The Barossa on Steroids

We could easy spend a week or more looking around the Barossa Valley, taking in the sights, tasting the wines, relaxing among the autumn gardens, and imagining what life would be like if we lived here. We have come here at just the right time to catch the autumn colours and in a week or two from now all these trees will be bare as they shed their leaves and prepare for the winter cold. Our perfect timing to come here now has allowed us to see the Valley at its very best.
We have spend the last two full days taking in the attractions Barossa has to offer and have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our time here. Instead of two separate days of travel blogs with each day covering similar items, we thought a single travel blog covering both days is a better way of describing our time here.
During the last two days we have travelled most of the Barossa including Tanunda and Nuriootpa which are the pretty two main town centres in the Valley. We visited the wineries of Yalumba, Peter Lehman, Hentley, Langmeil, Seppeltsfield, Jacobs Creek, St Hugo, and Rockfords. For us Yalumba was the standout winery with the most visually spectacular with magnificent gardens and seriously impressive stylish old buildings. At Yalumba several groups of fellow tourists took a shine to Chanel and played with her outside, took her to their table, cuddled, and took selfies with her while we watched from inside and enjoyed some wine tasting and Charcuterie (look carefully in the background of one of the photos and Chanel can be seen peering through the panes of the glass door).
We went to the Mangler’s Hill lookout that overlooks the entire valley and were fortunate to be there when the clouds cleared and it was blue sky.
We went to the Barossa Chocolate factory and saw our first full wall height chocolate waterfall. And of course we went to Maggie Beer’s farm shop and tasted some of the goods that made her such a world famous Chef.
Carolina (of course) went shopping and bought herself a sweater that was “divine” - enough said… :-) It’s been a varied and enjoyable time here and Carolina does not want to leave!
Throughout our stay we continued to be amazed at the beautiful scenery and friendly people. Yes there were a lot of tourists around despite the school holidays being over, but everyone was in a good mood and helpful.
These last 2 days have been a major highlight of our trip to date and the Barossa Valley is an area we will come back to another time for a longer stay. There is so much to see and do! Unfortunately this trip we have a few time constraints which mean that tomorrow we have to keep moving and leave here to head north up to the Flinders Ranges and then the Eyre Peninsular. However, for the Barossa - we will be back…!!!Read more