The lovely old Victoria Hotel at Strathalbyn
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2 November 2017
No great rush to get up early today, for a change, but we do need to check out by 10am, and make our way to the Barossa Valley, staying for three nights at Nurioopta.
We decided to take the short route to the Barossa, so initially headed for Strathalbyn where we stopped for morning tea. It was a cute little cafe with a very sensible blackboard sign outside (left).
Strathalbyn is one of the prettiest towns in South Australia. It has maintained its charm and village-like setting and is a thriving heritage listed country town. It offers a wide variety of shopping and events and some of the best food, wine and recreation in the State. The town was settled more than 175 years ago by Scottish immigrants. A classified heritage town – you can easily explore it’s history as many of the original homes and buildings are still in use today. It also has a picturesque park alongside the main street.
The roads were in excellent condition and we were making good time on our way to the Barossa Valley. We decided to stop for lunch at Birdwood and found a bakery where we indulged in a lamb pie. It is obviously a popular place for locals and tourists. We noticed an Art Gallery (left) across the road to the bakery and spent a pleasant half hour browsing through the art work before continuing our journey.
The Bakery (top left), a quaint shop (top right) and one of the stone heritage buildings, originally a Mill
Our day’s destination was the Vine Inn Motel at Nurioopta, and we arrived about mid-afternoon. To fill in the afternoon we decided to pay a visit to Maggie Beer’s Pheasant Farm. It is a delightful place, the cafe and main dining building overlooks a placid lake (where we saw one of the resident turtles, right). Afternoon tea was carrot cake and chai latte. There is a large variety of produce in Maggie’s shop, also a number of her cookery books and as we were browsing Maggie herself appeared and we were able to have a short chat with her.
For dinner tonight we will patronise the motel’s facilities which includes the motel, a Bistro and another casual restaurant, and decide what we will explore tomorrow.
