Broken Hill to Hahndorf
We had a coffee date arranged for 3:00 pm at Hahndorf today so we had another early start to make the roughly 6 hour trip from Broken Hill. That had us up at 6:00 am and crossing the road to our car as the sun rose at 7:00 am.
Although we probably had enough fuel to make the trip we paused to fill up on the way out of Broken Hill at $2.02 per litre. We did see both slightly higher and lower prices on our way further south.
For the first couple of hours the road south from Broken Hill had some long straight stretches and a few minor hills as the road mostly paralleled the railway line. The countryside was almost uniformly bare soil with clumps of low vegetation. Occasionally we saw a few low shrubs and there were a couple of patches with taller trees where a depression in the ground must have gathered some moisture. We saw some evidence of debris from the flooding that we had heard about earlier in the year.
Majella drove the first section and we changed drivers a little way before the quarantine point which is 100+ kilometres into South Australia rather than at the border. All vehicles are required to stop and we had to dispose of an orange and a pear along with some remnant grapes. We had seen the signs as we reached the border and stopped then to take the grapes and a couple of plums out of the cool box. The plums and most of the grapes were eaten as we drove.
I had planned to visit Peterborough on the way through and given our ETA at that point was around 1:00 pm I drove the 10 km or so off the highway and into town. There were some interesting old buildings in the main street and we found a small park where we paused for our morning coffee. On the way out of town Majella spotted a sign to a lookout and we deviated to see that. The road up the hill was unsealed but not too rough. There we found a fenced nature reserve with a track to the lookout which was an elaborate ramped structure with a metal framework and timber deck. It gave us a view over the town and surrounding countryside that was mostly bare brown with some hills in the distance. Much of the brown was land that was cultivated for crops that had been harvested or grazing country.
The road south from Peterborough led into the Gilbert Valley which is roughly parallel to the Clare Valley. There were trees in places and a lot of cultivated land. Many of the hills had groups of wind turbines.
At Riverton we paused for lunch at a cafe and a short stroll along the street. Majella inspected some clothes on a rack outside one of the stores but found nothing to buy.
From there we continued south on the main road to Gawler with Majella driving. Beyond Gawler we took to the hills, following our navigation app to avoid the metropolitan area and approach Hahndorf via the back of the Adelaide Hills. That took us along some winding roads, across the Torrens Valley, and through an area with extensive orchards of apples and pears.
We reached Hahndorf and the resort and convention centre just after 2:00 pm. That gave us time to checkin and drop our bags in our 2 bedroom unit (booked by Hannah when she was expecting to be next door with family and thinking Callum might share with us) before driving 5 minutes to Hahndorf village for our coffee date. On the way from reception to our unit we had chatted briefly with some others from the Cri du Chat group and arranged to meet later for drinks.
In Hahndorf we were lucky to find a parking spot in the street near the cafe where Majella had arranged to meet Colin and Margaret, her Sing Australia friends. As we strolled across the street to find that cafe closed they arrived in their car. Margaret joined us near our car and we waited for Colin to park and return. Luckily a coffee shop nearby was still open and was happy to serve us coffees before closing at 3:00 pm. We sat and chatted over coffees and talked some more, mostly about Sing Australia but other topics, including travel, were included. Meantime the coffee shop operator closed up and left. Some time after 4:00 pm we were ready to leave but there was nobody to clear away the cups from the table where we had sat on the footpath. Fortunately somebody in the shop next door was willing to take charge of the cups.
We headed back to our unit but were soon out again to gather some supplies for drinks. The closest store had a range of fruit and other goods including the cheese that we wanted but no wine. We drove back to the village where we found an IGA and discovered that there was no bottle shop in Hahndorf – strange for a wine district. We were able to obtain a bottle across the bar in a hotel.
Back at our unit we rested until 5:30 pm when we wandered across to join the Cri du chat group for drinks. We enjoyed conversation over drinks with cheese, crackers and other nibbles until sometime after 7:00 pm. By then Majella had decided that she did not need dinner and I had made sure to eat enough cheese and other nibbles not to need more either. We gave Sue and Julyen a lift into the village for dinner and then retired for the night.
