Rusticana Wines and on to Goolwa -- seals, black swans and pelicans on the barrages

Rusticana Wines takes as its icon this ancient tree remnant which stands
preserved in their coutryard.

Rusticana Wines, sleepy and fragrant on a warm morning at Langhorne Creek

Newmans and Rusticana are two sides of the same company...

(All images are uploaded at large size -- click on them to pull them up BIG. Duh.)

The view from the cafe deck favors their fields and, beyond, the vineyards. What a glorious morning.

Access to the cafe and shop is up  ramp surrounded by tropical plants. Lovely!

Bees working hard in the lavender in the cottage garden out front.

...and we're off on the road to Goolwa in the early afternoon.

Goolwa: the main street, lined with fantastic coffee shops and specialty stores...

The historic Corio Hotel, established 1858, as you head out of town.

Houseboats moored on the riverbank, on the way down to the barrages and the Coorong...

A hot, bright afternoon right beside the Goolwa Barrages, Look to your right, and  --

Goolwa's signature, the Barrages. ..

...and yes, the public can walk out to the mid-point, right in the middle of the river. We did. It was hot!

The signboard in the water: the Coorong National Park begins right here, on the ocean side of the barrages

Black swans, cruising on the ocean side of the lock gates at Goolwa.

So surprising to see fur seals at Goolwa at this time of year, and especially to see them sun-baking ... fur coats and a healthy layer of blubber, in this sun! Looks are not deceiving; the day was a scorcher, especially when you didn't have a patch of shade, and even worse when the breeze dropped away.

We'd expected a stiff wind out in mid-water but at least when we were walking out there, the air was still and sizzling. The fur seals seemed to be soaking up the heat. They must be part feline.

Fur seal, basking in the sun on the lock gates at Goolwa, South Australia

This was also a great day for "birding" on the river because the waterbirds abounded, and were also close at hand as you strolled out to mid-water across the barrages.

Left: black swans, which were out by the fleet; below left: a silver gull, common in any part of Australia. Below right: a pelican -- one of scores that were fishing along the Goolwa Barrages, close enough to reach out and touch. Paradise for bird photographers and obviously not to bad for the waterbirds that thrive here.

A "trailer sailer" heads into the Coorong National Park for a day sail...

...alas, low water at the Goolwa Bid Hide, so it was lucky we'd had good "birding on the barrages...

Rusticana Wines -- aka Newmans, the horseradish farm at Langhorne Creek -- is a destination in itself. They stock gourmet foods from local chefs, such as (!) crocodile pate, and emu liver pate, home-made jams, dukkah from local almonds, and of course the full range of their own products, including wines to die for. The most intelligent thing I can do here is send you right to their website for information!

The Langhorne Creek region is gorgeous, and on the of the qualities they ought to be able to bottle and sell is the sheer peace and quiet. You have to be there to appreciate it. Open the car door, stop and listen before you even get out. You can't buy serenity, but this region dishes it up for free, and come back for seconds if you like. (Also, see this post, and this one, for other visits to Langhorne, and to Bleasdale Wines, just up the road from Rusticana.)

From Rusticana, it was on to Goolwa, and I (Jade) was actually wondering about stopping by the Corio Hotel for coffee. Always wanted to drop in there, and if you've seen their menu, you know why. Check out their website too!

But we decided to press on for the Barrages and the Bird Hide, and do the cafe thing another time (of course a year's gone by, and we still haven't done it). Barrages? What the heck is it all about? The story is here: http://www.murrayriver.com.au/about-the-murray/barrages/ ... and it's all about keeping seawater out of the Murray River. Orginally, the river mouth was closed off, the sea didn't get in. Then it was opened up for shipping, and (what a shock), a freshwater river turned brackish or downright salt, for about fifty miles upstream. Species died off -- it might have been good for business, but it was a natural disaster. Something had to be done, so ... lock gates, barrages, and a lot of work invested in encouraging reed beds to build a proper shoreline.

After the Bird Hide -- where the water was low and the birds much too far away to permit good pictures, we headed north with only one stop: a picnic at Mount Compass. Pictures there were too thin to be worth taking up page space here, especially as we'll be covering Mount Compass in the next trip. So --

Next up: Fall Colors and Crashing Surf, 2016. Coming soon.

Riverlands 2014, Part Four: The food basket of South Australia, and the proverbial "pub in the scrub"

Destination Murray River ... and we're there! The river is the life's blood of South Australia, and --

--driving through the Riverlands, you're surrounded by vineyards and orchards...

... it's the richest agricultural country we've ever seen, on three continents.

Little communities like Cadell supply much of the state's fruit and vegetables --

-- such as oranges, which are year-round crops in South Australia.

South Australia's Riverlands, near Waikerie ... orchards as far as you can see.

