Worth getting out of bed for...

Viewpoint

There are few accessible spots to get above the valley and fathom its virtues, but you’ll get an intimate perspective from the Riesling Trail (www.southaustraliantrails.com), a level cycling track running around 25 kilometres between Auburn and Clare, following an old train line. Along the way you’ll bump into the vineyards, farms and gnarled red gums for which the Clare Valley is famous. For bike hire, contact Clare Valley Cycle Hire (www.clarevalleycyclehire.com.au) or Cogwebs (www.cogwebs.com.au).

Arts and culture

The Mid North is serious agricultural and wine-making country. The practical, not the arty or whimsical, is what counts here, but Clare does boast the Old Police Station Museum (www.nationaltrustsa.org.au), an 1850 outpost which today houses displays of vintage photos, furniture, Victorian clothing and domestic relics.

Something for nothing

If you like old buildings (or can’t stomach another winery), pick up a copy of the Walk With History at Auburn brochure from the Clare Valley Visitors Centre (08 8842 2131), and stroll around the old stone cottages and backstreets of this small town 25 kilometres south of Clare.

Shopping

There’s not much to see here in terms of traditional walk-in-and-buy-something stores, but most Clare Valley wineries can arrange shipping, so your two dozen rieslings will be waiting for you when you get home. Wineries to look for include Pikes (www.pikeswines.com.au), which has a beautiful cellar door, and Skillogalee (www.skillogalee.com), with a pretty veranda restaurant, both in Sevenhill; and the big daddy of them all, Taylors Wines (www.taylorswines.com.au), in Auburn, which rules the export roost.

Daytripper

If you’re a history fiend, check out the eccentric town of Burra, 45 kilometres north east of Clare. It was a copper-mining boomtown from the 1840s to the 1870s, and the visitors centre (www.visitburra.com) can kit you out with maps and a pass to a slew of sites including mines, jails and old dugout houses. It’s not quite a ghost town (there are still 1,000 people living here), but the atmosphere is curiously spooky.

Perfect picnic

Pack a hamper and head for the eerily beautiful Martindale Hall (www.martindalehall.com), an amazingly well-preserved 1880 manor just outside Mintaro. The Hall featured in the classic 1975 Peter Weir film Picnic at Hanging Rock, in the guise of Appleyard College. You can tour the lavish innards, but the grounds are just as lovely – roll out your rug on the lawns.

Walks

Sample a section of the 1,200-kilometre long Heysen Trail, South Australia’s longest trail dedicated to bushwalking, which passes near Kapunda, Clare, Burra, Jamestown and Spalding in the area (www.environment.sa.gov.au/parks/heysen).

Children

When the kids grow weary of all your wine sniffing, swilling and spittoon-filling, take them three kilometres south-west of diminutive Sevenhill to the Spring Gully Conservation Park (www.environment.sa.gov.au/parks/sanpr/springully) – a 400-hectare reserve with gushing waterfalls (in winter) and tall stands of red stringybark and blue gum. There are plenty of feathered and furry types here too, plus some long bush trails to exhaust the little ones on.

Activities

Why are you here? No spin through the Clare Valley would be worth much without swishing some of that hallowed vino around your mouth. If you don’t want to drive, Clare Valley Experiences (www.clarevalleyexperiences.com) chauffeurs you in a shiny Mercedes, or Clare Valley Tours (www.cvtours.com.au) offers Mid North minibus forays soaking up the Clare wineries and Martindale Hall.

And

The valley towns vary in size and atmosphere, but most are worth a look: utilitarian Clare is the biggest and busiest, absent of a whole lotta charm. Further south, Mintaro is famous for its slate, and has a gorgeous crop of old cottages.