4th & 5th May,

The road from Mildura to South Australia is flat and after a short distance of vineyards and olive groves it soon becomes a road through a desert like plain.  It is also very flat and the altimeter in the car actually dropped to 50 metres for a good distance. 

At Renmark we came in touch with the Murray River and the road then ran in parallel with the river for a lot of the way.  At Waikerie we stopped for lunch at a spot overlooking the river.  We have never seen it before but now it really is in fast flow and extremely wide spreading out over significant areas of marshland.  It is amazing the amount of water flowing.

We travelled on into Barossa Valley and booked into a caravan park in Nurioopta.  I love the aboriginal names that are given to so many towns in southern Australia.  This is a beautiful area full of very mature vineyard landscapes interlaced with sheep country.  The autumn colours were everywhere.  But the real stunner is the architecture.  The old style stone houses and the new replicas in South Australia starting in the Barossa add a special character.  There are an enormous number of wine makers and cellar door sales are a real tourism attraction.

We drove a tourist circuit around the area taking in Angaston, and Tanunda as well as Nurioopta (after two days and lots of “oops” I was nearly able to pronounce that correctly).  There is a real British & German influence.  We drove through treelined roads, stonewall type fences, grazing paddocks and small villages.  Angaston is a reflection of a small European village with “Ye Olde” shops wall to wall and small parks.  No big shopping centres here.  Then up the hills to a great lookout covering the whole area.  We looked out over a number of stone sculpture towards the valley below.  So we add a new dimension of art to the area mix. 

 

The roads to Seppeltsfield  (oldest wine making site in the area) was lined with palm trees.  The family Mausoleum overlooks the family area from the highest point in the property.  The Seppelts name is famous in wine making.  Driving through the wine making building complex had a taste of Spanish flavour as the old mustard colour rendered buildings were surrounded in gardens and palm trees.

 Seppelts vineyards

The Seppelt family Mausoleum

At Tanunda the welcome sign across the roads displayed the name of Penfolds, another well known wine maker.  But this is not just a large winemaker area.  Scores of smaller cellars have their doors open inviting the tourists in to check out the whares.  The small shops that lined the streets reflected a prosperous community which had a real self support theme.  German bakeries and cafes are abundant and we enjoyed a great lunch here.

Entry to Tanunda

In these country towns the sporting ground are well prepared and after the whole town seems to appear at the fields in the late afternoon for football or netball practice.  We are well and truly in the Australian Rules area and young boys are out mimicking their heroes everywhere

The nights are quite cool here.  The temps appear to be .3 – 4 degrees cooler than in Adelaide and we are beginning to feel the winter.