Wednesday 15th January - Benalla
It's a hot one today. Clive put the aircon first thing for me. It got to 38.8 and a low of only 21.5. We even left the aircon on low when we went on the Silo Art Trail. The Silo Art Trail, now consists of six murals in small country towns. The book we used only had five, but we found another in St James, that was listed in a separate hand out that we had left in the van. The lady at the information centre said it would take about an hour. Well, it took us nearly three hours, so we had a very late lunch. One of the murals was even inside a church. We managed to find five, as the sixth one is in the Winton Wetlands. We went there but obviously not far enough into the wetlands, as there was no signage that we could see. They are certainly interesting and the story boards near them, really give you some insight into these stunning pictures. Coupled with the murals in town this reminds us of outback Queensland. NSW - get your act together. The towns with the Murals are; Goorambat - Besides the Clydesdales there is also the Barking Owl. It is the most threatened owl in Victoria, with Northeast Victoria a remaining stronghold for wild populations. Sophia of Goorambat. Located in the Methodist Church it depicts the female aspect of the Holy Spirit. Sophia by nature is nurturing, wise, comforting, inspirational and ever present. Devenish - This is a tribute to the men and women who have enlisted for military service. St James - Amongst other ones, depicts a mural of Sir George Coles, the founder of Coles supermarkets. He was a local in the St James township. In 1882, George Coles bought the North Eastern Store in St James and a branch store in Lake Rowan, 4 miles away. His son was named George James Coles - of the GJ Coles fame. The silo bunkers were built in 1943 with bushels of wheat originally delivered to the site via horse and cart; a motif that is displayed in the artwork. Tungamah - This is the first silo to be painted in North East Victoria, beginning this Silo Art Trail. Winton Wetlands - This is a water tank incorporating portraits of three local volunteers. Danielle Spokes of Winton Fire Brigade, Robert Green of Taminick Fire Brigade and Colin Hooke from the Chesney Fire Brigade. The smoke is still bad, but a large storm front, the height of Victoria is coming our way and has hit Melbourne with flash flooding and strong winds. Hopefully no hail for us. The cool change hit us around 7pm, with only a few drops of rain, but down in Mansfield they recorded 37mm. We were told the next day the dam at the caravan park had risen by about twelve inches. We're getting the tyre fixed and it will be ready about 9am tomorrow. I took a photo of Clive 'walking to the loo'. A few people are commenting on his 'View from the loo' photos, so thought it would be a good joke.