Boxing Day in the Barossa

Another hot, sunny day in South Australia so we are off to the Barossa Valley for lunch and wine-tasting.

Wine-Tasting in the Barossa

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

Christmas Day in Adelaide

So here we are, on a sweltering hot day, climbing from Waterfall Gully (barely 15 mins drive from Anthony and Dan's house) to Mount Lofty lookout.  When I was here in March we drove to the lookout en route to the wildlife park.  Today we are walking (why?!).

It's a 4km walk, mostly uphill all the way.  Mt Lofty is barely 700m high, but it feels a lot further when you are doing it on a hot day.

Hiking in Cleland Conservation Park

Meanwhile Anthony is slaving over his smoker, getting our Christmas Dinner ready:

Anthony and his Smoker

Hidden within are a duck, half a turkey, a ham and a small beef roast.  Very tasty thank you!

Christmas Feast

Back to Hahndorf

Today we headed into Adelaide to visit the Museum.  We walked along the river and down North Terrace past several memorials and stautes.

Walking along North Terrace

The Museum has excellent galleries dedicated to Aboriginal Culture and South Australian Geology plus the smallest Egyption exhibition!  Lunch in the cafee was pretty good too!

Perhaps the most famous "German" town in the Adelaide Hills is Hahndorf (named after the captain of the boat that brought the original settlers - Captain Hahn).

Full of German kitch (sausage platters and cuckoo clocks) it is a wonderful place to visit, so we went again for the afternoon.

The Lights of Lobethal

Back to South Australia to spend Christmas with Anthony and Dan.

South Australia was heavily settled by German immigrants in the late 1800s due to religious oppression in Germany.  Many towns in the Adelaide Hills south of Adelaide have German names.  Take the main road (A1) south from Adelaide 15 km and turn off, heading north east, and you come to a little town called Lobethal.

Every December they have Christmas markets (just like many German towns) and all the locals vie to put on the best Christmas light show.  Tonight is the night of the Christmas pageant, so we decided to go see.  Again all the locals put tinsel on their cars, bikes, whatever and parade down the street:

Lobethal Christmas Parade