Naracoorte, Robe and the Barossa Valley

We arrived in Naracoorte late in the afternoon only to find we still had about 12 km’s to go to make it to the Naracoorte Caves National Park Wirreanda campground and we were seriously running out of light. The sunset over my right shoulder was beautiful but all I was focused on was finding the park. We arrived about 6pm, it was freezing, so we setup in record time just on dusk with the local kangaroos watching on.

The captain was extra special that night…

The campground is just a few hundred metres down the road from the caves information centre. We chose to do 2 of the guided tour options. The first in the Victoria Fossil cave. This was brilliant. Our guide was very knowledgeable and we actually went over time as he just loved talking about all of the limestone cave structures as well as the mega fauna fossils of marsupial lions, giant kangaroos, giant tassie devils and koalas, pythons, goannas, hippos and wombats. The caves are about 500,000 years old and the theory is that the animals fell through holes and were trapped and eventually died from smaller predators or starvation. There is a lot of conjecture when the mega-fauna started to die out but they think it was between 17-20,000 years ago. Why remains a mystery. A 6’ 8 mungo man may have something to do with it!

500K year old fossil of short nosed kangaroo

Lots of Stalag-thingies

The second tour was of the bat caves where they have setup video surveillance of a bent wing bat colony. You enter a room and basically watch them on CCTV. It’s a bit like Big Brother for bats. Apparently it gets about as raunchy as well at the right time of year. Thankfully the little bats weren’t in a frisky mood. The same people who do the CCTV in the prisons were called in for the job. It’s so good you can see the insects on the bats crawling around! When we’d had enough we toured Blanche cave which is a little more dull but they hold operas and recitals in it which would be amazing at night.

Marsupial Lion on the right

We also had a look in the Wonambi Fossil centre where they have attempted to recreate what the mega-fauna looked like at life size in an animatronic display which the kids really enjoyed. The caves here are very different from the Jenolan Caves west of Sydney (if you’ve been there) but really worth the visit given the historical significance of the abundance of fossils, which universities are still taking out and studying. The night was movie night with Hoodwinked the choice and vanilla magnums.

As we awoke the next morning, we were wondering why we were so cold. No-one wanted to get up. I finally emerged with a coffee outside with the local caretaker picking up rubbish cheerfully telling me it had been 1 degree overnight!!! I went back inside for a little longer…

We were off to Robe today through the Coonawarra wine region (yay) and Penola. We visited Wynn’s, being first in the door a tick after 10.00am and tried some tasty reds and whites. We were running a little low so felt it only appropriate that we purchase a few to investigate further on the road. It’s an extremely pretty drive through the region so we arrived in Penola around 11am and visited the Mary MacKillop schoolhouse and museum which was really lovely. Caitlin is studying her at the moment so it was great for her to see where she setup her first school and how they worked. The museum on her life, achievements, relationship with Fr John Tennison-Woods and her cannonisation. I actually found it quite fascinating and moving. Not sure why, just did. She was truly remarkable.

Wynn's Coonawarra - we recommend the H&V Cab Shiraz. "Maria, where are the kiddies?" nevermind I'm sure they'll show up later - you there, poor the wine...

Inside St Mary's first schoolhouse in Penola.

We arrived in Robe mid afternoon and just, well, Wow. We spent 4 nights here for a few reasons. 1) it is a beautiful spot with so much history, beaches, four wheel driving, fishing and simply stunning coastline. 2) The Lakeside caravan park was lovely. The office of caravan park is in historic stables of Robe Manor and it’s right near the Little Dip Conservation park which has some knarley 4WDing and awesome fishing. 3) Weather – it was cold/cool, rained a little, was quite windy and from a timing perspective we’d planned to now bypass camping in the Coorong and head straight to Nuriootpa in the Barossa instead. Robe was the port of choice in the late 1800's for Chinese workers heading to the Ballarat Gold Fields. Port Melbourne charged 10 pounds a head and Robe didn't so they preferred to get off here and walk the 350km instead!

Yet another place we must return. What a top spot for a holiday. This place has everything we love. I reckon we were about a month or so too late from a weather perspective but the kids braved the water one afternoon for a swim – swim is probably a strong word. Lachie and Grace had a charge into the water, loss of breath and scream and a charge out. Caitlin stood and jumped the waves for about ten minutes before turning blue. Our neighbours were a really nice couple from the Victorian Highlands, Darren and Maria, so we had drinks and nibblies with them one night.

