I had been surprised in  Sydney to discover cafes open at 6.30 in the morning.  I was astonished on Wednesday morning at breakfast when I asked whet time the cafe would be open on Thursday to be told 6.30.  In Port Fairy, where a takeaway pizza had been the limit at 8pm the previous evening.  I planned an early start to update my blog but also to ensure I was not too late arriving in Adelaide.  The drive would be well over 6 hours and I wanted to stop in the Coonawarra wine region on  my way.

In fact, several of Port Fairy’s cafes were open and, much as I had enjoyed breakfast on Wednesday I elected to visit a different one (Banks & Co, for anyone visiting!)  I ordered a coffee and breakfast which turned out to be one of the best breakfasts of the trip.

Toast, poached eggs, bacon, sauteed potatoes, chorizo, a wonderful sautee of onions, peppers and chilli, green beans and fried tomato.

After another coffee I set off west from Port Fairy, towards Mt Gambier, the largest town on route, where I planned to post home a parcel of stuff I no longer needed here, to avoid exceeding the weight allowance on the flight home.  The main road to Mt Gambier was the A1!  In Mt Gambier I went to the Post Office and sorted out the parcel and then had an excellent ristretto at a local coffee hop.  I briefly visited the town’s most famous landmark, the Blue Lake.

which was, really, astonishingly blue.  The lake was formed by a volcanic eruption and the clear shape of the crater can be seen.

From Mt Gambier I headed north, through quite attractive woodland, before arriving at Penola, the main town in the Coonawarra.  Coonawarra is know for its red soil or terra rossa and for the cabernet sauvignon it produces.

Lorna and I first got into wine soon after we met and I remembered the Australian Wine Centre on the Strand, where I had bought many a bottle.  One of our favourites had been a Chardonnay produced by Penley Estates.  Sadly the AWC had closed and Penley Estates wines are no longer available in the UK.  When I noted that Penley Estates were in the Coonawarra I resolved to visit their cellar door.

Sadly, the Chardonnay, which I remembered as a rich, generous, very Australian Chardonnay had become leaner and more classical.  Their cabernets, however, were very good and they had “museum” releases of older wines available at very reasonable prices.

I moved on to one of the Coonawarra’s best known producers, Wynn’s

where I tried three of their cabernets.

By now I was hungry and I stopped at Ottelia,

whose cellar door also sells excellent wood fired pizza

which went very well with a glass of their very pleasant cabernet.

After lunch I headed on towards Adelaide, through initially flat land, before coming in to the very attractive Adelaide Hills.  In Adelaide I’m staying with James and his wife and once I had brought stuff in from the car we headed out for a very pleasant supper.  I had a rather good crab linguine.  No pictures, I’m afraid, I didn’t take my camera.  James and I walked on to get an ice cream and then returned to his house.  On the drive up I had been listening to the first day of the day/night test between Australia and South Africa in Adelaide, which I would be attending on Friday.  We got back from dinner to find that South Africa had declared on 259-9 in  order to have a bowl under lights as the Australians.  The two Aussie openers Renshaw (on debut and English by birth )and Khawaja resisted stubbornly, to leave the game well poised for tomorrow.

 

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