Clare Valley Day 1

Today we drove from Adelaide to Clare Valley. We picked up the rental car a block from the hotel which was just dumb luck on our part. We had no idea it would be so convenient. We got a gray Toyota Corolla. Driving on the left side of the road is a little frightening, but Mark did great. The funny thing was every time he went to use the directional signal, he would put the windshield wipers on. Everything is backwards in the car. And we are always getting in on the wrong side. The Australians must have a name for the dumb American drivers. But we don’t know what it is yet.

The ride took almost 2 hours and was beautiful with lots of rolling hills with many sheep and cattle farms. One of the little towns on the way was called Tarlee. It had one church, one general store, a town hall and a library. All in about ¼ mile. As you left the town there was a sign that said in big letters “THAT WAS TARLEE”. Yes it was.

Another crazy thing was in the middle of the road there was a parade of people with colorful dresses and a flowered cart that was being carried. Not sure what it was but it was quite a site.

** Judy from Cogwebs got back to us. The parade was a spanish festival that is an annual event in Clare Valley. Spanish folks from all over Australia get together and dance and sing there way to Clare.

Clare Valley reminded us very much of Napa/Sonoma Valley but on a much smaller scale. Everywhere you looked were rolling hills of vineyards. There are small little villages along the way with funky restaurants and shops. And the vineyards are all small boutique vineyards. We stopped at Annie’s Lane Vineyards for our first tasting. Delicious Shiraz! They suggest we have lunch at the Citadel which was delicious. Then made our way to the B&B. It is on 16 private acres. The owners live upstairs and there are 2 apts. on the first floor. Our apartment is huge with 2 bedrooms, and a large living room and kitchen. There is a beautiful garden and we enjoyed sitting on the patio taking in all the wildlife. The pink and gray birds are called Gallahs and they are everywhere along with the black and white magpies.

We decided to get some more wine tasting in so we went to Seven Hills where there was a fun underground cellar. This is where the Jesuits have been making wine since the 1800’s. Then we drove to Mintaro which is a remote village with a great vineyard. Loved the Fish drinking wine logo. The wine was delicious but most of these small vineyards don’t ship to the US. That’s a bummer because the wines are yummy and we can only enjoy them here. Luckily some of the vineyards have US distributors so we hope to be able to buy some back home.
Today is our 7th wedding anniversary so we celebrated that with a lovely dinner at Salt n’ Vines restaurant. We were sporting our new gifts, shark teeth that Mark had set in silver as necklaces. He just found these 2 teeth when we were at the beach last month. Very cool!