Down under: The adventure begins!

Singapore - Adelaide on the 19th of February! That was our flight...arrival in Adelaide on the 20th Feb early in the morning (8 o'clock). The flight was o.k. - but we definitely do not recommend Qantas for any travelling. Singapore Airlines is still no doubt the best so far.

Anyway - we arrived at the airport after going through the stringent checks of the Australian customs and immigrations. They treat you like criminals...even smuggling flies is illegal!

Since we could only pick up our 'Spaceship' around 10 o'clock in the morning we first had a coffee and breakfast at the airport. Coffee in Australia is ..."ahhhhhhh.....so gooood".

Mishell did not sleep very well on the plane / Mishell hat nicht so gut geschlafen im Flugzeug

Pascal is feeling better after some coffee / Pascal fühlt sich besser nach dem Kaffee

Finally, it was time to go and pick up our new home for the next four weeks. At first we were slightly concerned when the cab driver dropped us at some shady looking office but then we met Dave (the shop manager) and we felt more reassured. He took all the necessary details from our driving licences and credit card details and explained us (very brifely) the functionalities of our new Spaceship!

The 'Spaceship' pick-up point in Adelaide / Abholort für das 'Spaceship' in Adelaide

Our home for the next four weeks: 'The Spaceship' / Unser Zuhause für die nächsten vier Wochen: 'Das Spaceship'After having seen the equipment, we quickly decided to drop by the IKEA we have seen on the way from the Airport to the pick up point to upgrade the equipment to our 'standards'. E.g. we did not feel comfortable using a chopping board that looked like the stains are there from the last few years and we wanted to buy some necessary equipment like wine glasses since we expected to buy some good wine later on in the Barossa.

And who would want to drink a nice bottle of wine out of plastic cups???! And for Mishell...a nice down pillow so she can sleep well since the pillows provided were "not good enough". :)

After the upgrade, we drove straight into Adelaide to have a look around. Sadly, we did not really find anything exciting in this town to report on. But not to be unfair - there was the 'Fringe Festival' going on which is apparently quite a big festival in this region.

What to say about Adelaide....hmm??? / Was gibt es zu sagen über Adelaide...hmmm???

First thing we stumbbled over in Adelaide: the KPMG office (We are haunted!!!) / Per Zufall haben wir das KPMG Office in Adelaide entdeckt (Wir werden verfolgt!!)

After that brief visit to Adelaide we made our way up north to the Barossa Valley! We were both very excited by the thought of all the good wines that we were going to try *slurrrrrp*!!!

Both of us being camping-virgins arrived on our first caravan park in Tanunda (the biggest town in the Barossa Valley) asking for a powered site (i.e. a space where there is some electricity provided).

After we found our allocated spot, Mishell quickly realised that it needed a proper organisation in the car in order to survive the next weeks undamaged and to not have loads of reasons to fight all the time! :) Therefore she started repacking etc.

As you can imagine there is not really a lot of space in our vehicle...it is quite cosy but rather tight in there!

Mishell developing an approach to survive the next 4 weeks / Mishell entwicklet einen Ansatz um die nächsten 4 Wochen zu überleben

After the reorganisation and ensuring that we have a proper set up for the next few weeks we felt hungry and wanted to go for a proper piece of meat in one of the few restaurants in town.

Tanunda here we come! / Tanunda hier kommen wir!

Some art work by Mishell with our new camera / Mishell war künstlerisch tätig mit unserer neuen Kamera

We did not try out the camping facilities on our first night-but instead headed for a fancy steak dinner at '1819' (apprently a fine dining restaurant in the region) to celebrate the Australian leg of our Honeymoon.

Hmm...after dinner we went back to our new home and got ready for going to bed: That normally means walking back and forth between the toilet and your camper van (so make sure you do not forget anything!!). Then it was time to go to sleep...and as you can imagine, we did not sleep entirely well.

The first night in a camper van - loads of sounds coming through: The party that was still going on in the camp kitchen, the neighbour snoring away, early in the morning the birds going crazzzy (what's wrong with the birds these days???) and then the kids running around after 07:30 in the morning....AAARGHHHH..... hmmm...at least this ensured that we did not oversleep and got up in time to discover the Barossa Valley and its wineries!

Most of the wineries in Barossa Valley have Cellar Door Sales - meaning that you basically just can walk in, try a sample of their wines (for free) and get some background infos on their wines. Most of the wines on sale in the Cellars are not available outside of the region, so we learnt, and were verry good!

The first winery we went to, is as well one of the most famous ones of the Valley: Penfolds Wines! Obviously we went there with high expectatinos of trying..mmhh..some delicious pieces like the 707....or....??! Unfortunately, we had to find out that they let you try only a sample of their not so expensive wines (30AUD to 260AUD), i.e. none of he Grange range - which was still nice and a good start to our tasting experience...!

What treasures are stored in here?? / Was für Schätze werden hier aufbewahrt?? Some wines are only available on the Cellar Door / Einige Weine können nur direkt vor Ort gekauft werden

The 707s were safely stored away... :-( / Die 707er waren sicher verschlossen.... :-(

After Penfolds we continued with some less known wineries (Chateau D'orien and Two Hands) which were not the luckiest picks out of the more than 50 wineries in the region that offer Cellar Door Sales!

