towns that you can park in front of the shop you want to go into.  While there we also did a tour through the Bible Museum which turned out to be very interesting and not what we expected at all.  The lady there also breeds butterflies and you are able to see caterpillars pupate and butterflies hatch from their pupae while you are there.  When they are able to fly, the butterflies are released in the town and you do see them around when walking.  Amazing also was that this was free though they did have a donation box that was very hard to see.  All in all a great little town and well done St Arnaud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a really great few days in St Arnaud we decided that we would do the Silo Art Tour.  This is a 200 kilometre trail that has murals on six silos in six towns.  The trail takes in six of Victoria’s smallest towns along the way being Sheep Hills, Brim, Patchewollock, Lascelles, Rosebery and Rupanyup.  Not being sure what to expect we were surprised to see how popular this trail was.  The art work itself was very good and with plans to extend the amount of art work on silo’s this trip could become quite iconic in years to come.

From St Arnaud we drove through Rupanyup, Sheep Hills and stayed the night at a free camp in Brim.  Some people do the whole tour in one day but that’s being to rushed.  The drive from Rupanyup took us through the small town of Minyip which is where they filmed some of the Flying Doctor’s series.  When we passed through Warracknabeal we stopped off at the Agricultural Museum.  This is an excellent display of older farm machinery and the display is very extensive.  Well worth a short stopover when driving through.

After the night at Brim it was then continuing on through Rosebery, Woomelang, Lascelles and finishing in Patchewollock.    We stopped for look at Woomelang as the tour said they had a big python mural to look at.  Also while there we stopped and looked at an old shearing shed made out of old kerosene tins.  There was also a walk around a small lake that featured some excellent art made out of corrugated iron and painted up.  These were mainly rural scenes and very well done.  The artists name was Phil Rigg.  At Patchewollock we stayed at the old primary school that has been closed down.  They have set up part of the old oval with power and water with nice grassed sites, all for only $10.00 a night.  After such hard touring we rewarded ourselves with a night out at the Patchewollock Hotel.  The pizza’s were great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was our last stop over in Victoria.  Seems like we have spent a lot of time back tracking around the place, which we have but now we can finally leave.  We are crossing into south Australia and onto Kingston on Murray for a few days.  We have ordered some items on line and have had them sent to the caravan park here.  Hopefully they arrive as one is my birthday present and very much needed.   The caravan park has a great outlook over part of the Murray River that makes an excellent backdrop for a sundowner each evening.  Bloody tough life it is.

Kingston on Murray is quite a nice area with lots of wineries in the area so Kaye feels like she has gone to heaven.  Banrock Station Winery is just up the road from us and they do an excellent lunch and also have a pretty good 8 kilometre walk around the lake there.  We did that on another day, not after lunch and wine.  Berri and Renmark are close by and an easy day drive to go and look at.  Very popular here also are houseboats.  Everywhere you go they are moored up on the river bank.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow we are off again and heading a little bit further north and a little bit west as well towards the Flinders Ranges.  It is good to know that we are getting closer to them as we seem to have had stop start goes at trying to get to them over the last couple of years.