Don't know where we're going, Got no way of knowing, Driving on the road to nowhere…
A celebration of the region’s wine, food, culture and heritage. Watching the parade in Nuriootpa:
Then an afternoon of music and Barossa food and wine on the Nuriootpa Oval, followed by a stagger back to the campsite next door!
Each town has their day in the spotlight.
We stayed in the town of Auburn as our base for exploring the Clare Valley. There are several walking trails to choose from including the Riesling Trail to the North and the Rattler Trail to the south, and also a walk through the historic town. Many of its stone buildings are National Trust listed. It was nice to see all the autumnal colours of the trees which we don’t get in Brisbane.
There are many cellar doors to choose from. The Sevenhill vineyard is a must-see. It was established by the Jesuits in 1851 and originally produced altar wine. Visitors can go on a guided or self walking tour of the winery and grounds, visit the museum and sample wines at the cellar door.
The area is also full of olive groves so you are spoilt for choice when it comes to gourmet olives and olive oils.
The NSW/South Australia border is 50km from Broken Hill.
South Australia is the only Australian mainland state that is fruit fly free and if you are carrying fresh fruit, you need to either eat it or bin it before crossing the border. An official had to check inside our van at the inspection point.
Just outside of Broken Hill lies a historic mining town that seems frozen in time. Silverton is a film maker’s dream – a 19th century outback hamlet that has not seen much in the way of progress since its founding!
The rough stone built cottages and distinct lack of sealed roads make for easy set dressing and have attracted a number of movie producers to it. One of the most famous films that used Silverton as a base was Mad Max II and after shooting, many of the abandoned sets, props and costumes were bought/scavenged by a Pom who happened to live in the area.
And so the Mad Max II Museum was born, and a jolly interesting place it is too.
The sheer volume of stuff, which includes a mixture of real and reproduction items, has rather outgrown its current housing and could probably fare better with at least double the space. A great morning out for those of us that still love the edgy feel of the first two Mad Maxes!
I popped into the local fly fishing spot to get a recommendation for the best fly to use on the Murray River and they sold me this!
Just for comparison, the titchy little thing below is the actual fly (now looking a little frazzled) that landed a magnificent 40cm Brown Trout which fed us for two days. By my reckoning, based on that scale, they have sperm whales in the Murray. Funny, I thought that they lived in the sea.
They tell me that the true target, Murray Cod, are basically a huge mouth with a tail and will happily consume unwary mice, rats, coots and small possums that are foolish enough to go for a swim. This I have got to see!!!
It was all going nicely through Qld and NSW – A lovely linear (well slightly weaving) progression between towns for the first few weeks. And then Victoria happened!
We are loving this state with so much heritage and a great abundance of farm fresh produce to enjoy, however Victoria is a higgledy piggledy mass of towns and villages all close together with no obvious route between them. Our map has suddenly become distinctly less tidy than before as we meander across this lovely State. It’s going to get worse too as we will be giving this fine region a second go later in the year on the return trip.
Jonathan’s birthday present was a day at the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne.
We spent his birthday evening watching ‘Stargazing Live’ at SDM HQ aka Peter and Kim Read’s house. They laid on an excellent port and cheese spread.
Cactus Country near Cobram in Northern Victoria looked a little bit cheesy on arrival with cartoon cacti on the walls and sombreros to wear but walk through the entrance and you’re in the largest cacti and succulent garden in the Southern Hemisphere.
The trails are thoughtfully laid out with plants from different regions.
We headed NE out of Melbourne, along the Goulburn River to some popular trout fishing spots. Jonathan is definitely getting the hang of this trout fishing lark.
Some lovely bush walks but it did get quite nippy at night.
Jonathan and Neil used to work together in Swindon and we met up with Neil and his wife Ann in Melbourne. They had flown over from the UK for a family wedding and a holiday and amazingly were just down the road from where we were staying.
