PENOLA PLEASE

G’day! I did say we were heading to Penola didn’t I? Yes, well, we did indeed go to Penola, for one whole day – actually that is not quite true – I don’t think technically you could even say we stayed a day as it wasn’t quite 24 hours. You know when this bloke of mine makes his mind up, it’s pretty hard to shake him from his course.

I really liked what I saw of Penola and it is firmly on my list of ‘do agains’ when we come back this way again. I guess part of the charm of Penola, for me at least, is due to my love of the Swan Valley back home where I feel my roots to be. Mind you the Swan Valley is tiny in comparison to the acres upon acres of vines in the Penola & Coonawarra Region.

The town of Penola is small, quaint and pretty. The buildings generally epitomise the beautiful old stone buildings that are so prominent in SA and everything is predictably neat and tidy. Picturesque and old world are the words that come to mind where Penola is concerned. I had not realised this part of the country is Sister Mary MacKillop territory and I would have dearly loved to visit some of the historic sites involved in that wonderful story, but.........................oh well, he is a good boy as my mum often said, but he can be a little stubborn from time to time! We were in a hurry it seems!

In DD’s defence, he did have some good reasons for leaving Penola is such an unseemly rush. One of the reasons we went to Penola was to visit a very good mate, the mate in fact who sold us Jezabelle. Now this mate, who for his own sake shall remain nameless, used to be married to the sister of DD’s ex wife. At that stage I suppose the two gents would have been deemed in laws. Now neither of them is married to either sister and I like to think they are now out-laws instead. This erstwhile mate of ours, loves a drink and sadly, my lad can be all too easily lead astray. The good thing is that he knows his own weaknesses and we both agree that more than one night spent in the company of our mate would not be good for DD’s health. He will try to keep up and quite frankly his capacities are nowhere near the legendary levels of our friend.

Our mate has had a palatial home built for himself in the township of Penola, needless to say within strolling distance of both the pubs there. The house was something else, replicating an old SA homestead with all the fixtures and fittings belonging to a bygone era. Quite special! We met at his home, had a guided tour of the house and then wandered down-town to one of the locals where we had a pleasant counter lunch. We ate, our mate had a liquid lunch. After lunch we meandered back to the CP had an LLD (little lie down) and then drove back to the house for a cuppa. True to form, our friend treated us royally and took us out to dinner at a very nice little restaurant in town – quite up-market in fact. The meal was low on quantity but very high on quality, or so it seemed. After the meal we strolled back to the house and DD and our host partook of several more luscious reds before I drove my hero home to the CP. We had a lovely day and evening but I guess the decision to leave was a good one, as too much of a good thing, as they say and all of that.

Incidentally the luscious red we were quaffing was called The Tax Collector and it was absolutely delectable. Stupid here did not find out which winery produced the stuff tho, and perhaps that is just as well.

In the morning we both woke feeling a little odd. DD more than me, and no, it wasn’t an overdose of The Tax Collector, but rather some strange tummy bug that lasted a couple of days. We cannot help but think it was something we had either for lunch or dinner as we both came down with the same symptoms simultaneously. Perhaps the evening meal was not as good as we had thought!

Our host had mentioned some ‘chain saw’ carvings worth seeing so in the morning before hitching up the van we drove around 20ks out of town to see the carvings of a famous priest, Father Woods. The stories surrounding the priest were impressive and interwoven with stories of Sister Mary MacKillop. Father Woods wrote a book which I really wanted to get hold of but sadly as we whizzed past the local information centre where I’m sure they would have been available DD assured me I would be able to obtain them also from the Mt Gambier Information Centre. As his tummy was rumbling loudly at us at the time, I didn’t feel I was in a position to argue.

We did deliberate about staying a further day so that I could explore more of the fascinating region, but the state of our tummies and the potential danger to DD’s liver won out in the end and we hitched up the van and headed off towards Mt Gambier.

As it is only around 50ks down the road, we will see you there very soon.....in the meantime, appreciate your mates and watch what you eat......Steph.

Incidentally the CP at Penola was quite good and surprisingly had a number of ensuite sites.