South Australia Murray River and Kangaroo Island

The day promised to be a relaxing end to our South Australia visit. We went up Mt Lofty, as you do, then went down to the Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens. Here we were disappointed. The map was dreadful, signage was just as bad. We abandoned plans to explore further.  City of Adelaide from Mt Lofty Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens. Not what we expected at all! Hello Stirling! What a lovely little town. After coffee we wandered the main street. A beautiful leafy oasis on a hot day.  A lovely little park at one end of town. Then it was on to Hahndorf. We knew it would be busy. Typical for such a town on Saturday. We scored a parking spot straight away. Good start. Despite all the people, this is a lovely, historic town to wander through. After a visit to the Information Centre and adjacent museum, we strolled the length of the main street.  Leaving the town we made a brief stop at Beerenberg which is on the way out of town on our way back to Mt Barker. Resisted the temptation to buy more ...

The Barossa. Don't really need to say any more 😁🍷🍷🍷 Well actually I do. We didn't taste one single drop. 🤣🤣🤣   It was a lovely drive through the Adelaide Hills. First stop, Gumeracha to visit the Toy factory at the Big Rocking Horse 🐎 . Toys duly purchased on our way again.  Coffee in Tanunda then a walk around to Chateau Tanunda. Felt sad for them as their 130 year celebrations occurred in 2020! Still a historic destination nevertheless.  Chateau Tanunda On to Angaston, well known for good food. Walked around the town and back to our car via a path behind the town along the creek. A very pretty town. Worth a longer visit.  A rather lovely sculpture in the Memorial Park recognising the contribution of the draught horses On to Nuriootpa. Not a lot to see here except a LOT of housing development! Back to Maggie Beers for lunch at the Farm Shop Cafe. Lovely surrounds. She has done amazing job over many years to build her substantial business. The kitchen where ...

On the road again. Farewell KI. It's been marvellous. After refuelling, we headed into McLaren Vale. I've been to lots of Australian wine regions but this seems to be very intensely under vines. It's beautiful countryside. More attractive than The Hunter or even Mudgee. We were not doing any wine tasting. We were just going to visit the d'Arenberg Cube.  Well is this the future? Wine tasting with an experience? A veritable wonderland (Alice would be very happy) of an amazing array of artworks, collectibles, anything and everything really. Lunch, a light affair today. You can see we enjoyed it though from the empty plates 😋 . Only a short drive then to our accommodation for the next three nights. Acres of vines as far as the eye can see The entrance to d'Arenberg Is this the future of wine appreciation - an experience! Artworks on the ground level Cafe on Level 3 The collection is huge! Now on Level 4 - the tasting room View from a tasting room balcony All very Alic...