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Published: February 1st 2006
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My journey to Adelaide was long but not too uncomfortable - thank goodness! I arrived at 6ish in the morning and instantly was faced with the dilemma of finding my hostel - why do i always leave it to the last minute at silly-o'clock in the morning - hopefully i'll soon learn?! Luckily for me, the coach station had leaflets on some of the hostels, and mine was there..YAY...and to top it off, it was only a short walking distance away..phew!!! I had just enough time to get to my hostel, check in and have a quick shower etc, before i was being picked up for a Wine Tasting Tour in the Barossa Valley - it was going to be a LONG, LONG day!!!
Although i was feeling extremely tired, i still managed to get a little excited about the day ahead - i was going on a mini bus tour of the local area, which included tasting MANY, MANY different wines, visiting a conservation park and stopping off in some of the little villages along the way - a good way to see quite a lot of the Valley in a short space of time!
We began by
visting the Toy Factory in Adelaide Hills, which is home to the "World Famous" (?!) giant Rocking Horse - only in Oz, eh?! It was quite a sight, i tell you! Me and a couple of the others decided to climb the great beast (it was pretty easy really - just a few steps) and we got a good view of the surrounding hills - lovely and peaceful!! We then all continued on to the Whispering Wall = a dam which was built in such a way that sound kind of echos around it, making it sond like people on the other side are standing right next to you..it was actually quite amazing, not something you get to visit everyday. By this time it was already around 38 degrees, so we were all pretty happy to clamber back onto the air-conditioned bus and carry on to our next stop!
We drove on through Mount Crawford Forest, Sandy Creek Conservation Park and the village of Lyndoch, where we were able to see wild Kangeroos and i hand-fed a wild Parrot!!! Now it was time for our wine tasting part of the day to begin.....first port of call, Orlando Winery, the
home of JACOBS CREEK!!!! Our tour started with a brief background into the history of the company and then moved on to an introductory course into Wine Tasting - yes indeed, i can now call myself a bit of a conisseur = i know how to "taste" wine properly; checking the colour and smell, swirling the glass to get all the flavours out, etc....am i impressing you all?!
After spending a considerable amount of time sampling as many different types of wine as they would let us, our tour group moved on Richmond Grove Winery, where we were informed about the fermentation process and got to sample yet more wine 😊 . As we were all beginning to feel the effects of the wine, our group leader decided it was time to stop for our BBQ lunch - fab idea! Yet again i was able to try more Kangeroo, and i have to admit, second time around it was pretty good - i think i could get a taste for it! Once we'd all polished off as much food as we could manage, we continued on to Bethany Winery in the Barossa Valley and then the Schild Estate Winery. I started to get extremely sleepy (i'll blame the night bus trip, which was beginning to catch up with me - it had NOTHING to do with the wine, i'm sure!!!) Fortunately for me the tour was drawing to an end, and i was able to rest my weary head on the drive back to my Hostel. All in all, it had been a really fun and enjoyable day - i even got to learn a few new things too!
As the mini-bus pulled into the Adelaide district, i decided that i needed to see a bit of the city itself before i left on my Outback trip tomorrow. I managed to wake myself up just enough to catch the local free bus which takes a round-the-city route. From the comfort of yet more air-conditioned transport (it was still WAY too hot outside to move!), i was able to see some of the main city sights, including Parliament House, the University, the Library....By the time i made my way back to the Hostel i was ready to collapse into bed and sleep forever, unfortunately for me, i had another early morning start ahead....Outback here i come !!!
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