We're woken at some early hour by a random person banging very loudly on the room next door, and shouting someone's name. Said person is a heavy sleeper, as this goes on for some time. Later I am woken by a yelling argument outside the window, though it's possible I dreamt this, as Iain doesn't recall it.

Last night we booked a trip to the Barossa Valley, famous for wines. Unfortunately we don't have time to see Adelaide. The bus drive gave us a quick commentary yesterday, and we'll get another today, but that's it. Something had to give, in our itinerary, and we haven't found much here that interests us, it's just a convenient stop-off. Adelaide is built on a grid system, it's like Milton Keynes, and has an excellent selection of restaurants, that's all you need to know. Oh, and it's the only city in Australia named after a woman, the wife of a king, I forget who. How blasé I get so quickly about being in Australia.

The bus picks us up at 8.45am, and we drive an hour to the valley. There are only 6 (two Koreans, two Americans, and us) on the 18 seater bus, so it's not overly chatty. We take a scenic road past valleys and forests, which is windy and less fun in a bus than a car.

[The World's Largest Rocking Horse]

[The word 'Why' springs to mind]

Our first stop is the World's Biggest Rocking Horse. Yes, you read correctly. No, we don't know why either. It's at a toy shop. One can imagine the meeting that was held to think of ways to bring in the tourists. "Les, your action point for today is to build a rocking horse. And make it big."

The other enticing draw is a free cup of coffee, which is supposed to encourage you to buy breakfast. Like the sheep we are, we had Vegemite and cheese toasties. Good stuff.

45 minutes later (I know), we headed for our next stop. A winery, you think. So did we, until we pulled up at a dried fruit shop.

Well thankfully it improved from here. Our next stop was a tree.

[Family Tree]

[The Georgeson Family Tree]

No I'm serious. It was interesting - a family of four once lived in it (it's a big tree with a hollow trunk). they eventually moved out of the tree, had 16 kids, and now have 350 descendents, all in the space of a couple of generations. And that's how Australia was populated. Or something.

Eventually we reach a winery. Tastings are free, but some places are reluctant to take groups, something to do with drunken free-loading backpackers. Shurely shome mishtake? The wines are good, but we can't exactly carry them round Australia, so we pass on the opportunity to buy. There's a small museum, and we have plenty of time to look round. Finally we move on for lunch. Iain eats another indigenous animal.

[The Barossa Valley]

Lunch is included in the tour, a three course affair, in a fake train carriage. South Australia is not the most normal place I've been. We sit with the Americans on our tour, who are nice, understand irony, and have a balanced understanding of world affairs, so we have a great chat.

[Chateau Yaldara winery]

Three wineries later and I'm getting wined out, which means Iain's getting whinged at. I've had about a glass (I don't really drink), and it's all a bit same, though the wines are extremely good. We eventually concede and get a bottle to drink in our campervan next week. Hope it's got a corkscrew.

Incidentally, we pass Jacobs Creek, home of the famous eponymous. We also pass some butchers called "Country Killed Meat" and hear a radio advert for "Kick Ass Workboots". This is not a country over-using euphemisms.

[The Whispering Wall]

We get back at 5pm, and head out for dinner a while later. We go to a pizza place recommended by the Americans, which has good food and terrible service (they didn't recommend it on this basis). We get money off after complaining, and have three courses (sort of) for $35, including an $18 bottle of wine from one of the vineyards we visited earlier. Not bad.

We walk back, pick up some shopping, do some laundry, write the diary, and spod. Thus endeth today, as ever.

If you think I'm writing crankily, you're right. I'm getting travel-fatigue.