The Barossa

Umbrellas were loaded into the car – the forecast was not particularly good. However we didn’t need them. Today we drove to the Barossa Valley and we were not disappointed in what we found.

Our first port of call was the Yaldara winery – but it has changed hands and changed name. since it was coffee time when we arrived we made use of the picnic table outside the grand building and opened the flask of hot water.

The scenery in the Barossa Valley is stunning and we found ourselves stopping often to take photographs of the grapes and of the vistas.

Many of the grapes still have not been picked so the vines are covered with green leaves, the grapes are not so obvious from the road but the lines of vines make for many “wow” moments as you drive around.

One place I really wanted to visit was the Chateau Barrosa – a beautiful building with a huge rose garden. I remembered it from a previous visit. The place has changed hands twice since then the most recent change of ownership was only a few weeks ago. The place was a bit of a disappointment, the roses were no where near as magnificent – in fact they looked in desperate need of a rose expert, the pruning was all wrong and they looked very puny and small and a lot of bare patches where once there had been magnificent displays.

I managed to find a place where there were plenty of roses in bloom. I prefer to show something good!

Inside the Chateau the grand ballroom that was filled with antiques is still as magnificent with its huge chandeliers but since Sue and Keith were not interested in going in to have a look ($10 a head) none of us did.

A fascinating place we did find was a Sculpture Park. This is similar to the one at Broken Hill – but is a bit older (2008) and contains many more sculptures. The rock brought in for this Sculpture Symposium was a lot softer than that for the Broken Hill sculptures so there was a better finish to the works.

 Of course the majority of the sculptures were abstract but I did find a couple that were recognizable!

The Sculpture Park is high on a hill right beside a wonderful viewpoint. From here we could look out over the expanse of vines and farming land. It is a pity that the signage and maps are so inadequate – many people will miss out on finding many of the interesting place in this area because of that.

AJ