Rosebrae Cottage, Watervale, Clare Valley

Vacation used to be a luxury, but in today's world it has become a necessity. ~Author Unknown

We recently enjoyed a little getaway to the Clare Valley. Neither of us had been there before so were very pleasantly surprised to find the valley is a very beautiful little pocket of Australia. We expected the area to be much drier, more barren and less hilly. Instead we found a gorgeous little pocket of scenic Australia, an area which we long to return to. The region is famous for its wines yet with young children we were more interested in simply being together in lovely surroundings and this was definitely achieved.

We stayed in the lovely Rosebrae Cottage in Watervale.

It was once a methodist manse, now a self-contained bed and breakfast with room enough for a bedroom for each of us, a fully functional kitchen (with supplies included), a sitting room and of course - gardens. A lovely rose garden just about to bloom in the front and behind a lovely little garden hedged with lavender for our girls to play in. We enjoyed numerous games of hide and seek and Monsters! The circular garden was their den, the people were the monster food. Oh yes! lots of fun playing together.

There were many signs of Spring which we enjoyed in our own backyard as well as on our scenic drives through the hills and grassy woodlands.

It was nice to see a few rare pockets of virgin countryside. Most has been cleared for farming and vineyards over the years.

We walked and talked, drove and slept, laughed, played and ate together. We thoroughly enjoyed this pristine pocket of our beautiful country and feel we will be drawn there again very soon.