Fleurieu 2011: Clarendon, McLaren Vale and Myponga Reservoir

The bakery in Clarendon has been serving locals and travelers since 1901; the town has been there since about 1860.

You get your breakfast at the bakery and drive around to Riverbend Park...

Tea (or coffee, if you like), and a fresh cream cherry pastry (yum!) while you view the beautiful cliffs
above the meandering Onkaparinga River.

A sign on the opposite side of the lawns tell the story of Riverbend Park, Clarendon.

Vines bask in the sun in the McLaren Vale wine region

Many vines are netted to save the ripening crop from birds.

The wines from McLaren Vale are exported all over the world ... and it all starts right here, on the vine in the sun.

The hills burn brown in summer, but from the top of them you look out over oceans of green...

The vineyards spread on, beyond McLaren Vale too, into other wine regions.

Ah! a shady spot -- with coffee! -- at the Woodstock cellar door...

The visitor passes under gorgeous flowering vines. Anyone know what these flowers are?
They look like fuchsias, but they can't be -- can they??

Most recommended: Woodstock at McLaren Vale.

On the main drag at the town of McLaren Vale itself -- the Almond Train...

All aboard for tastings of almonds, olives, local honeys --

The Almond Train would temp a saint ... stand ready with our credit card!

Take the back road out of the Vale ... this is a road trip, so enjoy the scenic rout...

Heading south out of McLaren Vale ... and if you ever had cause to wonder what Lionel Richie was doing in
early April of 2011, well ... now you know where he was!

Sellicks Beach ... the green seas of the Gulf St. Vincent on a glorious day.

Take the picture, quick -- there are people on the beach! Seriously, if this were any beach in Europe...
suffice to say, we like Sellicks Beach just the way it is. Duh. 

This zoom shot shows the pipeline headed south: it carries water...

...and as you head south, the landscape begins to look parched indeed. Hence the pipeline!

Paddocks given a little irrigation soon green up. Makes you wish they could all be irrigated...

Watch out for kangaroos, next two kilometers! You'll rarely see them in daytime but at night they're
inclined to bolt right across the road ... sadly, they have no road sense at all. 

Shade trees offer welcome relief from the sun...

...in a region where beef and dairy cattle graze many a hillside.

In this area, Sellicks Beach to the lower slopes around the town of Myponga, it seems to be mostly dairy and beef...

The perfect pastoral landscape: haymaking in South Australia --

-- but as you climb to the top of the hills the countryside becomes arid. Sheep thrive up here.

Approaching Myponga Reservoir...

Myponga Dam itself ... it's supplied about 5% of Adelaide's water since 1962.

A lookout and photo-op site offers a great place to stop for a picnic, or just for pictures...

Late in summer, the water level is down a bit, but still looking good. Want to drive across the dam head?

The road heads down into the gorge, and by this sign: watch out for falling rocks!

Myonga Reservoir dam head, speed limit 20kph. Alas, recently the old fencing at the roadside has been
replaced by high concrete walls ... now, you can't see a darned thing, and stopping is verboten. Dang.

Climbing out on the other side of the gorge, you have a view out over sheep paddocks to the distant
Gulf St. Vincent ... and that's the little town of Carrickalinga, about a mile away.

Perched on the hilltop above Carrickalinga is this bronze compass, with distances to many points
on the Fleurieu ... where to next?!

How nice to set off in perfect weather! Blue skies, some heat in the day, but not too much. First stop: the bakery in Clarendon for the makings of breakfast, and then -- across the bridge on the Onkaparinga River, with the Mount Bold dam right there at your left hand ... hang a right onto the road by Clarendon Oval (meaning, the cricket field), and stop in a spot of shade at Riverbend Park for tea and coffee. Great way to start the trip.

This time around we were only meandering. We'd actually planned a road trip to the Limestone Coast, but it wasn't going to work out for us that year, so Jade's suggestion was to just wander pleasantly around our own backyard for a few days and ... relax. How often do you do a long road trip and return home so tired, you need a vacation!

So ... McLaren Vale. A couple of wineries, including Woodstock, and the Almond Train, where it's absurdly easy to spend money. We bought local almonds, honey from Kangaroo Island, and local olives. Delicious. The store is built inside antique rolling stock -- an original railway carriage.

Next, Sellicks Beach (or at least the cliffs above), and a welcome breath of cool sea air. Around noon, the day was starting to get warm. We weren't in any hurry to go anywhere in particular, so ... how about going over to Myponga Reservoir, and drive across the dam head? For the first time, we actually took the time to stop at the lookout on the hillside beyond the dam, and discovered the bronze compass. The Fleurieu really is a big place in a small space.

Next on this trip: Second Valley, Rapid Bay, Cape Jervis and ... onward.

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!