Day 8: to the Barossa

Another transit day.  This is 670kms so should give us enough time to call in at the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens in Port Augusta.

In fact we decided that we had done enough plant watching, so lets get to the Barossa while the light is good.

We ended up leaving a few minutes late due to investing  little time in watching two dolphins patrolling the beach,  If only the tossers of the financial industry offered a rate of return on investment like that!

After cleaning the dew off the car we headed out, avoiding the wallabies on Dutton Bay West road. In to Port Lincoln with little excitement and find our way to Aus Star Fish megastore.  Some prawns and oysters were acquired (and by 8pm on the day had been consumed and enjoyed greatly).

We then rolled up the Highway towards Whyalla.  After this stage of the trip the total bird list was up to 92 species, with 73 seen in various parts of Eyre Peninsula and 52 seen within 2km of Vandy's Shack. 

As we went along we occasionally reflected on the appalling driving standards of folk with SA plates.  One social misfit who pulled out in front of us and then propelled themselves at 80kph in a 110kph zone - with a sol id centre line so could not be overtaken - deserves a special award of some nature.  I suspect this was the guy they had in mind when designing the sign.

There is possibly a truckie somewhere tonight who would give us a similar award.   We passed him (making an assumption, I didn't check their sex or gender) a few km North of Port Lincoln and he came past us as we were photographing a plant with pink flowers - I suspect a Boronia - I had noticed on the way down. 

We passed them (the truckie, not the flowers) again about 30 km later.  As we stopped to brew some coffee and take lunch in the Whyalla Wetlands  they must have come past since we overtook them again around Port Germein!  I suspect they came past while we were refuelling at Port Pirie, but we didn't catch up by the time we turned off in Crystal Brook.

Getting out of that narrative there was a lot of smoke (but no obvious mirrors) evident at the Onesteel plant in Whyalla. We didn't stop for a steelworks tour.  Apparently the Mad Monk and his colleagues had been prophesying that the Carbon price would cause Whyalla to fall into the sea: not so - the lads were obviously hard at it.

Around this area we started to see wide loads.  They were indeed seriously wide loads and sensible drivers gave them a wide berth.

At Crystal Brook we decided to take the inland route to the Barossa through Clare.  This was going to be longer than continuing down Route 1 but would be more interesting.  Both these expectations were correct.

We managed to avoid the blandishments of most of the Clare Valley's excellent wineries but I did feel obliged to swing into Sevenhill Cellars for auld lang syne.

When we used to visit in the 1970s one was served by a monk (it is a Jesuit retreat as well as a winery) and the wine was good and cheap.  Now the service is by two apparently nice ladies (perhaps The Monk has been devalued by a certain politician) and wine is $35 a bottle!!!!!  Pass.  The architecture was nice however.

There was an old house/ruin behind the shrine.  It was quite typical of the old abandoned cottages one saw along the roads: presumably these were the houses of farmers in the days when a living could be made off a small block (or when a small block supported paid staff as well as the farmer).

Of a more up-to-date appearance was a sculpture entitled Madonna of the Vines.  It has some reference  to a South American "Madonna of the Snows", but Uncle Google doesn't help with that reference.  Most of their offerings for such a Madonna seem to come from Italy!

The vineyards of the Clare region all looked to be in excellent condition (well pruned vines, no weeds etc) despite a very tough year in 2011.  The same comment applies to the Barossa.  The tidiness of these areas contrasts dramatically with the scruffy nature of the vines in Sunraysia.

We found our way to our accommodation near Seppleltsfield and very nice it is too.   Of course being inland it is very different to Vandy's Shack: the dolphins have been replaced by some Suffolk rams that were of considerable interest to the small dog.

We sat out on the deck for a cleansing Pinot Noir or two and watched the sun go down.  Someone has to do this stuff.

Bird of the Day:                    AdelaideRosella (OK a hybrid of Crimson and Yellow Rosella but still interesting),

Plant of the Day                    Unknown pink thing.

Interesting sight of the day:  Black faced rams (Tammy got to vote on this).  [Dolphins got a mention again but Tammy made demands!]

What we leaned today          Petrol prices change dramatically North of Port Pirie.  [A contender was the very high quality of ABC Radio National programming, which kept us entertained from about 9am to 3:30 pm!  However that is very close to the winner last Saturday!]

Two times twenty living men,

played footy in each town

Each mighty punt, the forwards leapt

Fullbacks dropped them quickly down.

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