31/05/2022 I Used the Slippery Slide.

All night long the rain rained and the wind winded and we woke up to tales of tornadoes and mayhem in Adelaide but all that was awry in our part of the world was our outdoor chair, which had been  blown off our little front verandah in  the middle of the night.

Whoopsadaisy!

The wind blew strongly and was forecast to increase throughout the day.  The rain splattered on the roof of our cabin, threatening at times to escalate to a Queensland-style shower.  

We chained our bikes up to the front railing and went out in the car instead,  exploring the countryside  around the Barossa valley.  While Prussian immigrants in the 1840s provided the German flavour of the area, the viticulture for which it is best known was kick-started by both Samuel Smith from Dorset, England, and Johann Gramp from Bavaria.  They separately started the Yalumba and Jacob's Creekwineries which are still going strong today.

We didn't visit Yalumba or Jacob's  Creek.  We did a drive-by of  Chateau Tanunda which was beautiful and entirely too expensive for us to go and taste wine.

We found the Seppelt family tomb where, so the story went, old Mr Seppelt was interred so that he could oversee his beloved vineyards from the grave. The Seppelt family obviously didn't do things by halves, so when he died they built a big tomb on the top of a hill and now that is where all the Seppelts go when they're dead. 

They very kindly built a parking area and a path up to the tomb, so the passing public can walk up to the tomb and enjoy the expansive vineyard views too.

It's a very steep path.

We meandered along Seppelt's palm-lined  road to the Seppelt winery which had repurposed some of  its beautiful old buildings into shared work spaces for artisans.   We wandered through the art gallery,

met a Millner, looked at leatherwork, and enjoyed some bespoke jewellery.  But the most interesting thing by far on the day was the knife-making craftsman (who by pure coincidence had worked for many years in road construction).

Knife maker at work.

Rolling the blade.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the Barossa Valley, from Tanunda (the most German town) to Nurioopta (the most English town) via Angeston (a solid mix of both) through rolling hills over which marched platoons of grape vines dressed proudly in their autumn colours.

The weather didn't get any better as the day wore on.  We took a break from vineyards and  had lunch with Elvis Presley.

In Angeston we found another big slippery slide which just begged to be slid on, particularly as there were no children around to be flummoxed by grown up people using the slide.  

T'was there I learnt the important lesson that before you use a big slippery slide on a rainy day you must always check that the bottom of the slide is free from puddles.

It wasn't.

 

Having generously cleared the cold water from the bottom of the slide, I suggested Roger have a go but he was not keen so off we went to the local lookout, which had a wide view over Tanunda, and a lot of sculptures to explore, sit on, and look through.

The rain had eased off to showers and we were treated to a beautiful sunset over Tanunda to finish off the day.  I was not as keen to watch the sunset as I would normally be, probably because my bottom was very wet and cold, so we drove back down the hill and retreated  to our warm little cabin  for the night.