Just outside of Hahndorf, is the house of early 20th century artist Hans Heysen, renowned for his paintings of rural scenes in the Adelaide hills. We had a look around the outside of the buildings and his studio. It was a beautiful area in which to paint although, as TC pointed out, there were no large windows in the studio. The place is run by a group of older ladies and it’s a veritable fortress. There are security cameras everywhere and once you walk up the hill to the studio, you have to ring the bell for the ladies to let you in remotely. While we were standing there in the baking sun, I’m pretty sure they must have been off making a cup of tea. Still worth the $5 entry though.
We continued on to Woodside where we visited an olive grower’s farm door. Unimpressed with their wares, we left and headed into town in search of the Woodside Cheese Wrights shop and Melba Chocolate Factory. A haul of chocolate and lollies later – they had sour gummi rainbows – we ventured to the cheese room next door for our second tasting. We bought two more cheeses, some crackers and this interesting Lamb jam – mint and rosemary and a lot more impressive than mint jelly. We also spied the Woodside Bakery which looked fabulous but it was clearly too early for lunch.
It was at this point that I convinced TC to make a massive detour to McLarenvale for another big thing, another Big Wine Bottle. This one, made entirely of wine corks, stood in front of Wirra Wirra wines Church Block Vineyard and was plastered with their wine label. On our way back through Rutherglen we pulled into a roadside bakery. It looked pretty rough from the outside which meant it was either going to be a well kept secret or somewhere you really didn’t want to eat. There were a couple of really dried up specimens in a bain marie so we just grabbed a couple of drinks and fled. Somewhere on this detour (probably after the disappointing bakery) we decided it would be a good idea to have a picnic in our hotel in the Barossa with all the produce we had bought. We decided to return to the German Pantry in Hahndorf to pick up some of the best pastrami I have ever had, some gypsy ham and then a loaf of bread from the bakery in Woodside. We made it to both just before closing.
Next stop was another big thing – the Big Rocking Horse at Gumeracha. The gift shop was closed by the time we arrived and the rocking horse was locked behind a fence but it was so big, neither of these things really interfered with the photo opportunity. [Nothing with you – Descendents – yes more Descendents . This is my fave song off this album. Probably because it’s a love song about lazing around and watching the telly.]
We ploughed on to Lyndoch, where we checked in to the Lyndoch Hill Retreat. While it was probably once a thriving retreat, now it just looks like a very old 70s motel that needs updating. It is set amongst acres of rose gardens but most look like they are badly in need of pruning. We paid for a garden view room but what we got was a landscaping construction site room. There was a pile of rubble and some gardening implements outside our back door. Lucky it was way too hot to sit on the patio. The hotel is built in the round with an inviting pool in the middle. While it was quite a bit cooler than our Echuca experience, it was full of bugs. There was what looked like a modern designed bar on one side of the hotel – probably used for functions more than guests – but it wasn’t open. The room itself was clean but with décor and beds that hadn’t been updated since the 70s. I had the worst night’s sleep I’ve endured in ages because the beds were so uncomfortable. And there was an old school telly, without Foxtel which meant about 4 channels (we couldn’t find SBS either).
We realised we had no knives or chopping board for our gourmet picnic so we headed into Gawler to visit the supermarket there. Of course we forgot that they banned plastic bags in South Australia a couple of years ago, and the store had run out of cloth bags, so we had to carry our purchases to the car. I can feel a purchase of several cloth bags coming. On our travels TC spied a Cash Converters so a return trip to Gawler will likely feature in tomorrow’s travels through the Barossa. We had run out of time to visit a cellar door so we managed to find a locally produced sav blanc (and some Coopers, also produced locally, for TC) at the local bottle shop. The hotel room picnic turned out to be a wonderful idea. The produce we bought was exquisite (and the wine wasn’t too bad either). [Beverly Kills – Dance Hall Crashers – the Dance Hall Crashers remind me of rolling ska and punk gigs about town in the late 90s and this song has the best title ever.]
Model shops and pawn shops – 2, Big Things – 11, food tastings – 3