January 17, 2018 Wednesday Adelaide, South Australia

Adelaide, South Australia

Since this holiday has been a huge history and geography lesson for us, I decided finally to spell out the States or Territories visited on our cruise. Be thinking about this, test to follow.

We attempted to anchor and tender at both Esperance and Kangaroo Island, but the swells were too high to safely tender and besides the Captain couldn't get the anchor to hold. This was the 3rd port we had to miss either because of weather or a medical emergency. If you look closely you'll notice a jog by Albany, this is where Regatta turned around to offload my Ex-POW friend Mel and his wife. Fortunately it was Bell's Palsy and not a stroke. Mel and Sheila reboarded in Adelaide.

Much of Australia was settled with malcontents and prisoners sent over by England, followed by European immigration. 

Adelaide had a large percentage of German immigrants and this is most evident in the architecture of the buildings, precision of plantings in fields and beers. (Aussies do not drink Fosters.) Because we both elected to do an 8-hour 'A Day in the Barossa Valley' tour we had no time left for Adelaide.

What a wonderful experience it was. Europeans arrived in 1841 and brought with them a love for food and music. Seppeltsfield was the first winery we visited.  And as we got closer Cap started Googling a boutique producer we'd been introduced to in Scottsdale and later met in Boulder, John Duval. He learned John was a member of  https://www.artisansofbarossa.com as we drove by their Cellar Door. Sadly the tour bus couldn't stop.

The irony of our hour drive was seeing palm trees bordering vineyards and a 1950s police car.

Seppelsfield grows grapes for many wineries with only a very small production for some very exclusive production, mainly 100 year old port Para Tawny!

 

In the case above are ports from 1914, '15, '16, '17 & '18. Price as I recall was $5,000 AUD.





Our last stop was at Ch Barossa, another custom grower with very deep German roots. Most impressive was a very large room displaying Hermann Thumm's collection of porcelain https://barossawinetour.com.au/blog/the-hermann-thumm-collection-at-the-barossa-chateau/, second only to collections of the Queen of England and another in Germany. The Meissen, Sevres and many others on display were beautiful, if intimidating, and showcased by a $4M+ vase.

Our return to Adelaide afforded some spectacular views over the Barossa Valley and a regatta on our sailaway.

Barossa Valley

Adelaide regatta during sailaway

So now for your test, one we would have failed 5 weeks ago.

1) What is the Australian Capital?
2) How many States are there?
3) What Territory is on the continent?
4) What are the capital cities of the above States and Territories?








Answers; #1) Canberra, #2) 6, #3) Northern Territory, #4) New South Wales-Sydney, Queensland-Brisbane, South Australia-Adelaide, Tasmania-Hobart, Victoria-Melbourne, Western Australia-Perth, Northern Territory-Darwin.

In a few days when we have completed our tour of Australia we will have visited all except Hobart. & Canberra.