Monday 20th February

A fairly easy flight from Canberra. There was a little turbulence as we took about half an hour to climb up through the clouds and then there was more as we came in over the Adelaide Hills.

We landed 15 mins late but were off the plane, picked up our baggage instantly and collecting the car took about 2 mins. Some slight confusion in finding Sir Don Bradman Drive as the airport alterations had changed the road layout completely.

Checked in to the Airport Motel and managed to get our old room with the spa bath on the ground floor of the rear courtyard. Dumped the luggage and ate in the dining room. Excellent value as they suggested we share the Fisherman’s Basket which was huge and very nice - hake, calamari, prawns, chips and salad.

Back to our room by 9.30 to unpack what’s needed for tomorrow.

Tuesday 21st February

Up around 8am and after getting ready went for breakfast. Very nice - Anne had poached eggs on toast and Les had bacon and scrambled eggs - much bigger than anticipated - would’ve fed two.

Got everything into the car and sorted out some of the details of the car and then set out for Burnside Village. Went past all the preparations for the Clipsal 500. Went into Burnside. The main bit is much as before but the whole thing has been extended to engulf all the old outside area with amazingly smart new shops (all expensive). It looks as though this has only just been finished as one or two units are being fitted out. It would be Holly’s idea of heaven. After a look round we went into Coles and got biscuits, bananas, coffee bags and water. Bought a cool bag as we would’ve had to buy a carrier bag anyway. Had a coffee and then set off for Clare.

The first bit was fairly mundane out through North Adelaide and onto Main North Road. However we soon lost most of the traffic and carried on through interesting countryside. We turned into Gawler instead of staying on the main road and stopped and bought apple juice at a cafe. Carried on along the main road to Clare. By this time the roads were almost completely empty.

We turned off for Skillogalee as recommended by Krissi and Bob. We had an excellent light lunch (asparagus for Anne, beef salad for Les). The staff all remembered Leo Sayer’s visit on Melbourne Cup Day - the day Krissi and Bob were there.

After lunch we set the satnav for Mintaro, and we got a bit worried when it took us down an increasingly narrow dirt road that was not much better than a farm track. We finally came out on the main highway and then turned off to Mintaro.

We took a few pictures of the old buildings for which the town is best known and then went on to Martindale Hall. This is a Georgian style building finished in 1880 and containing much of the original furnishings etc. We blagged our way in as seniors and just had time to spend 45 minutes looking round the whole place on a self-guided tour before it closed at 4pm. The original builder came from Melbourne, Cambridgeshire.

This is a completely unexpected little gem but sadly photogaphy was not allowed inside the house. It is possible to actually stay in the house as B&B guests. It claims to be the only museum in the world where you can do this.

Carried onto Clare, arriving at Country Club around 5pm. Checked in and had a quick cup of tea in our very smart and well fitted room. Had a quick look at the dinner menu and booked restaurant for 6.45pm. We then went off to have a quick look at the town (no restaurants apart from a couple of pubs) and onto Neagles Rock Lookout. We parked in the car park and looked at the info board. It showed a circular walk up to the rock and back which looked as if it wouldn’t be too bad. Wrong!

The walk up became very steep but we decided that we might as well carry on as it would be very difficult for Les to go back down this way. We eventually got to the top (455m) and the views were quite nice, but you only look out in one direction, whereas we had been expecting a 360 view. We then looked for the return route. This turned out to be very narrow and very very steep. Les was really struggling and wherever possible was holding onto trees, etc. About half way down just where we thought the path was going to get flatter, Les slipped and fell. He slid a few feet and stopped and didn’t seem to have done any damage to his knees or the camera. It was only some minutes later as we were continuing even more slowly that we realised Les had got several cuts/scratches on his left wrist.

Shortly after this we were enormously relieved to see our car through the trees. Although we were still quite a way up it did mean we were fairly confident of getting back to the car and then the hotel in time for dinner. As it turned out we got back about 6.15 and had time to grab a quick shower before going to the restaurant.

We sat with a beer looking out over the lake before going in. Excellent value as we had the fish sharing platter plus a Greek salad. The platter had calamari, prawns, pickled octopus and crab. In fact we couldn’t finish it all and it was only $32 for two. Had another drink in the bar afterwards and were just about to leave when we started a longish conversation with an Irish couple who live in Adelaide. He has some connection with housing services and knew ECH. Back to our room by 8.30 to start typing up.

Wednesday 22nd February

Woke quite early but had tea in bed and got up around 8.15am. Fortunately Les wasn’t suffering any after effects from yesterday’s fall. A bit of a disaster in the bathroom where, unlike yesterday evening, it seemed to be impossible to get the shower temperature to stay constant. It kept veering between hot and cold - presumably other people taking showers and flushing loos were making the pressure of the cold system fluctuate. Very unpleasant when all the cold stopped and the shower suddenly became extremely hot.

We at our bananas and biscuits with our coffee and then got completely packed before going for a walk down to the lake and around the outside of the main building. A nicely situated golf course and we saw a large flock of galas.

Checked out and headed back to Clare where we immediately had to take a roadworks diversion before we could get onto Main Road North. Essentially we spent the day just following this northwards as far as Hawker.

We soon ran out of the Clare wine growing area and into grassy hill lands. We started hoping for a coffee stop but the first likely place, Yacka, seemed to be completely dead with the few shops all closed.

Eventually we stopped in Georgetown which seemed to consist of a general store and a pub. The store also did coffee and we sat and talked to the owner and listened to a couple of ‘local characters’ putting the world to rights. The store owner told us they were getting ready to celebrate the building’s 100th anniversary.

We carried on to Gladstone where we drove into the town centre and parked to use the loos. Filled up as we left the town. At Laura we saw a sign for scenic viewpoint but a few hundred yards from the main road it turned into a dirt track and we didn’t fancy a long trip on dirt roads at this stage of the day.

Carried on up to Melrose and was surprised to pass a couple more wineries as we didn’t think there were any this far north. The only place open to eat in Melrose was the pub/hotel and they didn’t do ‘real’ cooking at lunchtime but Anne had a cheese toastie and Les had a meat pie - beef/green peppercorn. Had a light beer each - the benefits of driving in Australia.

By this time we were close to Mt Remarkable and as we went north we saw a sign, so we took the road up to Alligator Gorge. Quite an interesting drive - very hilly and twisty and a lot of damage to the road edge from recent storms. Saw a whole field of emus as we approached the National Park. Had to pay to do the last bit of the drive through the park to the main car park. We were the only people there.

We did the longer of the two short walks to the lookout points. Not too bad although the very last section was down a flight of steps cut into the rocks, and Les struggled - roll on the new knee! Nice views of the gorge and cliffs of red quartzite. No visible water at the bottom of the gorge and of course it wasn’t the most spectacular one we’ve seen but nice nevertheless. Les’s hips were aching by the time we got back - probably the result of yesterday's trek up and down to Neagles Rock.

Les drove back out because Anne didn’t want to have to drive back over the gullies - in effect inverted road humps which littered the last 3km. Spectacular views over the plain from the approach road.

We then simply followed the road again north to Wilmington and then to Quorn (home of the Pichi Richi Railway - some books say Pichi Pichi - in any event it’s closed until Easter). We managed to find Emily’s Bistro - a cafe/tea room situated inside an old general store - most of the cupboards and shelves are still there together with the pay desk and the overhead wires for the cash system, last seen in Evans & Davies in Palmers Green.