Day 5 Wineries on Wednesday
Our first stop this morning on our 325 km drive was a short detour to Wentworth and the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers. The Darling is the front river in the pic below, joining the Murray to the rear. The Darling is the 3rd longest river in Aus arising around the northern NSW Qld border but is under major threat from over-allocation of its water, pollution and pesticide runoff from farming activities along its route. Drought conditions have made things a lot worse of course. The Murray is Aus longest river at 2,508 km rising in the Australian Alps and emptying into the sea in South Aus - you'll see the mouth on a boat trip we take much later in this trip. It's in better condition than the Darling. (The 2nd longest for anyone interested, is our recent friend the Murrumbidgee.)
A cute Green Rosella here
The border between NSW and Victoria follows the wiggly line of the Murray here, with South Aus intersecting at right angles east of Renmark. Not far within the border you pass through quarantine control. We were thoroughly searched here - glovebox, back seats, esky's, the locked trunk and most boxes within it opened (looking for prohibited fruit and veg in order to protect their industries from the fruit fly). We had already checked this morning to make sure we were in the clear but it was much more stringent than our last fruit fly border crossing, several years ago, within NSW.
The infamous Dunlop tyre and welcome to South Aus, our fourth and final state.
One of many opening bridges on the Murray
The Murray is impressively wide here near Renmark.
Further down the road we visited our first winery, Banrock Station, makers of some of my fave wines and dating from the 1960s. They also had a wetlands walk. The below pic is early on the walk, looking back across the vines to the main tasting centre and cafe.
Unfortunately this visit there were not much wetlands to view - it was drylands.
Kangaroos, like us, were hanging out for a glass or two of red or white.
Having sampled several wines at their free tasting, and loaded up the car with a box for 'ron, I enjoyed my favourite rose with their Hawker's Tasting Platter for lunch - very tasty (yes some food porn finally! Sorry this trip was about doing it on the cheap and self catering a lot).
View from the deck. Online you can see under better conditions, the water can be visible from here.
On the road again, Waikerie silo art. I was less fussed on this one.
Though this Murray Hardhead is cute - they are an endangered, short-lived freshwater fish rapidly disappearing from the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers.
We now descended into the Barossa Valley, infamous for its food and wine. Our first stop in the valley was Maggie Beer's Farm Shop at Nuriootpa (for internationals Maggie Beer is a famous Aus chef including a popular TV show with colleague Simon Bryant, the Cook and the Chef).
There they are. Several purchases, as gifts as well as for us, were made! Her cafe was popular but having eaten we resisted.
Outside we admired the various caged birds - pheasants for the pot perhaps?
Our bed for the night in nearby Tanunda, a cute little cottage. The weather had drawn in cold and rainy so it was nice to cosy up with the central heating.