Outback Adventure (15 Days)

At once sophisticated and cultured, yet cool and casual, Adelaide attracts foodies, historians, art aficionados and sports fanatics in equal measure. Multicultural restaurants abound, as do pretty sandstone churches. Explore them at your leisure, before meeting a local gourmand to tour the city’s legendary Central Market. This place has been selling cheese, green ant gin, flowers and artisan bread for 140-plus years. It’s tempting to overindulge – save space for your Welcome Reception & Dinner.

One of Australia’s oldest wine regions, the Clare Valley is all wide, open skies, rounded hills, rippling grape vines and native forest. It’s a postcard-perfect setting for historic Knappstein Enterprise Winery, producing sweet-scented rieslings and mineral-rich reds. The route north lands you at Hawker – it may be the gateway to the Flinders Ranges, but there are plenty of reasons to linger, including well-preserved heritage buildings and the Jeff Morgan Gallery. Jeff’s enormous panoramas capture the SA outback in a frame; he also collects rocks, model cars and random memorabilia. The best is still to come, as you arrive at Wilpena Pound Resort in the shadows of a staggering natural amphitheatre.

The soaring river red gums that envelop the restored Hills Homestead will leave you lost for words; equally mesmerising is the display inside the property, revealing the hardships of early settlers in this part of the state. You get here on a leisurely walk along Wilpena Creek and continue to Wangarra Hill Lookout for seemingly endless views over the pound’s rippling peaks and sweeping curves. The drama is echoed as you climb to Pichi Richi Pass – spare a thought for the workers who built the train line here in the 1870s, through deep rock that provides a snapshot of Flinders Ranges geology. Ease into Port Augusta, where more stories of yesteryear await at Wadlata Outback Centre.