Happy Trip to Clare Valley

Hi Everyone! Here I am at Burra, near Clare in SA. I travelled over from Loxton last friday to my friends Yvone and Ken, in Clare. They have been running me around the Clare sights and tastes! They have a lovely new home just on the outskirts of Clare, on about 2 acres, really lovely outlook. ((the photo is not of their backyard!)
We drove over to Burra to look at this lovely old town, with lots of old shop frontages, some antique shops and nice galleries. It was previously a copper mining town. We are standing in front of the open cut and on the far hill is two buildings related to copper mining, I forget which! Any way Burra is famously freezing cold in winter and it was! But we warmed up in a pub with a fabulously warm fire and had some lunch and then continued on our merry way.

It is a public holday in Sa on Monday so Yvonne and I gave Ken a rest fom sightseeing and we hit the nearby little villages and did (I) some wine tasting. Clare Valley has verry nice reislings, among other wines! Here I am at Mintaro in a maze that is there, making a wish for a peaceful world. Mintaro has a world class slate quarry, where you can get pieces big enough for billiard tables! (you learn something new every day). We also went to Sevenhills where there is a monastery run by the jesuits and they make a large proportion of the catholic worlds' altar wines. Also some verry nice fortified wines for the likes of you and me!! All in all a nice little run around for me, but a dry one for Yvonne, who not only was driving, but was also on antibiotics and being very good about not drinking!
On the way over from Loxton, I had to drop into Renmark to have somebody look at my fridge (again), this time the fellow decided that the wiring was wrong, as when the fridge is on gas, if the bottle runs out it won't restart when the new bottle is connected. (I have had this problem at least 4 times now, about $50-100 a time) I have written down exactly what to do this time, and hopefully that is the end of it. I must admit I felt a bit foolish as i closed off the gas after he had got it sorted, to discover that i hadn't flicked the lever over!! and it was just using the last bit in the old bottle! whoops!! I didn't tell him that! I just drove off quietly down the road!
I stopped at Overland Corner, on my way to Morgan for the night , as when I came through before it was closed. I had a drink before a roaring fire and had a chat to a couple from Bunbury, didn't say their name, but he was wearing a dockers cap! (And hey we won again!!) Also a most interesting "young" man who was doing the Murray river in a tinnie (a dinghy for the uninitiated). He had been down to the mouth and was returning to Dalby (I think) in Qld. But he had spent 4 years living in UK and a couple of years driving all over the USA and Canada, but he had some great stories to tell. (If only I was 20 years younger!!) Naa. Too late now!! All in all a very enjoyable stop.
So here I am in Clare and trying to work out where I am going to next, but I will keep you posted!
Keep well and I will live to blog another day! Love
Vicki