The Long Way Euround – Day 2: Mallee region and Silo Art Trail

Today was the second day of our big Classic Mercedes road trip through NSW and Victoria.   Yesterday, we finished up in Cobram, Vic, after a day driving the windy roads of the Upper Murray Region.   Day 2 had the longest distance driving of the trip, so we woke up early. ready roll out by 6AM.

The morning greeted us with grey skies and steady rain.   It didn’t look good for our longest day behind the wheel.  A check of the rain radar showed the storm moving east and only scattered showers to the west of us, our direction of travel.

Sure enough, that proved to be the case.  The rain had largely finished by the time we hit our first stopping point in Echuca for breakfast.   We hit a local bakery, and I had an English Breakfast in a pie.  This mean a pie containing Egg, Bacon, Sausage and beans.   It worked much better than it sounds.

This area was very lush and fertile, and there was a combination of olive groves and livestock as we drove along.    The roads were mostly straight and we just cruised admiring the scenery and seeing occasional glimpses of the Murray River as it meandered along.   All the cars were running well, with only the 380SEC suffering from a minor hot start issue, likely a fuel accumulator.

From Echuca, we continued to follow the river, and left the main highway to take smaller roads that were far more interesting.   We stopped for a break tat Lake Charm, which was quite windy and then continued into Swan Hill to regroup.   At Swan Hill one of the guys produced a cake and some oranges which was a great way to take a break from the driving.

As we continued along the river from Swan Hill, the weather kept getting better, and the scenery continued to change.   The lush greenery gave way to red dirt and scrub.   The olive trees and sheep gave way to more and more wheat fields, as well as trees growing nuts.

This was part of the trip was a gentle cruise with minimal traffic and interesting scenery that was slowly changing.   Our lunch destination was Robinvale, where after driving over 400km we stopped at a Vietnamese take out store.   The owner was a real character and he also owns the local Chinese restaurant.    By the time we hit Robinvale the weather was really good, and it was quite hot at 27C.    We refueled the cars, and since the morning involved very relaxed cruising, I got 13.7l/100km which is about as good as it gets in an ADR 450SLC.

After Robinvale, we headed south towards the viewing Platform at Lake Tyrell.   The afternoon driving was quite different to the morning.   We were really in wheat country, with wheat as far as the eye could see.   The roads were empty and quite good, with lots of curves as they went around the various wheat fields.   The area was full of undulating hills, so the road had lots of ups and downs as well as the curves around the fields.    This was some of the best driving of the day.

We stopped for a break at Lake Tyrell and had a bit of a look around.   The scenery is quite good here, and it was well worth taking a short detour to see it.

The rest of the afternoon was planned to follow part of the Silo Art Trail.   The Silo Art Trail is a collection of 15 grain silos in the Wimmera and Mallee area.   It covers 700km, and you could probably spend two days doing the whole thing.   We didn’t do the whole Trail, but six of the silos that were generally on our way to Horsham, where we planned to finish for the day.

The first one we visited was the Sea Lake silo.  It has a vibrant mural of a little girl siting on a swing in a windswept area.   We stopped for a longer break here as this is one of the two we had identified as ideal for shooting some good photos of the cars with the silo in the background.

The next one was at Lascelles.  This wasn’t one of the Silos we had identified for a longer stop, but we ended up taking one anyway.  There was something eerie about this silo.  It was of a local Farmer and his wife.   The Farmer looked like had weathered a few too many droughts in his life, and the town of Lascelles mirrored this, looking rather down and out.

Next were short stops at Rosebery and Brim.   Brim was the one that kicked off the whole thing.   These were interesting, but not as vibrant as some of the others.  We only stopped for a few minutes. as we really wanted to get to Sheep Hills while the light was still good.   Sheep Hills looked like the most eye catching silo of the ones we were visiting, and it didn’t disappoint.    We arrived just as the sun was starting to get long and the vibrant mural looked great with our classics lined up.

It was generally about 30 minutes or so between each silo.  The roads meandered through the wheat fields, mostly along side the railway tracks.

We had originally planned to see Rupanyap, but we decided to skip it and see the final silo in the town of Horsham.   We almost didn’t bother going to look at this one, as it was getting dark.   I’m sure glad we did.   It rivaled Sheep Hills for visual impact.   It wasn’t just the silo that was painted, it was also ancillary buildings, for example one with a black cockatoo.

After our final Silo, we refueled and checked into our hotel in Horsham.   I checked my oil level, and like yesterday, I was at the low mark.  Even after adding a liter this morning.   I topped it off again, and as I shut the bonnet, all of a sudden one of my horns started to blow continuously.

It was rather loud in the parking lot of the hotel, and I quickly put on a head torch and got under the car to take a look.   Sure enough, my drivers side horn was blowing, but the passengers wasn’t.   This seemed to rule out the switch being the issue.   If I held the horn tightly, it at least stopped making noise.   While this solved the immediate problem, I couldn’t stay there all night.   Since I wasn’t able to let go, one of the other guys found my tool kit and extracted a screwdriver for me to remove the connections to that horn.   However, the horn was cowed by this display of tools and stopped blowing once I had the screwdriver in my hand.   This time I shut the bonnet less vigorously so as not to disturb the horn.

After this we adjourned to the local pub for dinner.  As with last night, the pub was very good. Amusingly, it provided the option to add a side of Chicken or Beef to the vegetarian meal. It had been another great day on our trip, and very different to the sort of driving we did yesterday.   This was my first time in this area of Australia and I enjoyed it.