Sunday 11th March

Barossa Valley trip today more wine tasting!!

Another brilliant trip starting at the famouse Wolf Bass winery were we tyasted some fantasic wines. Then to Maggie Beer Farm shop and over here Maggie is on a television programme called 'The Cook & the Chef". She is the cook and together they demonstrate dishes and share techniques. There was some great wines to try but the produce and books you could by were expensive! The on to Barossa Valley estate for lunch and more tasting! The finished the day at Chateau Tananda where you can only by their wines at the cellar door they are not available in the shops. It was here also that I came across a fantastic decanter which I will be hunting out at David Jones when I get to Sydney.

Got back to the hostel and got talking to a girl called Jan who was over for the Fire, Police and Ambulance games which is a big thing over here, where people of these areas come together from all over the world to compete in some thing like the Olympic games. We were doing our own thing that evening but sort of arranged to maybe go to Gleneg for the day tomorrow as it was a public holiday and most of the city was going to be shut.

Monday 12th March

What a great day. Met up with Jan in the morning and we headed off to the beach. I was wise and got the sun cream on first thing, which turned out to be a wise decision as it was a really hot day.

Once at Gleneg we sat out side a coffee house and had a couple of cappuccinos which woke me up before heading off to the beach. We were non stop chat, chat, its amazing how some people you meet and get along with straight away! We then crashed on the beach where I then topped up my tan while Jan started on hers, although she was in and out of the sea saying it was too hot! It was fine for me, which I took as a sign was just may be getting used to the heat!

By late afternoon we had, had enough and one I needed to head on back as I was due to leave tomorrow to Alice Springs and still needed to pack and Jan was a nice shade of red! We picked up a couple of bottles of wine and headed back to the city and I managed to leave my top behind, making that two things I had lost at Gleneg!! That evening Jan kindly cooked while I packed my bag and then we then spent the rest of the evening drinking, talking and taking pictures!!

Tuesday 13th March

Not much of a hangover thank god!! Which was good as I still needed to go to the post office and send off a package home of lkeaflets I had collected so far! Jan needed to registar for the games so we agreed to meet up for lunch. We clubed together for lunch and Jan ended up cooking again which was nice while I took a shower ready for my major bus trip ahead. Goodbyes are never easy and Jan came to see me off which was good of her, I hope we stay in touch.

I felt more prepared for this trip and had made sandwiches and stuff which proved to be a very wise descision as the places we stopped off at were not great. But saw an amazing sunset and sun rise but also the outback countryside was awsome too and not what I was expecting at all. The red sand is facinating and green bushes everywhere but that was apprently due to some rain that they had had in recent days. Really looking forward to reaching Alice.