Australia | Postcards From Here and There

4 Days in Perth

Perth in Western Australia may well be regarded as the worlds most isolated city which makes all the more reason for making the most of a visit here. It has so much to offer and is such a chilled and relaxed place that you should aim for at least a four day visit and maybe longer if you have the time. This gives you time to not only explore the city itself but also to get out and explore the wider city region. Here’s what we managed to do in four days, its a fairly relaxed itinerary and is by no means exhaustive, there is plenty more to see and do if you have the time or different interests. Whatever you choose to do you won’t be disappointed, Perth is a truly wonderful place and I can’t wait to go back there.

TAKE A WALKING TOUR

I always try to do a walking tour soon after arriving in a city. You get the benefit of local knowledge and in many places you have a choice of tours to suit your particular interests. Two Feet & a Heartbeat undertake a two hour tour of the Central Business District that includes historic buildings, alleys and lane ways, street art and concludes with a welcoming cold beer in Yagan Square. Tours are around two hours in duration, start times and frequency depends on the particular tour you choose.

KINGS PARK AND BOTANIC GARDEN

A visit to Kings Park is a must for a perfect view of the city below you. you can walk there in around 45 minutes from the CBD including a climb of the 242 steps of Jacobs Ladder depending on the route you choose. For the less energetic you can catch a bus (935) from St Georges Terrace right to the park and what’s more its free and fairly frequent. As well as the perfect viewing point you will find an information centre, café and the botanic gardens of Western Australia which are well worth a visit.

ROTTNEST ISLAND

Rottnest island sits in the ocean 11Km west of Fremantle. It make for a perfect day trip from Perth and is a very popular destination in the summer months. We booked a trip with Rottnest Express which included bike hire so we could explore the whole island during our visit. Ferries leave Elizabeth Quay early in the morning for a very pleasant cruise along the Swan River to Fremantle where it collects the remainder of its passengers.

Collect your bike as you disembark at the ferry terminal on Rottnest, its very busy close to the terminal but once you get a short distance away you will almost have the road to yourselves.The highlight of any trip is a viewing of Quokkas, small marsupials that can only be found in a small number of locations in Western Australia.

You can return to the terminal for a late afternoon sailing back to Perth, arriving just in time for pre dinner drinks.

FREMANTLE.

The quickest and easiest way to get to Fremantle, at the mouth of the Swan River, from Perth is by train. Trains depart from the main Railway station every 15 minutes, more frequently at rush hour, and the journey takes 30 minutes. You will need at least a full day as there is much to see and do including Fremantle Prison where there are numerous tour options to choose from, Fremantle Markets, Little Creatures Brewery and a whole range of fascinating shops, cafés, bars and restaurants. Its even more chilled and relaxed than Perth and a visit is a must for anyone visiting the area.

SWAN VALLEY WINE TOUR

The Swan Valley wine region is just a short drive north East of Perth and makes for an excellent day out of the city. There are a number of companies that offer day trips which have hotel pick ups and drop offs in the CBD. We chose Out and About Wine Tours, visiting five wineries (Lancaster, Sandalford, Windy Creek, Sittella and Heaford Glen), Elmars micro Brewery and The Margaret River Chocolate Company. Lunch was provided overlooking the vineyards at Sittella. Tours depart fro the city at 10am and return at 5pm.

CRUISE ON THE SWAN RIVER A cruise on the Swan River is a lovely relaxing activity and a great way to get a slightly different perspective of the area. You can take a dedicated cruise with one of the operators from Elizabeth Quay or combine your cruise with another activity. The trip to Rottnest Island includes a cruise downstream to Fremantle and it is possible to cruise up stream as part of the Swan Valley wine experience. Either way its a delightful thing to do.

SEE SOME STREET ART Perth is regarded as the second best city for street art in Australia after Melbourne. I love street art and seek it out wherever I go as the street art scene can tell you an awful lot about a place. Hunting out street art can be time consuming but in Perth you get to see some fine examples on the CBD walking tour with Two Feet and a Heartbeat, especially in the area of Grand Lane.

TRY SOME CRAFT BEER AND NATURAL WINE There are so many options in and around the city its difficult to know where to start. In the CBD the State Building on Barrack Street is a good place to start. Here you will find Petition, a superb craft beer bar. With 18 beers available on tap and many more available by bottle you really are spoilt for choice, what’s more the list on tap changes rteqularly. We arrived late on a Sunday afternoon and there was live music and a lovely atmosphere. What more could you ask for.

