Day 33: Fri 17 Mar 23

Day 33: Fri 17 Mar 23 - Edithburgh

March 17, 2023

Fri 17 Mar 23 - Edithburgh

16 Deg overnight reaching 28 Deg throughout the day. This morning was cloudy with some light drizzle but it became another clear sunny day. Surprisingly, there was almost no wind all day and evening. After climbing out of bed and having my first caffeine fix for the day, I went for a very enjoyable ride north along the coast through Coobowie to the grain storage and loading facilities at Port Giles. Grain production is one of the main industries on the Yorke Peninsula, and the region is one of the main grain growing regions in South Australia. They appear to have had bumper crops this year too as road trains were continuously rolling in and unloading grain. I couldn’t find anything on the storage capacity of the silos, but there are many and they are massive. There are also about 12 stockpiles of grain 100s of metres long to the side of the storage silos. One ship was being loaded with grain while two others were waiting to be loaded. I rode back along the Walk the Yorke trail and it has amazing views over the St Vincent Gulf. It was low tide and you could see a lot of sea grass in the shallows. I have read that there is a major recovery program underway along in the Yorke Peninsula at the moment. As impressive as the grain silos were, the highlight of the ride was watching a herd of seals frolicking in the shallow water below the cliffs as I was riding past. Some even appeared to look up and wave. This was such an enjoyable bike ride, my favourite of the trip so far. I arrived back at the van at 1000, had a late breakfast then we drove into Yorketown (15km) for a late morning coffee, a look around and some grocery shopping, returning to the van for a late lunch and an afternoon rest. At 1600 we drove back into Yorke to check out a few of the Salt Lakes. Yorketown and the surrounding area were once the centre of a major salt and gypsum mining industries, but all that remains today are more than 200 salt lakes, some of which appear pink in certain conditions. We only visited two - Lake Fowler, at 780 hectares is the largest, and the Pink Lake 3km out of Yorketown. We found that the pink colour became more prominent as the sun was setting. Apparently Winter brings out the best colours too. Another very interesting, and most enjoyable day. Tomorrow, we had planned to drive down to Marion Bay and the Innes National Park, but we decided that we don't feel like the 90km drive each way, so we'll stay nearby.