To Narcoorte

Well what an entertaining couple of days. I headed out of Mt Gambier through streets lined with sandstone houses decorated with the pink dolomite the region is known for. The plan was to check out some of the local caves (you may have gathered its kind of an interest of mine), then hit the Coonawarra and sample some red wine. Not quite whisky but I will struggle along all the same. Then I thought I would spend a quiet Sunday night in Naracoorte, go to bed early then head in to Adelaide in the morning. Well it all started to go pear shaped as I checked into the Naracoorte pub.

While it was still light I wandered around the town. Population around 6,000, three pubs and a 24 hours maccas so it must be doing ok. After 15 minutes I had exhausted the town's pleasures so I retired to the bar and that's when things started to get interesting. I was in the Coonawarra area so I had to drink some full blooded Cabernet Sauvignon. Well I met the local plumber whose initials formed his business name TAPS and his son in law, three girls having a long weekend away from their partners, along with the local publican and his primary school aged daughters. By about 7.00pm we had put this motley crew together on one big table in the pub's dining room. We were joined by the bottle shop manager and a couple of someone's relatives who lived in the town. That's when the drinking seriously began. 

This place was every thing a pub should be. The bones of the place being this sensational old sandstone building. This was all complimented by a big open fire place, a nice wine list and a outstanding selection of steaks. There were 32 poker machines (the maximum allowable in South Australia) and they only take one dollar coins (how that brings back memories). The rooms were well appointed with an interesting combination of the old and the new. The publican Henry Mould ("Mouldy" to his friends) was the kind of guy who came in and shouted the bar, his staff spoke well of him and so did the locals. He was everything a good local publican should be. He was keen to sell me his region's virtues and had interesting bottles of red appearing from who knows where and we sampled many throughout the night. I probably paid for half of what I drank so thank you Mouldy for your hospitality and for an entertaining night.

As an interesting coda, when I staggered back to my room around midnight, the door handle came off in my hands and along with the manager we had to break into my room through the balcony door. Then at about 8.30am about 30 minutes after I had staggered out of bed the smoke alarm went off for no apparent reason. It was more noise than I really needed after the night I had just had but it fitted the occasion. 

All in all Narcoorte was a great place to visit. By the time I had gone to bed, the locals had changed my plans and insisted I go down the coast road to Robe, then cross the Murray River at Elizabeth on a one car punt then go to Kangaroo Island for a few days. Well we'll see how it all goes. Right now I am nursing a serious hangover at the Wild Mulberry Cafe in Robe. The coffee and the food is excellent. Kingston is my next port of call.