Barossa Valley

Tuesday, 29th May


The caravan park at Nuriootpa is very nice (we have stayed here before), with lots of deciduous trees, as well as others. This means PLENTY of birdlife, especially early in the morning. The white cockatoos also are fond of making a racket at any time of the day. Of course, there has been no improvement in the weather – cold, wet and dismal. It will be so nice to finally get somewhere dry. The temperature managed to reach 11 degrees today. Luckily, the driers in the laundry are very efficient, and cheap.

Today, we hit the wineries – a bit like an up-market pub crawl! Cat was like a pig in mud, even if he did become a bit sulky when we didn’t purchase his choices. We even gave the Grange tasting a miss – only $50. With about 100 wineries in the area, we decided to stick to the major brands such as Penfolds, Wolf Blass, Jacobs Creek and Grant Burge. This was more than enough for our modest cellar.

Lunch was at Maggie Beer’s farm, although she must have been still travelling back from Masterchef – we didn’t see her but the staff was very friendly. Himself was very taken with the lovely young thing behind the counter. We had a picnic basket each – dukkah for me and a duck, sherry and green peppercorn pate for him – and ordered extra bread because it didn’t look very much. Needless to say, it would have been very rude if we didn’t have a crème caramel each for dessert – just divine. The beef in red wine casserole has gone back into the frig for tomorrow night and a light evening meal will be the order of the day.

A visit to the supermarket has meant that the frig is now full, ready for the next few days in the Flinders Ranges. At least we wont have any more quarantine restrictions until we return to Tasmania.