The Tour Down Under was first held in 1999 and has grown year every year to become the biggest cycling race in the southern hemisphere.

The TDU is a festival of cycling, with a range of associated events that create a party atmosphere across South Australia. Amateur cyclists can also get involved in the action.

The Tour attracts top-class international competitors, previously including Lance Armstrong, who was here in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

This year, Tour de France Director Christian Prudhomme will be a special guest for the first time.

Prudhomme will spend three days in South Australia, arriving on Tuesday, January 17. He will be joined by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) media director Julien Goupil.

The Tour Down Under is teaming up with the ASO, and owners and managers of various sporting events around the world, regarding international broadcast rights.

The Tour Down Under will be televised into of millions of homes around the world, with the 2011 event receiving 284 hours of international and local television coverage.

This is fantastic exposure for Adelaide and South Australia.

The eight-day event this year will feature some of the world’s best sprinters including Alessandro Petacchi, Andre Greipel, Oscar Freire, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Daniele Bennati and Robbie McEwen.

I plan to attend stage six in Adelaide on January 22.

Gumeracha is just 37km from Adelaide and is one of South Australia’s oldest settled areas, dating back to 1839.

Today it has a population of 600 people and a toy factory with a big rocking horse.

I don’t know what it is about Australian towns and why they feel that size matters, but I guess a big rocking horse is better than a big galah or pineapple.

The rocking horse is 60 feet high, 34 feet long and weighs 25 tonnes.

It is a 20:1 model of the toy rocking horses made on the site, which claims to be the largest wooden toy factory in Australia.

There is a small wildlife park there as well, which the kids enjoyed, featuring kangaroos, goats, alpacas, ducks and chickens.

The Adelaide Hills are delightful at this time of year, green and fresh, with a nip in the air.

This is a good day trip for taking children or overseas visitors.

At the 2006 census, Port Fairy had a population of 2599. Its main industries are tourism and fishing, and it is the home port for one of Victoria’s largest fishing fleets.

Port Fairy has maintained much of its 19th century character. Like Beechworth in the North East, that’s a sign of a town that showed much promise in the 1800s, but faded from the limelight, only to rediscover fame again through its built heritage.

The top picture shows the Caledonian Hotel, which has a sign claiming it to be the oldest licensed hotel in Victoria, established 1844. The picture below is Seacombe House: private hotel, cottages and restaurant.

I first went there when I was about 11 years old (see black and white photo below, me in the stocks with my sister).

Thirty years on, the place hasn’t changed much, except it cost me $44 to get in with four children (and they let the twins in for free).

We started with the maze, which Michael escaped in five minutes. The other three kids took half an hour and Jim emerged with a grazed knee, complaining that he had crashed into Maggie and fallen over.

Michael and Maggie then went into the stocks. Maggie slipped through the holes without any problem, but Michael was stuck. Kathleen (older sister) wanted to leave him locked in.

We explored a bit, watched some juggling (entertaining but ordinary skills), fire eating and then some jousting.

It wasn’t real jousting with two knights charging at each other carrying swords and maces. Apparently jousting has emerged as a type of sport, where people aim at targets in a particular timeframe using a wooden pole.

The “knight” was “Lady Cynthia” and she was pretty good.

I’m allergic to horses and I’ve been sneezing ever since!

The kids liked the fire eating the best.

We stopped just over an hour from Mount Gambier between Coleraine and Hamilton in Western Victoria to see the Wannon Falls.

The falls were created by lava flows that surged upstream to the Wannon River.

They feature a 100-foot vertical precipice of hardened basalt lava over which water cascades into a deep plunge pool below.

Further downstream, rapids wind their way around large blocks of basalt, dislodged over time down the embankments of the narrow valley.

There’s a great viewing platform, toilets and an interpretive display. Camping is available nearby.

There was some good rain last weekend, so the falls were flowing nicely. I imagine they could dry to a trickle in drought conditions.