And here's the Murray River at Waikerie, where the paddle steamer Murray River Queen ties up...
and check out those houseboats moored a little way along the riverbank!

The Murray River Queen is a serious vessel. She offers tours as long as a week, cruising the river
from these waters with up to Renmark. Gotta do that one day. Soon.

Wetlands are habitats for a vast assortment of birdlife. Dead trees like this are not merely curiously
photogenic, but they are also where native parrots nest, so many dead trees are actually protected: do not cut!

On the road again, heading for Barmera and Loxton. Eventually. But first --

Toolunka Flats. Yes, Virginia, there really is a place called Toolunka (which tends to sound like a
native village from a Johnny Weismuller Tarzan movie). Actually, it's a wetlands project, and --

-- very beautiful indeed. See the orchards and market gardens stretching to the horizon, too.

Toolunka Flats under a gorious morning sky. The clouds parted, the sun shone! Grab the cameras!

Then we were back on the road -- specifically, the Goyder Highway. We've driven both ends of this highway,
but never the middle stretch, east from World's End (see it on an earlier post). We need to drive the whole thing...

Not surprisingly, it's quite a busy road; and predictably, you share it with a great many
semi-trailers hauling produce to the city.

You also share the road with kangaroos, so -- watch out. (Actually, roos are seldom active before
twilight, so during main daylight hours you're more likely to glimpse them napping under  tree.)

Desperate for a cuppa, we literally stumbled over a jewel in the wilderness -- the proverbial
"pub in the scrub," the Overland Corner Hotel...

The Overland Corner Hotel is just there in the middle of nowhere. It was built in 1895 to
service drovers and "overlanders" making the haul between NSW and Adelaide, and the
National Trust bought it in 1965. What a fantastic place!

The Overland Corner stands in a large garden where one can dine outdoors; but in 1956 --

Yes, the whole region was deep underwater in the 1956 flood.

Original colonial construction, brand-new galvanized iron roof...

...horseshoe for luck (the right way up, thank you!), and a gorgeous chandelier in the bar just inside.

The interior of the Overland Corner Hotel has been updated just a little, but the overall
construction and flavor are original. It's like stepping right into Cash and Company! (Which,
incidentally, just came out on DVD. We're loving it ... again. Saw it in 1975.)

Live music plays in the gardens at the weekend, and --

-- if you're having your cuppa outside, check out these tables. They're great slabs of polished local stone
set on upright logs. Now, we have got to have one of these at home!

The Overland Corner Hotel isn't a secret. Taking up six spaces in the parking lot was this tour bus,
just over from bushranger country -- the Victorian mountains -- and headed who knows where?
Great place to stop for tea and a taste of history.

Love the art on the back of the bus. The Man from Snowy River rides again.

We had actually parked in the wide, open space behind the hotel. Here's "Lola in the wilderness" ...
well, not quite. You could hear the music from the pub as you stepped out of the car, because --

Overland Corner is also a "biosphere reserve" and wetlands project, and the hotel
backs right onto the area being reclaimed. In the rainy season, it'll be a chorus of frogs...

...such as the Golden Bell-frog, which, like so many species, is "vulnerable" in South Australia.
Areas like Overland Corner will make all the difference to the survival of many animals and birds.

Cruising the fruit and vegetable area at the supermarket, you can sometimes wonder where it all comes from; and if you take the drive from Morgan via towns like Cadell and Waikerie to Barmera and Loxton, you'll know where it comes from! We've never seen such rich agricultural land, and it all pivots around the Murray River.

You can see this lush, beautiful region from the road, as we did, or from the water. In fact, if you're interested, there's a major website arranging tours ... check it out. It's easy for folks from Adelaide to load up the car and head out early in the morning, but we'd also dearly love to "lead foot it" through to Renmark and then get on a riverboat for the cruise through to those towering red cliffs. One day!

For the moment, we hopped from one photo-op to another, and one cafe to the next. Late in the afternoon we were dying for a cuppa -- tea, not coffee; we were coffee'd right up to the eyeballs. We hadn't know the Overland Corner Hotel even existed before we rolled up to it, and we were due a marvelous surprise. Original colonial-era building, lovely garden, live music ... great tea! Also very friendly people who gave permission for photos to be taken and uploaded. Here are just a few of about a hundred we took.

The land was pretty dry when we were there, but if you visited in late autumn, winter or early spring, the wetlands should be ... wet. You'd certainly hear the Golden Bell-frog, though you'd be very lucky to catch sight of one. Aussie frogs are usually invisible -- and astonishingly loud.

From Overland Corner we were headed toward Loxton and Barmera ... but Banrock Station and Murray River Lock 3 came up first; and those will be in the next post in this series.