Horsham, Victoria

I really like Horsham.  It is the largest city in the Wimmera region and has all the services.  The streets are wide and beautifully landscaped and you can tell that the people who live here enjoy it as they are all so very friendly.  The Wimmera River is a favourite place for the residents and the council have done a mighty good job on building many pathways along both sides of the river.  Magnificent houses are built right along the riverbank and I can imagine they would be worth a lot of money.

There was not much on the agenda today.  Just a small grocery shop and I also wanted to find the Silo Art. We found it easily enough as it is just a few kilometres away from us.  It is by far and away the best silo art I have seen, and it is not just the silo as the adjacent buildings have also been painted to further extend the artwork.  The painting tells the story of an aboriginal warrior born in 1834 by the name of Yanggendyinanyuk (and if you can pronounce that you are better than me).  He was brought to fame as being the tracker that found the Cooper-Duff children who were lost in the scrub, surrounding Horsham, for nine days.  He then went on to be a cricket play of renown who competed against England in the first indigenous cricket team.  Next to the silo is the old flour mill where a black cockatoo has been painted.

Late this afternoon, after we had our rest, we walked around 6kms along the Wimmera River.  The pathway is wide enough for cyclists and pedestrians and is mostly paved.  There are numerous river crossings with lots of pedestrian bridges.  The first one we come to is a really quite magnificent swing bridge.  It must have cost a fortune for the council to build and all I can think is that this area is very wealthy....

Continuing our walk the houses stop and the wheat fields begin.  The paddocks of wheat run almost all the way to the river bank.  On our drive yesterday we were quite amazed at how much wheat is grown in this area.  The trail meanders along the bank of the river and before long we come to the weir were we cross to the other side of the river for our return walk.  The old timber weir is looking a bit worse for wear as it is leaking everywhere!  I don't think I would like to be walking where we walked when it finally lets go as it certainly will!

Halloween seems to be on the mind of many people in Horsham as we walk past houses decked out with all the odd things that halloween brings.  

As I mentioned there are many pedestrian bridges across the Wimmera River but these two wooden bridges to a little island, are almost past their used by date but they are very photographic.

Tomorrow we move on to Green Lake where we will catch up with a friend of a friend who is caretaker at the camping ground on the lake.  Green Lake is very close to the pink lake, Lake Tyrell, that we will undoubtedly get to see and I just pray that it is pink.  We have really enjoyed our somewhat relaxing time here in Horsham but it has been cold.....very cold, so we would like to have some warmer weather.  Somehow I don't think that is going to happen any time soon.