Sundowner Clare Valley

... got permission to give it some stick & have some fun, and wait at the top. I beat Adam in the sprint, which makes it 2 from 2 buddy in spite of your false allegations. It felt so good to exercise the body hard after so much holding back, which creates just general soreness and feeling of age-onset. So we continued as a happy group until Snowtown, where we called it quits. We were not going to make our original destination (Crystal Brook) before ...

... trailer, well its fine, it's just covered in Skippy’s tummy contents. The smell! Fortunately the rest of the trip home was far less eventful. The rain has made the country look fantastic, even the Hay Plains are green. We make Narrandera by 5pm and decide to go for home. We pulled into the driveway at 10:50pm very tired but happy to be home.

... into Turkey!! The usual jokes about pigs flying etc had Graham, Paul & Kay just about disgracing themselves. Not fancying turkey, Graham & Kay settled for Gourmet sausages, and Paul for Beef Curry. They all very politely ate their meals, but made heavy work of it, even Gr. Later he said it was one of the worst meals he'd ever eaten. I had made an excellent choice & was very happy with my meal. Stayed Thursday night in a Robe caravan park, had a good look around ...

EN: Clare Valley is well known for its Riesling wines, but, of course, it was a big coincidence that we ended up here... :-D Since we were here, we had to take advantage of the situation and go for a tour around the wineries. We followed the famous Riesling Trail for a few kilometers and after that we visited a few wineries, tasted some wines and decided to came back later to shop for a few bottles at the Kilikanoon winery, it was the New Years Eve ...

... in een dorpje waar ik gestopt was voor een lunch. Het speciale aan dit beestje is dat hij een speciale staart heeft. Het lijkt namelijk op z'n kop en het is om de roofvogels e.d. te misleiden... had er wat over gelezen in het info centrum bij de Pinnacles. 24-11-08: Door nog een berg kleine dorpjes gereden om uiteindelijk op een gewone snelweg uit te komen die naar Adelaide ging. Ik zal Adelaide in een los verslagje doen (voor de route op de kaart).

... they are. Didn't get to try it though ... :-( Olssens of Watervale The drive into this cellar door was a challenge. Rocky roads, undualting, tight corners while managing the slopes ... the words 'do not bring this car to the offroads' from Europcar was ringing in my mind ... *sweat* But the drive was worth it as the cellar door is located in a beautiful secluded part of Watervale, Clare Valley. The vineyard here benefits ...

... by a few houses (increasing too quickly to count), a disused football oval, a disused tennis court, a disused hall, a disused railway shed with no railway lines, a disused church, a disused silo and weighbridge, a public telephone and a wall of post office boxes. As far as I know there are no plans for any major developments such as casinos, conference centres or even a giant fibreglass wheat stem to bring in the tourists. The local pub is a pleasant place with a ...

... than what I'm used to.

The pub is a natural source of distraction, and as my kitchen lacks any cooking appliances I take many meals at the bar. My foreign accent and employment at Jeanneret WinesžBen and Carissa lived in the Watervale house for years before buying a more spacious place north of Clarežbrings me welcome from many of the locals.

But despite the warm reception and the charm of the old stone house I'm ready to move on. I can't cook at home ...

I crashed my boss's motorcycle the other day, riding down hill on a dirt road at speed, in a gear too fast and on a bike I probably shouldn't have been on. It's a good thing I was wearing a helmet.

For more than a decade it wasn't a big deal that I don't drive. I had friends with cars, lived in cities and got around on public transportation or on a bike. I couldn't hire a car for a weekend road trip, or even move a friend's car when she was about to get a ticket. But overall it ...

It's just after dawn and mist rolling off the Skilly Hills drifts through the tops of eucalyptus trees and down into the back vineyard. Behind the hills and the winery kangaroos and fallow deer graze in the Spring Gully Conservation Park, the largest wooded area in the Clare Valley. Most of the valley has been given over to the vine.

The top of a 15-foot high ferment tank is a great vantage point for a mundane job. Below me is 10,500 litres of South Flinders shiraz ...