When planning this trip I thought I must have been doing something fundamentally wrong in my research techniques.

I just couldn’t seem to find any mountain bike hire places.

Seems it’s a thing over here. You can hire plenty of road or eBikes, but mountain bikes are relatively hard to hire.

Pretty odd given the amazing places there are to mountain bike around both the McLaren Vale area and the Adelaide Hills.

Says the woman who rides a mountain bike. On roads. To work. On the flat.

On Saturday night Mrs. Google and I happened upon a company called Escape Goat. 

They had an online chat.

With a real person.

After some too-ing and fro-ing we managed to organise a winery tour, with pick up from McLaren Vale the next day. With mountain bikes.

We met at Hungry Jacks. Otherwise known as Burger King in NZ.

(Burger King was already registered here so the chain had to call it Hungry Jacks. In case the NuZulanders were wondering). 

Steve, our awesome guide from Escape Goat, rocked up with another couple in the bus; Geoffrey from Luxumberg (lives in SA) and his friend Stella from Brazil – and took us up to the Onkaparinga Hills. 

From there we rode downhill to our first winery. 

Starting at the Sundew Trails, we rode the Piggot Range along the Punchbowl Link Trail, had a squiz at the Punchbowl Lookout – overlooking the Punchbowl Water Hotel, and the Onkaparinga River Gorge. 

It was pretty cool. 

Saw some kangaroos and the odd koala or two much to the delight of Stella. 

Fortunately no snakes. Much to the delight of moi.

Although I was watching for them. All the time.

Lunch was eaten at a nice little Winery called The Gemtree. A third generation certified organic and byodamic winery. 

Food was spectacular and if you like wine, well that was pretty good too.

From there we headed to our next winery. Kangarilla Road Winery.

To be greeted by ‘Dave’. 

The MOST gorgeous Groodle in the world.  

(Not counting, in the Oodle world, the Princess Frankie Cavoodle of course). 

For those that don’t know, a Groodle is a Golden Retriever/Poodle combination.

I didn’t know. 

Turns out Groodles have a lot of drool. 

Maybe getting down to his level was not the smartest thing to do. 

Yeah that was me getting a face wash from Dave.

Poor Dave was exhausted after all that face cleaning……….Anyway, the winery was pretty cool with some nice artwork and the wine was also pretty nice, we did end up buying a bottle or two.

Of course we did. 

And this stuff, sparkly wine in a can. The son of the vintners, who is 24, has his own label called Silent Noise. I can highly recommend this little gem. Hints of pear. And alcohol.

‘Kangarilla’ is an aboriginal word from the local Kaurna people, which describes a place where something is nurtured and is also thought to mean a place with abundant resources.

Our day ended up with a ride along the by now flat roads to where we had options.

(Flat roads and funny little flowers).

Our options? On one side McCarthy’s Orchard, the other Goodieson Brewery.

Coffee or Beer.

So the boys went over to the Brewery and the girls went to the Orchard where we partook of said coffee, ice cream and Anzac cookies.

This was McCarthy’s Orchard….

And this was the Brewery….I think we girls picked the cuter place.

Not a bad way to spend the day.

But before I go, we found these fellas out for their afternoon walk.