Clare Valley {Caravan Park}

Our drive from Whylla took us along the coast for a short while, meaning we could stop in and take a quick look around Port Augusta, Port Pirie and a lovely town called Crystal Brook {Justin found 'the house' in this lovely little place}.

We eventually arrived in Clare at the Discovery Caravan Park just before 2pm.  It was great to be able to surprise our friends Dan & Ant by coming a few days early {actually Ant didn't even recognize us}.  Our original plan was to stay for two nights, giving us a full day to explore but after our first day out we decided we would need one more, so extended our stay to three nights.

Saturday morning we did a little school work, the kids had a play with some other children and we headed into Clare to have a look around at all of the historical buildings.  What a building main street they've got but disappointingly so the visitors centre didn't really share that much information {or provide that much more}.  Thankfully, through our research we got to take the kids the the history museum that was set up in the old goal.  Kaleb was pretty happy to explore around in there and also the grounds too!

 

   

  

After that we headed out to a little town called Mintaro.  It is what they refer to as a historical town and after our look around I can see why.  The history that they have and have maintained is amazing.  We had lunch at Riley's Winery which was in a quaint little building that was made in the early 1800 {as were many others within the town ship}.  Given how hot is was, we only walked a little before hopping the car to finish off the rest.
 

 

 

 

We all needed the swim when we headed back to the caravan park and we meet a lovely family from Gwaler who we spent the rest of the afternoon with.  The kids even hired one of those driving carts to share with their new friends. A love;y dinner with Dan & Ant before we went back to prepare for our exploring tomorrow.

Sunday we had a slow start to the day and after a little school we packed up and headed out to Burra. Yet another town in this region filled with history and thankfully for us the people are working hard to maintain it, they are proud of where they live.  We started at the visitors centre, where they gave us the map and key to take off on our Historical tour of Burra.

 

  

            

            

 

My most favourite part, well the stand out parts would be the cellars in the cider house and the 'homes' in the creek beds.  Hundreds of people lived in the creek beds, in make shift houses due to the shortage in housing in the area.  Sadly many died due to the poor living conditions they faced.