Friday 11th April

It rained in the night, quite heavily and was very grey this morning, but we had a brilliant lie-in and a leisurely breakfast before going out to Nuriootpa, just 10 mins away. I sorted out some stuff to give back to the charity shop and Tom left the laptop with Marcus, the motel owner.

On the way to Nuriootpa, we passed a patchwork shop!! (Mental note – stop on the way back!). It had started to rain so out came the waterproofs. One of Tom’s gadgets, a memory stick adaptor, had broken so we went to the computer shop to get a replacement. The only one in stock was packaged with a 128mb memory stick, which the owner had had in for ages. It was on sale for $70!! lots of money (old stock when prices were high), but he sold it to us for $35 – still more expensive than in UK but we need it here! We got rid of the spare clothing and had a wander, by which time the rain had just about stopped.

As I said yesterday (pay attention, please!), we’re in the Barossa Valley and everywhere you go there’s plenty of evidence. Penfold’s has a huge winery on the outskirts of Nurioopta and there’s lots of small boutique wineries all around. We’re planning a vineyards tour for Mon or Tues, but Tom wanted to go out to Jacob’s Creek so we drove through Tanunda to the JC visitor centre with the intention of having a bite of lunch. It’s a very modern building with, as you would expect, lots of information about the wines and the origins of the vineyard, but the food was overpriced and very “fancy”, especially for lunch. We had a quick look at their native animals enclosure – kangaroos, (one with a joey in her pouch,) wallabies, emus – and took some photos of the creek. It’s really dry at present, with only a few puddles of water, but is apparently very reliable from June to November. There were lots of Japanese on a tour of the vineyard, making loads of noise, as they do, so we decided to return to Tanunda, but not before buying a sampling pack of wines to take back to the motel. We also HAD to find the vines that produce the Jacobs Creek Shiraz, which has been the cause of many a snoring night in the Davison household. Fortunately we did, so that kept “him” happy. In Tanunda, we found a German café with lovely food – and we’ll go back there before we leave to sample some more! It is a very German area and it has the reputation of producing some of the best Merlots and Shiraz wines in the country – a fact that I’m sure will be disputed by some of you wine buffs out there!

We returned to Nuriootpa to the supermarket, then back to Angaston via the patchwork shop but I only had 10mins before she closed, so I shall have to make a return visit, won’t I?

Marcus had been unable to sort anything out for the laptop but sent Tom into the village to a coffee shop that has got wireless and he posted the message to warn you about our problem – so, sorry to all of our avid readers who may have to wait for the blog to be updated! I’m writing this before dinner, which is boring chicken and salad again – but it’s easy to prepare in the cramped conditions of the motel – so I shan’t wish you goodnight yet. We did have a look at the menu from the restaurant just opposite the motel, but it’s very pretentious. There does seem to be 2 types of food here – good wholesome Aussie, with large portions of freshly cooked produce, or this fancy, complicated international cuisine, elegantly presented with a price tag to match.

Now I must go and sample a couple of these wines we got today! Tom also found a very nice Merlot when he went out with the laptop, but it’s a bit powerful for me – bring out the lemonade! Byee!