Drive Mount Barker to Jupiter Creek
Drive Mount Barker to Jupiter Creek, via Macclesfield, Meadows, Kuitpo, K1 Winery, Echunga and Jupiter Creek.
Slide into cruise control, and…
• Explore bustling Mount Barker (one of the fastest growing regional centres in Australia). There’s a great array of shops, cafés and pubs and a Wallis cinema if you feel like catching a flick.
• Watch fat trout rippling through the lake beside the picture-perfect K1 winery. It’s one of South Australia’s most beautiful cellar doors and the latest achievement of Geoff Hardy, descendent of 1800s South Australian wine pioneer Thomas Hardy.
• Hike or cycle through the 3600-hectare Kuitpo plantation forest, listening out for raucous Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos and other native wildlife. The main Kuipto trail forms part of South Australia’s 1200 kilometre Heysen Trail, stretching from the southern Fleurieu Peninsula to the Flinders Ranges. With a permit, you can camp here or stay in an historic hut.
• Be amazed by some of the most beautiful farmland scenery in Australia: rolling hills, majestic gums, dairy cows grazing in green pastures, perfectly designed vineyards and ducks on pretty ponds.
• Meet the locals (and sample the local fare) in cosy old pubs like the Three Brothers Arms in Macclesfield.
• Fossick for a fortune on the Jupiter Creek Gold Diggings Trail. Look out for old ruins and interpretive signs detailing the region’s golden age: an 1869 chimney, a 1906 sluicing dam and the 1930 New Phoenix Tunnel.
• Break the diet (again) with a sausage roll from Meadows Bakery.
• Try to remember when you felt this good; enjoying a delicious gourmet platter and even better wines at Longview Vineyard outside Macclesfield (you’ll love the view from the veranda).
• Find a unique memento of your Adelaide Hills Classic Country Drive in the lovely little shops of Meadows - don’t miss Country Life and Gaslight Antiques.
Maps
See our main maps page for a map of the Adelaide Hills.
