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Published: January 15th 2010
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Day 259 - Eden Valley
We love the sound of engines in the morning so today we hurtled out of bed to meet Russ and his fellow vintage motorcycle enthusiasts at the service station in Tununda. The group was a fair size and the bikes very impressive. Some of them have been rebuilt whereas some are standard and been owned from new. Their plan this morning was to take a short ride through Eden Valley and then back to the trip leaders home for breakfast. Off they zoomed and we arranged to meet Russ at his home early this afternoon where we'll also get to meet the lovely Marion.
We shot back to the showground for a shower and a bit more of a catch up with the blog plus Dar tried to catch the bikes again up by the church for a bit more camcorder footage but he must have just missed them.
When we were ready for the rest of the day we plodded out through Angaston and on to Seppeltsfield, an historic winery in the Barossa. Today is forecast to be the hottest of the three predicted 40 degree days and on arrival at the
winery we find that they’re not going to run their normal tour because of the heat. That’s a shame, we’d been looking forward to doing it but instead wandered through the grounds and just enjoyed the views. The winery layout is interesting as it cascades down a hill, we’ll never know if this helped them in years gone by but we reckon it was built this way for a reason.
On the journey back towards Bethany we stop at the Seppelts family mausoleum which was built in 1927 and has since been the burial place of the remaining Seppelts family members. It’s a fabulous vantage point giving the perfect view of Seppeltsfield down below. Here we meet a pilot, Reg and his partner Lisa who goes on to offer us flights over the area if we’re returning at any point in the future. This guy was just a hoot and so friendly giving us his card and details, well I guess you never know we could be in the market for a ‘fly by’ at some point!
Another quick visit to Maggie Beers, just to confirm that it was as good as we thought it was yesterday, of
course it was and then we were on our way to meet with Marion and Russ. These dear friends of Tony & Jane (whom we met atop Uluru), live in the village of Bethany and are just delightful. They welcomed us into their beautiful home and fed us till our eyes nearly popped! We really were amazed at the work they’ve done in this house which is full of history and built around the 1920s. It was was once owned by the Lehmans family and comes with its own acreage of vineyard, an assortment of ‘pug’ houses plus a front and back cellar. It’s just gorgeous and the way they’ve refurbished it has been very well thought out, Marion good easily take up interior design! Bless her she loves coming up with new challenges for Russ and has plenty of future plans for different areas of their home but if it all stayed as it is just now it would wow the most exclusive visitors. They have a beautiful dog called Banjo (after Banjo Patterson) whom we instantly fell in love with, he’s a red heeler and just divine. The poor chap is so hot today but that doesn’t stop
him coming for lots of fuss and attention. Just gorgeous.
We were treated to a fabulous BBQ lunch with three out of five of their children - Darcy, Benen and Casey - then headed off out for the rest of the afternoon. With Marion at the wheel of the family Landcruiser we head off on a magical mystery tour which starts with a wrong turn but ends beautifully at the tavern in Greenock. Normally we would have been sampling the beer produce of the brewery but it’s shut due to the cellar door being 32 degrees inside! You wouldn’t want a warm beer would you!! Instead we chatted over a pint then jumped back in the car to the nearest winery - MSV. It’s rather exclusive here and despite them being about to close as we arrived they remained open and treated us to the tasting experience. Each wine comes with a detailed description, beautifully delivered by our host. Bless him, he tried so very hard but with myself and Marion buried in the book of ‘Wine Dogs’ he was having a difficult job!
We left without making a purchase and headed to our next port of call,
a favourite with Marion & Russ - Torbreck. Marion is even wearing trousers to match the branding which makes the reception staff chuckle. It was pretty busy in here but we wait our turn for the chance of a taste and are more than delighted when we are offered the most expensive wine on the list! Torbreck’s Runrig is sold for over $250 per bottle. Hold me up before I hit the floor! Gosh, that’s got to be pretty fine stuff then! It’s so much more fun when you get to taste the wines you know, hic! Lovely!
Marion drove us through the delightful countryside showing us the local sights, the most beautiful wineries and the kids school. It’s a stunning area and one we would like to return to again one day.
We pass by a friend’s house and stop for, you’ve guessed it, a glass of wine. Thank you so much to Jack, Lesley and Alexandra who made us incredibly welcome. They have a stunning property which doubles as a guesthouse as well as their home plus of course they also have their own vineyards and we were delighted to be given a bottle to take
away with us.
As we left, Marion got a text from other friends inviting them up for a swim so we hot footed it back home to get swimmers and kids then jumped in our car to follow them deep into the hills. We couldn’t believe where we were going after a while, their friends live at the end of track that winds its way up over the most magnificent views. Again we found ourselves in the midst of the most awesome hospitality and thoroughly enjoyed a great evening with Marion, Russ, Darcy & Benen at the home of their friends David, Leanne, Lauren and Christopher. They live in 80 acres of woodland and it’s just a stunning setting with an extremely well laid out home where the kids bedrooms lead straight to the pool! Perfect. Lauren showed me around her chook house and we had a good look at the little chicks which hatched a couple of days ago and are still living with the heat lamp keeping them warm.
What a way to end a lovely day, sitting with our feet in the pool looking up at the stars. We said a huge thank you to
Leanne and David for making us so welcome and of course to Marion, Russ and the boys for such a fabulous day.
We headed off down the track in the dark with Tom Tom leading us to the showground, for much of the journey we had no idea where we were but we made it safe and sound.
There was no time left for anything but bed. We’d survived the heat of the day in the lap of extremely lovely company and were ready for the move tomorrow towards Adelaide.
Love to everyone
Dar and Sar
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Sharing the Journey
Alec & Cindy Sharp
Motorcycles
Sounds like a fun time was had by all. I really wish you would have included more shots of the bikes. Alec