We left the Yorke Peninsula to head to the Barossa Valley. However, Mum’s great map-reading abilities found us in Clare of the Clare Valley. A lovely, shady playground there was lovely to play at on such a hot day. There was a huge tree at the playground that looked like it could fit ten kids sitting around a table inside, if only it was hollow.
After putting our clothes in the washing machines at the Laundromat, we headed out to walk through the township. The main street was quite pretty, and we all gravitated into a little lolly shop. Peter, Susan, and Lucy all spent the money they had made collecting cans and bottles. We were jolly parched, so we went into a cafe for a drink of water. Dad went to the supermarket with Edmund and Lucy, while Mum took Peter and Susan to help her at the laundromat. On the way, Mum noticed an auto-electrician and asked him if he’d have time to look at a problem we’d been having with the car. He had time the next day, so that decided it; we were camping around there.
We spent quite a while looking for somewhere suitable to free camp, that we could unhitch the next day for taking the car in to Clare and hang up our washing. We didn’t find anywhere, but we found a basic campervan park that had a sandwich board out the front advertising “Sites from $7 per night”, right behind a winery. It turned out that it was actually $15 a night for an unpowered site, which we still thought was reasonable.
Susan and Lucy delighted in making fairy houses in a quiet, shady corner of the campervan park, while Peter helped Daddy to cook the barbecue. Edmund played under Mum’s feet while she hung out the washing and made the salad. Susan was quite cross when she saw that Mum had made the salad without her helping. Susanhas become rather accomplished lately at preparing delish salads for dinner, and both older children have enjoyed meal preparations.
Dad, Lucy, and Edmund were gone all the next morning while the car was being looked at. Peter, Susan, and Mum all lay down together on the grass in the shade to read on their kindles. When the others came back, we ate lunch together, and then headed out to a few wineries.
Wineries
We drove around, admiring the beauty of the Clare Valley. We went to a rather large winery first called Taylors’ first. As we drove in, Peter and Daddy said, “It’s a castle!”
“It says chateau, which means castle in French,” Peter explained.
“Oh, is that what it means,” laughed Dad.
“Yeah, how did you know it’s a castle if you didn’t know that?” Mum asked Dad.
“See how it’s got the cut-away square pattern on the roof, and the towers?”
Inside, Mum and Dad tried a few wines, and inquired about a tour for the next day. They thought it would be interesting to find out about making wine, but since we couldn’t join on much it was decided not to do it.
O’Learies Winery was the next we visited. Locusts rested on the lawns in front of the grapevines. The kids ran about, scattering the winged insects around. Mum and Dad tried a few wines again, and ordered a platter of dips that we all devoured.
Crab Tree Hill was a quaint little winery that was by far the favourite of the kids. We played with their basket of toys outside, played chassy, climbed an old oak tree, and watched the hens scratching in the grass. Mum and Dad sat inside a stone cellar talking to the lady who worked there and another two men; there were far too many exciting things to do for us kids to sit down.
We were getting hungry by the next winery, but Mum and Dad told us to stop whinging. We decided again to play outside in the garden. We were delighted when a waitress brought us out a scone and jam each. Mum and Dad had paid for it while they were inside taste testing wines. The next day we went back there for lunch. We climbed the old oak tree, explored their gardens, and crossed the road to the plum tree to pick and eat the plums. Mum and Dad were boring; they sat, chatted, and ate lunch while we played.
At the campervan park, an older man showed us his plum and fig trees. He had been living at the campervan park for two years. He told us that the figs and plums were ripe, but he couldn’t eat it all. Peter, Susan, and Lucy had lots of fun sitting in the tree eating the plums to help him. They took cucumbers and tomatoes that he gave them back to the van to use in salads.
Hedge Maze
From there we headed down towards the Barossa, but not before we stopped at the Hedge Maze. It was hard work going through a hedge maze with the little ones, as Lucy insisted on cheating whenever she could. She just didn’t seem to want to stay on the track.
Even better than the hedge maze was the giant chess board. Everyone in our family loves chess, so the opportunity to play with a giant chessboard was too good to pass up. There were five elaborate and decorative chess boards at little tables, too, so we could have two games going at once.
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