Barossa Valley/Off to the Outback!

It’s a beautiful Thursday afternoon in Adelaide and I just finished my last big assignment before mid-semester break!

It was a great weekend… Thursday we celebrated Oliver’s birthday. (My first friend in Adelaide who I met the evening of my arrival!) It was a BBQ and everyone was supposed to bring something, so Nina and I made homemade pasta salad at my place. We decided not to go by a recipe, so we just kind of threw it together. Fortunately, it turned out amazing and we had a lot of fun in the process.

There was plenty of meat to go around. An Australian BBQ around here basically consists of any kind of sausage with bread and tomato sauce. The food was great.. the company was great.. and everyone had a great time.

After eating, we gave Oliver his present, which we had all pitched in for. It was a bottle of good whisky and a couple nice cigars. Both are luxuries for us here, because of the high expense of tobacco and liquor.

Afterwards we went out for a beer or 2 at a nearby pub called The Duke, which has good specials on Thursdays.

Friday I met up with Doris and Caroline for ice cream on Rundle Mall then that evening went over to Nana’s for a girl’s night. Nana, Nina, Katrin, Doris, Caroline, and I watched Black Swan and ate 3 different kinds of popcorn. Had to go to bed early that night because Saturday morning we had a breakfast planned before the wine tour.

Me, Nina, Katrin, and Nana

Champagne breakfast

Saturday was the big day of the weekend. ESN had organized a wine tour of Barossa Valley. We met early Saturday morning for a champagne breakfast. It was a gorgeous day!  After a big breakfast of eggs, ham, baked beans, fruit, and orange juice and champagne, we all piled onto 2 different buses and began the 1 ½ hour drive to Barossa Valley.

The first one we visited was called Richmond Grove. A lady there gave us a short tour and then a tasting of their wine. Barossa Valley is full of wineries, so we got back on the van for just a 5-minute drive to the next one, Chateau Dorrien.

The tasting here was my favorite of the four, mainly because the lady was very friendly and asked us questions about what we liked and what we wanted to try. It was less structured than the others I guess, and I liked that.

She said that they refused to export any wine or even sell to any local stores. They were a very small winery and she said they didn’t produce enough wine to fill that demand. If you wanted their wine, you had to come to their winery!

I was baffled by this… maybe being from America, it seemed strange for a business not to expand expand expand.. grow.. and make as much money as possible. I had a lot of respect for the small winery. Also, instead of just tasting wine, we got to try port and mead as well. My favorite was the white port, but the mead was also a favorite. The lady warmed it up for us and it had cinnamon flavors and other spices. It tasted like autumn to me. I will definitely have that again.

After leaving this winery, we were all very tired. It was just noon and the wine in our systems, plus waking up so early, left us dragging.

The third winery, Wolf Blass, was beautiful, but met with slightly less enthusiasm.

After a few tastings, we all wandered out into the sunshine and laid in the grass for a bit.

Lunch in Tanunda

By then it was lunch time, also included in the tour, and we went to a local pub in Tanunda for schnitzel burgers.

Jacob's Creek

After lunch we hit Jacob’s Creek, one of the most famous wineries in the area. It was BEAUTIFUL there, and the tasting was a lot of fun. It was a great trip!

This week has been good. Finishing up all my school work and trying to get all my shopping done before my big trip Saturday! Really can’t believe in 2 days I’ll be leaving to spend 2 ½ road tripping and camping in the Outback. Really hard to imagine. It will be a huge, new experience for me… without a cell phone and a laptop… far from cities and fast food restaurants… far from my own bed, bathroom, and kitchen… Like, I’ll actually be sleeping in a TENT!!!

On our hike to Mount Lofty

Well, just for half the time. I guess some nights we are staying in a hostel and a lodge as well. Still, big change from the high-maintenance life I’m used to. It’ll be good for me I think.

Till then, I still have some shopping to do… hiking boots, sleeping bag, hat, insect repellant… all that outdoorsy stuff. Also, enjoying this beautiful weather!! And spending time with my friends I won’t see for a couple weeks. There are 5 of us going on the tour together… Caroline (Montreal), Doris (France), Emma (Netherlands), Marc (Montreal), and I. Plus the 15 or so others also going on the tour, whom we don’t know. I’m sure everyone we meet on the trip will be very interesting. Looking forward to that! Also really excited to see the REAL Australia!!! I am gonna be taking SO many pictures, I already know.

Anyways, this afternoon Caroline and I will go to Aussie Disposals to get our camping gear.. then this evening all the internationals are planning to go out to a karaoke bar. I’m sure it will be a very interesting karaoke night with mostly German, Dutch, and French people! Something I wouldn’t want to miss!

Tomorrow is Friday, and I will have to pack and be in bed early. Saturday morning the van will pick me up at 6:15 at the Stanford Hotel. Then, we’ll be on our way to the Outback! And I will be WITHOUT my laptop!!! Crazy. Hopefully throughout the trip, some of the small towns we will stop in along the way may have internet cafes. That way I’m not completely disconnected from the world, and will be able to shoot an email to my family to say I’m alive and everything is going well. I plan on journaling also during the trip, that way I can remember everything and will be able to blog about my experiences when I return.

A wild adventure through the Australian Outback lies ahead of me! Wish me luck!

http://www.adventuretours.com.au/south-australia/adelaide-to-darwin-safari