Fourteen thousand kilometres from home, in the spectacular Barossa Valley in South Australia,we celebrate a very unique Christmas in wine country.
Wine Country

Wine Country – Never a Bad Place to Be
While spending the first few days sampling some of the best wines of the trip so far, we discussed what we should do for Christmas. Not only was it the first time spent away from family and friends, but given the surroundings, it hardly felt like the holidays at all. Regardless of the mood, we decided we’d make it happen the best we could. And fortunately for us, we even got to share it with some new friends!
Planning the Event

The Girls Cutting Firewood
There is a public park in the village of Bethany, that would be the perfect spot. It had washrooms, a large open shelter complete with a huge fireplace and several tables. The only downside was that the park was a day-use facility only and camping was prohibited. Considering it was our only option – unless we wanted to sit in the bush of our old campground – we decided to take a chance.
Christmas Spirit

Merry Christmas!
This is what we were afraid would happen. Some local official rolling in to inform us that we must pack up and leave the park. Our perfect Christmas dinner about to be ruined by some Aussie Scrooge because of some silly rules. The car pulls up just in front of our table and a man climbs out. Before we can say anything he walks over and places a bottle of wine on our table. He smiles and says “When I travelled the world, people were always generous to me, now I’m returning the favour. Merry Christmas”. Turning around, he climbs back into his car and drives away.
A Subtle Reminder of How We Live
The following morning, on Christmas Day, we headed into one of the towns to return the favour in our own little way. A local church was putting on a Christmas lunch for the homeless and needy of the area. We had decided a few days prior that we’d volunteer our time and help out with the event. Upon arrival, we spoke with someone in charge and explained why we were there. The friendly lady just smiled and pointed us to a table to wait. Before we knew what was happening, our table and the others around us quickly filled up and the food was handed out. Apparently, our physical appearance after weeks living out of a car suggested we were included in the group of homeless and needy. After a futile attempt at explaining our reason for coming, we sat back down and enjoyed the meal.
While the Barossa Valley was not Canada, nor were we surrounded by our family, this celebration turned out absolutely wonderful. Between our new friends and some friendly locals, this Christmas is on record as one of the greatest and most unique we’ve ever had.

A Beautiful Setting, All Things Considered
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