Today we were booked to do the Barrossa Valley & Hahndorf Highlights excursion.
We had to be at the bus station at 09:15, 3 hours later than what we are used to. :-) And the bus station is opposite to our hostel, we only have to cross the road so as you can imagine I was really looking forward to my pancakes breakfast this morning, I had plenty of time!
When I got to the kitchen there were more than 10 people with the same idea I had....long queue in the kitchen, so I decided to resign myself and go for a traditional tea + toasts breakfast.
I was on my second toast when I saw an opening on the queue so I seized the opportunity and dove like an eagle, a long step, a quick waist move and I found myself second on the queue, 10 minutes later I managed to make myself a couple of nice looking pancakes. A pity I already sent the maple syrope back to Spain...
The lesson learnt today was that if you want pancakes you have to get up earlier to avoid the rush hour because believe it or not, there is a pancake rush hour!!
Anyway, we got all geared up and went to the bus station to start what it looked like an interesting day.
According to the brochure this is what we had for today:
- Spectacular views from Mt Lofty Lookout
This is what we got:
Okay, it's not bad but I wouldn't call that spectacular. Am I spoiled by all the things we've seen over the past month and a half?
5 minutes later we were back in the bus, this stop lasted for about 10 minutes.
-Cleland Wildlife Park and cuddle a koala
For Aída's dissapointment there was no koala cuddling since there was only one session and started at 14:00 hours so the best thing you could get was a picture close to a koala.
I decided to have a look at the dingo since it was the only animal in the park we still hadn't seen in the wild...and when I found it I didn't even bother with the picture. It was a dog!!! I cannot tell the difference between a normal dog and a dingo. Luckily the reptile section was a bit more interesting, with all those super-poisonous snakes...so I took a few snapshots just to make sure I can recognise them if I find one on my way somewhere.
Watch for this little fellow, apparently this is the most poisonous snake in the world.
And this is the top second and apparently it's everywhere in Australia
- Explore Hahndorf - Adelaide's oldest German settlement
Quite a picturesque village but the only shops were gift shops, ice-cream parlours and restaurants specialised in German sausages.
So far the pie was the higlight of the day, we were bored to death. Perhaps the fact that the average age in the bus was about 70 something and taking into account that the three of us are considerably younger than that and we were only 12 people in the bus you can imagine the rest...
Anyway, we still had hopes things would pick up so we crossed our fingers for the next stop...
- Gumeracha toy factory
This is just a shop! where they sell toys. What the...??
Luckily there was something outside that allowed us to entertain ourselves for a while. :-)
Next stop:
- Angus Park fruits
Another shop!! this time with sweets and chocolates.
- Visit a winery for a wine taste
Okay, by the time we got to this we were so bored that the prospect of getting drunk just to get through the day sounded quite appealing. We were given to taste 2 white wines (honestly, water with colorant), 2 red wines (water with colorant and flavouring), an ale and a sweet wine.
I am no expert in wines by any streach of the imagination but I personally think the wines we tried were just crap. They had no body, too watery and the white wine was like drinking water, no taste. The ale though was nice and sweet. If I were them I would change my business to ale production and not wine production they are wasting a lot of good grapes in a crap wine but that's just me, for my total surprise the rest of the group bought quite a few bottles. :-? But I remember by brother once telling me about how you lose the taste receptors in your tongue as you age...so it may be that...
The best part was how proud the seller was (or maybe it was just the selling tecnique) about the wine, the three of us looked at each other and put a face like he was talking about a totally different wine. No bread, no cheese...all the wine served in the same glass... I'm starting to have the feeling all I've been doing for the past 3 days is critizising but honestly if you are thinking about doing this excursion I would seriously ask you to reconsider.
As soon as we reached the bus station the three of us left the bus almost running . Maybe we've been spoiled
by fantastic excursions, landscapes and travel companions...but we got the feeling this excursion was just a scam.
Tomorrow we are planning on renting a bike and go along the Murray river in the morning and to the beach in the afternoon (weather permitting). Nothing can go wrong with that plan!! can it?
By the way, on Saturday we'll be back on the road again for 6 days. Adelaide - Alice Springs. We'll be going to the famous Uluru, the heart of Australia, so as always there won't be any internet connection along the way so expect 6-7 days of blog silence...Hopefully, tomorrow I shall have enough time to enter one last blog entry before the trip.
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