FLEURIEU PENINSULA
It's little wonder Australia's richest landscape art prize is staged on the Fleurieu Peninsula. Beautiful, bald hills sweep down to sun-drenched beaches. Wineries, orchards and pastures are patch-worked between bushland; and quiet roads lead to alluring cellar doors where you can sit back and take it all in. And it's all less than 40 minutes from Adelaide.
Jump in the car, drive south on the Fleurieu Way and within the hour you can be walking, surfing or fishing on long, sandy beaches; or eating the catch of the day at the beachside Flying Fish cafe in Port Elliot. Drive straight down the coast to dive on the former warship HMAS Hobart at Yankallila Bay; or begin the 1500 kilometre Heysen Trail at Cape Jervis, weaving your way through the dense bushland of Deep Creek Conservation Park.
Further around the coast you'll find Victor Harbor, South Australia's most popular seaside town with its horse-drawn tram to Granite Island, the historic Cockle steam train and whales playing just offshore in the winter months. Then it's round to the pretty, historic river port of Goolwa, Hindmarsh Island and the mighty Murray River mouth and the internationally renowned Coorong National Park.
All over the peninsula you'll find seriously good wine country (there's more than 50 cellar doors in the McLaren Vale wine region alone) plus enough great restaurants, produce outlets and markets to break even the strictest diet. McLaren Vale is undoubtedly the most famous wine region, but there's also Southern Fleurieu, Currency Creek and Langhorne Creek.
A stone's throw from Victor Harbor, the compact Granite Island is home to 2,000 Little Penguins, dolphins and an oceanarium. It's also an excellent location for whale watching in winter. Take a penguin tour at dusk, or a dolphin cruise. To get there, walk the causeway (about 600 metres) or catch the heritage double-decker tram that's drawn by obliging Clydesdale horses.
Settled in 1839 and retaining much of its Scottish flavour, Strathalbyn boasts a long boulevard of heritage buildings housing antique shops, galleries and cafes. Among its most beautiful buildings are the Police Station and Court House Museum, the old school and the gasworks. There's a lovely manicured park beside the Angas River and it's just a short drive to the wineries of Langhorne Creek.
Along with fabulous wines, the peninsula is famed for its olives and olive oil, almonds and cheeses. You'll find gourmet bread, regional lamb and venison and great seafood from the oceans and the Murray River. A growing number of restaurants, farmers markets, cellar doors and speciality stores are devoted to regional fare and October is Fiesta, an annual celebration of the new season's olive oils and wines.
Catch a Spirit of the Coorong cruise from Goolwa into the shallow lagoons of the Coorong National Park. It's a fragile 120 kilometre strip of coastal wilderness, home to wader and waterfowl birds. The cruise lands at places accessible only by boat, and expert guides take you to spectacular dunes and across the Younghusband Peninsula to the Southern Ocean. The park and its adjacent wetlands host the annual Meet the Waders festival where the arts, nature conservation and the environment are celebrated in gallery exhibitions, bushwalking, painting and bird watching excursions.
The former Navy ship HMAS Hobart was scuttled off the Fleurieu coast near Yankalilla in November 200 creating one of the best dive sites in Australia. More than 7,000 divers have explored the submerged vessel, which remains largely intact. You'll still find everything from the engine room, smoke stacks, to missile launchers and gun turrets.
