We’ve actually clocked up 10,000km in our van since we picked it up back in February, 2020… you know before COVID tried to destroy the human race…

We planned to get both the car and the van serviced in Adelaide, being the last major city before we head up the centre through Uluru to Darwin.

First off the mark was getting the van serviced and we had booked this in some months ago with Adelaide RV located in Adelaide’s north. There is lots of choice for caravan servicing in Adelaide but I think we chose the best. Adelaide RV were excellent and very helpful. Aside from a 10K service, they realigned our awning and diagnosed the problem with our diesel heater, which turned out to be water in the fuel… They drained the tank for us, re-tested and thankfully we can now heat the van if we choose to free-camp without power. This is very comforting now that we’re heading up the centre and may not be staying at powered carvan sites.

They answered a bunch of questions we had and gave us a good deal of confidence that the van is fit for the next leg of our trip. We can’t recommend Adelaide RV highly enough. Friendly, professional and quality service… They even blacked our tires…

After the van it was the cruisers turn for a service at Northpoint Toyota in Prospect. Once again it was a good choice. They gave us a courtesy car while doing the service and were done in a matter of hours giving it a clean bill of health for the next major leg of our trip. Very friendly, efficient and easy to deal with. Thoroughly recommended.

With both the car and van serviced and in good nick we’re confident that going up the centre to Darwin is comfortably within our capabilities…

When Jo caught up with her schoolfriends in Nuri’ for their joint 60th birthday celebration, Katherine who lives in Adelaide suggested that we meet up with her husband Peter for dinner one night and also at the Adelaide Showground Markets for brekkie and some produce.

Concubine

Our dinner date was at Concubine, an Asian restaurant in Adelaide’s ‘Chinatown’ precinct. It was a very classy restaurant that was ‘reminiscent’ of what we imagine a decent restaurant in Hong Kong would look like. Multi-storey with steep, narrow stairs leading to cosy separate rooms with three or four tables in each.

With a typical extensive menu we feasted on Prawns in XO Sauce, Edimame Beans, Crunchy Soft Shell Crab and Salt & Pepper Tofu and Chicken Mince with Long Beans, Eggplant & Chillie… A truly enjoyable meal and very reasonable prices.

Katherine and Peter invited us back to their relatively new and very comfortable apartment for coffee and nightcaps where Peter introduced Rob to a very good and very smooth Japanese Single Malt Whiskey.

All in all a lovely evening and it was really good to get know Katherine and Peter a bit more also grill them for a bit local South Australian knowledge. In fact, based on their recommendations we changed our plans and deferred doing the Yorke Peninsula in favour of spending a week in the Clare Valley, which was where Peter spent some of his early years.

Adelaide Showground Farmers’ Market

Following our catchup at Concubine, Katherine suggested that we meet up again on the weekend at the Adelaide Showground Farmers’ Market, only a short distance from where their apartment.

It didn’t disappoint… The Bagel stand was superb and we came away with a bag of assorted bagels, the best of which was the Jalapeno Bagel. The Roasted Garlic Bagel was pretty good too!

Poh Ling Yeow, of Masterchef fame was on deck cooking at her Jamface stall. It was great to see a person who has gained a big public image keeping it real and not hiding from the public after achieving success.

We stocked up on fresh veges, eggs, bagels as well as grabbing some brekkie fare to take back to Katherine’s for a late brekkie. The most interesting purchase was a bag of Jerusalem Artichokes for $5 that I used later in the trip for a pot of chicken vegetable soup. I also air fried some and tossed them into a fry up with chorizo, onions, capsicum and tomatoes. Having never had them before… I will be looking out for them again in the future. A really versatile and easyto cook vegetable…

Saying farewell to Katherine, we resolved to catch up again in a weeks time in McLaren Vale for a day of lunch and wine tasting…

So… earlier in our trip we received a phone call from our eldest son, James, to let us know that he and his fiancee Alex had decided on a date and location for their wedding. It just so happens that those settled on Rob’s birthday, 10th September in Lithgow, NSW.

Wonderful news and we’re both very excited for them. Of course this meant that we now had to figure out a plan to get somewhere that we could store the cruiser and van so that we could fly back to NSW for a week to go to the wedding.

Although we were already planning to head up the centre to visit Uluru during the cooler winter months and then on through to Darwin… This cemented our plan and we worked out the itinerary to get to all the places we wanted to see and have us in Darwin by the 6th of September to fly back for the wedding on the 10th,

So planning aside… This meant that we had to spend a day running around Adelaide to find wedding outfits for ourselves since we didn’t plan on attending any weddings as we were travelling around the rest of the country. We succeeded in our quest we’re now looking forward the rest of our time in South Australia before heading ‘up the guts’ to Darwin and then seeing our families again at James and Alex’s wedding…

So… In Nuriootpa the fair Princess Joanne turned 60! And it should be noted that on the very same day she applied for and received a ‘Seniors Card’. Funny and tragic at the same time.

