Adelaide and Kangaroo Island
In Adelaide, I attended the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) Australia and New Zealand Conference that was held at the Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences building, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, and was hosted by the Adelaide Dental School.
While in South Australia, Gisela and I could not miss a visit to the Penfolds Winery at Magill Estate Cellar Door, the birthplace for some of the most famous Australian winemaking stories, dating back to 1844.
The Magill Estate Cellar Door offers fine dining and serene views of Penfolds first vineyard. It’s located just 8 kilometres from Adelaide CBD in the sheltered haunches of the Mounty Lofty Ranges, making it one of the world’s few urban single vineyards.
After the success of early sherries and fortified wines, founders Dr Christopher and Mary Penfold planted their vine cuttings they had carried on their voyage over to Australia. In 1844 the fledgeling vineyard was officially established as the Penfolds wine company at Magill Estate. In 1948, history was made again as Max Schubert became the company’s first Chief Winemaker.
A loyal company man and true innovator, Schubert would propel Penfolds onto the global stage with his experimentation of long-lasting wines - the creation of Penfolds Grange in the 1950s. In 1959 (while Schubert was perfecting his Grange experiment in secret), the tradition of ‘bin wines’ began. Here all the vintages of the Grange in a long row.
The first, a Shiraz wine with the grapes of the company’s own Barossa Valley vineyards was simply named after the storage area of the cellars where it is aged. And so Kalimna Bin 28 became the first official Penfolds Bin number wine. In 1988 Schubert was named Decanter Magazine’s Man of the Year, and on the 50th anniversary of its birth, Penfolds Grange was given a heritage listing in South Australia. After the tour and the wine tasting, we enjoyed a tasting menu of (1) mussels + lemongrass + chilli, (2) beef tartare + fries + béarnaise, (3) roasted cauliflower + lemon + nuts, (4) snapper + parsnip + beetroot crisp + cassalinga, and as last course (5) chocolate parfait + honeycomb + ginger + rhubarb. And of course, all with wine pairing.
On Wednesday, we started our 3-day vacation on Kangaroo Island, the third largest island off the coast of Australia with a population of 4,600 on an area of 4,416 square kilometres (155 kilometres long and up to 55 kilometres wide). We rented a cabin at Hanson Bay. Due to its isolation, the impact of European settlement is minimal on the island’s flora and fauna. When accessing the island via the SeaLink car ferry, many warning signs make visitors aware of the dangers of contaminating this pristine island with pests only found on the mainland.
It also features the oldest bee sanctuary in the world being home to the only pure strain of Ligurian Bee stock. Fifty stationary bee hives at Hanson Bay produce honey on a 20,000 acres foraging area which is 90% old growth native woodlands and 10% native grassland.
Arriving at our cabin at Hanson Bay, we enjoyed the spectacular ocean view of the rugged coast and Southern Ocean and learned that we were surrounded by the 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) Hanson Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.
On Thursday, we visited the Koala Walk among Eucalyptus trees. Koalas are an introduced species on Kangaroo Island with their population exploding in the past years.
During our visit, while walking between the Eucalyptus trees and in an open grassland area observing the Wallabies, we were attacked by Australian Magpies. We were able to find many of the Cape Barren Geese, the rarest geese in the world.
On Friday, we visited the Remarkable Rocks, a formation of rocks that was exposed to erosion (heating, wetting, cooling and drying) for the last 200 million years creating a granite dome.
Near the Remarkable Rocks, we saw a colony of Australian sea lions and Long-nosed fur seals at Admirals Arch. We explored the board walk at Seal Bay.
We also saw Echidnas, but only as road kill, but these egg laying mammals can sometimes be seen when they forage for ants. While our first visit to the platypus water holes was unsuccessful, we drove to the same location later at night again and saw for first time in the wild these very elusive animals coming. They came out when it was almost dark, so my pictures leave much to be desired.
On Saturday morning, we drove at dawn back to the SeaLink ferry. During the 150 kilometre drive we stopped counting the kangaroos and wallabies on street when we hit about 50 and estimate that we saw far more than 100 hopping animals on the road... which made as slow down so much that we almost missed the ferry.
Here are more pictures.