A Trip Across South Australian and Victorian Wine, 2023
It always amazes me how many Australians have only ever experienced the airports of this amazing country. We have met so many people who just fly from Sydney to Melbourne or Brisbane to Adelaide. They never get in a car or on a bike or even on a bus or God forbid a bicycle and travel out of the city to lay eyeballs on this great burned land.
You really don’t understand how damn big and how damn empty Australia is until you have travelled across it on wheels. You also dont understand how beautiful it is. One of the experiences I try (and often fail) to describe is travelling along the Bight, the Nullarbor on one side and god’s blue eye of the Bight, looking at you on the other. That color can’t be described, it can’t be replicated, even photography fails to capture it. You have to go and experience it for yourself.
Every year we try and get out of Sydney and away to see a bit more of Australia. In the last years we have been focussing on travelling for wine and touring across the wine regions of Australia
Image from Australia Map of Vineyards Wine Regions
As you can tell, from Sydney you pretty much head west and if you don’t like wine, you actively have to avoid a number of different wine regions. This year’s plan is fairly simple; Straight across to Hay, then to the Barossa Valley for a couple of days staying in the Jacobs Creek Retreat, head back east for a night in Coonawarra, on to Healesville in the heart of the Yarra valley, a stop at Tallangatta (argue with a local about the pronunciation), on to a couple of nights in Canberra and home.
The best way to plan a trip is to look at where you want to go and then research the places to stay either there or nearby. Australian maps are full of locations that may have a place name but there is physically nothing there, so you do want to understand where you are going. Fuel is also a consideration. The East coast (East of Adeliade) is usually ok for fuel, but if you start to head west of Adelaide I recommend you research fuel stops.
Understand where you are going to stop in relation to the rest of the area, there is nothing worse than pulling up to your accommodation and realizing the nearest food/drink is 10km away.
So, where are we going to stay and what are we planning to do? this is a brief description of where we are choosing to stay, each of these stops may get their own individual entries in the blog.
Hay - Hay is a town in the western Riverina region of western New South Wales. It is literally the town in the middle of the Hay Plain. When you reach Hay, you will first encounter a huge 2 lane roundabout, you have to be careful here as this is a turning spot for B-Doubles and you have to be watching for the big trucks. Turn off and you will be in Hay itself in about 2 km. It’s a pretty little country town. You can walk the main street in about 20 minutes with the usual country town array of shops.
Welcome to Hay!
There are multiple places to stay in the township and I’ve stayed in most of them. There are a fairly wide variety, quality and price of accomodation, these days we usually stay in the Saltbush Motor Inn. The Inn was updated and modernized about 5 or so years ago, its clean, the beds are comfy, its easy to get to, its an easy walk to cafe’s and pubs for dinner. Most importantly for the Australian summer, it has a pool!.
Two great places for coffee and breakfast in the morning - The Convent, one block off the main street and Kinfolk and Co 2 minutes walk up the road from the Saltbush. Both do great food and excellent coffee.
Barossa - We have stayed at a couple of places in the Barossa but for the last 3 years we have repeated our stay at the Jacobs Creek Retreat. The retreat is about 10 minutes out of Tanunda by car down a short dirt road. It feels isolated and private and yet its within an easy cab ride of the township for cafes, bakeries, Coles, hatted restaurants and the many, many wineries of the Barossa. The buildings are luxury conversions of the old workers cottages, set in french designed gardens using Australian native planting. This is top notch. Highly recommended and there will be a more detailed page coming on Jacobs Creek Retreat.
Coonawara - The Coonawarra wine region is famous for its Cabernet Sauvignon. The region is 16 kilometers long and 2 km wide and its split by the Highway running down the middle. It’s a tiny little country town and the accommodation options are limited. There are two Hotels on the main strip, we haven’t stayed in either of them. We normally stay in the Coonawarra Motorlodge. It’s not much to look up as you drive in, its simple, but its clean, its friendly and walking distance to the Pubs and restaurants.
Coonawarra, old train station
Healesville - This is a tiny town in the Yarra Valley Wine Region. We normally stay at the Old Mechanics, a boutique accommodation one block off the heart of the main drag. Easy walking to the entire town.
Main Street, Healesville
Tallangatta - If you want to start a fight, try and pronounce the towns name. The locals pronounce it one way, everyone else pronounces it differently, the locals will correct you!. Its a friendly little town with a lot of new arrivals being escapee’s from Sydney and Melbourne. This means there is some great food and coffee here. We normally stay at the Tallangatta Motor Inn. Walking distance to the two pubs and the cafes in the tree lines heart of town.
Canberra - There are a ton of places to stay in Canberra. A couple of them will get there own pages here, check the tags. There is tons to do in the way of wineries, museums, art galleries, kids activities, walks amd excellent and varied dining. If anyone ever tells you Canberra is boring, they havent been there in decades!. Its a hidden gem in the heart of the east cost that the Politicians like to keep to themselves.
Canberra, Autumn Trees
