Day 16 - Barossa Valley to Kingston (S.E.)
Today was mostly a travel day, so we were not too unhappy about our first day without real sunshine. South out of Barossa, straight towards the Princes Highway and into Coorong National park. Expected to see a lot of sea birds and the famous pelicans, however we are out of breeding season and so we might go down in history as the first tourists that drove down the Coorong in its entirely and did not see a single pelican.
Took a nice walk to the sea through dunes and scrub-covered hills.
On to Kingston (South East). This place definitely is not the end of the world, but you have a great view on it from here. Glad to find some motel restaurant for dinner, aside from that, this down is deserted after 9 pm.
Ah, and it is home to ‘Larry the giant lobster’, an about 10m plaster and fibreglass statue of a lobster. Might scare some kids.
australia barossa valley coorong kingston s.e. larry the lobster pelicans travelDay 15 - Barossa Valley
We started with a great breakfast at the Hill House B&B, something that is important because right afterwards we went on the “Barossa Wine Lovers Tour” throughout the Barossa Valley. Five different wineries with a six-ten wines to taste do require a good base or you will end the day singing.
Went to Yalumba (big, though very nice place), Bethany (very nice and a great selection), Wolf Blass (basically a big, bland, wine factory with a merchandise shop. Avoid if possible), Gibson’s BarossaVale (tiny place, great wine! go there if you have only one winery to visit) and finally to Chateau Tanunda (busy place but the wine tasting was ok and also a lot of story-telling about the chateau).
While I still think that blending wine together is questionable at best and probably a shooting offense everywhere in France, I do like the Australian red wine. For white wine, they will probably need another fifty years or so to catch up. I the end I skipped most of the white wines because they all tasted the same to me.
australia barossa valley travel wineDay 14 - Adelaide to Angaston
Got woken up at 6 am by the train attendants with tea. Convenient, though much too early. Once we were somehow awake, the train manager announced that there have been problem with one of the motorails (which provide energy to the train when stopped) during the night and they had to pull it out of the train leaving us with a whooping two hour delay. So no reason to hurry for breakfast.
Came into Adelaide around 11:30. Took the shuttle bus which dropped us off in front of the rental location. Very nice and much cheaper than taking a cab. Our third Ford Falcon in a row. It seems that Hertz has only one kind of car in Australia.
Driving through Adelaide traffic to the Barossa valley was fine. Once all the places start to sound Geman, you are there. Strange to see a Schaedel Street (in Tanunda) or some wineries having all german names here in the probably most remote place in the world.
Dropped into another nice B&B. Tomorrow we are going on an all-day wine tour (fortunately enough there will be a bus provided).
Ah yes, celebrated another birthday. The big four is closing in… Thanks to everyone that texted me best wishes.
adelaide angaston australia barossa valley the ghan travel wine