Friday, April 6th, 2012: Loop drive North through the Clare Valley to Burra, South Australia
Bob: This was Good Friday on the ecclesiastical calendar and a national holiday in Australia, so the Seppeltsfield winery we stopped at on our way North was not open for a visit. That was a shame because it looked like they had a "heritage center" or museum of some kind and possibly also offered some kind of winery tours, both of which would have been interesting. As it was, the Seppeltsfield winery was definitely one of the largest in the Barossa Valley and had an imposing set of main buildings. |
Monika: Today we planned to go as far to the north as we could. Our route started out by driving past the Seppeltsfield winery, and although it was closed because it was Good Friday, we stopped to take pictures since the buildings had an old-fashioned charm to them. In one corridor we even saw some old wooden wine barrels and a wine press. But not all was old. Next to the parking lot were some large stainless steel tanks. That this was a large operation was also shown by the acres and acres of vineyard that surrounded the winery. |
Bob: We next stopped to see a huge statue of a Cornish miner in Kapunda, a town that for 30 years in the late 1800s had supported the economy of Southern Australia by exporting high-grade copper ore. The mines played out, unfortunately, but by then the other industries had become well-enough established to keep the fledgling colony economically afloat. To stretch our legs a bit, we also halted for a walking break in the town of Auburn as our guidebook mentioned an Auburn-to-Clare Riesling bicycle trail. It was in fact a very nice, wide, and well-graded bicycle trail, so we walked out two kilometers on it just to get a feel for it. We were rewarded by nice views of the vineyards on both sides of the trail. |
Monika: Going north we stopped outside the old mining town of Kapunda since there they had celebrated their heritage with a huge, and I mean HUGE, statue of a miner. Picture taking all done we kept going into another wine region, the Clare region. At the first town, Auburn, they had a bike trail, called "the Riesling trail", that went to the next town, Clare. We decided to walk at least a couple of miles along the trail to see the region a little more up close and personal. The trail was very nice but in the beginning it was right next to the road and there were cows across the road that seem to be staring right at us. But still it was fun to be walking. |
Bob: The land seemed to become drier as we headed further North toward the southern end of the Flinders Range of mountains. We pulled up for lunch in the town of Clare, only one grocery store and three out of eight or so restaurants were open, but one was a take-away place with a very nice dining area. There I enjoyed one of the best chicken Yiros (American/Greek: Gyros) I had yet had and Monika had a nice hamburger. Refreshed, I had enough energy to drive one more leg northward to the town of Burra, which was on the road to Broken Hill, New South Wales. We had a wonderful time there on our first visit to Australia in 2009 (Wanderung 20), so we have planned to drive back there some day. If we do, maybe we will get back to Burra and I’ll find my card under the bench in the gazebo on the main street of town where I left it. |
Monika: At Clare we stopped at the Tourist Information Center which was next to a large caravan park. The walkway up to it had nice mosaics done by children from different area schools. The information center itself was, of course, closed, but we did get a map of the area, which showed a nice little loop to a scenic overlook. What the map did not show, was that after a couple of kilometers the trail became "unsealed" as the locals say (American: unpaved, i.e. a gravel or dirt road). So Bob had to drive slowly and carefully. We again passed several small vineyards and finally reached the overlook, which was ok, as overlooks go. Back in town we had lunch at a nice little take away, walked the city a bit, and decided to keep going north-east towards Broken Hill. We stopped at the town of Burra, where Bob left an address card in the bench on the local gazebo, in case, we come through here again. I do want to go back to Broken Hill sometime and from Burra it was only another 250 Kilometers, practically next door! |
Bob: Making a 180-degree turn, we started hustling back South to our motel room where we changed into warmer clothing and then drove into the middle of town to take a late afternoon walk. Tanunda had been settled by German Prussian emigrants, and we saw some of the Lutheran churches they had erected in the town. One odd thing they had also made was a "Kegelbahn" or German version of a bowling alley. Since it was closed, we could not see the interior, but it was an awfully long alley! For those who may wish to see the interior, I will warn you that it is only open for Ladies on Wednesday nights at 7:30 and for Gentlemen on Friday nights at 7:30. If anybody gets a good picture of the interior and can tell me exactly what the bowling setup was, I'd dearly love to see that and hear all about it. Better yet, please post a video on You-tube and send me the link! |
Monika: But that was as far as we were going to go for the day. We took the A-road back to Tanunda and Bob rested for a while after all that driving. But then we decided to explore the town a little more. Our Backroads book had also described a nice walking loop through town. Being started by Germans, the town boasted 4 Lutheran Churches, a Ziegenmarkt (goat market), and a Kegelbahn (bowling alley). We duly found all of them, although the Ziegenmarkt was just a bit of grass with a sculpture of a goat and the Kegelbahn was closed. But what the heck, it was history. |
Bob: Finishing our walking tour of Tanunda, we retreated back to our hotel room, where I barely managed to type in the journal a bit and complete an acrostic puzzle after dinner before falling asleep for the night. |
Monika: We finished our walk past the museum, which was thankfully closed by now (Museum + Bob = crowbar!). Well satisfied, we went back to the hotel, ate a bit and retired for the evening. |
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| Prolog | Map of Drive in Australia | Map of Transpacific Cruise | Epilog |
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