In the same building is The Wine Merchant which has a very impressive wine list with bottles on the shelves for you to browse and select, if you prefer just a glass they have about 20 available at any one time. Wines of While is a small wine bar located on William Street in Northbridge. All the wines here are made with minimum intervention and no nasty chemicals. The list is eclectic and fascinating, a real gem and not to be missed by lovers of natural wine. further afield in Fremantle is Little Creatures Brewery and Taproom, great for a c old beer or two after a day spent sight seeing before catching the train back into Perth.

Fleurieu Peninsula Top 5

The Fleurieu Peninsula is an hours drive south of Adelaide in South Australia. It is a delightful area to explore as it is largely unexploited by large scale commercial tourism and so is a quiet and tranquil area so close to a large city. The cooling influence of ocean on three sides results in a climate that avoids excessive heat in the summer while still being warm and pleasant. The area is renown for its wines, beaches and cuisine made with local produce. Often overlooked by tourists to South Australia it is well worth spending a couple of days here.

The McLaren Vale. The McLaren Vale is one of Australia’s oldest wine regions with vines first planted as long ago as 1838. The regions reputation as one of Australia’s best is centred around its red wines, most notably Shiraz but there are so many other wines to explore here including some superb old vine Grenache and a range of exciting whites. With over 65 cellar doors open to the public for tastings there is much to discover in the region. Many visitors head for the futuristic looking tasting room at d’Arenberg and the experience here is like no other in the region as it also includes the Alternative Realities Museum as well as an exhibition of fine art. There are however many other fantastic places to visit, personal favourites of mine include Coriole, Battle of Bosworth and Yangarra. To get the best out of the area pick up a map of the wine region from the tourist information centre situated at 796 Main Road at the northern end of the town of McLaren Vale. I have written separate articles about the region in general and visits to d’Arenberg and Yangarra.

Willunga. A short drive south fromMcLaren Vale is the town of Willunga. The distance may well be short but the two towns couldn’t be more different. Willunga is one of the oldest towns in South Australia and can date its origins back to the 1840s and it retains much of the old town feel where times moves at a gentle pace.The Main Street has a great selection of cafés, restaurants, bars and shops. It is a place to linger over that cup of coffee and just let the hustle and bustle of the day pass you by. If you are lucky enough to visit at the weekend then don’t miss the much heralded Willunga Farmers Market which is held in the town every Saturday morning, it offers some of the best produce that the region has to offer.Visitors in January (exact dates vary) may catch the colour and excitement of a stage of the Tour Down Under cycle race which tradtionally includes an ascent of Willunga which ascends as you head south out of the town.

Victor Harbor. The town of Victor Harbor on the south coast of the peninsula is about as busy as it gets, especially in the summer m months when it becomes the go to holiday destination of the region. The highlight for me was Granite Island which is linked t the town by a wood built pier. A horse drawn tram is a big attraction and will take you across in relative comfort but it is also a pleasant walk if you are on a budget. Once on the island a well defined path, complete with strategically placed sculptures, takes you on a circuit of the island and affords some stunning coastal and sea views. If you walk in an anticlockwise direction you will finish at the café which makes good refreshment stop. It is a pleasant walk, relatively short but with much to recommend it. If you visit Victor Harbor between June and September you can take whale watch trips to see migrating Southern Right Whales. The South Australian Whale Centre on Railway Terrace is the place to visit for all the information you may need. The Encounter Bikeway is a 31Km path that links Victor Harbor with the beach town of Goolwa, passing through the pretty town of Port Elliot. We struggled to find suitable bike hire on our visit which was disappointing but probably says something about our lack of planning as it was very much a spur of the moment decision to ride it.

Beaches. The Fleurieu Peninsula has more than its fair share of magnificent beaches many of which are big enough for a good walk and finding your own spot well away from other visitors. Many are just a short drive from Adelaide and make for a perfect day trip from the city if you don’t have time to explore the region in full. These include Christies, Maslin which has some wonderful cliffs with layers of different colours, Sellick/Aldinga which allow vehicles to be driven onto the sand though visitors will have to pay a small fee and Port Willunga. Further afield there are great beaches at the southern end of the peninsula including Goolwa and Horseshoe Bay in Port Elliot. No visit to South Australia is complete without a visit to the beach and you are spoilt for choice.

