After the Adelaide Marathon: The Barossa Valley
The Route: Adelaide → Tanunda → Adelaide Airport Logistics: Hire car or tour. About 1 hour 15 minutes north of Adelaide via the Northern Expressway and Gawler. There is no train into the valley. Marathon Month: May Duration: 2 nights
Adelaide CBD ──(approx. 75 mins by car, via Gawler)──> Tanunda, Barossa Valley
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Adelaide Airport (ADL) ◄──(approx. 1 hr 20 mins by car)┘
The Adelaide Marathon finishes at Pinky Flat in early May, and the Barossa, 70 km north of the city, makes a sensible second half to the trip: two nights in a valley where the most strenuous thing expected of anyone is lifting a glass. The legs get two days of short, flat walks. Everyone else gets wine.
May in the Barossa comes just after the harvest. Vintage runs from late summer into April, so by early May the grapes are in, the crush is finishing and the vines are turning yellow and rust-red before they drop their leaves. The valley is quieter than in summer, days are mild, usually in the high teens, and nights are cold, sometimes close to freezing. Cellar doors are open and less crowded. There will be no grape-picking and no heat.
Driving is the practical option. From the city, take the Northern Expressway to Gawler and continue north-east into the valley; Tanunda is about 75 minutes from the CBD. Trains from Adelaide stop at Gawler Central, well short of the vineyards, and there is no regular connecting service. Several Adelaide companies run day tours and two-day packages with a driver, which removes the question of who drives after a tasting.
Nights One and Two: Tanunda
Tanunda sits in the middle of the valley, the most central of the three Barossa towns and the easiest base without a car once you arrive. The valley was settled from 1842 by Lutheran families from Silesia and Prussia, and the stone churches, cottages and smokehouses they built still line Murray Street, the town's main road. German surnames are on half the wineries.
The recovery walk here is the Jack Bobridge Track, a shared walking and cycling path that runs through the valley along the old railway corridor, linking Tanunda with Nuriootpa and Angaston. It is sealed, gently graded and mostly flat, with vineyards on both sides and benches at intervals. The 7 km to Nuriootpa is a full morning's walk on fresh legs; on post-marathon legs, walk 2 or 3 km out of Tanunda, turn round and walk back.
Chateau Tanunda, at the southern end of the main street, is a grand bluestone winery completed in 1890, with a cellar door and croquet lawns in front, a short and level walk from the centre of town. Seppeltsfield, 10 minutes' drive west, is reached by an avenue of 2,000 date palms planted in the 1920s, and its cellars hold fortified wines laid down every year since 1878. Menglers Hill Lookout, above the eastern side of the valley, gives the best view across the vineyards without leaving the car.
Tasting fees vary between cellar doors and many are refunded with a purchase. Prices vary, so use any figure as a guide only.
Where to stay: In Tanunda itself, a self-contained cottage or bed and breakfast within walking distance of Murray Street means the evenings need no car. The Novotel Barossa Valley Resort, at Rowland Flat on the southern edge of the valley, suits anyone who wants a hotel with a restaurant, a pool and space, though every outing starts with a drive.
Where to eat: fermentAsian, on Murray Street in Tanunda, serves Vietnamese-leaning cooking designed around the valley's wines, a welcome break from heavier German dishes. Maggie Beer's Farm Shop, near Nuriootpa, is the place for a slow lunch of pâté, verjuice and preserves, and sits a short drive from Tanunda. Check opening days before driving out, as some Barossa restaurants close early in the week.
Getting to Adelaide Airport
Adelaide Airport (ADL) is about 1 hour 20 minutes from Tanunda by car, via Gawler and the Northern Expressway, then across the western suburbs. Allow extra time on a weekday for traffic around the airport, and return hire cars at the terminal.