Day Two – Sunday 21st April – Warracknabeal to Wyperfeld National Park......silos, coffee and the cold

Fortunately, we managed to pack up far more quickly than setting up so after hot showers and breakfast we headed off in a north westerly direction. Or that’s what Ewan told us as Liz and I seem to get very confused about where we were headed. We wanted to tick off a few more of the Silo Art experiences so we headed to:

Brim: silo art and met other grey nomads from Geelong who have a daughter who is a GP there. The joy was interrupted by news that Snoopy was misbehaving madly at Helen and Rod’s house and needed to be removed ASAP. Anyway, to cut a long story short she is being shipped off to Boarding kennels tomorrow after a short stay at Erin and Michael’s place. Very tricky to organize as, of course, phone connection ceases outside of small towns. Roseberry: two horsepersons painted by graffiti artist Kaff-eine. Hopetoun: the lowlight was the quality of the coffee which we had to throw away it was so bad but the highlight was Lake Lascelles with very tempting lakeside camping spots Lascelles: Rone’s artwork of older local residents

Womelang has art pieces of local birds painted by different artists on small water and grain tanks spread around town and a small lake. Collages made from metal depicted many of the local places including the general store which we had to visit. I was very taken with it last time as it sold EVERYTHING! It was , and still is, the Post office News agency, Bank, and sold hardware, stationery, books, groceries , deli food, take away food, plants and even electrical appliances! Sadly it no longer sold op shop clothes and second hand books, but was still fascinating. Patchewollock: Following the Guide we were advised to look out for the silo art and the mallee fowl at Patchewollock.

The silo art was easy to locate in a very small town (popn. 80). After chatting to some other grey nomads we decided to check out the largest institution in town : the pub (closed of course!). Through the trees we caught site of two huge metal Mallee fowls with a board saying ‘The Big Mallee Fowl’. Take that Big Banana!! Finally we headed down the roads -ever decreasing in size and smoothness - roads until we hit the bumpy dirt tracks of the Wyperfeld National Park. With only one other campsite occupied, the quiet and beauty of the stars was beautiful. We also managed, with tuition from Ewan, to set up camp on flat ground in record time (well it had to be quicker than the previous night!!) With an expected temperature of 3 degrees my hands are getting too cold to type so I’m off to bed! Your frozen correspondent Dianne