Cape Jervis. At the southern tip of the peninsula is the small town of Cape Jervis. From here you can catch the ferry to Kangaroo Island which sails hourly between 9am and 7pm in the summer but with fewer daily sailings in the winter. The Cape Jervis Lighthouse located on the headland has been in operation since 1871 but the current structure replace the original in1972. Its design is somewhat unusual being in the form of an inverted pyramid. The Deep Creek Conservation Park is just a short drive east of Cape Jervis and is the largest area of natural vegetation on the peninsula. With walking trails and camping grounds it provides the perfect opportunity to see wildlife in its natural habitat.

Yangarra Wine Estate

I have an admission to make, I loved everything about our visit to Yangarra. Arriving late in the afternoon the cellar door was quiet, calm, relaxed and very comfortable. for a short tasting of these super wines. The estate is a short fifteen minute drive from the town of McLaren Vale and just 2.5Km from the small town of Kangarilla. It is well worth the effort especially if Rhone varietals are your wines of choice. Located at 809 McLaren Flat Road the cellar door is open six days a week Monday to Saturday between 11am and 5pm. It is only a small space so try to avoid busy times such as Saturday and public holidays. These are wines for contemplation and should be savoured and enjoyed, you certainly don’t want to have to rush your tasting.

Yangarra, an aboriginal word meaning ‘from the earth’, is a single estate vineyard with all wines made from grapes grown here. Vines are grown in 35 blocks covering a total area of around 100 hectares. Low yielding old bush vine Grenache is a key varietal here. Other significant plantings are of Shiraz, Mourvedre, Cinsault and Carignan for the reds and Rousanne and Viognier for the whites. There are also up to eleven other varieties grown but in much smaller quantities.

Yangarra enjoys a moderate mediterranean climate with warm days for grape development and cool nights to preserve freshness and acidity. There are three distinct soil types found on the property. On the western side there is a sandwich of layers topped with semaphore sand. This provides the ideal environment for producing Grenache of depth and complexity. The central region sees little of the sand with exposed ironstone and a thin layer of clay while to the east the soil is a silty loam.

The estate has been organic since 2008 and certified biodynamic in2012. All wines have been certified biodynamic since the 2013 vintage. The philosophy here is one of minimum intervention, doing only what is absolutely necessary to produce wines of character, elegance and complexity. Wine making uses mechanical sorting and no crushing. Fermentation is in open top vessels and uses wild yeasts only. Pressing uses a modern stainless steel version of the traditional basket press. Wines are predominantly aged in old French oak so that oak doesn’t overly dominate allowing the wines true character to shine.

Estate Old Vine Grenache 2018. From fruit grown in four different blocks on 70 year old vines and matured for nine months in old French oak. Medium in body with delicious red fruits and perfumed dried herbs. Savoury with a lovely finish.

Ovitelli Grenache 2017. Fruit comes from block 30 where the vines are around 70 years old. Fermented and aged in ceramic amphora. A wild ferment with extended skin contact followed by maturation in the amphora, the wine has seen no oak at all. Elegant, perfumed red fruits with a touch of delicate spice. A delightful wine.

High Sands Grenache 2015. Only 2000 bottles of this superb wines were made. There are six blocks of old vine Grenache at Yangarra and this wine is made from fruit grown in block 31 which has vines almost seventy years old. It is located at a height of 210m and this is where the underlying sand is at its deepest and the vines most stressed. Vinification was 50% whole berry, 50?/5 destemmed with an open ferment using wild yeast. The wine was matured for eleven months in old French oak barrels. The nose is complex and beguiling with cherry, red berries and violets. The palate is wonderfully balanced and the fruit sings on through coupled with a lovely savouriness. If you are a lover of old vine Grenache you have to try this wine. Excellent stuff.

Estate Shiraz 2017. There are 12 individual blocks of Shiraz at Yangarra and fruit from six is used to make this wine, the average age of the vines is around 20 years. 10% whole bunch, of the remainder 50% was whole berry while the remainder were lightly crushed. A wild ferment was followed by twelve months on lees in French oak of which 25% was new. The nose is enticing with black fruits drawing you into a palate which yields peppery fruit and gentle spice. Great value.

Ironheart Shiraz 2016. Ironheart is made solely with fruit from block 15 which is planted on ironstone gravels. The vines were planted twenty years ago. Fermented with 25% of the fruit whole bunch and the remainder destemmed. Aged for 18 months with 35% in new French oak and 65% in older French oak. Black fruits, peppery spice and a savoury depth. I would love to try this again after a few years bottle age as it shows great potential. Excellent.

My only regret was that we didn’t get a chance to taste some of the other wines made here as we’d arrived late in the afternoon. Better planning is required next time. If you get a chance to visit don’t hesitate, get along there.