The Arte Johnson character from Rowan aand Martin's Laugh-in
played a storm trooper prone to pithy sayings.
When I worked in Adelaide we took his diction and a cliché from many war
movies to come up with "You still haf relatives in der Barossa
Valley?" as the ultimate threat from a colleague of Prussian ancestry.
If we did in fact have relatives in the Barossa Valley they
would probably be seeing quite a bit of us!
The day was basically Frances's as staying in the Barossa was her
idea. Somehow a place less than 200km
from Adelaide has always seemed like a day trip rather than a multi-day
stay, Indeed on this trip it was
originally planned to just stay 2 nights.
However today was an excellent day and there are hopes for the morrow.
The night was interesting in a birdy sense, as whenever
either of us woke we could hear Magpies carolling away. I presume this is one
more element of a South Australian July being a Canberra September!
The small dog was continuing to vote for the Suffolks being the most interesting sight of the morning.
This was a very
pleasant stroll past vines with lotsa nice gum trees along the road, occupied by many parrots. The range of parrot species has been pretty
good also: Adelaide Rosella, Musk and Rainbow Lorikeets, Red-rumped Parrots,
Galah and little Corella. The Gnadenfrei
Lutheran church on Seppeltsfield Rd was very picturesque, especially with a
well sung version of "The Lord is my Shepherd" wafting out from an
early morning service.
Back in the road, the avenue of palm trees was, as recognised
by many tourism operators in the Barossa, stunning.
The palms are also evident in this image, taken mainly to capture the decrepid thatched barn. I doubt if there is anyone in the area who could do thatching these days.
We then decided to visit the Barossa Brewery, but found they
didn't open for a while. As Frances had
found where the local sewage ponds were located we filled in a bit of time
there, adding several species of waterfowl to the trip list. On returning to the brewery I found they
could supply me with Organic Ale (5.3%) and Bee-sting Honey Wheat Beer
(5%). After my passing the plastic the
owner asked if I had other plans for the day and on my response of "Yes, I
plan to do as my wife tells me." he said "Ah. A normal day then."
Each town brass-band, has got a hall:
The small dog was continuing to vote for the Suffolks being the most interesting sight of the morning.
We began with a walk from our accommodation along Neldner Rd
to Seppeltsfeld Rd.
After getting back home we took ourselves to the Information
place in Tanunda and got a bunch of information. Our first use of the information so gathered
was to do the historical walk around Tanunda.
This was really good as the whole area seemed to have largely retained
its historic character.
The German
gravestones were a highlight,
with a special mention going to the memorial to
Pastor Kavel who led the Germans (OK, Silesians - mny of them came from what is now Poland) from their homes to get religious freedom (and
start the quality end of the South Australian wine industry- sorry Dr Penfold)!
The Kugelbahn (skittle alley) was particularly appealing as
it was near Langmeil Rd and I have really enjoyed some Der Kugelbahn Shiraz
produced by Langmeil Winery!
We then headed for Angaston, which town (IMHO- I did see it
called a village) also had an historic walk.
The walk was a "join in anywhere" item which was a tad
disconcerting as we ended up doing it in reverse, causing some issues from time
to time. The churches were interesting
contrasts of denominational architecture - Anglican first, then Uniting:
and our old favourite question from
country NSW "What have all the banks become?" came back as a good
question.
The pubs, usually remain as pubs.
Frances swung in to Angas Park Fruits (dried stuff) but found their prices far higher than we would pay (for similar fruit but other brands) in Canberra.
Frances swung in to Angas Park Fruits (dried stuff) but found their prices far higher than we would pay (for similar fruit but other brands) in Canberra.
After this we went to Nuriootpa which did not offer an
historic walk, nor much else to cause us to put on the brakes until we got out
to the Sturt Highway. There was an
interesting moment when we saw an official sign giving the population of 'Nuri'
as 829 which seemed far too low. At the
other end of the town we found it was actually 4829!
It didn't take us long to get to the other end of town as it
was simply a commercial centre with very little of the old part of town in
existence. On the outskirts it appeared
that modern suburban living was alive and well - or as close to alive and/or
well as a modern, garden free slum can be.
What is it about the song "Little Boxes”, made famous by Pete Seeger, that people do
not understand?
One conclusion we reached about this was that it is necessary
to maintain a critical mass of historic buildings if the character of a town is
to be preserved. That had been done in
Tanunda, and just about done in Angaston.
Nuriootpa had failed completely.
This view correlated very closely with the amount of traffic parked in
the main street of each town. (A similar
comparison exists between Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto. Many European towns and cities have got it
right by preserving the historic centre and only letting the forces of evil
loose on the outskirts.)
When we got to the Highway we headed for bow-tie central -
also known as Wolf Blass Wines! They
were offering a special deal where a purchase of a dozen Silver Label earned a
bonus six Shiras Vigonier. That worked
out to about $10.91 a bottle which is around the mark for a good bottle of red.
Our final stop of the day was at Maggie Beer's Farm shop
where Francie acquired some excellent pate and a sauce. The pate has been assessed on toast and rated
extremely highly. Well done cook!
Bird of the day: Pink-eared Duck
Plant of the day: Grape vine [They don't have
to be pretty endemics!]
Interesting sight of
the day: German cemetery at Tanunda
What we learnt today: The importance of a critical mass in conservation.
Of yellow brick designed!
They play upon the ovals,
Their oompahs most refined
