Laurence and Henry's Big Adventure: Fleurieu Peninsula and Barossa Valley

Another beach with hardly anyone on it

After our flight from Perth we rented a small car to tour the surrounding areas of Adelaide to enjoy the countryside before entering the city. We travelled south of Adelaide to the Fleurieu Peninsula in the direction of famed Kangaroo Island. This beautiful part of South Australia is filled with impressive vineyards, majestic beaches and rolling bush lands.

Surfers before dawn

We started with a stop a Maslin Beach, the first unofficial “clothing optional beach” in all of Australia. This beautiful beach of white sands extends over two miles along the Gulf of St Vincent, and is home to a large nudist beach area with its unique signage that can only be found in the land down under. Here we strolled the beach enjoyed the impressive waves and tried not to look at the local sights.

As the temperature and geography of the peninsula are very similar to Italy’s Tuscany region this area is covered with impressive vineyards both small and very large. In fact Southern Australia is the largest wine producing area in all of the country and there are countless cellar doors to be discovered and vintage wines to be tasted. If one really wanted to taste all the wine from this region I would need at least two more months and a dedicated driver. The rolling hills covered in grape vines are a sight to see and the wine is excellent.

It is considered good luck to plant roses at

the edge of your vineyard

Along the southern portion of the peninsula is Victor Harbour, a quaint fishing village along the Southern Ocean, but also home to Granite Island and its famous inhabitants the fairy penguins. Here we arrived just in time for the feeding of the birds kept in the local nursery where they take care of abandoned chicks and birds unable to be released back in to the wild. These amazing birds were a pleasure to watch and the commentary was educational as well as frustrating as most of the birds are here due to human ignorance.

Cute sculpture of little penguins

The area is scattered with quaint little villages with a bit of a German touch and as the entire area was colonized by the Germans. The town of Strathalbyn with its countless antique stores and Hahndorf with its Bavarian inspired architecture were a pleasure to visit and explore.

Church in Strathalbyn

Snails on post @ Strathalbyn park

Charming buildings in Hahndorf

And from there it was to South Australia’s famous Barossa Valley to explore even more wineries and view the beautiful countryside. Here again were countless small and very large vineyards and quaint German inspired towns like Angaston and Tanunda. The people were very friendly and welcoming and as we were here in spring the rose gardens were absolutely amazing. I truly have never seen so many rose gardens concentrated in one area all in bloom at the same time, the smell almost over powering at times.

Views of the Barossa Valley

Our three day journey around the country side of Adelaide was a nice quiet pleasure, meeting wonderful locals, smelling the countless roses and tasting the wines of this world famous district of the great land down under.