with pokies.
On Monday evening we walked round the lake in Elder Park, the Foo Fighters were playing at Adelaide Oval so we sat and listened to one of the support acts. OMG, screaming and shouting to make your ears bleed! A black swan befriended us and sat patiently at our feet until an Aussie bloke came along, asked if the goose would like a drink, then poured half a can of his beer onto the path!
Onto the Barossa Valley: what a beautiful part of the world. Vines as far as the eye can see and many, many cellar doors to visit!
We are staying in Tanunda and when we arrived we went to the tourist information office and booked. After sorting out the paperwork and payment we went to leave, and almost as an afterthought, asked where we would get the key. The nice lady said, 'Its under the doormat,' and it was. It's justthat type of place.
Tuesday saw us paying homage to the mighty Jacobs Creek. It has a visitor centre and walking trail and obviously cellar door tastings. We had to try several varieties - of course!
I learned my lesson, in the 34 degree heat, drinking red wine all afternoon gives you headache, so today I stuck to white and drank loads of water until we got to the vinery next to where we are staying. By then it was 5 pm and what the heck!
We began the day on Mengler Hill, from the summit you can view some of the vineyards. You realise how brown and dry everywhere is, if it isn't being irrigated.
Picnicking in the sunshine in a beautiful town called Angaston, centre of the fruit growing, bottling and drying industries in the Barossa, I once again thought, 'It doesn't get much better than this!' Leaving Angaston we followed a trail around the various wineries, stopping to sample some pretty nice whites at Whistler Wines.
As you can see they offer 'extras,' they're all a bit quirky!
We finished the day at the Chateau Tanunda Estate winery next to where we are staying. When we walked down to it we realised why it was so named, we could have been in France.
We spent a very pleasant 45 minutes leant against the bar, talking to two twenty-something blokes, one from Glossop the other from Germany. They had met in Cairns, bought a car and were on a road trip. The barmaid was very chatty and we slowly worked our way through several different wines, she actually apologised when it was time to close. I think she was enjoying it as much as us and would have carried on for afters if she could have. We bought a couple of bottles to take away, including a sparkling shiraz which, added to our previous purchases, sorted out Christmas Day.
We begin our trip to Sydney tomorrow, approximately 1300 km. Although we are expecting to visit some interesting places I'm guessing there's going to be a lot of nothingness. Jim had his hair cut this morning and a guy, talking to me as I was waiting, told us to be very careful of where we stopped and to always keep the car doors shut. He said, 'If it looks like bush, it is bush, stay in the car, there's too many dangerous creepy crawlies and snakes about!' Bloody marvellous!
- Posted by Annie & Jim using BlogPress from THE iPad
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