It’s a bit difficult to organise a birthday present when you’re travelling in a caravan with limited space, etc… So I decided to do two things to mark the occasion:

• Book a relaxing massage followed by a float session;
• Book a fine dinner experience at a quality restaurant.

The massage and float turned into a saga when the masseuse ended up getting sick and no other time slot could be found. Massage deferred until later in the trip…

Dinner however, was a major success:

Vintner’s Bar and Grill

Vintner’s Bar and Grill is located amongst the vineyards in Angaston. It has won numerous awards and is a true dining experience. It is a beautifully presented establishment with lots of stone, wooden beams and a log fire. It is true fine dining without being pretentious or snobby.

We did the four course menu where you choose any four dishes from five gategories:

• Little Bits
• Raw
• Smaller
• Bigger
• After

Our meals were absolutely exquisite and although they don’t have an advertised ‘accompanying wines’ option our server was more than happy to do a half glass of recommended wine with each course. This was an excellent option.

Jo’s Choices

• (Raw) – Freshly shucked SA Oysters – shallot vinaigrette
• (Smaller) – Housemade dumplings
• (Bigger) – Duck breast, lentil & leg croquette, celeriac smoked Chardonnay jus

Rob’s Choices

• (Raw) – Atlantic salmon, wasabi, ponzu, black rice & furikake
• (Smaller) – Blue swimmer crab pasta, fermented chilli, ginger butter
• (Bigger) – House pickled pork, fermented cabbage, pea & mustard sauce

We both chose

• Passionfruit soufflé, vanilla bean ice cream & coconut crumble 

Every course was sensational and packed with the layers of flavour and clarity that only a quality chef can produce. The passionfruit souffle was, in a word, ridiculous. Absolute perfection in terms of height, colour and souffle fluffiness.

Like Peter Gilmore’s Quay Restaurant, for Rob’s 50th birthday, this was a truly memorable meal and a perfect way to celebrate Jo’s 60th lap of the sun…

Schoolfriends Reunion

For quite few years now, Jo has been catching up every two years with three of her schoolfriends – Karen, Katherine and Penny (who we met up with earlier in the year in a short trip to Bright in Victoria). 2020 and 2021 put a dent in their schedule so they took the opportunity to join us in the Barossa to collectively celebrate their 60th birthdays with Jo being the last to turn 60.

Penny also brought her husband, Steve, along to keep Rob company, whereas Karen’s and Katherine’s husband were, unfortunately, working that weekend.

Karen, Katherine and Penny based themselves in a lovely stone cottage in Tanunda and festivities were opened with a bottle of Moët & Chandon bubbles and nibbles with rounds of reminiscing and forward planning for the weekend. Rob and Steve were content to reminisce about the trip to Bright over some shared reds and then proceed to unpack the mysteries of life, the universe and everything…

Without going into too much detail the weekend unfolded as follows:

• Friday night dinner at Char Barossa;
• On Saturday, A tasting at Cimicky Wines;
• A visit and browsing at Seppeltsfield;
• A tasting at Grant Burge Wines;
• A late lunch at the Barossa 50’s Diner;
• Shopping at Barossa Fresh for a DIY charcuterie dinner at the house;
• On Sunday, breakfast at Four Seasons of Nosh in Tanunda; and
• A visit to Maggie Beer’s Farm Shop.

All in all it was a really enjoyable weekend that came to an end all to quickly. Jo and Katherine resolved that we would meet up again in Adelaide the following week for dinner and also catchup for a day in the McClaren Vale region when we moved on to Victor Harbor.

Seabrook

Heritage Wines

Gibson Wines

Kalleske

Alkina Estate

Chateau Dorrien

Chateau Tanunda

Pindarie

Seppeltsfield

We didn’t actually do a tasting at Seppeltsfield as it required a booking and we were on a bit of a schedule. Seppeltsfield is another grand estate that also houses a fine art gallery, hand-made crafts, jam factory and body care shops. Well worth a visit even if you don’t do a tasting.

Cimicky

Grant Burge Wines

Tanunda is a Barossa town only 5 or 10 minutes from Nuriootpa. It has much more of a touristy feel than Nuri’. Tanunda has some of the oldest vines in Australia dating back to 1847 and due to the absence of Phylloxera (an insect pest) are believed to be the oldest continually producing vine in the world!

Chateau Tanunda

No trip to Tanunda is complete without a visit to Chateau Tanunda, a majestic and grand estate that is a true icon of the Barossa. It was a little quiet and deserted when we visited, largely due to winter and the weather but that meant we had it mostly to ourselves.

