Monday is the designated wine tasting day - yes, another one! - and without even pausing for brekkie we are on the road to the Barossa Valley and wine heaven. As soon as we reach an area where vines grow on both sides of the road for as far as the eye can see, one of us becomes very excitable!
First it's time to stop for brunch or 'carb-up' big style. The little town of Lyndoch lies near Humbug Scrub Hill (seriously contemplating renaming our home and environs with so many great names here) and boasts a sweet coffee shop which does an excellent French toast and fruit and a lot of cooked breakfast options to fill even the largest tums. While we are parking the car, I notice a lot of knitting...?! On telegraph poles, bins, road signs...woolly mice, spiders, striped scarves and even SpongeBob SquarePants! Once we'd ordered, I had to ask the waitress what it was all about. Yarnbombing, apparently in honour of the Tour Down Under. Remember all those yellow jerseys folks knitted in Yorkshire - well, similar but more random. Yarn bombing - I like the idea! Make a change from the Scarecrow Festival...
Then it's back on the road to find the first of the wineries recommended by the waitress in the tapas bar. Miles and miles of vines, interspersed with the occasional small town and signs identifying which winery we are passing. Finally we luck on Tscharke which was the most highly recommended and spend an hour tasting at this organic winery in the company of Skye whose tattoos and piercings might suggest to you that she wasn't a wine expert. Appearances can be deceptive - she was very knowledgable indeed and there is a danger that I am turning into Gilly Goolden - 'I'm tasting red fruit, burnt sugar, toffee, Turkish delight' - yes, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Meanwhile, the proper wine buff in the partnership is asking all the intelligent questions about irrigation and composting! Skye looks at our list and sends us on to Sieber Wines which is beautiful and our host there very welcoming though not as knowledgable as Skye.
Even the boss agrees that two wineries is enough and we head back to Adelaide using the 'path less travelled'! Now, this seriously drives Mavis, the sat-nav round the bend - literally! We've been on dirt tracks, single track roads and the sides of gorges. At one point, looking for a town called Cudlee Creek we are sent down a No Through Road where the gate at the end had been spray painted with the word Fools! Clearly this is a regular sat-nav meltdown spot!
Back at the hotel we discover that in Adelaide, not a lot is open on a Monday night and every restaurant we check out on the internet isn't open. Then we find Hide 'N Seek, a Thai restaurant not far away where the decor is basic but the food sublime. Crying Tiger (probably Weeping Tiger back home) is superb. More ice cream on the way home? Well, I don't mind if I do - this is, after all, the ice cream capital of Australia.
Tomorrow we move on the Melbourne and even without Murray, I am properly excited!
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