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Published: April 3rd 2009
Barossa Valley
A view of a sculpture with the Barossa stretching out in the backgroundDAY 146
Words like, sunshine, beach, warm temperature, ocean, swimming pool, beer, BBQ, steak, snags, Mosquito’s and 4X4 are everyday words that we are now lucky enough to be using on our Australian adventure. They are not to be conceived that we are having a great time arsing about, enjoying the sunshine, being on the beach, in this lovely warm temperature or in the swimming pool with the beer and a BBQ (lets not forget we are missing a monthly salary) and I am concerned with the current state of the economy and if we will be able to find work when we need it.
It was again a lovely warm morning, and we were comforted that even though we were packing up again to day to move on, the awning had been taken down the night before and was folded up in the back of the patrol and would be nice and dry.
After a light peanut butter toast and tea breakfast we set about finally putting the rest of the gear away, it has to be said that being tidy is your greatest allie, knowing where everything has to go starts out being a bit anal
Andy Rests
on Contemplation... or something like that anyway, this granite sculpture is quite comfy. them just seems the most sensible thing in the world
We pulled out of the site about 10.10, which is amazing for us, usually we are always punctual, I personally hate to be late, but with all the packing up time always runs away from us.
Our first port of call is mini Golf, another grudge match, we park the truck and go in to the place, Caroline asks the chap if this is the Mini Golf Course that is owned by the sister of John the guy who has a mini golf course in Warrnambool, which we played a few weeks ago and was a blog page called Hits and Giggles which was day 131, dated 18 03 2009.
Clubs in hand, score card at the ready, the toss was placed, Caroline to putt first, it was a difficult course that needed some thought, the guy who’s course it was (Scott) spent too much time on the course telling Caroline where to “Putt” she was getting totally pissed off with it, and by the look on her face was about to shove her putter up where the sun didn’t shine.
She played badly, but I
Granite Sculpture
Some of these are great sculptures, others I am not so sure. think she was hampered by his efforts to tell her how to play, I only won by 2 shots so I stood a fair chance of being whooped, if she was left to play her own game.
We set off once the game was over out of Adelaide heading for the Barossa Valley, which Caroline was keen on seeing, on route we filled the diesel tanks up at $1.14 dollars a litre (£0.49 pence per litre) and headed off the short distance of roughly 56 kilometres into the Barossa Valley, famous in Australia (and worldwide) for its wine. There are a number of famous wineries in this district, such as Jacobs Creek, Penfolds, Wolf Blass etc.
We drive through some nice areas as we come out of Adelaide and again the terrain looks very thirsty with its dry, yellow grass, but as we get into the Barossa Valley the colours change with the introduction of the vines into the scenery. The vines are obviously well watered and green. It is a sight to see fields of vines just stretch out into the distance from all sides.
Rocking up at tourist information within the Barossa valley the lady
gave us the places of all the wineries and camp sites as usual with a handy tourist map. We have so many tourist maps in the truck now I think we have our own forest.
First things first we get rid of the trailer, erect our temporary home then we have the freedom to move around as we please so we go to a nice site at Nuriootpa, we site the camper under the shade of a tree as the afternoon is so hot. Soon we are all set and the kettle is on.
Caroline has been on the phone and booked a wine blending session with Penfolds at 10.00 am in the morning, I am glad she has, but its not my scene, she doesn’t need me to hold her hand every day and would be glad of a bit of free time.
We just while away the afternoon planning our next move, and going over information, doing some travel chores and drinking tea, then later on we pop out about 15 K’s out of town along the scenic drive to Mengler Hill, have a look at the sculpture park and look at the vineyards from
this high vantage point, the sculptures are pretty good, but the park is sparse and thirsty in stark contrast to the views over the green vines that spread for kilometres ahead of us.
Back in the car we drive through Seppeltsfield, made famous by the Seppelt Winery established in Australia in 1851 by Joseph Seppelt and since then has been at the forefront of Australian wines. I think they originally emigrated to Australia from Poland. The Seppeltsfield road is an amazing palm tree lined avenue; there are lots of vineyards and wineries leading off this road down dirt tracks.
As we drive around the area we see scarecrows in strange places, on street corners, tied to lampposts, in vine fields on front porches, it seems that they have clues attached to them so you should follow the clue to the next scarecrow. We think that they may be celebrating Easter, but are not certain. Some of them have been made by the local primary school.
On our way back in we stop at the entrance to the park to view a vehicle that is described as a “house on Wheels” and “The Beginning of Caravanning”. This old
truck is not quite the original but the second one built by G E Kaesler of Nuriootpa in 1931 and is the one that took him, his wife and three children around South Australia and the Eastern States. Not forgetting of course that in these days there was little or no signage, especially in Outback Australia and of course many of the roads were dirt roads, not tarmac.
The original truck is in a museum. I guess if it wasn’t for guys like this then maybe modern caravanning and camping would be different. This van belongs to a local family who are displaying it for tourist purposes at the Top Tourist Caravan Park in Nuriootpa.
Getting back we do some e-mails, paperwork and blog work and have the left overs of the curry we did the night before last which has nicely matured and is a lot hotter than the first time around, it goes down well. While we are eating we can hear animals crashing around in the trees above and around us, there is no mistaking that subtle sound of the Possums, these are obviously shy as they are not trying to cadge food from us,
Landsacpe
The Barossa Landscape however we are familiar with their scavenging overnight when everyone is asleep.
The evening is lovely and warm, after the washing up has been done, we finally sit down for a game of cards, as competitive as we both are, Caroline gives me a hiding, but I did make her work hard for the victory.
Making sure that any food items are safely locked in the truck, all of the washing up is done and locked in the truck that is to say locked away from the Possums, we finally get into bed a little late because of the tough card game, but it was worth it.
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Gary
non-member comment
A Kick in the
Pants. The first sentence is like a kick in the pants for those of us that can't be in Australia enjoying all the things that you are. Camping is the ONLY way to see the country. Keep up the fantastic blog. I live through your adventure.