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

Adelaide .... and the start of our Barossa Valley Tour

Here in Hyderabad, the red-wine situation is... as Amy puts it, "just tragic". There are only about three brands of Indian-made red wines.. There are the "Big Banyan" wines...which are, generally speaking, not fit for pigs. There's another one called "Four Season"s (no relation to the wonderful chain of luxury hotels!) that is quite literally, rotten... the very first glass of wine we tried when we arrived in India in 2010 was a Four Seasons "Cabernet" (I use that varietal term loosely) that honestly looked like the color of gopher-guts and tasted like a batch of raisins had gone bad in the cabinet - mixed with dirty dishwater.

Then there's the venerable Sula Red (they actually make several varieties of red wine, the most common being a Cabernet/Shiraz blend) ... which is grown and vinted somewhere outside of Bombay (Mumbai) , NOT an area known for it's fine, expertly-made wines. The best thing we can say about Sula Red is that you can actually get it down without a gag-reaction...but you do have to hold your nose for the first mouthful!

Then (finally) after about 2 1/2 years, we began to see both red and white wines made by the Australian winery, "Jacob's Creek" ... grown and vinted in some place called the "Barossa Valley" ... so Amy and I were quite thrilled to see that a day on a tour through the Barossa on our itinerary.

We finally got to our hotel in Adelaide only after what is now on the list of "the most frustrating airport experiences... ever" ... When you go to Kangaroo Island... you are severely limited on the amount of luggage you can take on the little airplane. So.... as an extra service (and for a small fee) - the airline will hold the bulk of your luggage in storage and give you a separate claim-ticket for it.... just get your small luggage at the carousel...then go around to another area and they are supposed to have it waiting for you. Needless to say, several people from our little flight were there getting their stored bags...and one-by-one they grabbed their stuff and loaded into taxis and town cars.

But our baggage did not appear. The carousel stopped. No bags. And we are the only two people left standing there. All the rest of our clean stuff... (our Kangaroo Island bags were filled with dirty clothes and were still covered in road-dust from our day of off-road touring...)... was "somewhere". There was a phone on the wall that said "call for service". I called and called and there was no answer. I had to run outside to tell our driver that we would be delayed.... no luggage!! The claim area was quite large...completely empty.... and quiet as a tomb. Well... there was the sound of me ranting-and-raving about our bags.... but let's not dwell on that, shall we?

So I'm outside telling the driver to be patient...and of course, by this time I was long-past running out of my patience!!  I came back in and Amy had gotten someone to answer the service phone and said that they would look for our bags.  And we waited some more. Finally...after what seemed like hours (it was really only abut 25-minutes!)... the old carousel comes to life with a red light and horn and out come all of our bags!!

The driver was quite nice...and he took us straight to our hotel.... a kind of funky, modern place right off the main drag where all the artsy-fartsy shops and trendy eateries are located. It was getting late and it was two-days before Christmas.... (and hot... still a very strange experience, Christmas in summer!) so we thought places might be closed.  Not true. About three blocks from our hotel was a nice steakhouse... that had an incredible wine list from mostly Basrossa Valley wineries. Man, this Australia place is great!! Big slabs of tender beef and great red wine.... these are two of the things that rock our world when we are traveling outside of India!!

We walked back to the hotel to get a good night's rest before our Barossa Valley tour.... With most of our trips, we have been blessed with our own private tour guides.... men and women who we traveled with by car all over he world... just Amy and I ... the driver and the guide. Some of our guides were amazing.... an extremely smart lady-historian in New Delhi who knew so much! Christopher in Africa who was just the sweetest man! The definitive tour guide in Egypt.... the lady that all other tour guides learned their craft from... the one and only Dr. Zeinab Shawki, who we loved... Sunny in Cambodia (sounds like a weather report, but his name really was Sunny!) Some good ones in Vietnam, and some not-so-good ones, too... And a guy in Jaipur, Rajasthan who looked just like Ray Romano !!

So imagine our surprise when we are down in the hotel lobby after breakfast, waiting for our tour guide.... when up pulls a 24-passenger tour BUS .... stuffed full of tourists from all over the world... and we were the last pick-up of the morning before we headed out to the Barossa!! We climbed up and into the bus... under the watchful eyes of 22 other people, al giving us the stink-eye! There were only two-seats left. I guess that traveling over Christmas is a popular idea in Australia !

