Slowing down with @husbands.thattravel at Benbullen Retreat in the Barossa Valley.
13 May 2022
After living in a van for 1.5 years, having a kitchen, a bathroom and even just cement walls become luxury. But when we got to Benbullen in the Barossa Valley, even though the bedrooms and bathrooms and walls were immaculate, we honestly realized the real luxury was the peace and quiet. There is literally acres and acres of land around you, and nothing else. No other houses. No other people. No other cars. The only sounds you’ll hear are the birds chirping in the trees, and the nearby Kangaroos hopping around and munching on the grass (they came out every night before sunset for us – so cute!).
Usually, Charlie is the kind of person that hates just sitting around and doing nothing. He’s always go-go-go. I’m always the one that’s like “dude slow down, just enjoy”. Sometimes his go-go-go mentality rubs off on me and I feel like I have to go-go-go all the time too. But after 30 minutes of being at Benbullen, both of us didn’t want to go-go-go anywhere.
Benbullen is the kind of place that just gives you ‘sit down, relax, and enjoy the view of the valley’ kind of vibes. You don’t feel like the need to go anywhere or do anything, and just by being in the space you feel like you’re doing the day right already.
When we visited the tourist centre in the Barossa Valley, the concierge told us that we had to drive the scenic route of the Barossa because it has the best views of the valley. We asked where she meant, and she pointed to the map. I said oh, I think that’s where we’re staying. She pointed directly at Benbullen #winning.
Janine (the owner) is SO lovely as well. She happily organized for us to have a wine tasting at Z-wines. If you’ve been following us for a while, you probably know we don’t really enjoy wine that much, so we were a bit hesitant (don’t judge, #loveislove!). We’ve tried wines in the Margaret River region and Hunter Valley (two of Australia’s best wine destinations), and although we’d found one or two wines we kind of enjoyed, we wouldn’t rave about the wine we tried (again just our personal non-wine-loving preference, don’t hate!). But then we had our tasting at Z Wine and the wine was actually consistently INCREDIBLE. The reds, the whites, and the rose! Charlie’s favourite was the Riesling and mine was the Plowman (you gotta try it). The Shiraz (I think it was the Hilder Mataro 2018) won best Shiraz and/or Granache in Australia!
We’ve just left Benbullen today as I write this, and Charlie and I have already agreed that in the future we’ll be heading back, with a few of our friends to enjoy some cycling and more Z-wines win-ing at the Barossa Valley!
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