We spent most of January in a cottage about 7km from Barmera, in the South Australian Riverland. The Riverland area is very hot in summer and a big wine and fruit growing region. Most of the main settlements in Riverland are along the Murray River – Barmera is not, but it is on a lake shore.

We LOVED staying in this cottage which was miles from anywhere down a long dirt driveway with grapevines all along it. Obviously we had to drink ‘wine amongst the vines’ at every opportunity. The cottage was pretty old, but very comfortable and also had a really lovely outdoor space in a leafy garden area at the back. Most days it was between 35 and 40 degrees, so the outdoor space was appreciated.

The cottage water supply came straight from the Murray River, so it was a kind of brown colour and we were told not to drink it – meaning that we had to do ‘water runs’ to buy cartons of water for drinking.

We spent the three weeks drinking wine amongst the vines after work, and going on trips to other parts of the Riverland at the weekends. Some evenings we went further afield for our after work works – as there is only so many times you can walk up and down the driveway 🙂