Clare Valley and the CiderMine

Thurs 19 Mar Today we are off to visit the Clare Valley another famous wine producing region. The wines here amount to less than 2% of Australias total output but it is supposedly very good…. Boutique wine they call it. It all turns out a bit disappointingly as they are mostly promoting Reisling, which Peter doesn’t like. There is a Reisling Trail that you can drive, cycle or walk but needless to say we didn’t buy any.
Once again we are doing a loop, a distance of about 180K. We head first for Saddleworth which seems not very different from the Lancashire Moor, except this is part of the S A wheat belt with sheep on stubble instead of heath. Not a lot to see so on to Auburn. We are close to the Clare Valley and the countryside changes from stubble to vines. At Auburn we turn onto a tourist route which is a dirt track for 20K. It’s a bit rough but dry which is the main thing. Red Gum and stringy bark trees, which are becoming scarce made up the conservation area which we went through. This was Spring Gully Conservation Area and we climbed a hill to a nice look out point looking over the S A plains. Then it’s down into Clare. We weren’t sure what to expect but it’s just another town, a few nice buildings but nothing to write home about. Just north of Clare is Stanley Flat, vineyards as far as you can see and so we stopped at a cellar door. The name is familiar, Cadamans, but there is nothing there that suited us so we continued back to Burra. More enormous plains of stubble until we get back to Burra and an oasis called Thorogoods… The cider cellars, the place we couldn’t find yesterday. We sample their scrumpy, it’s not quite the same as Bernards (Wack). Tastes fine but didn’t go black when exposed to the air! and it was more expensive! Bought a couple of bottles results to be published later. Thought it best to park the van p before wandering back into town for a beer or two. It’s quite hot and the flies are at their most annoying, but as we sit outside the pub they become less of a problem and all is well with the world.