Although Des had been to Adelaide in the past – work related visits to city offices – we really had no understanding of the city and its surrounds. Looking at a map of the area around Adelaide does not help – there are roads going everywhere but we could not see a thread. Our days here allowed us the time to get to understand Adelaide and its surrounds. The city is quite lovely with its heritage buildings, its parks and gardens, and the south side beaches – the ones we spent some time in – were excellent. We found beautiful homes around Glenelg. And we can now also see how the wine regions fit together. Despite the weather we had a great time in the area and would certainly like to return.
We were at Adelaide (South Brighton CP) on 04 – 09 April 2019.To read about our time in Adelaide itself and around the southern beaches, including our drive there from Kangaroo Island and the history of Adelaide, see Part 1 – click here. Part 1 spans days 1, 2, 4 & 5 of our 6 day stay at Brighton CP.
This post covers our trips to the Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale.
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
Day 3 – Sat 06 Apr – To Adelaide Hills
It was a much cooler day and partly overcast, but no rain. We drove to Mount Lofty Summit, and it was a lovely drive as we headed up the range. There are some wonderful homes up here and the landscape is so varied, with so many hills and valleys. The trees are changing colour – some are stunning. Good views back to Adelaide from the Summit.
We drove down to Crafters and then on to Stirling. Some nice homes and buildings on the way and gorgeous trees – such a variety of colours. We went on through Bridgewater to Hahndorf.
And what a place Hahndorf is. From the beautiful tree lined road that welcomes you in, to the brilliant old buildings and everything German once you can find a parking spot. And finding a parking spot was incredibly difficult. I guess because it is Saturday and half of Adelaide is visiting, as well as normal tourists.
We finally got a park at the far end of town and walked out to the nearby Lutheran Church, then walked the main street – with hundreds and hundreds of other people, this town is busy. What a great atmosphere this place has.
The colours on the trees are glorious. At the Linke House – we read the typical story of German settlement in the area.
Another plaque tells the story of the establishment of the Lutheran school.
A selection of main street photos.
We also did some shopping for German food, buying some brodtworst (for me) and Kranski (for Des).
I had noticed a cafe on our walk through that was serving seafood chowder for lunch. From all our travels through Ireland we had great memories of wonderful chowder lunches in the pubs. I found the cafe and we were surprised to see it was actually an Irish cafe. We had a great chat to the owners, and the chowder was excellent.
Next on the itinerary was the Beerenberg Family Farm. It’s just a shop really – we did not want to pick our own strawberries. But we walked out with a bag of jams and chutneys.
From there we moved on to Woodside, and found the Melba’s Chocolate factory. Kerry’s eyes lit up with glee. We left with a bag of goodies much larger than the one from Beerenberg. Chocolate coated everything. A bag of freeze-dried strawberries, raspberries, sultanas, turkish delight and some coconut rough. A bag of EACH you understand and ALL coated in the most delicious milk chocolate ….. We usually get some of this stuff at Wholefood markets, but this was actually slightly cheaper.
We drove through Lenswood, on to Basket Range and finally to Norton Summit. It was an amazing drive – up and down mountains, around tight twisty corners, until we were finally on the flat again and on our way back to Brighton. It was a great day.
Day 6 – Tue 09 Apr – McLaren Vale
There was no rain but the weather was – guess what – windy and cold. The wind was relentless and the awning has stayed wrapped up. Our plan for the day was to get a good look at the McLaren Vale region.
We drove to the Onkaparinga River NP, and came to the park from the north east. We saw a carpark and stopped to see where we were. We were at the starting point for the Echidna Hike and decided to do that. It was a 3.5km walk that promised great views of the gorge. It was an interesting walk around what we would have called a dry gully, but so sight of any gorge and we wondered if the gully was in fact the gorge we had been promised. There was ruin on the trail but nothing to tell us about it. We also saw a few clusters of millipedes on the track. In some places they are everywhere. A disappointing walk.
We drove down to the carpark for the Punchbowl Lookout, which again promised great views of the forge. And indeed there were – we finally saw the Gorge. It is a 1km walk to the lookout and the gorge is well worth it.
In hindsight, we should have gone to the Punchbowl Lookout first and maybe walked down into the gorge. But we had no way of knowing that.
Our next target were the cliffs at Port Willunga, which was a short drive away. These cliffs are quite spectacular with views in both directions. We walked along the sandy beach to the first point, taking lots of photos on the way. It is a really nice beach and would be very popular in a warm day.
We drove east to Willunga and walked around the town. It had been promoted in the guide booklets as a little treasure trove of cafes, shops in a village atmosphere. We had a mini-Hahndorf in mind, but that was not the reality. There certainly were some lovely old buildings to admire, but the atmosphere was just not there. I guess its hard for any little town to compete with the magic Hahndorf.
At McLaren Vale we again had a Hahdnorf concept in our minds but found a much more modern town with relatively few olde-world links. We were only there long enough to get lunch. But we see an absolutely gorgeous old church which was for sale.
We did not go into any wineries as we are now quite fixed in our preferred wine drinking routine. Kerry is a bubbly girl, and I only drink shiraz. or an occasional pinot – I seem to have a physical reaction to white wines or cab-sav. So it seems pointless to go into a wine tasting. We have also been to so many wineries in the past – we really don’t need anymore.
To see photos from this post, click here
To read the post Adelaide -Part 1, click here