South Australia & Kangaroo Island

Meet your Ross Tour Leader at Sydney Domestic Airport for your flight to Adelaide, or join us in Adelaide. First up is the Adelaide Botanic Garden. Then we transfer to your hotel to settle in and meet this evening for our Welcome Dinner in the hotel restaurant.

To Anlaby Station this morning, the oldest Merino stud in South Australia. Established in 1839, this once grand pastoral estate employed 14 gardeners! Our private tour includes the shade house, glasshouse, walled garden, rose garden & terraced lawns. Soak up life on this fascinating property at lunch. This afternoon we head to Maggie Beer’s famous Pheasant Farm at Nurioopta. Taste
Maggie’s famous wine & cheese.

A day to meet three passionate gardeners! Al-Ru Farm is first this morning at One Tree Hill. Irrepressible Ruth Irving is a clever & passionate gardener. Her garden is an exuberance of poppies, iris, perennials & roses. Walk through her wisteria arbour into a restrained formal white garden. Ashgrove Iris Garden is next, a treat for those who love the magical combination of roses & iris. Meet Diane Michalk, iris collector, who will show you why Iris is called “The Rainbow Flower”. Last stop is a new garden, made with incredible attention to detail.

First is a large country garden that was rescued from a cow paddock! Hundreds of roses, iris, perennials, woodland with spring bulbs & ‘picking’ garden. No photos could ever fully capture the wonder & whimsy of Irene Pearce’s ‘Tickle Tank’ this afternoon. Every inch is filled with colour & form, mosaics & sculptures. Next ‘The Cedars’, the home where Hans Heysen painted many of his famous landscapes. The garden has been recreated with the roses, zinnias & many of the flowers that both Heysens loved to paint.

Carrick Hill is Australia’s most intact 20th C. heritage house museum & garden. Roses play a large part in this historic garden with formal rose beds & three separate rose gardens: one for Old Garden Roses, one for modern Hybrid Teas & the third is devoted to Alister Clark roses.

This morning is the start of our island adventure! Head south to Cape Jervis and take the Sealink ferry across to Kangaroo Island, an unspoiled refuge, internationally famous for its pristine wilderness and wildlife. Kangaroos and Tammar wallabies wander across the island. Echidnas and goannas scuttle in the undergrowth and koalas doze in the trees. Visit two local gardens plus lunch at Emu Lavender Bay. Check into the Aurora Ozone Hotel overlooking Nepean Bay at Kingscote.

Begin the day at Seal Bay with incredible views of the extraordinary coastline & sea lion colony. This is the only place in the world where you can see these Australian sea lions at close quarters.

You’ll be given unique insights into how these endangered animals fish, surf, rest, interact with their pups & defend their territory. Lunch included today at Rockpool Cafe.

We cross the island to the rugged wilderness of the iconic Flinders Chase National Park. Spend the afternoon exploring the stunning coastal park with special note of the bush regeneration.

The spectacular Admirals Arch & windsculpted Remarkable Rocks are two of the outstanding landmarks you will see today.

Take the ferry from Penneshaw to Cape Jervis, then on to McLaren Vale this morning. First stop is our Farewell Lunch at Bec Hardy Wines. Tipsy Hill, McLaren Vale is next with sweeping views across the McLaren Vale vineyards to the Mount Lofty Ranges. Planted 20 years ago by Margaret Burrell & designed by landscape gardener, Pam Hailstone, the garden is surrounded by vineyards on all
sides, & terraced with a real sense of the Mediterranean.

A cruise this morning from Goolwa to discover the Spirit of the Coorong, a magnificent wetland at the mouth of the Murray River. The long narrow Coorong Wetland Lagoon complex stretches 100 kms from the Murray Mouth, separated from the Southern Ocean by a series of enormous sand dunes. On to Adelaide and farewell to South Australia, as we depart for our flights home.