And off we went... to the Barossa Valley and Jacob's Creek! Just Amy, me, our very entertaining guide...and 34 of our new BFF's!! Lord, have mercy!

Next stop: Barossa Valley!

Here's our Facebook Photo Album from Adelaide ... our hotel, our little steak house, the tour bus...and our first stop at  wild gift-shop filled with cool wooden toys and a snack bar!

Adelaide and Our First Barossa Stop

The Last of Kangaroo Island....

I truly do apologize. I have been an extremely bad blogger. I see now how easy it is to get out of the habit of writing. Life in India is never dull, that's for sure...and it's just so easy to get caught up in all of the things going on and this blog got put on the shelf for far too long ... I figure that it's time to get all caught-up before some of the memories of our travels begin to fade into the deeper-parts of the grey-matter and become lost forever.

When we last checked-in, dear reader, we we exploring the wonderful diverse landscape of Kangaroo Island with our new friends... we dropped them off at their bed and breakfast after our second-day of touring... and knew we would run into them again at the airport when we went to pick up two new travelers for our last day on K.I. Hopefully we would see them again at the cricket match in Sydney, but alas, that was not to be! Our guide, Chris picked us up in the morning, along with this... O.K. - I'll say it... horrible woman who was also staying at our B&B .... I don't know if "horrible" is the right word... she was just sort of a bitter, older, whining sourpuss who was really sensitive about anybody discussing anything even remotely political or controversial. Being stuck in a car with her all day was NOT how we were looking forward to spending our final day on the island.

We loaded up all our luggage into the trailer we picked-up at the storage-yard behind another B&B nearby. We knew it was going to be a packed-car so the extra room was necessary by putting all our gear in the trailer. Not knowing just how DUSTY all our stuff was going to be by the end of the day!!  We had to drive out to the airport, where we saw our friends, "The Minnesota Twins" - for thew last time... two wonderful retired professional basketball-playing twin-sisters from the beginning-days of the women's leagues in Europe... they were heading back to the mainland - while we were there to pick up a German lady ad her young daughter. Also smashed--into the Range Rover was another Aussie guide who turned pout to be the translator hired by the German lady for her daughter. The funny thing was... the mom spoke perfect English... and the daughter... although she was a sweetie, was so quiet...I don't think her mom knew that she spoke perfect English, too!! 

We toured the other side of the island and some wonderful beaches... some filled with all kinds of fur-seals and sea-lions all lounging around on these stunning white beaches.... we did a lot of walking that day... and I thing we were all glad to have the time out of the car to stretch our legs.... and rest our ears!!!

You don't really notice it until you are in an enclosed vehicle with the windows rolled-up... but the German language is spoken several decibels above that of English and other tongues you may hear while traveling. At least this translator spoke it that way.... the conversation she was having with the mother in the back-seat was pretty-much shouted the entire time we were moving. Again, if you recall - our driver/guide Chris was quite hard-of-hearing and I think he just turned his hearing-aids off!!

A great an memorable stop was at this wildlife way-station place - that was really more of a rustic petting-zoo - and here we gt to pet the koalas and feed the kangaroos (they are really smart and so cute!!) It was hot that day (December is the middle of the Aussie Summer!) and a little dusty with all of the animals running about... but having a kangaroo eat out of your hand and the way their whiskers tickle the palm of your hands... it's just a special experience that I will never forget!

On the grounds of the petting-zoo there was a really spectacular picnic area that was covered and decorated and set up for a really fancy lunch of steak and salad and warm breads... and a damn good bottle or two of Kangaroo Island Cabernet Sauvignon from a local winery called "Sunset"... I must say these open-air lunches were some of the best things about our three-days on Kangaroo Island... the food was awesome, the wines were good.... and the scenery was spectacular.

We left the way-station and went and explored another scenic beach where we had to climb through some rocks (a tight-fit n some places!!) - and we ran into some locals where we shared a couple of beers before we headed back over to the other side of the island (the island is actually quite large and can take over an hour to cross it.) We had a late-afternoon flight to Adelaide - so at the airport, we grabbed our luggage (now covered with about 5-pounds of Kangaroo Island dust and dirt!) and got on the little puddle-jumper plane for our next stop... Adelaide and the Barossa Wine Country!!

Here are some of the pics from our last day on K.I. - from our Facebook Albums...

Sea Lions and Other Critters on Kangaroo Island

KI Critters