The Barossa Valley....

There were many things to love about the Barossa Valley. First of all...it reminded Amy and me of our home in California.... rolling hills, beautiful vineyards. Not as big as the Napa Valley wine area we love so much back home.... but very similar in so many ways. Of course the very best part was tasting so many great wines. While the Barossa Valley is most commonly associated with its signature grape variety of Shiraz, (See photo above) the region does grow a number of grape varieties. 

Among these other varieties are:

 Riesling, Semillon, Chardonnay, Grenache, Mourvedre and Cabernet Sauvignon.

And yes....we did our very best to try them all!! 

Our tour bus made six stops. Well...seven stops if you count the winery we went to that was closed for the holidays! Which was too bad, because we had heard great things about that particular place. Kudos to our driver/tour-guide for making a couple of calls and getting our big group booked into another winery with a fine tasting room. The weather was quite warm...bordering on "hot".... still a very strange feeling when you realized that it was Christmas Eve!! 

One of the highlights of the day was seeing the actual creek called "Jacob's Creek" (the wine was mentioned in our prior blog post).... Our bus drove right over it...on a small bridge. If you were hiking, there would be no problem stepping over it as you walked along! Not that impressive, actually...but still pretty neat to say that we had been to the actual "Jacob's Creek"!

We stopped at a lookout point later in the day that gave a stunning view of the entire valley! I actually had myself convinced that it was as large as the Napa Valley...but a quick search of the Internet proved to me that Napa is substantially larger...both in total area, acres of vineyards - - and most importantly... amount of wine produced. But that does not mean that the Barossa is not special. I think both Amy and I would say that our trip there was a great diversion from the "go, go, go" pace we had on Kangaroo Island.

Besides, we purchased enough wine to last us until we got to Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef!

Unlike when we got picked up by the bus in the morning....we were the first ones OFF the bus when it pulled up in front of our hotel! So quickly, as a matter of fact, that we sort of looked like the Keystone Cops getting our stuff together (many bags of souvenirs and plenty of good Barossa Valley wines...) 

That night we stayed in Adelaide one more time.... we thought there might be some problem finding a restaurant in town open on Christmas Eve...but that was not an issue... we ate at the place kitty-corner from our hotel room... on a balcony outside (still quite warm.... hard to get feeling all "Christmassy" when it's 85 F. at night!

Barossa Wine Tour on Christmas Eve

Super early the next morning, we would use Christmas Day as a travel Day. Next stop...the airport in Cairns, Fort Douglas and The Great Barrier Reef! Here are the photos of Christmas Day and our arrival in from our Facebook albums: 

Adelaide to Port Douglas on Christmas Day