Day 54 – The word of the day is HOT. The temperature reading on the car reached 49C midday, although the official high was only 46C. To beat the heat we went to a few shops and just loitered around. Walking outside felt like someone had opened the oven door in your face.
Christmas shopping?
Fortunately the evening brought a ‘cool change’, meaning the wind changed direction and the cool ocean breezes took over. It was finally cool enough for walk to the local beach. While not a great one for swimming (quite rocky), it was pretty.
Day 55 – We knew we wanted to see the Barossa Valley and we both wanted a chance to sample the local wine. We selected a wine tour so someone else was driving. It was a great choice! The first stop was Chateau Yaldara winery. It’s popular for weddings and we could see why.
The tasting included 5 wines. We took pictures of each tasting flight to help jog our memories at the end!
Winery #2 was Peter Lehmann. There were 6 wines included in the tasting here – and the pours were generous. This was also our lunch stop and we got a bottle of Pinot Gris to make sure we didn’t sober up got the full winery experience.
Winery #3 was Lindsay where they are known for having built the tasting room around the record player. Some tunes were playing to greet us. Ella was wishing us a swinging Christmas.
These were our least favorite wines, but that might have been because we’d just had ice cream so our palates were off. Silliness level 4 had hit!
A quick stop at an overlook of the Barossa and we were off to our last winery in the neighbouring Eden Valley.
Winery #4 was Lambert. Our tasting host was fantastic an we tried 11 wines! I only got a picture of the last 9.
It was a fantastic day. Brent seemed to enjoy himself.
(So did Bron>>>)
Day 56 – Today was very low key (fuzzy around the edges). We did some overdue computer planning, tracking, and email work. And ever exciting laundry. By the cool afternoon we did pop down to Hallett Cove boardwalk (just down the street). It is a stunning walk along the cliff tops, with signs about geology (woo!).
Day 57 – Transit here is very cheap – only $2 for 2 hours off peak. Adelaide Metro is fast and covers a huge area for that price. Obviously, we took the train into the city.
Hallett Cove Beach Station
First we explored the botanical gardens. It was beautiful and extensive – but already getting hot. It was nice to escape into the aircon in the garden museum – which included, among other things, papermache models of many mushrooms. How bizarre!
We continued on to the State art gallery. Like Melbourne, this was FREE and air conditioned. We don’t understand some of the modern pieces, but we enjoyed a look around.
Next up was the market – they claim it’s the “largest entirely undercover market in the Southern Hemisphere”. Australia is full of the _______est _______ in _______ claims. Often there are a long list of qualifiers to achieve the title (the highest single drop continuous year round waterfall with 7 resident ducks, etc.)
On our walk around the city there were many large churches (about 150) – 1 church for every 3 hotels we’re told. The history is that South Australia was the only colonial settlement that was not a penal colony. Many settlers paid to come to South Australia to escape religious persecution.
Our city trek was just under 9km, plus 1km each way to/from the train station in Hallett Cove, and some uncounted indoor parts. Not a bad day for mid 30 degree temperatures.
Day 58 – After checking the fire app (they’ve had some terrible fires in South Australia this week), we headed to the unaffected part of the Adelaide hills. Hahndorf is the “oldest surviving German settlement in Australia”. We were a bit underwhelmed to be honest (Bron had envisioned a replica Munich central square) but we had a nice walk around and bought some dark sourdough rye bread (aka The Brick – it’s so hard they can’t put it in the slicing machine).
Next on the tourist stop list is Mount Lofty lookout. The fire smoke was very noticeable – Adelaide City in the haze.
Our Airbnb hosts kindly invited us to their Christmas Eve party, and a good travelling motto is to always say “yes”. We were instructed to bring a wrapped Kris Kringle present and a dish to share. After some frantic Christmas Eve shopping, along with half of Adelaide who also weren’t prepared, we had a plan (and we’re pretty proud of ourselves!). We made 3 types of skewers. Greek (feta, olive, cucumber), Caprese (tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil), and Deli (Tasty cheese, pickle, salami).
We had a great time at the party. Our hosts are fellow travelers and we had a long session in front of their world map where they have pins for places visited (just like we had in our old house!). There was much talk of places seen and to be seen, and much swapping of stories and tips. The Kris Kringle exchange was fun, and we craftily avoided going home with the large board games or rugby ball (a very small mind puzzle and some bath bombs were what we ended with).
Brent And Bron Abroad 