Day 101 - Wine Tasting in South Australia, Naracoorte Caves, Grampians and Silverband Falls, Victoria, Australia

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Thursday 27h February 2014. Wine Tasting in South Australia, Naracoorte Caves, Grampians and Silverband Falls, Victoria, Australia

After breakfast we set off again in our little car. Our next destination was Halls Gap in the Grampian Mountains in the state of Victoria. However, D wanted to visit the state of South Australia as it is the only state in this vast country that we have not been to. One of the things we had planned to do if we made it to Adelaide was to go and do some wine tasting so we decided to continue with this plan in one of the best wine tasting regions in the whole of Australia. This meant quite a detour from the most direct route to Halls Gap.

While D drove towards the town of Mount Gambier, M looked in the book for a suitable vineyard to visit. We had already decided we wanted to go to the region of Coonawarra. The main town here is called Penola. There were several vineyards mentioned in the book including Wynns, Hollick - both of which were recommended. Coonawarra is a wine region within the Limestone Coast in South Australia, that is known for the Cabernet Sauvignon wines produced on its "terra rossa" soil. Coonawarra is an Aboriginal word meaning "Honeysuckle". It is about 380 km southeast of Adelaide, close to the border with Victoria. Coonawarra's terra rossa soil is one of the notable terroirs of the New World, covering an area of just 15 km x 2 km north of Penola. It lies on a shallow limestone ridge, raising it above the swampy land either side - it is no coincidence that the Riddoch Highway follows this ridge as carters sought the firmest ground in times past. Being just 60 km from the sea,
Coonawarra has a somewhat maritime climate not dissimilar to Bordeaux. During the growing season, there is just 219mm rainfall (Oct-Apr), out of 585mm annually. Extensive cloud cover keeps the temperature down to 19.1°C in January. We stopped at the Hollick Vineyard which is just outside of Penola.

Hollick is a well established Coonawarra producer crafting quite traditional regional styles from some seriously old vines. A consistent 5 star winery in James Halliday's Wine Companion, Hollick is most famous for it's Cabernet and blends, of which it has several (not least the famous Ravenswood). The Hollick winery, cellar door and restaurant complex is established on "Neilson's Block", one of the original John Riddoch vineyard blocks on prime Coonawarra dirt, with the cellar door itself housed in a restored, heritage listed sandstone cottage from the 1860s (see photos).

Once inside the cellar door we were invited to do a tasting. The lady explained that the Hollick Wine Range is broken into several tiers, beginning with 'blends' that includes a Sauv Blanc Sem, Shiraz Viognier and Cabernet Merlot amongst others. Next tier is the straight varietals including Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Wrattonbully Shiraz, followed by the 'Avant Garde' line that covers such oddities as Savagnin, Barbera and a very smart sparkling Merlot. Finally, the icon range covers the top Hollick wines, featuring the Ravenswood Cabernet Sauvignon, Wilgha Shiraz and Neilson's Block Merlot. We got to try most of these. We thought about having lunch here but it was too expensive. During wine tasting we picked up a brochure for the Naracoorte Caves. These were only about 40 km up the road from the cellar door and were billed as "the South Australian World Heritage Fossil Mammal Site". The lady said that they were well worth a visit - - so we decided to go and take a look. We left armed with a bottle of white and a bottle of rose and set off towards the caves.

Naracoorte Caves National Park is South Australia's only World Heritage site. It preserves Australia's most complete fossil record for the past 500,000 years. It was officially recognised in 1994 for its extensive fossil record when the site was inscribed on the World Heritage List, along with Riversleigh. The park preserves 6 km² of remnant vegetation, with 26 caves contained within the 3.05 km² World Heritage Area.

We arrived at the Wonambi Fossil Centre where you purchase your tickets. There was a model of a huge wombat type creature called Diprotodon Optatum by the parking area and M just had to have a photo taken with it. We were starving so we made our way to the cafe for lunch. While M was tucking into her jacket potato and D his wrap we got chatting to a guy who said that there would be a tour departing at 2.30, we looked at our watches and replied "that's only 10 minutes away and we have only just started our lunch". "Are you still on Victoria time?" the guy asked. We hadn't realised that South Australia was half an hour behind South Australia - which meant we could make the 2.30 tour!