The tasting is conducted in a cavernous barrel storage cellar room contains numerous private tasting rooms around the edge as well as privately owned barrels of wine quietly maturing over the fullness of time.

It is a magnificent atmosphere and like stepping back into colonial times but sadly we were’nt overly impressed by the wines that we tasted. Still… it is well worth the visit even if just to stroll around the gardens and the barrels of slowly maturing wines.

Lyndoch Lavender Farm

Not too far from Tanunda is Lyndoch Lavender Farm. A small acreage about the same size as our home back in Royalla. Again it was very quiet due to the season and the weather but gave us the opportunity to wander through the lavender, which also contained a number of other interesting trees, plants and shrubs, including the one pictured above that was quite exotic (to us anyway).

The shop sells a massive range of lavender products and has a cafe (that wasn’t operating) that sells lavender ice cream, and other various comestibles containing lavender.

The Hunt For A Cornish Pasty

South Australia has a long history of mining and miners from Cornwall in particular. Hence it has a reputation for Cornish Pasties.

Now there are pasties and there are Cornish Pasties… A true Cornish Pasty is made of a short pastry, containing lard, encasing finely diced or minced beef, onion, potato and swede. It is seasoned with nothing other than salt and quite a bit of black pepper. That’s it… Nothing else. The flavour coming from these simple ingredients is quite amazing.

We had tried pasties in Robe and on our way through the Tailem Bend area. Despite being called Cornish Pasties they were made not traditional being made with flakey pastry or having mushy pre-cooked fillings. Lyndoch had a lovely looking bakery so we tried our luck there. No luck, a nice pasty but not a true Cornish Pasty… courtesy of yet more flakey pastry…

The hunt continues… as we move around South Australia. We’re hoping that McLaren Vale or Clare Valley will deliver the goods when we get there.

Greenock is a small village to the north-west of Nuri’. Another cute little village with stone cottages and heritage buildings. We went out to Greenock twice. On the first occasion it was to spent a rainy afternoon at the Greenock Brewers. Set in a beautiful heritage Wheat Store you enter via a very small bar at the front, which felt like it had the entire population of Greenock in it. From there you go into the actual brewery area where they have a wood fire, old sofas and some barrel tables where you can relax and try their beers. Rob tried a flight of five and then settled in for a couple of their dark beers… perfect on a cold, wet afternoon. Jo opted to try a few more local wines instead beer.

A couple of days later we cam back to Greenock, which is also the home of the Kalleske Wines cellar door; located on the main street. We had a terrific tasting there with a sixth generation family member who provided an enthralling and enthusiastic history of Kalleske Wines and a thoroughly enjoyable tasting.

After Kalleske Wines we drove out to nearby Alkina Wines, who were shut but a friendly staff member kindly opened up for us to have a tasting. Alkina Wines is owned and has been renovated by an Australian team for an overseas investor. They are very much into soil profiling and planting specific grape varieties in small blocks in accordance with the ‘Polygon Project‘. Quite a fascinating concept, which is also something of a market differentiator. We enjoyed their wines but not as much as Kalleske.

Time for a late lunch at The Greenock, as we were unable to get a table for dinner when we went to the Greenock Brewery two days before. The Greenock was recommended to us and it really was superior pub grub. After some shared Arancini Balls, Jo went for the Salt & Pepper Squid and Rob tried out the Community Pie, which was lamb pie made from local ingredients where they donate some of the money from the pies back to local charities. Highly recommended place to have a meal.

The weather was being grudgingly cooperative throughout our stay at Nuri’. We took a chance on one of those ‘will it/won’t it rain’ days and drove up to Kapunda, north of Nuri’. A statue ‘Map the Miner’, a Cornish miner stands proud at the entrance to the town and is a nod to the mining history of Kapunda.

Kapunda was home to a copper mine in 1800’s and you can wander around the mine site, which is kept as a historical site. The mine began with underground mining and you can still see some of the deep mine shafts and also some tunnels. At some point it was converted into an open cut mine, which is impossible to miss and still has steep sides displaying the various red, orange, yellow, green colours that come with copper ore.

Life was hard back then, especially for young boys. Boys from 11-15 could work at the mine breaking ore with hammers all day (for pittance) as long as they also went to school for another 4 hours at the end of the day, Most died young from malnutrition and those that survived could then go on to work in the mines… A very hard life.

Being an old mining town with Cornish expats we thought that this might be the place for a genuine Cornish Pasty. Alas, the bakery was yet another that used flakey pastry thus rendering it non-traditional… Arrrggghhhh… Still it was a nice bakery and we opted for a different treat instead…

Pindarie Wines is a vineyard/cellar door/restaurant located near Lyndoch. Lunch was the thing to do at Pindarie Wines, which is centred on Pies and Platters. We were given a prime table on the verandah that looked back into grounds and also out over the valley and vineyards.