Forgot to ask them about their silly name: 'Two Hands Winery' / Wir vergassen Sie über Ihren komischen Namen zu Fragen: 'Two Hands Winery'

After that - with already quite a few glasses of wine (usually about 1cl) in the system we went to enjoy Lunch at Maggie Beers, who is somekind of a Australian Celebrity TV Cook! The short cooking presentation inspired Mishell to invest in a bottle of Verjuice - "a secret ingredient that makes all your dishes taste well" according to the presentor! (No worries if you don't know Verjuice - we didn't either....but Wikipedia will tell you lots about it!)

Relaxing at Maggie Beers / Relaxen bei Maggie Beers Restaurant

All the way in Barossa there are the wineyards / Überall in Barossa findet man die Weintrauben

After Lunch, we continued our tour of the wineries at Whistler Wines and Seppeltsfield Wines. The wines at these two wineries were really tasty and we bought 3 bottles from both places!

Mishell getting drunk? / Ist Mishell betrunken? Late afternoon sun over Barossa / Späte Nachmittags-Sonne über Barossa

The last winery we visited: Torbeck Winery / Das letzte Weingut das wir besucht haben: Torbeck Weine

Fotoshooting in the vineyard / Fotoshooting zwischen den Reben

More photoshooting at some Lookout point over the Barossa Valley / Noch mehr Fotoshooting bei einem Aussichtspunkt über dem Barossa Valley

To end a fantastic day in the Barossa Valley after experiencing such great wines we treated ourselves to Pizza! *Yuuummmy* :)

Pascal with his favorite food: Pizza! / Pascal mit seinem Lieblingsessen: Pizza!

The next day held some travelling for us: Driving from the Barossa Valley to McLaren Vale and a bit further South to Normanville.

We took the longer scenic drive which lead us through some beautiful South Australian landscape and a village called Hahndorf. Hahndorf is the village where the first settlers from Germany settled down in Australia (they had to flee from Germany because of their religious believes) - hence the German name.

Lunch was a big Pork Knuckle and German Beer....Credit to the chef - it tasted pretty original. And the beer was really tasty! Just not quite Oktoberfest price (think 3 times the price)! But as you can see, we definitely adopt the approach of "when in Rome..."

We demolished the Pork Knuckle & Sauerkraut in no time / Wir haben der Schweinshaxen & Sauerkraut verschlungen

The landscape was rather dry / Die Landschaft war eher trocken

Pumping petrol at Wilksch's Garage / Einmal volltanken bei Wilksch's Garage

A fruit- and vegie-market with local products (Aussies have BIIIG melons!) / Ein Gemüse und Früchte Markt mit lokalen Produkten (Australier haben GROSSE Melonen!)

Buying some new toys....*ouch* / Einkaufen von neuen Spielzeugen...*aua*

May I introduce: Mishell the cowgirl! / Darf ich vorstellen: Mishell das Cowgirl!

Lunch at Hahndorf Inn / Lunch hatten wir im Hahndorf Inn

Unfortunately, we were only quite late in McLaren so that we were only able to visit two wineries: Chapel Hill and Rosemount. As we found out Chapel Hill is actually owned by a Swiss guy since a couple of years (some of you might have heard of him): Thomas Schmidheiny!

The wines in McLaren are different from the ones of the Barossa Valley because McLaren is closer to the Sea and gets more of the cold wind. Both regions are famous for their Shiraz but McLaren uses more American Oak and Barossa more French (to generalise it).

McLaren has more blueberry and tannin and generally has a bit of a bite in their wine whilst Barossa wines are slightly sweeter, mellower and more for cellaring, i.e storing. We like both. One thing we particularly liked from the Barossa Valley was their 'GSM' - Grenache, Shiraz & Mourvedre. Most interesting!

On the way from McLaren to Normanville we came across a beach where you are allowed drive around - so COOL!! :) Of course we had to try our spaceship under these conditions....!!

We also suspected that the beaches were drive-able because Aussies 'walk' their dogs by letting their dogs run after their car as the owner sits comfortably inside and drives along the beach.

Surfing at the beach / Surfen am Strand

Arrived at the new camping site we went into procedure as normal: Setting up the car for the night (putting the extension for the bed out of the boot of the car), cooking dinner (Mishell doing her magic with the limited means available), Shower and then depending on our mood: reading, DVD, going for a walk....

First caravan park dinner - Mishell at the BBQ : Lamb chops & 'Stir-fried vegetable'/ Erste Karavan Park Abendessen - Mishell am Grill: Lambcottlete mit Gemüse

Mmmhh...well done baby!!! / Mmmmhhh.....gut gemacht mein Schatz!!!

Evening walk at the Pier / Abendspaziergang am Pier

With a car packed full of good wine, we headed for our next adventure: Kangaroo Island, where Koala Bears, Kangaroos, Seals and other animals run wild in their natural surroundings! (Or that was what the Brochure promised, at least)