'Roos, Rain and a Right load of Wine

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Hi All,
Started out our second Adelaide visit with a lovely meal at the Bull and BEAR Restaurant - delicious! Next morning we were up early for our Barossa Valley trip on the Groovy Grape Getaways tour.
First stop on the tour was at the Big Rocking Horse - apparently one of around 50 'big icons' which they have in Australia, others including the Big Lobster and the Big Banana. Anyway we climbed it (naturally) and got a certificate, although think it was meant to be for children. The weather decided to turn on us too and with the rain we both felt it was a health and safety hazard to be honest :D. Here there was also an animal sanctuary so we finally got to get up close with a few kangaroos, although they were just as drenched as we were so we didn't stroke them, just watched them hop around a bit with the Alpaca's.
Next stop was at the Whispering Wall, which is actually a dam at a reservoir but because of the way the dam was built in a curve, sound travels from one end to the other and if you stand on the other side you can clearly hear the conversations from the first side. Stories go that one bloke once got the sack because he was overheard by his boss having a bit of a moan from the other side! Didn't stay there very long though because of the weather.
Then it was onto the Wine! And it was only 10.30am :/ Highlight was Jacob's Creek visitor centre (and it IS actually named after a Creek which runs alongside the vineyards, wine fans) where we learnt about the history of the brand, and how the wine is made, before tasting five different wines and a tawny port. All of which were delicious and we can assure you that none went in the waste buckets! The Barossa is famous for its Shiraz grape and we both reckon that was the best one we tried.
We went on to visit three other wineries during the day - Simpatico Wines, Richmond Grove, and Seppeltsfield, none of which we had heard of but after trying around 6 different wines and a few ports at each one by the end of the day we couldn't care if we'd heard of them or not - we could hardly remember our own names! The last one, Seppeltsfield, release each year a 100 year old bottle of tawny port, and at $30 a taste (and $1000 for a 375ml bottle) we were surprised when one of our group gave it a go. Apparently it was 'horribly strong' but we all had a whiff and it smelt like toffee.
Lunch was well needed in the middle of the four vineyards and instead of the planned BBQ we had a sample of an Aussie delicacy - Kangaroo Fillet! It tasted a bit like duck but was really tough, not one to recommend other than for the novelty really, and we did get the guilt afterwards.
Avoiding the flash floods we got home safely to a Maccy D's and an AFL final on the tele. Looking forward to travelling to Melbourne tomorrow to see some little penguins and some other famous Aussies...
Love to all,
The Bears xxx

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Photos

Kangaroos!
A Jumping!