Tumby Bay, EP

On Thursday the 21^st we left Point Lowly and headed down the Peninsular. Stopped in at Whyalla for a bit of groceries and then onto Cowell. We were not to impressed with Cowell as it appeared there was no swimming beach. We also dropped into Arno Bay and Port Neill and both were nice spots but as I had heard good things about Tumby Bay we went there.

We were not disappointed. It was the pick of the small towns on the coast with a nice swimming beach.  We stayed at the Madra Apartments and RV Parking. It was only $20 for power and water. It is run by Damien and Christie who are very nice. They don’t have much room for RV parking, four vans at the most, and it is mainly pocket money for them. Damien led a town business committee and put together a tourist publication and did a great job. We took advantage of a couple of the free beer vouchers and a coffee one in the magazine but we did spend a lot in the town.

These are views from the jetty to the road that runs along the water.

Linda got up early with Jan and Ross and to see the sunrise from the jetty. I was tired and the weather was not promising so gave it a miss. So I missed out didn't I.

Later that day we went fishing on the jetty and hardly got a bite. A nice town even though the fishing was crap. We went to the Seabreeze Hotel that night for a good dinner.

Pont Lowly, Eyre Peninsular

On Tuesday the 19^th January we left Clare at 8.30am. For the Eyre Peninsular part of the trip we were being joined by Linda’s sister Jan and brother-n-law Ross. They have just bought a brand new caravan and are having their first trip in it. For close readers of the blog you may recall that Jan and Ross started our second big trip with us in their camper trailer and they left us at Tennant Creek to go home through QLD. They have now upgraded to a van. Way to go. So they started our trip with us and they will be ending our trip with us.

They had left Sydney a week later than us and had stayed the previous night at Kapunda. Coincidentally they caught us in the main street of Clare where we had pulled over to grab a couple of things. So we caught up to them and commenced the Eyre Peninsular part of the trip.

We made it to our first spot, Point Lowly. The turn off for this spot is about 10km north of Whyalla. We were right on the water with a great outlook and only for $6 a night. It is just a camp ground, not a caravan park and no power. There was a cold water shower and toilets. Beaut spot. We stayed there the two nights. It was pretty hot so we had a couple of good swims and walks.

Clare Valley

On Sunday the 17^th we moved on to the Clare Valley, staying in Clare itself in the van park there. We pulled in to the racecourse there for a cheaper camp but there was not a soul there and it was hard to see where the access was or where the proprietor would want us to camp so we went back to the van park.

After setting up we went to the info centre and went on to the two most original wineries in the valley. The first was the Seven Hills Cellars which is owned by the Jesuit brotherhood and has been from the beginning. They were the very first winery in the valley. They were a monastery of soughts as well and today is a retreat for the Jesuits as well as continuing in the wine making. Thank God for those Jesuits, and their wine. They built an impressive church there and had lovely grounds and buildings.

Next was Annie’s Lane. I have always loved their reds and was very happy to go there. Again it was interesting learning about the history there. My guess was that Annie was a daughter of the winemaker but no, Annie was a woman who was well known in the area and went riding her bike up the lane that the winery is on and her bike broke down one day. That’s it.

Their reds that don’t go into the bottle shops were the best. They were referred to as the ‘Locals’. Some bottle shops do have them and I will always be looking for them. However, their 2013 Cab Merlot which is in the shops and is a very nice drop was being sold for $12.50 a bottle if you buy six as they were moving them on to bring in a new vintage so I bought six as that was a great deal.

Saw a bit more history of an early explorer.

We were glad that it worked out the way it did as far as having to go back to the van park in town as we met a lovely couple who were our neighbours and we stayed chatting with them till about 11pm that night. We would have had no neighbours at the racecourse.

Next day we were up earlyish to get our Landcruiser into the Toyota Dealer for its 40,000km service. So far 28,700km had been clocked up on this second big trip. We got dropped into town and had great coffee and a walk around the town. There is so much history been retained in SA and Clare is no exception.

In town there is the Mr Mick Winery which is about the third oldest winery in the valley. Quite good reds and we stayed there for lunch at their Tapas Restaurant. The meal was awesome and we had the advantage of having sampled their wine which enabled us to choose the wines we wanted to drink over lunch. A very memorable visit.

We were picked up from Mr Micks after lunch to retrieve the Landcruiser. Went to a lookout near town and then back to the van for a swim in the pool and relax for the evening.

More From The Barossa Valley

On Wednesday the 13^th January we took the short drive to Angaston. On the way we stopped at the Mengler Lookout which looks out over the Barossa Valley, particularly the areas of Nuriootpa and Tanunda.

We had a walk around the town of Angaston and picked up some beautiful dried fruit at Gully Gardens Farm. We also had a quick look at the Yallumba Winery.

We then went to the town of Greenock. All these towns are lovely and there are so many old houses that are still standing because they are made from stone. They look so nice. While at Greenock we visited the Murray Street Vineyard Winery. Great wines there and we bought a couple. Another nice day in the Barossa.

On Thursday we left the Discovery Van Park in Tanunda. The weather was going to be cool for a couple of days and we didn’t need the pool anymore and so didn’t need to be paying the $40.50 to stay there.  We had to leave anyway because the park was booked out because of the hot rod festival happening there on the weekend. So we moved on to the Eden Valley Showground Van Park, for $21 a night on power ($15 no power but no water as well). It was a good spot to camp.

From the lookout over Eden Valley.

After lunch we took a drive to Keyneton, north of Eden Valley. Tiny town and the history was funny as there was a lady there with a lot of influence who opened a hotel  in the mid 1800s but as she was against the ‘demon drink’ and a big wheel in the Temperance Society there was no alcohol sold there. It was mainly for dining and accommodation for travelers.

On return to Eden Valley we had a drink in the pub there. No problem with the Temperance Society in Eden Valley.

On Friday the 15^th we took a drive in the morning to the south this time, to the small towns of Springton and Mount Pleasant. At Springton there was an amazing gum tree that would have had some fires through it and ground around it washed away. An early settler, Friedrich Herbig who arrived from Germany in 1855 used it as a home for several years before building a house. He needed to upsize as he had 16 children over the proceeding years.

 

After lunch we drove to Angaston and picked up some more dried fruit. We went back to the van, pulled out the BBQ and had one of the best meals we have had in a long time. A great steak and some fresh salad to go with it.

Saturday we rounded off our Barossa Valley experience by visiting the town of Kapunda, but not before visiting the farmer’s market at Angaston where we picked up some fresh food for lunch. My goodness, what a history there is at Kapunda. There is an amazing museum there and the information centre there is very good.  We had a walk around the old copper mine. The two sons of the two main settlers in the area discovered the copper there and kept it a secret until they could purchase the property.

Kapunda was also the place where Sir Sidney Kidman lived for 27 years and made it his main base of operations. Kidman had properties all over Australia mainly concentrated in the area of the Artesian Basin so that his properties could better resist drought. He could move his stock over vast areas of the country as he had properties throughout. I won’t bore you further with the history but Kidman interests me greatly and I shall be reading the books about him. Sorry about the quality of the next photo but the info is fascinating.

We did the full tourist drive around Kapunda. We had thought that we might be wasting our time going there as a special trip as we would be travelling through there on Sunday on the way to Clare and perhaps we could see it on the way. We were glad that we made the special trip as were sight seeing for five hours solid and could not have done that while on the way to Clare.

We then went to Tanunda for the hot rod festival. The main street was closed off and the street was lined with hundreds of hot rods and thousands of people. There were a couple of bands and it was pretty cool.