We rolled into Adelaide (nicknamed 'Radelaide' by the locals - because it's
'rad') around 6pm after a pretty long day on the bus. We checked in to our own room in the hostel and I got showered and spoke to mum whilst Jonny braved the crowds and took advantage of the free apple pie and cream that they do every night in the hostel.

That night we met up with our Groovy Grape bus crew in the bar in our hostel for some food and a few drinks. Before we knew it, it had turned into a pretty big night with lots of dancing! We left relatively early, around 1am (we were going to go before, but loads of good tunes kept coming on) because we needed to get up early to go wine tasting the next day!

Next morning, feeling very tired and a bit hungover we were up bright and early to get on our next Groovy Bus out to the Barossa Valley. After half an hour, we were beefing that it was late and we could have had longer in bed, when we checked the voucher only to discover that it was in fact the next day we were going on the tour! We were annoyed at ourselves as it was the latest in a string of schoolboy errors we have made in Oz! Anyway, on realising this we went straight back to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep, and didn't get up until gone midday!

In the afternoon we pottered around Radders (after a small false start walking in the wrong direction due once again to Jonny's poor map reading skills) and bought some stuff we would need for our Outback trip, including a very sexy head net to keep the flies away! Can't wait to wear that bad boy! We also went for a short but sweet visit to the botanical gardens, which were nice, even if we couldn't find the cactus garden!

That night we splashed out and had supernoodles for dinner (actually I upgraded and had Uncle Bens microwaveable risotto) followed by more apple pie and cream. Then we spent the evening chilling out in our room drinking some goon- was nice to have our own space for once- followed by an early night as we were getting up early for wine tasting the next day (except this time actually were).

First stop on the tour was the largest rocking horse in the world, which I found slightly creepy to be honest and also it doesn't rock - so its just a big creepy horse. There were also some animals so I got to see my very first kangaroo, and Jonny his first living one (he has developed an eye for spotting dead ones on the roadsie). We then made a stop at the Whispering Wall, which is a huge dam, curved such that if one person talks at one end the other person can hear from the other end!

The Barossa Valley is well known for its Shiraz, so we were keen to get started on the tasting. By this point some people were getting a bit tetchy that we hadn't actually had any wine yet (even though it was only 10am), and sure enough we soon arrived at our first winery, which was Jacob's Creek. There we learned about the history of the wine and got to taste some varieties that you cant get back home which were very nice! Unfortunately we couldn't buy anything as between us we had forgotten both our wallets (seriously - what the hell has happened to us since travelling?!). It was nice to try a brand that we recognised and we were also shown these charts suggesting appropriate descriptive words for different types of wine, so you can sound intelligent at parties! Some of the words were a bit ridiculous including "toast" and "minerally", which Jonny read out loud in jest, only to be told that he had chosen the right word for that type of wine, as many of the vines grow in soil with lots of minerals in which comes out in the flavour of the wine.

Next winery was called Simplico, which was quite small and had a totally different feel to Jacobs Creek which was very commercial with a bar and restaurant and everything. We weren't as keen on this place as the white wines smelt a bit like arm pit and the girl was stingy with the measures! We were feeling a bit tipsy by now so were well ready for the BBQ that the guide rustled up for us, which included obligatory kangaroo steak which was amazing, even though I felt a tad guilty that I'd only seen one earlier that day skipping around!

After eating waaaay too much, we got a severe case of dangerous o clock and the 36 degree heat as well as the effect of the alcohol made the tour of the third winery, Richmond Grove, a bit of a struggle! We were shown the process behind making the wine, right from picking the grapes, through to the finished product. We learned that red wine only gains it's colour through increased contact with the skins and so you can actually make white wine from red grapes (yeah yeah yeah give me the wine already!!). We then tried a few more wines which were really good although they were all beginning to blend into one!

The last winery, Seppeltsfield, specialised in fortified wine where the wine is mixed with a spirit such as brandy, and has the largest collection in the world. This was probably our favourite winery, not least because they were generous with the measures and also because we were feeling rather tipsy by this point! Before we got started on the fortifieds, we tasted a sparkling Shiraz which is s bit of a foreign concert to us Brits, because not only is it a sparkling red, but is served cold too! I liked it a lot!

On the fortified wine, we particularly liked the muscat, which tasted like fruit cake! The winery also have bottled up a tawny every year since 1878, so we were able to try a 3 year old and a 10 year old one, and you could really tell the difference! They also sell 100 year old tawny, but unfortunately we could not afford it as it retails at 900 dollars for a bottle the size of a can of coke! They let us sniff it though!!

Needless to say we of course slept on the bus on the way back to Adelaide then had a nap when we got back to the hostel! Then it was time for a quick trip to the supermarket to buy another gourmet dinner (cheese and biscuits) and breakfast for the bus the next morning as we were leaving at 6am!

The rest of the evening was all about packing, faffing on the internet and generally chilling out and enjoying our last hours of civilisation before our trip to the outback!