Once inside the centre we learned that show cave tours are guided by professional interpreters through highly decorated caves with some tours visiting the amazing fossil deposits. There were a number of packages available to us as there is more than one cave that can be visited - and the more you visit the bigger the discount on your ticket. Options included combinations of the Bat Cave, the Victoria Fossil Cave, the Wet Cave and Alexandra Cave. The lady in the centre advised us that, as we were short of time, the Alexandra Cave was the most attractive and therefore, in her opinon, our best option. We still had a few minutes before the 2.30 tour so we spent some time looking around the Fossil Centre.

At the centre science and theatre come together to provide a snapshot of what Naracoorte was like over 200,000 years ago! Palaeontologists have been studying the fossils and bones found in the caves for over 30 years. From them they have been able to determine the range of species that made up Naracoorte's ancient animal communities. Around 120 species of vertebrate animals have been recorded to date. They represent four of the major vertebrate groups: amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The Fossil Centre recreates a time when the local animal community was more diverse than today. For example, 200,000 years ago there were some 20 kangaroo species in the area. Now there are just four. There were displays and a walk-through diorama with life-sized models of extinct animals in their ancient habitat. M had to have her photo taken with the likes of Tylacooleo Carniflux - a massive carnivorous marsupial and a Giant Leaf Eating Kangaroo. All of these are now extinct - just like the Diprotodon Optatum outside, but gave us a fantastic insight into the megafauna of Australia thousands of years ago. The interpretive centre also showed us how the caves have acted as pitfall traps, dens and roosts for more than 500,000 years, leading to a vast accumulation of skeletal remains of reptiles, birds and mammals which have allowed the scientists to learn about, and recreate, these creatures.

Our guide arrived and we started our tour. Modern technology has been utilised to show visitors the normally inaccessible interior of the Naracoorte Caves. The limestone of the area was formed from coral and marine creatures 200 million years ago and again 20 million years ago when the land was below sea level. Ground water since then has dissolved and eroded some of the limestone, creating the caves. The caves, such as the Victoria Fossil Cave and Blanche Cave, are often not far below ground, and holes open up creating traps for the unwary.
This is the source of the remarkable collection of fossils. Mammals and other land creatures have fallen into open caves and been unable to escape. The fossil record has been preserved in strata formed from eroded topsoil washed and blown in. In some places, the fossil-bearing silt is up to 20 metres thick. Some of these areas are being preserved for future research when better methods of dating and reconstructing fossil records may have been found. These fossil traps are especially significant for tracing Australian megafauna.

We entered the Alexandra Cave by descending 25 steps. This spectacularly decorated cave is one of the Naracoorte Caves' special treasures. Alexandra is a good introduction to caves and the geological processes that form them. The tour explored the geology of the region and how the caves were formed. The 40 minute walk was easy, with plenty of opportunities to photograph the exceptional cave formations, including beautiful examples of stalactites, stalagmites, helectites and columns. The cavern went under the car park and we emerged on the other side by the restaurant. It was a great visit but a shame we could only do the one cave.

We returned to the car and headed back towards Penola where we turned off left towards the Grampian Mountains and back into the state of Victoria. As we drove the scenery changed from flat vineyards and farmland to more mountainous undulating ground. We took several pictures of the Grampians Range on the way. We stopped at Lake Bellfield for a break and took some photos. Next stop was the Silverband Falls which are in the Grampians NP. We strolled the 800 metres through shady, ferny forest and crossed two footbridges to arrive at the base of Silverband Falls. There wasn't much water but it was a nice walk. We had a conversation in Spanish/Catalan with a couple from Barcelona on the way back to the car.

We arrived at Halls Gap YH which was a good one. All the shops in the town shut at 7.00 pm so we opted for a curry from the local Indian takeaway which was excellent. All washed down with the rose from the Hollick Vineyard.

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