Port Germein to Clare Valley

5/3/2015

Walking the jetty yesterday evening was nice, but very windy and cool. My legs didn't mind the slow paced walk to cool off from the hikes today. The wooden jetty is a bit over 1500m long – quite a distance that you walk over water. Discovered a small, blood filled blister when I came back to the van which had to be treated.

At first I thought I was drunk - two horses going for a walk in the sea?

Quite an interesting mode of transportation

I tried the new percolator coffee maker in the morning, having a lengthy breakfast featuring shakshuka with 3 eggs and an avocado as I awoke very hungry. G was calling in the morning, had another long day at the library to work on his thesis.

I took the A1 from Port Germein to Clare. The scenery changes dramatically a few kilometers away from Clare – from arid, dry flats it starts to get hilly and green. A lovely change for the eyes.

Clare, with about 3200 inhabitants, is the largest town in the area and is considered a bit of a center for the region.

Clare Valley is one of South Australia's wine producing areas. While their output is only about 2% of Australia's wine, they apparently score about 7% of the medals at wine shows for their wines. Clare Valley is know as the 'Riesling Capital of Australia' but great Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and other varieties are produced here as well. They have the 'RieslingTrail' here which I might walk or cycle in the next few days. There are around 50 wine producers here, well known producers such as Taylors, Knappstein, Annie's Lane (we used to drink quite a few bottles of their produce up on site!) got their cellar doors here.

The towns in this area have been around for a while, they even have some buildings from the 1800-1900s

Eucalyptus trees - or called Gum tree in Australia are so diverse and beautiful

As I'm still driving later today, I abstained from drinking wine, but tried the local bakery and coffee place and stocked up on groceries and meat from the local butcher for the next few meals. My headquarters for the next few days will be a vineyard in Sevenhill – a small village only a few kilometers away from here. I'll meet Bill and Alex there, whom I got to know at a wine tasting in Perth a few years ago where they presented their first wine – The Prince – for a selected group of friends of them. I'm looking forward to catching up with them!

Distance traveled: around 150km