SUNDAY 6 DECEMBER

After a wonderful night of dinner, theatre and friends last night, we leave the bitumen of the Adelaide caravan park and head north. It’s raining and cool. We return the rental car, have an unspectacular coffee and head for the Barossa Valley, to spend two nights in the glorious home of Margaret Lehmann. The Lehmann’s and the Dunstan’s have been friends for many years and it is always a joy to spend time with Marg, especially on her home turf. For lunch we are joined by her two sons, David and Phil, two of Dave’s kids Ben and Alex and Phil’s son Lewis. Covid restrictions have prevented the wives and the rest of the kids coming. Lunch at Chez Lehmann is always a jolly affair and, perhaps unsurprisingly, always accompanied by excellent wines, and plenty of them. Both Phil and Dave are wine makers and produce their own wines under their own labels (Max & Me and David Franz). Today we drink Phil’s 2018 and 2020 delicious Rieslings, and plenty more reds to boot. It’s a marathon, which I won. My fellow travelling companions retired for an afternoon sleep after the family had left, but I was not deterred. So much good wine must not go to waste. I even outdrank the Baroness of the Barossa. Now there’s reason for pride. A light evening meal and so to bed.

MONDAY 7 DECEMBER

Margaret, as tour guide, drives us on a tour of the Valley this morning. Well, that was the intention, but she seemed to prefer that we explore the main street of Tanunda and meet a few of her many friends, who happened to be walking down the road or in the shops or at work. Visitor Centre, Post Office, Supermarket, Clothes Shop etc. Eventually we climb back into her car and make it as far as Menglers Hill Lookout, which gives a pretty fab view of the beautiful Barossa Valley

Marg and Di talk secret women’s business

Gaz reads up on the history

And dear Cherrie keeps us all happy

So, now the tour is complete we take Margaret to lunch, but she has to drive us. Delicious food, delectable wines and excellent service at Vintners. Highly recommended. As we turn into the driveway to Marg’s house, she spots Mal, who works for her around the grounds, and who is a great fan of Garry. I think he is Costa’s nephew

It’s so cold by now that Marg lights a fire

And Sam and Bolly keep warm by chasing each other in her beautiful garden.

A quick trip up the road to the David Franz Tasting Room, which is very special. And, who’d a thought it, we embark on, and a bit of a tasting. It’s just as well that Dave sells liver pate, amongst other home made small goods, from the cellar door for my own liver needs all the help it can get. We walk the short distance home through the vineyards. The promise of a good harvest is encouraging

Back at the ranch,

And swearing that we’ll never eat or drink again, we retire for a short nap. Then we return to the kitchen. To continue to eat and drink. Garry has discovered that the fridge in his van is not working, which is cause for major concern. So we drink some more and ponder his problem.

TUESDAY 8 DECEMBER

Over an alcohol free breakfast, the magpies make their regular visit to Margaret‘s kitchen window

She feeds them, as she feeds us, with top quality tucker

We get away around 10am. Here we are in the van, about to take off

Ice from Angaston for Garry’s no longer working fridge, and the slow and very scenic route up to the Clare Valley.

We check into the Caravan Park. Garry finds us a nice spot

And it’s here that we park. It is the only bit of grass in the entire park. Curious that SA caravan parks seem to specialise in bitumen and gravel. This curiosity has given even the shrubs a toothache

But the weather station gives us an accurate forecast

Having set up camp we settle into relaxation, trailer style, and don’t move for the rest of the day. Garry even introduces me to the joys (or not) of cryptic crosswords. He is very patient. I not so.

We eventually rustle up the energy to consume some biscuits and cheese for dinner. We decide to have a game of Rummikub. Cherrie retrieves it from the van, where storage is perhaps a bit of a challenge.

Tenacious as ever, she is victorious.

We have a lovely evening, thrashing each other at this game which ‘brings people together’. A superb Max & Me Cabernet Sauvignon, and a 2020 Max & Me Riesling, kindly donated by the winemaker, assists with the jollity.

WEDNESDAY 9 DECEMBER

During a leisurely morning we do the washing.

We, trailer trash?

We drive, in Garry’s van without a working fridge, to Clare township to stock up on provisions and return to our slice of grass by the crumbling banks. Garry spends some time on the phone to his campervan guru who advises him how to fix the problem, and voila, fixed. It’s a loose connection at the back of the fridge and he and Di unscrew the fixtures, remove the fridge, apply the ever reliable Gaffa tape, and return the fridge to it’s home. Cold beer tonight.

We drive to Pikes Winery and Brewery where Garry buys his supplies for this evening, and then on to Paulett’s Winery for lunch. Recommended by both Margaret and the Tourist Information Centre. We have a wine tasting at the luncheon table before ordering, so as to inform us what to drink with our meal.

I suspect it’s been a while since Margaret tasted the wines here, and my suspicions run to a conspiracy theory about the woman at the Information Centre. The wine is not to our taste at all. None of it. But, not to be deterred, we are veterans and choose the least horrible of the lot. And order a whole bottle. We also choose the ‘long lunch’ of 3 courses of chef’s choice. Our conspiracy theory is vindicated. The food receives the same review as the wine. But, the outlook is beautiful and we have actually eaten enough over the past 4 days so as not to need to do so again for another 4 days. I doubt that will influence us though. Anticipating a boozy lunch, we have arranged a designated driver

Bolly is too young to drive. And, we still have half a bottle of the wine left.