As we drove out of Burra at 8.30am., there were rolling hills all around us. A wind had sprung up & a distant lorry was sending up huge clouds of dust as it travelled along a dirt road. The sky was overcast & we hoped that the area would get some of the rain that it desperately needed. However, we doubted it, as the sun soon began to break through.
Where crops had previously dominated the landscape, vines began to appear as we entered the Clare Valley. Wild roses grew at the roadside, the hillsides were covered with vines & our route became very undulating & winding. The road into Clare was lined with blossom trees &, even in the town, several shops & businesses had vines growing over their verandahs. One particular garden that we saw was a riot of colour being full of a huge variety of irises. This was a lovely time of year & the whole area seemed fresh with new growth.
We made an 11km detour to the historic town of Mintaro, which had been on the bullock run before the advent of the railway, & found ourselves in the heart of some very hilly wine country with narrow roads & tree-lined verges. There was a fair amount of surface water & ponds were dotted about the landscape.
Mintaro was a charming State Heritage town, with very attractive stone buildings. Lavender, roses & lace abounded & the little place where we had coffee, had fresh flowers on every table & paintings by local artists on the walls. All around us, beautiful fragrances filled the air, as the lavender, roses, jasmine & herbs gave off their various perfumes. It had been a delightful diversion, illustrating that tranquility does still exist (although it probably has to be interrrupted by frequent visits to larger towns, to pick up essential supplies!) How lovely that we've been free to wander off the main highways whenever the mood has taken us - one of the great advantages of caravanning.
At one point, large areas of purplish-blue appeared in the meadows & we wondered if it could have been due to the plant known as Patterson's Curse, that we'd heard of. From a distance, it could almost have been bluebells, but we knew otherwise. Brilliant yellow gorse bushes also appeared along the verges, competing with the acid yellow of canola crops. Everywhere, plants were blooming!
Historic towns cropped up frequently along our route & we would like to have stopped in all of them, but to do so would have seriously affected our progress. Another time, maybe?
We entered the Barossa Valley at midday & noticed that it was well set up for tourists. Invitations to taste wine & opportunites to spend money occurred constantly. We stopped at a lovely quilt shop, where the lady showed me how she'd used photographs to record a trip. I bought some of her photographic fabric & a permanent pen & then agreed with Bob that I'd spent enough money on this project. Now, it was time to work out a design & use the materials I'd bought to date!
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| "Quietly" approaching the quilting shop (Bob said "sneakily") |
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| In the rose garden at the quilting shop |
Unusually, we couldn't find an off-road parking space for lunch & so we stopped alongside a Lutheran church (not that we have any particular leanings that way, but was it significant that the caravan tended to tilt towards it?)
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| A very reverent coffee break! |
We travelled on through Murray Bridge, Mount Pleasant & Tailem Bend before finally stopping at Keith for the night. We were still in South Australia, but would cross into Victoria tomorrow.
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