Day 75: From Wilmington to Leasingham (15/08/12)

At Wilmington the morning was cold and nippy, so we got ourselves sorted out and underway. We had not bothered to unhitch the caravan, which always saves time in the morning. 

Morning at the Stoney Creek Bush Camp

The wattles were blooming at Stoney Creek.

Our first stop was in the historic little town of Melrose where life seemed to centre around the cycling and walking trails in the nearby Mount Remarkable National Park. 

The pub in Melrose

Two strange houses with the cabins of trucks built into them!

Old Melrose building. Melrose is the oldest town in the district.

The main street in Melrose with yours truly taking up about 3 parking spaces!

Then we drove through a whole bunch of other little towns until we got to Clare. 

One town had a dump point, so we donated some of our precious blue water. We don't mind sharing.......

All the while we marvelled at how green the fields were and how lush everything was. 

Green fields and ruins of old farm buildings were the order of the day in the Clare Valley.

The waterholes were full, too, a far cry from the arid landscape we had left behind only a few hundred kilometres to the north.

We decided to overnight at Leasingham in a Caravan Park attached to a winery. Obviously these places are used for grape pickers in season and grape imbibers like ourselves out of season. Which suits everybody. This time we unhitched the caravan – for a purpose. There were many wineries in the region and they all required a visit. One of our objectives was to get hold of some bulk port, which we found practically next door to the caravan park in the end – but oh, the search was good! I had to remind myself that the etiquette of wine-tasting does not require you to drink to the dregs everything that is set before you. Otherwise your progress around the district would become more and more erratic. 

Thanks, Anheuser-Busch.

Just to show that I was not being irresponsible.....

Instead, you swirl the wine around in the glass, take a good sniff at it, take a sip and slosh it around in your mouth, swallow it (the spittoon is going too far for a frugal Dutchman!), cock your head sideways, nod and make a judicious remark or two. If the salesperson presses you for a sale, you glance covertly at the price list before saying you might take a bottle. But you leave the rest of the sample undrunk on the counter.

As can be imagined, this day ended with a feeling of satisfaction at having done a hard job well.

A quaint little town on our route.

And yes, we did get home safely!