To the Clare Valley, South Australia

We set off early on Saturday morning (with Rod) - travelling 820 klm over 9 hours in our trusty Tiguan, on the Sturt Highway to Mildura.

We had two nights there with Julie at her beautiful property in Gol Gol on the banks of the Murray River. We enjoyed our stay there, helping Julie with a few things and enjoying with her some of the foodie delights of the region, including a fabulous dinner at Stefano's on Saturday night and lunch at the beautiful Trentham Estate yesterday.

We set out this morning (leaving Rod behind in Mildura), heading westward for the Victoria - South Australia border, then on to the Clare Valley. We had a small drama at the border: I had my head down stressing (no 4G) over getting our SA Border COVID passes online as we were approaching and totally missed the fruit quarantine drop off point. Which meant we had to fess up to the one apple still in our lunchbox as the Border Inspectors searched our car. They made us hand sanitise and mask up before being questioned IN AN OFFICE while a REPORT WAS MADE (including a photo of our apple and photo ID)!!!!

And no one even asked for our COVID Border Pass (which I had finally managed to submit about 10 seconds before we got to the border)!

Anyway it was lovely to stop at Renmark (in South Australia) after the drama was over for a great cup of coffee from Arrosto Coffee (and a Melting Moment for Rob, as he needed it).

It's about 380klms to the Clare Valley from Mildura. Once you get past Renmark and the other towns on the Murray the country starts looking very dry and tough - lots of Mallee scrub. Loch Luna (in the pic below - seen from our car window) was about the last sign of water we saw before the country became quite "outback".

Until we got to Eudunda - about 60klm from where we're staying in the Clare Valley..... a pretty harsh desperate looking place...........

After which the country changed a lot - lots of undulating hills, acres and acres of grain crops, prosperous looking properties, completely different vegetation.......

And then we arrived at Penwortham in the Clare Valley - about halfway along the famous 33klm "Riesling Trail" that runs between Auburn in the south and Stanley, a little way north of Clare township.

We love our Airbnb find - The Merry Moose Lodge on the Main North Road in Penwortham, Clare Valley.

The view from our back fence ........

Close up from our front view ..............

Close up of the horses - for Abi!

The Watervale Hotel is only a few minutes drive from here. It's definitely a cut above the usual pub deal. The menu sources organic produce from nearby biodynamic Penobscot Farm (owned by the hotel) and the wine list features wonderful Claire Valley wines. We hadn't eaten all day and at 4.30pm we were able to order a fabulous meal there with well matched local wines........ no trouble!

Including dessert - Citrus almond cake with poached cumquat and lemon verbena ice cream served with a lovely late picked dessert Riesling (Mount Horrock's Cordon Cut Riesling)..... Wow!

Rob even had a Pontiac GTO (1966) sighting outside the Watervale Hotel (a pic for Joshy)... 

We went for a walk around the tiny (historic) hamlet of Penwortham at sunset.. My dream is to have ripening figs everywhere I look (and they're right here!!)

Looking down on our Merry Moose Lodge in amongst the vineyards .........

And beautiful gum trees lining the village tracks ..........

And some quirky locals I'd say (and what's with all the Australian flags we've seen today in SA???)