Barossa Valley

Monday, 28 May 2018

Grange anyone?

The boys preferred this!

Fountain at Seppeltsfield

Selfie

Cat is learning to take photos now

Lutheran church

Interestingly pruned gum trees

Coffee at Maggie's

The weather was very mild and very stormy looking when we left Cockatoo Downs and headed for the Barossa Valley.  Travelling was easy, with little traffic and a good road.  We selected a large BP service station that was easy to access the diesel pump, filled up and went Himself went to pay, was told that the complete BP computer network was down, eftpos and the tills were unavailable for use.  Fortunately, there was an ATM available (for a fee, naturally) for people like us who weren’t carry a large quantity of cash and as we couldn’t make up the exact amount, we were given a five cent discount.

We left the Princes Highway at Murray Bridge, crossing the Murray River before travelling across the hills to Nuriootpa and the Big4 Barossa Valley Caravan Park – and our much awaited remote control for the television.  Someone is much happier now he has full control of the remote situation and can channel flick at will.  This is a nice caravan park in the council sports grounds and with plenty of autumn colours on the trees.  Although thunderstorms moved all around us during the afternoon, we only actually received a couple of light showers.

Today was still very mild, but breezy, and a bucket list tick was the first activity for the day for a visit to Penfolds for a Grange tasting.  The wine was poured out very carefully to the millilitre and the salesman did seem a bit disappointed when I didn’t actually buy a bottle or two (so were the children!).  We stopped at Seppeltsfield for a look at the lovely old buildings and craft shops, giving the fortified wine tastings a miss, then continued to Maggie Beer’s Farm for lunch.  Since we had a bit of trouble deciphering/understanding what was on offer, we decided to have a dessert – chocolate, salted caramel and honeycomb!  Honestly, who was want goat cheese and stuff what that was on offer?  One of those desserts that looks a bit small but half way through, one starts to wonder if it is going to be possible to eat it all.  Yes, we did!  Following that, we stayed for the daily cooking demonstration using verjuice and were able to sample some very nice mushrooms, okay pumpkin and yucky eggplant.

A very pleasant day.