The Riesling Trail Clare

This is classic wine country with scenery as satisfying as its flavours. The Riesling Trail has been built to allow visitors to experience the Clare Valley from end to end. It offers 27 kilometres of cycling and walking tracks that weave their way through vineyards, over bridges, past wineries, bed and breakfasts and restaurants.

The trail began as the idea of local winemakers who saw the potential for the dis-used railway line from Riverton to Spalding that ran through their region. The railway workers had already done the hard work for them by clearing and levelling the land for the tracks. It was an obvious trail along a skinny nature reserve. The railway service to Clare only went in in 1918 after decades of argument. By the 1980s Australian National were looking for an excuse to close it. It came with the savage Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983. The fires damaged sleepers and services along the single track. It was eventually demolished at greater expense than its repair estimate (the old tracks are now being used for a train line in Bundaberg, Qld).

Now the loss of the railway has been the cyclist's gain and the locals decided to name the trail after the grape that is so celebrated in the Clare Valley. About seven kilometres south of Clare a lightweight replica of an old rail bridge spans the old quarry road. Several wineries are now creating picnic locations along the trail.

The oldest plantings in the area are at Sevenhill where Austrian Jesuits planted vines in 1848. They began making wine at their monastery in 1851. the wine was used during worship and supplied churches across Australia and other parts of the Southern Hemisphere. Sevenhill still supplies much alter wine but also sells via its cellar door. The old railway line snakes from one side of the valley to the other, sometimes providing sprawling vistas of wheat paddocks and vineyards. There are more than 30 bed and breakfast cottages, several hotel/motels and caravan parks and so the opportunity is there to turn a comfortable one day ride into several days.

The trail ends at Auburn at the old railway station. In 1997 the Government sold the station (built in 1916) to Stephanie Tool who has restored it brilliantly into the cellar door for Mt Horrocks Wines. Getting on the Riesling Trail is easy because there is a brochure available from the Clare Tourism Office or the Department of Recreation and Sport. It has details of carparks and bike hire and shows the trail.

Phone the Clare Valley Visitors Info Centre (Open 7 days) on 08 8842 2131 or the Dept Recreation & Sport on 08 8416 6677 or email: info@postcards.sa.com.au