Recently the wonderful Tutu and I spent the weekend in the delightful Riverland village of Loxton. The reason we went there was many years ago I worked for a company where I would travel all over the state and up into Northern Territory. One of my jobs was to help an injured worker who lived in the township of Berri, which is just up the road from Loxton. Anyway on my return trip home I would pass through Loxton and stop at the pie shop which I can truly recommend. I was always amazed at its beauty but also its history. Beautiful old sandstone buildings just simply tug at my heart strings and I vowed that one day I would revisit the township and take it some of its beauty. Well I did and for me it was a great experience.

Loxton is a small rural town on the Murray River that serves as a commercial centre for neighboring farming districts. It has a population of just under 4000  and surrounding farms produce fruit, grapes, sorghum, barley and livestock. Tourism is also important as us “townies” flock in for the the river and the wineries. It is about 2.5 hour drive from Adelaide and the road is pretty good. We stayed at the Loxton Hotel an the accommodation was high quality as was the food in the Dining Room.

Loxton is damn hot in summer and damn cold in winter so the best time to visit is in the in-between seasons although from my view the only two months of the year not to come to South Australia would be February and August, the rest of the time it is not too bad.

Like I say, I love early Australian history so to me it is a fantastic place to visit. If that’s not you thing maybe leave it till for your grey nomad trip. Or another alternative would be to fly from Sydney to Adelaide, borrow Hung’s car, spend three days in a houseboat forgetting about anything that bothered you, return Hung’s car and fly home, easy.

Apart from the history here a trip out to Banrock Station for lunch is superb. An eco-friendly fine dining experience that is hard to turn down. Check out the hotel as they have special musical events that would be worthwhile seeing or just walk around the town and take it all in. No art gallery I’m afraid but they do have an art trail, amazing bird life and the Historical Village. Now if you visit the village it takes a good couple of hours to get around but it has been beautifully put together, old banks, post offices, schools etc all with authentic displays.

Here are some links.

http://www.southaustralia.com/info.aspx?id=9002400

http://www.loxtonhotel.com.au/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loxton,_South_Australia

http://www.loxtontourism.com.au/