The weather turned bad today with strong winds that whipped up the sand in the camping area. We pulled down the awning and all potential flying objects and spent the day driving around the central parts of the Yorke. This part of the world is very dry, and the main industry today is broadacre cereal and sheep farming. The soils look poor but this area is actually one of South Australia’s better agricultural areas. There is very little water and no irrigation, and salt lakes of various sizes are common.
Many farms seem to have old buildings made of the local stone, ranging from beautifully preserved homes to a large number of derelict houses, sheds, watertanks and churches. Stone appears to be a major building material as timber is in short supply. Even the power poles are made from concrete/stone rather than timber.
Most of the coastal towns are quite old and previously were busy ports but are primarily tourist towns now. Yorketown is a lovely inland town that used to produce salt as well as being a service town for the area. many of these towns have beautifully preserved stone buildings.
|
|
|
Minlaton is a service town and their local hero is an aviator who flew the coastal mail run from Adelaide and crashed his plane near the town. The tiny red plane is on display, it is really only one step up from an ultralite!
|
|
|
On the edge of the town there is a small wildlife reserve. We stopped for a photo and I wondered why the emus greeted me with such enthusiasm until I saw a man entering the enclosure and feeding the emus and kangaroos with a bucket of grain – the bickering among them was amusing to watch and reminded me of feeding a mob of horses.