Cliff top walk to the Blowholes

The Big Lobster - Kingston SE

Pretty

So much serenity...

First fish of the trip, first cast...then nothing

One funny thing which did occur to Lachie and I one afternoon as we were packing up from an arvo of catching Salmon Trout (baby Australian Salmon which was fun). As we were driving back to the entrance to drive off the beach I noticed a vehicle coming towards me. I had to rub my eyes as it was what appeared to be a Hyundai Getz! (This next bit is for all you 4WDer’s reading) It was flying along on the shoreline which was reasonably hard but then fatally turned uphill. I screamed out NOOOO!! More to myself as they were still a hundred metres up the beach and sunk deep into very soft sand on an incoming tide. Incredulous I drove up to the vehicle, which was being driven by a middle aged woman with three kids in the back. The look on my poker face must have described to the woman what I was thinking as she said “I know I know I’m an idiot”…hmmm c’mon you can do better than that!

I had lots of recovery gear so I looked at the front after getting her teenage son to dig out the front with my shovel to find there is no anchor point. Visions of me towing her out backwards with the snatch strap did not appeal so we tried the Maxtrax! Genius things Maxtrax. The front wheel drive helped and after I got her to promise I wouldn’t be held accountable if I further wrecked her already wrecked car, I got to work. (that was a funny conversation) The first attempt saw us halfway to the harder sand. A second attempt, a bit more guts got us there! Burning clutch, rubber and sand filled the air. It was at this point I realized she still had a 500m bolt to the entrance which admittedly was a very easy exit so if she made it to there she’d get off. After giving her some last minute instructions and telling her kids to start walking, away she went….in first gear screaming along…and she made it, gave me a toot and was never seen again. Packing up I then cursed myself for not getting a photo as I’m sure there would be a few doubters but Lachie was there and it is all true. Some people….

Long beach, Robe - scene of the Hyundai incident.

Saturday dawned cool but sunny and very windy. We had a relatively long 350km+ drive to the Barossa with the forecast of a rainy day for Sunday so we wanted to make sure we were well setup before the wet. We arrived mid afternoon under sunny skies and a beautiful drive through Angaston and Nuriootpa. It’s a very tranquill place and seeing many of the famous names on the way in was exciting as we planned to tour some wineries in the rain on Sunday. We stayed at the Nuriootpa Tourist Park in a leafy powered site. The place is huge very green and central to Nuriootpa, Angaston and Tanunda.

Peter Lehmanns cellar door

The forecasters got it spot on with about 28mm falling from about 2am. Everyone at the wineries were really excited as they were desperate for rain. We visited Peter Lehmann where we had lunch as well. Then went to the Maggie Beers Farmshop and watched a cooking demonstration. It wasn’t Maggie herself but it was fun. Lehmann’s was very classy and professional whilst all of us learnt about the wonders of Verjuice from Maggie Beer. We moved onto the prettiest Cellar I’ve ever seen at Rockford. Unfortunately the heavens really opened and we had to stay inside…bummer. While Maria and I sampled the magnificent reds (I highly recommend the Rifle Range – it’s superb at the moment and of course the Basket Press) the kids had fun in the other sampling area where they make their own jams, preserves, mustards and relish – yum. We also went out to Henschke but didn’t read the turnoff sign well and missed the bit about them being closed on Sundays. Extreme bummer and very sad Michael face, as I really wanted to go to my favourite winery in the whole world! Maria then suggested we just go there on our way up to the Flinders Ranges the next day. I turned that frown upside down instantly. I slept easily that night with visions of skipping through the fields of Hill of Grace sipping from the ’94 vintage, dancing in my head…

Rockford Cellars

Cooking in Maggie's Kitchen

…Um, anyhow, it is still Sunday and after a delightful thermomick of sweet potato and chicken risotto and a cheeky little Cape Jaffa semillion, we settled down to movie night with - Night at the Museum 2. Sunday night is now officially movie night where we all sit around Maria’s laptop. It’s really nice. Monday dawned fine and clear but threatening so we packed up quickly and moved out. We were all extremely excited about heading up to the Flinders Ranges but had one little stop to make – Henschke!!! Wow, they know how to make wine and they deliver!! A few for travelling (our stocks now fully replenished, whew) a couple sent home and we were off.

All Hail Henschke!

PS – it’s official – Grace is now rivaling Lachie and Caitlin for reading enthusiasm. Before we left Grace had taken about 2 months to read half of Harry Potter 1. In 3 weeks she is now up to Harry Potter 5!