Clare Valley

Campground: Auburn Caravan Park
Facilities: Toilets, Showers, Powered Sites, Laundry, Picnic Areas, Camp Kitchen, Potable Water.
Good stuff: Really nice management running the place, best atmosphere at a campsite so far, decent showers and great location.
Not so good stuff: We can’t actually think of anything…
Price: $18 per night (2 adults, unpowered site)

The journey to Auburn was a bit of a long one. After we left Renmark a stock up on general supplies was in order. Oh and Kyle decided that he wanted to buy another Black Wolf accessory for the tent- a screen room to prevent mozzie and fly festivities throughout the day. As it was only released a few months ago it was not a regular in any of the nearby stores we were visiting in Gawler. So a detour to the western suburbs of Adelaide happened.

The screen room now reserved, the journey into Adelaide was a bit of a cafuffle but we got to Snowy’s camping store in the end. Wow, this is sad that we mention this but it was one of the highlights of the day… It wasn’t a massively exciting day. The best laid out camping store and very decent prices to boot. We were tempted by some very comfy half-price chairs, but we held back on the extra expense (Liz more so than Kyle…).

All detoured out we headed to Auburn Caravan Park, which is in the Clare Valley region and a wonderful place to drive through. Met by the two lovely site managers, Helen and Eric, we were shown the unpowered camping area and set up our new look camping home. We have to say this place was filled with the friendliest people so far and around 4:30/5pm people gather for happy hour at front of the camp kitchen for a chat. It is just really pleasant. 

Model of the original Auburn Pub

Auburn is a really nice small town with loads of character, we were just going to drive by but the thought of trying some beer at the Clare Valley Brewing Company tasting room (and the previous slog of going into Adelaide) meant it was our evening stop off.  This one night stop off turned into a two night… Then three! It turned out there was a cellar door clearance at one of the vineyards around the place so it was time to get some incredibly good deals (apparently). Not knowing what we were getting ourselves in for we headed to Taylor’s to go for our first wine tasting session ever! When we say wine tasting- we didn’t do it in the traditional sense of spitting… It just a waste. We both are not massive wine drinkers so it was interesting to try out the different styles. Then we got drawn in by the cellar door sale… $40 for 6 bottles of wine- not bad! So we ended up by buying 6 bottles of the Shiraz Cabernet and 6 of the Gewurztraminer, not to mention their delicious tawny. Luckily we are not going off road for a while!

Antique Store, Auburn

All wined out and ready for tea we headed to the Red Oak Gardens and Tea Room. The owners have converted their back garden to a beautifully pleasant English-style garden. It is gold coin donation but if you buy a drink you get to wander around for free. For a small area she has done a lot with it and it is well worth grabbing a cuppa there. Cream Tea was our choice in the Anniversary garden. It was like stepping back to the UK, minus the temperature, and a good way to spend an hour or so.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Auburn and trying the local products. For truffles, head to Sugar Rush and try their lemon truffle. They have the perfect balance between bitter citrus and sweet. We could have spent a LOT of money in that shop. The building Sugar Rush is in is well worth a wander around and a chat with the current owner gives you some insight into its varied 120-year past.

Pair of churches, Mintaro

Mintaro is a short drive from Auburn. It is very small with old looking buildings. There is plenty of accommodation dotted around so you can experience the inside as well as the outside. Close by is the Martindale Hall which is a 19^th century mansion. We only wandered outside, as we weren’t willing to cough up the $24 entrance fee for the two of us this time around. We decided to spend the money trying a few breweries and a local bakery instead.

Another town we checked out was Clare, to be honest it is more of a hub for the local towns than anything else. There are a few paintings on some of the brickwork of the buildings but it is more of a stop through than stop off place.