What a great tour we had of South Australia. It was totally unexpected I was invited to join this great group of people.
We began our tour with breakfast at the Adelaide Central Markets. Many of the stalls we visited I have walked by in the past without knowing about their delicious food available. The stall holders we visited were all so happy to see us and let us sample their produce.
This great experience was followed by a short tram ride to Rundle Mall where we saw one of the most well-recognised buildings in Adelaide, the Beehive Corner. We continue our sightseeing to Adelaide’s cultural boulevard North Terrace. Dennis, our tour guide for the day, told us the tails of our wonderful historical buildings. While we were here, we spoke to a lovely group of students from Whyalla who sung for us that night, it was just so lovely. Our city tour ended in the recently restored Mortlock Library which is a piece of art and history.
The next day we ventured out of the city to Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills. We stopped at Beerenberg Farm and Penfolds Magill Estate, where we toured the winery and enjoyed a tasting of Grange. We all ended the day a bit tipsy!
On day 4 of our tour, we travelled to Kangaroo Island via Cape Jervis. We had an early morning departure to get the ferry, Mark our driver/guide was waiting for us when we arrived. The ride is scenic to Cape Jervis, it allowed some of us little extra sleep on the coach. The ferry ride was very smooth and there were no waves in sight.
We arrived in Penneshaw where Hamish was waiting to show us some of KI’s special places. We stayed at the Mercure Kangaroo Island Lodge in American River for two nights.
Our program included gin tastings at South Australia’s first boutique gin distillery and a visit to a lavender farm. Here we ate delicious scones, lovely salads, and quiche.
A visit to KI is not complete without visiting the oyster farm and eating them fresh out of the shells. The most special places to visit on KI would be Seal Bay and the Flinders Chase National Park with Admiral Arch, we all walked down the many steps to see the magnificent Arch.
After a special few days in KI, we make our way back to the Fleurieu Peninsula. Mark was waiting for us to take us to McLaren Vale for the night.
We enjoyed wine tastings at Foggo Winery, the wines are fortified, and we got little snacks with it.
We had the very best weather till then, spring weather was coming and the following day while visiting the quirky d’Arenberg Cube, the weather broke and we were blessed with lots of showers. It couldn’t damper our good spirits and we continued to the wine regions, the Clare Valley where we stayed in the lovely Clare Country Club.
We included a visit to magnificent Georgian build Martindale Hall, close to Mintaro village. It was a nice addition to the visit of the Mortlock Library. Martindale Hall was built in 1879 by Edmund Bowman, who sadly went bankrupt. The Mortlock family lived here for 60 years, when John Mortlock died, his wife grieving Dorothy left and now it is a museum. Everyone was so happy we were able to visit it.
We continued our journey to the Flinders Rangers, where we stayed in Wilpena Pound.
Along our journey, Mark our bus driver celebrated his birthday and we all song the famous Beatles song ‘When I’m Sixty Four’.
Most of us were hoping to go on the optional scenic flight, however, it was only possible for 4 of us. The rest of us hope to do it on our next visit, unfortunately the weather turned, and it would not have been safe to fly. After all safety first and that out ways disappointment any time.
We spent the day exploring the Flinders Rangers and visited Parachilna for lunch which was just wonderful.
The next destination on our tour is the Barossa Valley, one of the most famous wine regions in Adelaide, born out of the hard work of the German migrants since the late 1900.
We visited the family owned Yalumba winery first and were shown how they make wine barrels, very interesting, followed by a tasting of their delicious wines, which we all enjoyed together, while learning about their rich family history.
We also had a funny and interesting cooking presentation at Maggie Beer’s Farm Shop. We got to eat the food prepared during the presentation and got delicious recipes to take home and create for ourselves.
The next place we visited was Seppeltsfield. Another long and interesting family history and a fantastic presentation by Dean who was assisted by Madi. We enjoyed wine tastings before making our way back to Adelaide for our group farewell dinner.
We made it to Georges for our dinner and hugged each other farewell with the wishes to meet on another Bunnik Tour again.
The group all had such a lovely time together and we all really enjoyed each other’s company throughout the tour.
Many thanks to Tim who became my ‘assistant people counter’ making sure we wouldn’t leave nobody behind. As I still count in Dutch, I think the group were unsure if I was counting correct and we didn’t want to leave any of our fellow passengers behind.
What a wonderful tour and how lucky was I to be able to join such a great group of people showcasing my own state.
DISCOVER SOUTH aUSTRALIA FOR YOURSELF!
