The three major wine areas in South Australia are the Clare Valley (Rieslings) Barossa Valley (Red Wines) and Adelaide Hills (mix of Reds, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc). We based ourselves in Clare, the main town in the Clare Valley and spent some lovely days exploring this beautiful region.

The old rail line has been converted into the Riesling Trail which goes for a total of 35kms although you can do as much or as little as you wish with a few return loops along the way. You can hire electric bikes at several places along the route and the ride the trail past some of the most popular cellar doors with the opportunity to stop and sample or have a snack or indulgent lunch along the way. As the name implies it is valley and has quite a different weather pattern to other areas and together with the soil profile it produces the best Rieslings in Australia. We enjoyed some sampling and a very nice lazy lunch and have come away with more wines than we started with.

Instead of staying down in Adelaide we opted to do a day drive from Clare, covering the 133 kms in no time. Adelaide runs a free hop on – hop off bus around the inner city so we parked and caught the loop bus. The day was cool but at last the rain had stopped. The bus enabled us to take quite a tour of the city and give a feel for this lovely city in a short time. First impressions are: wide streets, roses everywhere all in full bloom, parks (the city seems to be ringed by lovely green parks), friendly people, lots of cafes and restaurants. After walking through the Rundle Street open air mall we headed to the Botanical Gardens. Back on the bus we returned to our starting point, jumped in the car and headed for the coast. Adelaide City has a very long white sandy coast with lots of kite surfers the day we were there, which was very windy.

The nearby town of Burra (43km) was recommended as a quaint heritage town so we moved camp and purchased a key to the town! Another great marketing idea – purchase a $25 key and this unlocks many sights to explore on your own around the town. Burra is an old copper mining town and almost all the houses and mine buildings were built of the local limestone and are still standing. The stone masons must have been flat out all day every day. You get a book with numbered sights and can do the 11km drive around town and out around the abandoned mine site. There is a National Trust museum on the mine site with models of the area which help to orient yourself.

Again the weather was not great so we moved on after a couple of days further north to the Flinders Ranges and Wilpena Pound……….