Because travel is better with two - By writer/editor/photographer Melanie Wynne
Imagine a modern house that’s far more fabulous than your own abode. (Go ahead, I’ll wait.)
Set it near the bottom edge of the Earth, above a dense forest and beside a remote and turquoise ocean. Fill it with art, wine and cozy fabrics made by the neighbors, and invite kind people to cater to your every whim. Put in a button to heat your floors and a long boardwalk that leads to a table for two by the sea, and call it a day.
Welcome, my friends, to the Southern Ocean Lodge.
Remarkable Rocks, Flinders Chase National Park, Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island was initially described to me as ‘Australia’s Galapagos.’
So naturally, my first question was:
“When do we go?” [Read more...]
Oliver the joey, the ideal (portable) traveling companion
Along the central coast of South Australia, the Eyre Peninsula (pronounced “air”) is full of unique adventures. Just a short flight, bus, ferry or coach from Adelaide, you can snorkel with tuna, sail an opal-green bay beside dolphins and seals, drive up and over pristine sand dunes, and even cuddle a baby kangaroo.
(Good luck, by the way, ripping yourselves away from that last one.)
Full of sleepy towns, conservation parks and 2,000 kilometers of coastline, the Eyre is an easy escape to a lot of breathing room. I hear “peninsula” and think “long weekend,” but you could easily spend a week or more here. For instance, the Eyre’s far northwestern Nullarbor Plain and its coastal Great Australian Bight Marine Park could take a couple of days just on their own; the latter is ground zero for Southern Right whale watching from May through October.
If you have just a day or two to devote to the Eyre, it’s best to stick to just one area — like the peninsula’s southern tip.
Just a touch of lavender in South Australia's Barossa Valley
Continued from
Barossa Valley: Old and New and Koalas, Too
One day isn’t nearly enough in the Barossa Valley, the cradle of South Australian wine. Best to tuck on in for at least another 24 hours.
Old grape vines in the Barossa Valley township of Tanunda
South Australia’s most famous wine region, the peaceful Barossa Valley, is ideal for a gastronomic lost weekend…one that could easily last the rest of your lives.
Frolic in fields full of flowers…and tawny marsupials. Swim in Shiraz and wade in Riesling. Nibble grapes in bed, beside Grecian statues and a big ol’ gilt mirror. Luxuriate in epic meals that will go on for days and leave you in puddles of joyful tears.
