Dag 11 Down Under // maandag 18 februari 2013

Things we learned:

° Bush fire Part II: 4u ‘s nachts… Beepbeep… Valerie ontvangt een sms’je… Nee, niet van Greg… Wel van de CFA (Country Fire Authority)… Mhm… Should we start packing our bags?

° Bush fire Part III: 9u ’s ochtends… Brekkie en een babbel met the locals. De hoofdweg naar Halls Gap blijft afgesloten. De wind is ’s nachts sterker opgekomen en zuidwaarts gekeerd. Fire sparks zijn meer dan een kilometer (!) verder gevlogen over de contained area. De bush fire is uitgebreid en bestaat niet meer uit 1 maar uit 2 grote brandhaarden. De lucht is getekend door een grijze wolkensliert, het ruikt naar BBQ wanneer we opstaan.

° Bush fire Part IV: “It’s heading for Dunkeld… and people are getting worried!” 16u ‘s middags… Een ‘town meeting’ wordt gepland, de twee grijze oudjes voor de grocery store maken zich zorgen, de ene dame gaat naar huis om haar spullen te pakken. Ze wacht niet op wat op de town meeting wordt gezegd!

° Halls Gap Part II: Ann van het toeristisch infopunt legt ons een alternatieve route naar Halls Gap uit. Ze waarschuwt ons voorzichtig te rijden. Veel dieren zijn op de vlucht voor de bush fire… Oppassen dus voor kangoeroes en emu’s die de straat op rennen. “Be careful girls, don’t drive too fast and make sure ya don’t break for the kangaroos! ‘Cause if you break, your car will flip and that’s the end of it! Hell, just hit the bastards!”

° Halls Gap Part III: Stoer als we zijn, nemen we toch even de door Ann afgeraden weg. We willen stoere verhalen kunnen vertellen achteraf! De road blijkt inderdaad afgesloten… No worries, zonder kleerscheuren en geplette kangoeroe op de voorruit rijden we Halls Gap binnen!

° Wine tasting: The Grampians are famous for several things. Wine tasting being one of them! So that’s what we did: we visited The Seppelt Winery and got a bit of a surprise!

° Surprise 1: Ondergrondse gangen, vol schimmel uit Franse portvaten.

° Surprise 2: There is this Urban Legend about this famous Australian opera singer (We forgot her name. Not that important. She sings opera… which is boring, as we found out one week ago… And she is huge… which is typical). And this famous opera singer wanted to take a bath in The Grampians Finest Champagne. So the Seppelt winery poored 136 bottles of sparkles into a nice white luxurious bath! When it was time for the opera singer to lower her bathrope and step into the bath, she refused. It was too goddamn chilly in the underground tunnels (which… we must admit… is true). So after a bit of debate and worries and other elements of chaos and drama the lady did step into to bath, had a bit of a splash and then got the hell out of it. So not knowing what to do with this white luxurious bath of sparkles, the Seppelt Winery decided to bottle the bubbles again and name it after our famous lady. Funny thing is… 136 bottles went in. 137 bottles came out!

° Surprise 3: Them Aussies got them some bubbles as well. They like to call it champagne but we all know that’s not allowed. You’ve got to call it ‘sparkles’! But they do have some special bubbles! They have RED sparkles… No, not rosé sparkles… Real red sparkles! We tasted it. It wasn’t that good. A bit too earthy! But it’s still special so Babs bought a bottle for Mister & Misses Freckles. It costs 35 dollars! The package to send it to Europe costs 70 dollars!! Yes… Babs is mad and yes, the Freckles family should be really greatful!!!

° Surprise 4: There is a cool old graveyard just behind the winery: Adams family style with gloomy graves, broken stones, dead trees,… The grapes are growing just next to it… hmmmz…

° The Grampians Motel: A bit light in the head after the wine tasting we got ourselves checked into a nice proper hotel. Big cool room with an ugly 80’s interior and a nice big swimming pool! Ah… that cool water on your skin… such a bliss! GODDAMN… there goes the sun… right beyond those big Grampians Mountains! 

° Kangaroo Part I: So you got flies and you got kangaroos. They both seem to be omnipresent in Australia. One is a little bit more annoying than the other though. Anyway… our motel seemed to be one of the preferred hotspots in town for our little jumpers. They came as close as our front porch! Loved it! :D

° Kangaroo Part II: 20u… time to have some dinner! Driving into town we almost hit one of the bastards! Anyway… inspired by the events we went to dinner and ordered ourselves a nice kangaroo steak (Babs) and a lovely kangaroo pesto pasta (Valerie).

° OTH: “OMG, that’s so OTH” That’s what this (more than 70 year) old charming rockabilly dude said when he heard that miss Val was already a loyal customer on tram number 3! Oh yeah… for those who don’t speak facebook: “Oh my god, that is so Over The Hill (= unreal)”