Clare: Happy Birthday Clare

We gave the free Australia Day breakfast a miss, as we were heading out for a big lunch instead. For the morning we drove around route 16 scenic drive to see the historic buildings of Burra. We stopped for a look at the old gaol and dugout miners’ homes along the creek. Back in town we had to wait for the coffee shop to open (it was a public holiday) then enjoyed one amongst some lovely antiques. At 11am we had access to the very interesting Cornish engine house museum, which was used to pump water from the copper mine in the 1850’s. We then drove to Reilly’s Winery at Mintaro in the Clare Valley, an old favourite of ours (they supplied the wines for our wedding). We sampled their wines, and chose a couple to have with lunch. Lunch was delicious, as usual. Up the road was Martindale Mansion, an exquisite and opulent old home which was used as the school boarding house in the filming of ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’. We strolled through each of the beautifully maintained old rooms. And finally, to cap off Clare’s birthday we have chosen to stay in her namesake town, Clare. We finished a lovely but long day with birthday cake and some more Reilly wine - appropriately with another Reilly, Sharon.