The morning we leave Swan Hill for Cohuna begins with bacon and eggs while we listen to our slightly rowdy neighbours, a flock of corellas feeding just outside the caravan. Cohuna is a town that we have driven through many times on our way to the Australian snowfields but we have never stopped for longer than a petrol fill. So this trip we decide to stay and have a look around for a couple of days, just to see what is here. The Gunbower Island caravan park sounded promising and we are delighted with our site facing the wetlands of Gunbower Creek. Looking at the black swans and pelicans gliding past we wish that we had packed the kayak. We have a waterbird paradise right outside our door. After setting up we decide to walk into ... read more

The sun shone brightly through the trees at Kaloola when we first arose this morning. However a big bank of cloud moving in from the west soon dulled the sun and it was clear we should get on our way sooner rather than later. Having hooked up the van and set everything up the night before made for an easy get away. Our first stop is always a service station to check the tyre pressures. This done we headed through Angaston and out the road towards Keynton, passing the turnoff we take to Rock Water Springs, one of our other favourite haunts. The countryside is a patchwork of green and freshly planted crops. It’s lovely to see at this time of the year. The route we took was easy driving bringing us into the back end ... read more

In our third day in the district we finally got to go wine tasting in the Coonawarra. After enjoying a Riesling from Patrick at the caves café we definitely put them on our list. As it turned out that kind of set the trend for the day as for no reason we focused on P’s. First it was Penley in the morning while heading south, then lunch in Penola. On the return it we visited Parker and finally Patrick. All of the wines that we tried were very good, but as expected it was the Cabernet Sauvignons that really stood out. Fruit characteristics were predominant generally and oak was used with a sensitive touch. All in all we were very impressed. An interesting touch was the Apple Cider at Patrick. This was a winemaker’s cider; more ... read more

During our travels we heard about the Lucindale field day and realised that we would be able to fit it into our travels. Neither of us had ever visited a field day so we were keen to go. We left the caravan in Naracoorte and drove to Lucindale. As we got closer there was no confusion about where to go as all we had to do was follow the traffic. The closer we got the more vehicles we saw. The local Lions club was very prepared with two lanes marked out for cars entering the parking paddock. We were ushered to a place to park and prepared for the final walk to the entrance. Luckily we remembered to count the number of rows of parked vehicles as we walked. We had expected the field day to ... read more

After Kingston we found Robe to be quite a contrast. While Kingston felt like a quiet country sea side town, Robe was full of up-market holiday houses, beautifully renovated historic buildings and people with money to spend. It certainly helps that Robe has a number of lakes in the town as well as a beautiful bay; so many houses have water views. A walk down the main street showed many eating options, shops selling high class beach and holiday wear, and shops selling objects to make a holiday house that bit extra special. The town features many old lime stone buildings and a high proportion of these seem to have been very well renovated. But these were not just the standard old houses and pubs; there were stunning shops with quirky courtyards and commercial buildings from ... read more