9/1 David and I flew to Adelaide to stay with Tony and Jeannie again. (Stayed with them last year). Today we set off with Tony driving us up to the wine region of Clare valley, about 250 kms north of Adelaide. Clare is midway between Adelaide and the township of Melrose where T and J have their country home. Tony kindly volunteered to be the 'designated driver' thus permitting the remaining three to partake of some wine tasting. We visited 3 such establishments on the way including one run by a Jesuit brotherhood. The weather during our trip was uncharacteristically wet and included a thunderstorm which entertained us while we lunched at a pretty little restaurant which looked like it belonged in Provence! The fresh pasta was delicious and I discovered 'dukkah' a local speciality which looks like dry stuffing but is made from chopped almonds,(or any nut combo) coriander seeds and cumin all mixed together. This dry mix can then be mixed with olive oil and spread on chicken before cooking or just used on bread as a canapé. Very interesting flavour - but yummy. We stayed overnight in Clare then on to Melrose.
11/1 spent today visiting the Flinders Ranges north of Melrose and the vast open plains of the region. It's areas like this that show just how vast Australia is. Occasionally glimpsing homesteads and farms down long driveways then the next one about 20 kms further on. Passed through a couple of 'towns' which are now all but abandoned as 4 wheel drive cars and decent road systems mean people can now drive to decent towns in a couple of hours making the old townships no longer viable. Saw plenty of kangaroos and emus as well as the cattle and sheep which graze the plains in this region. Also visited the abandoned homestead of Kanyaka station which was built around 1830 to house cattle and sheep rangers and their families. It is situated close to a pretty creek which was no doubt flowing when Kanyaka was first established. At its height about 70 people lived there but a prolonged drought of 4 years killed off many of the animals and the station was abandoned within 20 years. We drove about 200 miles today on both tarmaced and dirt roads and about 4 other cars passed us all day! Remote and beautiful.