After our adventures at Lake Frome, we were very happy to go back to a quieter pace and to civilization. Our flight back to Melbourne was 3 days later from Adelaide. The prospect of spending time in a wine region was very appealing.

Final days in the outback

We had first to spend a last night in the outback, and picked a nice campsite in Rawnsley Station, located in the Southern section of the Flinders Ranges. En route, we stopped at the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna, reknown for their plate of game. It was very busy, they surely have the key for success, being the only restaurant in the region. The weather was nice and sunny, we sat outside waiting for our plates comprising of a steak of kangaroo, a camel sausage and an emu burger. It was sooo good!! And the sign before entering the town does not lie, your plate looks exactly the same! [Disclaimer: you won’t see the plate as the picture has been rejected by the censorship…]We headed to the camp after this enjoyable break, and did our last kangaroo safari of the trip through the final 28 kilometres of unsealed road leading to our destination. We saw plenty of them once again. We could not get tired of it. The campsite was in a nice setting. Eff made a fire, and we enjoyed the pizza that we had ordered at the camp’s reception. It was easy, exactly what we needed. In the morning we had another issue with the car… The battery was flat, it was impossible to go. We had issues during the trip because the connectors were loose, but we always managed to fix it. This time we needed a jumpstart. Luckily there were other campers around to help us. We thought that our little adventure in Lake Frome could have been way worse, at least we were able to eventually fix the problem by ourselves. We would have been in a very bad situation if the battery problem had incurred instead. This tiny problem fixed, we arrived just in time to buy coffees at the restaurant, and headed to the Clare Valley.

Good time in Clare Valley

The drive down was a bit long but rewarding with beautiful sceneries. There were many old abandoned farms and even an old church on the way. We also found the house of the cover of Diesel and Dust, the Midnight Oil album. I had to wait for thirty minutes for Eff to have a ray of light, but it was worth it.Before arriving in Clare Valley region, we stopped in the quaint and beautiful town of Burra. It is unusually charming for an Australian town. We bought some meat and wine for the evening, and continued to our accommodation. We had booked two nights in a self-catering option, ten kilometres out of Clare. As it was dark, it took us some time to find it, so the surprise was even bigger when we arrived. The owners are turning a former hospital into various types of accommodation. We stayed in the nurses’ quarter, where there are 8 rooms, couple of bathrooms, a well-equipped kitchen, a dining room and a living room with TV. Rooms were sparkly clean, and the entire building had a lot of charm. On top of it, the owners are really warm, welcoming, and passionate about their projects. They have millions of ideas to develop their business. It is always nice to meet and discuss with people like them.

We started our discovery of the region in the morning. It was a bit too early for wine tasting, so we drove around. Vineyards are less attractive in winter than in fall or summer, but it was a nice change of scenery compared to the outback. The first winery we stopped at was Mitchell. It is always difficult to figure out which one to go to. There are so many… We had read couple of good reviews about that one, and we liked the Scottish cows they had in their open field. They had a cute lama for companion. How unexpected was that! It turned out that it was a present for the 60th birthday of the owner. Lamas are apparently very good sheep guardians. And indeed, after our visit, we noticed several times that there was a lama for almost each group of sheep. The wines were quite nice, especially the wooded Riesling. The Clare Valley is famous for its Rieslings, but they are usually more fruity than Alsace’s ones. The Mitchell’s vintage is aged in wooden barrel, giving it its special flavour. We were already a bit tipsy, so we headed directly to Paulett wines, where we had planned to have lunch. The wine testing was a bit disappointing but each of us found a wine to go with our food. And the food… Gosh, it was delicious! Flavoursome, tasty, creative and simple at the same time. Great choice!

We had enough wine for the day. The rest of the afternoon was quiet, driving around, and going back to Blyth to visit its Aboriginal art galleries. Then back to the accommodation for our last night. It was definitely the end of our amazing outback trip. It was way beyond our expectations, and we had no regret at all for not going to the Northern Territory. But we do keep it on the list for another time.

Last days in Melbourne

The day after was only a commute back to Melbourne. We had a quick lunch around Adelaide and went to clean the car, or at least try to. It was very, very dusty. There was thick layer of dust in absolutely every corner of the car. We handed over the car to the agency, giving them feedback on how it went, and suggestions on what they could do to improve their customers’ experience, but the guy didn’t listen to a word of what Eff was nicely saying. Another reason to avoid them at all cost! We had time before the flight, and went straight to airport to have a coffee there. We checked in, queued for the security, when I wondered where my camera was. Oups…. We had left it in the hidden compartment between the front seats, the only box that we had not opened before giving back the car. We jumped in a taxi, called the agency to wait for us, and went back to our starting point. The taxi waited for us to pick up the camera, and we were back to the airport. Too bad for our nice and cosy coffee break…

The flight was delayed a bit because of the bad weather, but Warwick and Yasmin were waiting for us at the arrival. Weather was indeed dreadful in Melbourne. Yasmin had prepared a delicious soup, and we shared our adventures with them around a bottle of wine brought back from the Clare Valley. We stayed at theirs for the night, and the following day. We did a long overdue laundry, and chilled out a bit. We said good bye, and hopped in a taxi direction Philippine’s to get what we had left there and finish packing. Last evening was another good time with friends, sharing stories with Caro and Greg about French Polynesia, where they lived for 2 years, and Australian outback roadtrips, which they love too.

Then that was it. The end of an amazing journey in Oceania. It was full of adventures and good times with friends. Both New Zealand and Australia were on our itinerary as we don’t know when we will be back in this part of the world. It depends on so many factors that we wanted to enjoy it while we could. Now, we were fully ready and excited by the new chapter of our journey. We flew to Singapore early morning, which would be our last stop before Southern Africa. Tickets were booked from there to Johannesburg on July 17th. Another 5 days with friends. What else could we ask for?

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