The Alexandrina Cheese Company ... delicious!

Welcome to the Alexandrina Cheese Company, at Nangkita, South Australia ...

...where abstract art seduces the camera...

...and 80 Jersey cows are hard at "work" making the most wonderful milk we ever tasted!

What could be better than to check out the Cheese Company's cafe ...

...which offers tastings of their multiple award-winning product, and --

-- coffee and baked cheesecake to die for!

Oh, we'll be back. Soon.

We bought several cheeses, plus milk and cream.'Dinner' tonight is a cheese platter, with
venison salami from the nearby deer farm, bread from the local bakery in Clarendon, and so on.

Here's where it all happens. The cafe is the small area to the left of the building. They make cheese magic
in the remainder. And what cheese is is!

As the sign says, welcome ... the green fields beyond say much more: springtime in South Aus.

Native shrubs thrive in these hills...

...which are still as green as winter. You might not believe these pictures were taken in October --

-- on a rather chilly, very blustery day. October is usually a lot warmer in South Australia.

Lola looking sharp in the Nangkita hills...

A galah struts his (or her!) stuff. Other places around the world know these birds as
the  rose-breasted cockatoo, but you don't hear that term locally.

Countryside reminiscent of the Shire, as if Hobbiton is right over the hill... 

...and Bilbo Baggins will be staging a 111th birthday party around here soon.

The images have been enhanced somewhat to make up for the dimness of the day --
it wasn't raining, but it was deeply overcast. Must return on a sunny day.

Now you know you're  in South Australia, not quite Middle Earth!
Don't think Samwise ever drove a tractor.

...and lastly, the ladies who make it all go: the Jersey herd. 

Not far from Nangkita and Mount Compass you'll find the Alexandrina Cheese Company -- difficult to miss them, since they have excellent signage along the main road. Follow those signs and indulge in some of the finest cheeses you'll find anywhere ... and a baked cheesecake that was perfection.

Dave had intended to go to Cheesefest the previous weekend, but when the date came around it just wasn't going to happen. A couple of hours to get there, the same to get back, and a lot of hiking around -- fine, unless you have a brace on one ankle. So, scratch Cheesefest for this year; pencil it in for next year, and instead, head south of Adelaide and a little bit east. Look out for Mount Compass and Mount Jagged, and tucked away in an idyllic area between horse properties and dairy country, you'll find the Alexandrina Cheese Company itself.

Their milk comes courtesy of 80 Jersey cows, each of whom has her own name. They live in what one imagines to be bovine paradise: green pastures, sweet water and pleasant airs. Their paddocks are off the opposite side of the road from the factory-cum-cafe -- these are extreme long-shots, since the ladies were far away. The milk is astonishing. You think of milk as white? This milk is pale gold, ivory colored, and it tastes very different. This would be what our grandparents called milk -- so little wonder the cheese is astonishing, too!