Aussie Road Trip Day Eleven, Thursday 25th July

A trip through Dan Murphys ......

After a lovely evening out at dinner in the Clare Valley Motel Restaurant, neither of us felt like much for breakfast, however coffee (the good stuff) was a must, so we returned to the Cafe where we'd had lunch yesterday and had aproved their barrrista.

We had all day ahead of us to travel the mere 150 kilometres to Nairne, so we were in no real hurry and just meandered our way through the very picturesque landscape of the Clare and Barossa Valleys. We criscrossed from Kapunda to Nuriootpa, then on to Tanunda, Lyndoch and Williamstown, all the while remarking on the very familiar wine names we kept seeing on the cellar doors and wineries as we passed through. Penfolds, Jacobs Creek, Wolf Blass .... it was just like walking through Dan Murphy's, except that we were driving through and the shelves were instead cellar doors.

It's easy to see why South Australia is such a renowned Australian wine region. Adelaide is surrounded by the Clare Valley, Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale and the whole area is studded with boutique wineries and some which are extremely large scale. There had been recent rain in the area, so everything was beautifully green, and the few sheep and alpacas we saw looked exceptionally happy prancing in their lush green pastures. By contrast their poor cousins near Broken Hill and outback NSW were in such a sparse barren landscape it was hard to see how they could possibly survive the harsh environment.



Barb at Hahndorf

We arrived in the little town of Hahdorf in time for a late lunch and a good look around this charming  town. It reminded me quite a lot of Montville in QLD, except that it had a more German influence and was a whole lot colder. In summer this town is positively heaving with tourists, and busloads of Asian tourists arrive to disgorge their happy customers to delight in the German Hotel meat platters and to pick strawberries (in season) at the nearby Beerenberg jam factory, not to mention purchase large quantities of tourist tat.
Today there were still quite a few Asian tourists braving the cold, just like us.





John at the restaurant in Kanmantoo

We spent the afternoon entertained in this way, and then drove on to Mt Barker. There was not a parking space to be had in this bustling town, so we wandered on to Kanmantoo. There we found a delightful Italian restaurant to have coffee. Tony, the elderly chef and host from Florence has made the restaurant and bed & breakfast chalets beside it into a very congenial destination. The menu looked amazing.




John at Kanmantoo

Lovely old stone buildings at Kanmantoo



Gorgeous old town

John having lunch at Hahndorf

 










We finally arrived at Nairne just ahead of Ailsa who had just finished her shift at the hospital in Adelaide, where she works as a nurse educator in midwifery. The transformation of their garden by David since our last visit here was quite remarkable. It is looking quite stunning and you can see the hours of back breaking work that must've been involved to achieve this in evidence (John: David has laid so much brick paving that I'm seriously worried about the state of his knees ... been there, done it, felt the agony!). Our two raised garden beds back home look a paltry effort by comparison. John did a great job in their making, but I have failed to maintain them (Hah! She admits it in writing!).

Ailsa and David's charming home in Nairne

The front garden of their home

Ailsa and John in the amazing landscaped back garden

It was a very pleasant evening catching up on all the news with our old friends. We always seem to just pick up where we last left off with comfortable ease. Ailsa had made a vat of Thai spicy pumpkin soup which we devoured, followed by Lamingtons of local fame. They were both good! The fire  in the wood stove in their lounge kept the whole house pleasantly warm all night and we were cocooned from the outside cold.

Today we re-visit Adelaide itself with Ailsa as our guide.