Standing at 727 metres high, Mount Lofty Summit is the highest point of the Mount Lofty Ranges which is 15 km east of the City of Adelaide. It forms part of the ranges called the Adelaide Hills and is adjacent to the Cleland Conservation Park area. Offering breathtaking panoramic views of the city (on a clear day), it contains television transmission towers operated by the Adelaide Television Station, as well as the Mount Lofty Fire Tower. Naturally, its also an excellent place for picnics and just hanging out in the beauty of nature.
The first order of the day is to get our carpark tickets sorted as fines are hefty here!
Like any self-respecting attraction, Mount Lofty summit had a decent-sized shop and restaurant.
I like the caption behind this donation box – see if you can read it here.
Mount Lofty is a great place for picnics, and we had our lunch basking in the glorious South Australian Sun.
The fireman’s tower at the summit was a favourite place for photography.
Kids like this one here loved to walk around its circumference and strike a pose here.
From Mount Lofty Ranges, we next drove through the yellow brick road region and stopped by the Melba Chocolate Factory.
These giant tubes contained lots of yummilicious gooey chocolatey stuff.
A view of the production shopfloor. Was that a chocolate loving pig at the far end of the table?
Giant white and milk chocolate creatures like dinosaurs, “gingerbread” men and other beasties could be bought.
Some of the chocolates during the Easter period even came with certificates of authenticity.
Cow “dung” (called cow pat here) never looked so sweet. Sometimes good sh*t happens!
From sweet and sticky chocs, we next ventured to savour saltish and sharp tasting cheeses.
Here’s a spread of the cheesy dairy delights for our sampling.
I was the first to leapt forward for this rare opportunity…
…followed by Tina. While Ethan did some tentative tasting, he was more interested in…
…the drawing and colouring corner of the shop.
We next hit the road en route to the Barossa Valley, the famous wine-producing region of South Australia.
Mount Lofty reminds me how incredibly literal Australian placenames can be – as if the relevant explorer was feeling really tapped out that day and couldn’t be bothered thinking up anything interesting (or finding out the Aboriginal name). My favourite is the Great Sandy Desert, presumably named because it’s a) big, b) full of sand, and c) a desert.
Tim Richards
http://www.aerohaveno.com/