We were in no hurry to leave Edithburgh this morning. Our journey up the east coast of Yorke today is approximately130 kms.  The sunrise was spectacular and worth including in this blog as well.  There was even a reflection back into the caravan.  Peter did some repairs to the toilet door before we left.  We bounced a few rivets out yesterday travelling those rough roads!

Our first stop was Coobowie only 5kms north and the large Viterra silos at Port Giles were clearly visible across the bay.  We had read of the grain having to be transported to Port Giles for shipment when we were at Warooka yesterday.  We thought about going in but decided against it, as it is nothing more than a shipping port.  Back to why Coobowie was on our itinerary today.  Another painted water tower!  This one wasn't very spectacular and there was no room to turn the caravan around!  Surprisingly Peter was okay, not swearing but not smiling either!  He had to reverse quite a distance back down the road.  A farmers gateway helped out halfway back!  But in any case he was certainly up to the challenge!

The Coobowie water tank is a low one with a shed beside which has been painted as well.  It is a mixture of brush painting and spray gun and was completed in February 2021 by three artists.  The artwork focuses on the distinctive bird life of Coobowie.  Pity we couldn't see many of them!  It features a Great Egret, Black Swan, Royal Spoonbill, Pelican, Cape Barren Goose, Pied Oystercatcher, Pigface, MalleeBush Pea, Coastal White-Mallee, Osbornes Eyebright and Clover Glycine. The shed features a rodeo theme, an important part of Coobowie’s history.  Coobowie done we were on our way to Stansbury.

This water tower was definitely worth viewing.  I question why SA Water is not assisting a little more with this tourism initiative.  Surely it wouldn't be too hard to put a small hole in the fence to enable people to take a reasonable photo!  Three more caravans had pulled up before we left.  You can't get to the far side of this one and it had the highest fence around it.  It was painted by Mike Makatron & Conrad Bizjak and completed on the 29th May 2021.  It took just 13 days to complete and celebrates the notable fauna and natural landscape of Stansbury.  It features a Blue Swimmer Crab, a Pelican, Dolphins, Norfolk Island Trees, the Jetty, Stansbury's Iconic Coastline, Ribbon Seaweed and Oysters, which are abundant in the area.  We had our morning coffee while we walked the foreshore.  The caravan park was up on the point and maybe it is a bit windy this time of year, but I'm sure it is a popular location during the summer months.  The mural on the corner store is very, very nice.  I just had to have some photos.  Peter parked where he shouldn't have and then some old bloke swore at him!  Well you get that!  Peter was in the car with the engine going for heavens sake, so it didn't take him long to move on!  Some people blow their top unnecessarily.  We purchased some prawns from the Seafood outlet before we left.

There was just one Water Tower left to find and that was at Port Vincent.  I think this is the holiday spot that Maria, Pam H's scrapbooking friend comes to each year.  They love this seaside town for their caravan family holidays together.  Maria was telling us about it when they came to dinner at Pam's.  This Port Vincent tower is in a farmers paddock and there were signs everywhere about it being on private property and no public access.  They were SA Water signs though.  If you want a closer look you can meet a guide on Wednesdays during school holidays and at 10.30am on Saturday and Sundays.  There was also a 100 metre Storyboard Trail through quite a thick patch of scrubby trees.  Well Peter said 'They can't shoot us"!   So we did walk in for a closer look.  My reason was we wanted to get a closer look at the roller machine the farmer had been using.  We had seen them working in our travels.  Peter says they push the rocks into the soil before the seed comes up and are used in paddocks that have been sown to lentils.  We had played bowls against and ex farmer from lower Yorke in Port Lincoln.  He had said the growing of lentils in the area has made a huge difference to profitability and land prices have risen accordingly.

We were in Ardrossan by noon.  We are having another attempt with Australia Post!  The head lady in the Post Office said that the fastest post is Express Post.  What I posted Express Post in Whyalla on the 20th April was not delivered until the 10th May!  The lady did shake her head when I told her and certainly didn't defend Australia Post!  Now I need to send a different form to the life insurance company.  I thought I could fax it, but fortunately did ring them before I attempted that option.  They said their form needs to be updated and the fax option removed.  Life wasn't meant to be easy and forgetting the Super Fund cheque book was a big mistake!  Organising payment from SA has done my head in!   And it continues to do so!  We prepared a bread roll for lunch and ate it on the foreshore, before taking a couple of photos and heading off for Port Wakefield.  We spent quite a bit of time in Ardrossan in 2014, visited the museum and found out the history of the 'Stump Jump Plough'.  

There was lots of road works happening at Port Wakefield where a new overpass has been completed.  The South Aussies have had to deal with the bottleneck for sometime and it will be good when it is finally finished.  We managed to find our way in and out to get fuel and onto the right road to head to Balaklava.  We were off on the Silo Art Trail now.  Destination Owen.  The road to Balaklava was good.  This area grows a lot of hay and it seems that some farmers have diversified to poultry.  There were huge sheds not far off the road.  The road to Owen was not good, just as well we didn't have to go too far!  

This silo art was just okay.  The colours looked inviting as we drove in, but the attention to detail was not the same.  The stories behind the painting of these SA silos has me fascinated, and I know Heather is reading about them with interest.  It is obvious you have to build a very good case, have strong community support and apply for numerous grants.  Silo Art for Owen had been a discussion point ever since silos began being used as a canvas.  In 2018 the idea gained momentum when a former local resident brought an official proposal to the table of the Owen Community Centre, along with a world renowned artist at the ready.  Months of enthusiastic community consultation took place and finally they agreed on the theme Wheat Bags to Sand Bags.  Successful grant applications and fundraising events enabled the project to commence in March 2021.  Owen Silos are the 10th silos to be painted in SA.  The area painted is 2016 square metres, it took 300 hours and the artist used 340 litres of paint that was donated by Dulux.  The design is by Robert Hannaford AM and it is his first silo art.  It was painted by Cam Scale from NSW.  Cam painted the Kimba silos.  I also found the construction of these silos interesting.  The first six were built in 1964 and a further six in 1970.  They were built by wheelbarrow in a continuous pour, ring-by-ring.  It's hard to imagine!

While Pam wandered the street reading the history and taking the odd photo, Pete studied travel maps and decided we should head to Kapunda for the night.  We rang and Brad found a site for us and we travelled some more billy goat tracks to get there by 4.30pm!  Another day wandering along.