Adelaide & Barossa Valley with Melrose tucked on the end

So......, we are back on the mainland after spending a fabulous 9 days on Kangaroo Island (K.I.). It is such a beautiful place and we were extremely lucky to have spent some of our time there with locals. We met Chris, Phil & Ilija at Johanna Beach in March 2013 and we shared many common interests and also the fact we were all travelling Australia at the time. We kept in touch and 3 years later, by chance to the exact same weekend, we travelled to their part of the world. These lovely people took us camping at some amazing spots on K.I. and Dave was spoilt rotten with the fishing, and they also allowed us to stay with them for a couple of nights and spoiled us with fresh oysters & amazing food. Thank you guys, we had a ball. xoxo

After K.I. we spent 4 nights in Adelaide and it's a groovy city. The caravan park we stayed in was about 4km from the city and on the Saturday morning we decided to walk into town following the path along the Torens River. What a cool way to go to work, there were so many people using this path (walking, cycling, ambling, stumbling). On our way we went past the Adelaide Zoo and we could hear the gibbons calling, then we smelt the 'zoo poo' and then we heard some other animal calling out, not sure if it was a lion??? 

We made it into the city and headed straight for Central Market (yippee). More food!!!! There is definitely a theme emerging here. We wandered around the stalls and decided to have breakfast at Poh's "Jamface", it was very yummy and very cool :). After the market we headed to the gallery The Jamfactory and saw an amazing display of necklaces created by artist Lola Greeno. She is an internationally respected Indigenous artist and one of only a handful of 

Tasmanian Aboriginal women practicing the art of shell stringing. Her exhibition pieces featured natural materials such as Echidna quills, kelp, feather, rare Mariner shell and bone and they were truly beautiful.

     

Once our eyes were sated with loveliness, we walked down Hindley Street and into the Rundle Mall, we found a little side street and found a Belgian Beir House, where we promptly sat down and had a few of the Belgian delights whilst watching a local guy play acoustic guitar & sing. After a few hours we felt no pain and walked the 4km back to our camp stopping for an Indian dinner on the way. 

Next day we set out for Hahndorf and walked up & down the main street. Beautiful place where you could spend loads of time and money, so many nicky nacs, homemade foods, lovely art..... we will be going back! We also visited the Cedars, the historic home of one of Australia's most noted landscape artists, Sir Hans Heysen.

From Adelaide to the Barossa!!!! Woo Hoo. The day after we arrived we did a Winery Tour with Anne from Tour Barossa, it was fantastic. Here's some happy snaps from the day:

platter lunch at Thorne-Clark

a lovely shiraz from the winery "Gibsons"
& this wine is called "The Dirtman"

found a mate, by this stage
I don't remember where we were!!!

trying local dried fruits - YUM!

At Penfolds with our tour guide Anne.

We actually woke up hunky dory the next day and did some extra sight seeing, we went to Seppeltsfield and saw the second "Jamfactory" gallery, we also visited the Seppelt family mausoleum which has amazing views.

 

 

 

 On Good Friday most businesses where closed so we headed out to see stuff that was always open, like the Whispering Wall. This dam wall was finished being built in 1902 and due to the parabola effect of the wall, you can hear some one whisper from one end of it to the other, over 140 metres away.... really cool.

 

from top of dam wall

 a bit more driving around and stopping at lookouts viewing the Barossa Valley

 

Dave being artistic!!!

We also visited the Herbig Family Tree, where Johann Friedrich Herbig lived in the base of a very large gum so he saved on the cost of rent or building his own hut or house as he was so poor. After living in the tree for 3 years he married Anna Caroline Rattey in 1858 and they had their first 2 children (of a total of 16) whilst living in the tree. After the birth of the second child, they built a hut to accommodate the growing family. Amazing history

So our time at the Barossa finishes, we had an absolute ball. Once again, another place we will be revisiting.

Yesterday, we left the Barossa and headed north/west to a place called Melrose, the oldest town in the Flinders Ranges at the base of Mount Remarkable. Lovely little town with heritage buildings and lots of walking and mountain bike trails. Today we did a 2.5 hour walk around the base of the mountain

 

then we went to the pub for lunch!!!! ha ha ha, twas a lovely meal too.
Dave has met some people (Mr. Have-a-Chat) and is currently chatting about Kangaroo Island etc, so I better grab a red and join him. Leaving Melrose tomorrow and heading in a westerly direction.