Overnight the cool change arrived, dropping the temperature to 10º, and instead of being hot and sweaty, we were freezing. It eventually reached 15º by early afternoon but the wind made it feel colder.
It was Melbourne Cup day. We crowded into a pub in the large town of Clare to watch the race, won by an outside chance with the appropriate name of Shocking. Later we heard on the news that the jockey was rumoured to be facing a fine for excessive whipping.
The streets around Clare were full of lovely cottages, many set up as bed-and-breakfast enterprises. The old stationmaster's cottage had a stunning garden.
From Clare we made our way to Mintaro to look at Martindale Hall, a grand but rather spare edifice which was used as the girls' school in the movie "Picnic at Hanging Rock".
I also visited Timandra, an award-winning private garden. Some of the awards were for judicious water conservation. This rose, possibly 'Dortmund', was demonstrating how drought-tolerant ramblers are.
Roses flourish in the South Australian climate and there are many gardens chock-a-block with them. Most, however, are big Hybrid Tea varieties - not my kind of rose.
Timandra had more of the species and graceful, old ramblers that I prefer. This combination was cool and refreshing on a hot day:
Auburn was another picturesque town with lovely gardens,
including a vast banksia rose,
and vigorous pelargoniums.
We stayed in their small council caravan park for the night.
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