We opted from the selection of gourmet pies with Jo choosing chicken and Rob for lamb. These pies were truly gourmet and accompanied by a very zesty salad. For lubrication we chose a bottle of their 2020 Risk Taker Tempranillo… A very satisfying choice.

It seems that a lot of the Barossa wineries are playing more and more with Tempranillo. This Spanish style variey, in our opinion, is becoming the ‘new Shiraz’. A little lighter than Shiraz it’s a great red option that stands up to red meat but is equally at home with chicken and even seafood.

We highly recommend lunch at Pindarie Wines when in the Barossa.

Angaston, south of Nuri’, is another picturesque town surrounded by vineyards and wineries. We took a few trips into and through Angaston. Most notably to Vintners Bar & Grill for Jo’s 60th birthday dinner,

We did stop in on one of the blue sky days to walk around the main street and poke around the town. Like other Barossa towns it has a number of historic stone buildings. There is also a quirky street that has a number of, what look like Morton Bay Figs, whose roots extend out into the roadway bursting up through the asphalt.

If you walk around behind the main street there is a linear park following a watercourse that takes past a very old cemetery and along a postcard like path that is very reminiscent of an English countryside village.

The town itself was a little quiet… not surprising given the onset of winter but still a nice place to take a stroll and get some fresh air after the ‘on again/off-again’ rain during our stay in Nuri’…

Across the Murray River from Tailem Bend, on the west side, is the small town of Wellington, which is mainly a dairy community with a twin town of East Wellington back on the eastern side of the river.

You get to Wellington from Tailem Bend via a ferry (or punt as they were called when I was growing up) across the Murray. Another ferry at Wellington allows you to do a circuit drive and take in the sights of the region. The ferries are free, courtesy of the S.A. Goverment, and a long, flat barge like boats with ramps at either end for onloading and offloading cars and pedestrians. The operate 24 hours/day and quietly glide backwards and forwards across the river by pulling themselves along two cables, one each side of the ferry, which are anchored on the riverbank to a pair of flat bollards.

Whilst not a convenient as a bridge, they are a very pleasant way to cross the river and hark back to less hectic times when the journey was important than the destination.

Pangarinda Botanic Garden

After a short break at the Hall, an historic stone hall, renovated into a coffee shop, we went to the Pangarinda Botanic Garden. This is 30Ha of Crown Land devoted to native plant species, mostly South Australian). Paths take you all through the extensive grounds and are lined with grevilleas, hakeas, banksias and all manner of flowering gums.

Flowering gums are generally produce their flowers in winter so we were treated to an endless display flowers of all colours, types and sizes. One we really liked is that the grounds aren’t meticulously manicured like a lot of botanic gardens. They’re well kept and designed but the trees and shrubs are not all perfect specimens. There’s stunted trees and snapped branches, some dead patches and some jumbled areas… all of which lend some authenticity to the place as though they’ve self-seeded as they would in the natural environment.

It happened to be a long weekend whilst we were at Tailem Bend and we decided on the Sunday to take a drive up to Murray Bridge for no other reason than to just see somewhere different.

It is named for the long sweeping bridge that spans the Murray River and continues to sweep around the levee and flood plain. It was the first road bridge to cross the Murray River, which is not an insignificant thing given that Tailem Bend still operates a car ferry (punt) across the river.

It just so happened that on this particular weekend Murray Bridge was hosting the South Australian Water Ski Racing Titles. We had no idea about this until we drove into the carpark by the rivere and noticed the large number of 4WD and boat trailers parked there. Then the long line of sleek ski boats lining the banks as well as pop-up shelters, boat drivers in their racing suits and ski racers in wet suits…

We stayed and watched three races in total, that consisted of three laps of a 9km course rounding an island at one end, back under the rail and road bridges and then rounding to come back under the bridges again. The boats were every bit as loud as the cars at the Tailem Bend Motorsport Park and were a thrilling spectacle to sit and watch (for free) as they thundered past with skier in tow straining to maintain correct positioning for maximum speed. Looking at the boats and gear on show you can’t help but think that it’s not dissimilar to sitting in a bathtub ripping up $100 notes but it was thrilling and spectacular none the less… and wholly unexpected, which made made it even more so.

Turn your volume up and check out some of the boats and racers below:

After a Lions Club burger at the ski races we walked along the Murray Bridge Linear Park that follows the river along a disused railway track. It takes in a number of different areas including a boat wrecking/restoration yard, natural vegetation, Sturt Reserve and a number of wharves along the edge of the Murray.

You sort of get the feeling that Murray Bridge is a ‘work in progress’ and is undergoing a bit of a revival based on the amount of construction work going on along the river side and wharves. It proved to be a nice day trip but we were happy that we stayed in Tailem Bend all the same.