The Red Centre - Day 15 - Port Augusta to Renmark

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Hello again, day 15 and we are still driving South through the state of South Australia. We spent the afternoon and night at Port Augusta. Not impressed with this town. It is situated in a natural port but it does not have an active community surrounding the water. Not sure why but it appeared the water was surrounded by Industry. Anyhow we move off, again after a Macca's coffee. The surrounding landscape was very different to the dryness that we had been used to. We found rolling hills, lush meadows and trees, lot of trees. There was a patch that was desert like but it did not last long. We stopped at an old Historical mining town called Burra. Very quant and we stopped at the local bakery hoping we could find a traditional cream bun for Tracey, but no luck. We had to contend with normal modern cakes and donuts. We headed back on track and the signs told us we were heading for the Clare Valley. Now the Clare Valley is famous for its wines and Paul was excited to buy some wine from there. There was one problem, we took a left hand turn before we reached Clare. He missed out. I assured him that Renmark was also famous for it's wines. We finally arrived at Renmark. We were greeted by farm after farm of grapes vines who had done their work for the summer and had lost their leaves and were waiting for a strong pruning late winter and also by citrus trees laden with mandarins although Tracey reckons they were oranges. Anyhow whatever the trees were, they were laden with fruit. This part of town is watered through irrigation from the mighty Murray River. The Murray Riveris Australia's longest river, at 2,508 kilometres (1,558 mi) in length. The Murray rises in the Australian Alps draining the western side of Australia's highest mountains, and then meanders across Australia's inland plains, forming the border between the States of New South Wales and Victoria as it flows to the northwest into South Australia. It turns south at Morgan for its final 315 kilometres reaching the ocean at Lake Alexandrina. We met the Murray at Morgan and followed it to Renmark. We are now camped on its mighty banks. What a majestic river. Once settled into our luxury cabins, yes Tracey demanded luxury to finish this journey ( only joking) We headed off to do some afternoon sightseeing. Our first visit was to the Wilkadene Woolshed Brewery. The Brewery is located in an old shearing shed on the banks of the Murray River. The sheds are steeped in history with many yarns spun and hard earned knock off drinks enjoyed in them over the years.

The entire station on which they’re situated was once a thriving wheat farm where the Murray River was used to transport their grain to all parts of Australia. Sonce then Wilkadene has been converted into a brewery and cellar door. We enjoyed some boutique beers and ciders while we were there. Tracey did not like the alcoholic lemonade. It grows on you but with an alcoholic content of 8.1 Paul and I were tipsy after one glass. On the river there were two house boats. Now for those who have not been on the Murray, Houseboats can be seen in many parts of this region. These boats are flat, have basically living quarters stuck on top of a flat floating platform and includes everything you would need to live and sleep. They are quite slow on the water with a maximum speed of 7km per hour. The next stop was to a place called Almond Hut. Almondco Australia owns the Almond Hut and is globally recognised for supplying premium quality almond products since 1944. More than 85% of Australia’s almond growers supply Almondco. Let me just say their Almond shop was mind blowing. I overdosed on the various Almonds and flavours and chocolate toppings that were available. We then left the best till last. We went to the Angove cellar door. Angove McLaren Vale Vineyards are situated in the heart of the McLaren Vale wine district. Its wines are sold in over 30 countries around the world. So hard to choose which wines we wanted. This winery is over 125 years old and remains privately owned. A very nice visit although I think we bought a few too many bottles. With bottles in hand (Tracey was holding them close to her chest and would not share) we headed back to our luxury cabins and booked a session on the local paddle boats. It was obvious that our fitness levels were not up to task with the paddling baton being handed over to each other every five minutes or so. We all took our turn to drive this 4 person contraption. Dinner was at the local Renmark Club. A great end to this holiday.. Tomorrow night we will be back home.

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Photos

Woodshed History
If only we could work out what this machine used to do

Tracey getting ready to choose dessert
She would not share her dessert with me even though I was watching her with my puppy eyes.

Comments

[Shaun]

may 2017
Looks like the Falcons ( and Grima ' s ) are having a great time