For about 4 months Australia will be our home again.
We will travel with a campervan from Darwin to Sydney, mainly focusing on visiting the west coast and south of Australia.
Although having been there for five times, it still left us with enough to be explored.
Darwin
We arrived in Auckland at 5 o'clock Sunday morning (missed the Saturday the 14th of October completely!). Around 8 o'clock local Aussie time we then arrived in Brisbane, leaving us with an hour transit time to catch our domestic flight to Darwin. When we reached the check-in desk at a quarter to nine, they informed us that the luggage take in had already closed! We were of course pretty upset, since they had sold us this flight saying that an 1 hour would have been enough. We think otherwise, since you first have to collect your bags, get through customs and then take a train to the domestic airport leaving every thirty minutes! Yes of course, an hour transit is enough! (this is me being sarcastic now)
At another desk we then changed our ticket from a direct flight to Darwin into a flight to Cairns leaving at 10, followed by a flight to Darwin, arriving there at 3 in the afternoon (2 hrs later than originally scheduled). This didn't leave us much time in Darwin to reach the campervan depot which would close at 4. You might say that we were a bit anxious during both flights if we would make it in time.
Luckily the plane arrived in Darwin a bit before schedule, giving us just enough time to get our bags, get into a taxi and reach the depot just in time.
After getting all the paperwork done we went to a supermarket closest by. We must admit to be glad to be back in Aussie with their 24 hr economy! Of course supermarkets and liquor stores are open on Sunday! After having bought everything we could think off we might need in the near future, we went to the campground.
It was beautifully landscaped with a lot of trees in bloom, 3 swimming pools, BBQ areas etc. etc. Who could ask for more!
After having given everything we had bought a place and having unpacked our bags (no more packing for the coming months - whoopee!), we had a drink and went to bed early since we were really tired (figures we had been up for 40hrs).
Monday the 16th of October we spend shopping for stuff for our campervan. We bought a portable DVD player with a TV receiver in it, a road atlas, decent chairs, towels and some other stuff.
We also went back to the campervan depot to get an awning, which is pretty useful when travelling through Aussie in summer! With temperatures over 30 degr. and no clouds to be seen, you really appreciate some shade when sitting in front of your campervan.
We also made a start with planning our route through Aussie and had a quick dip in the swimming pool to cool off. After only 1 day, we already feel right back at home!
Tuesday was our Internet day, updating our site, reading mails etc. It is very nice to read that everyone still enjoys our pictures and stories!
Wednesday the 18th of October we visited Aquascene. Almost each day when the tide comes in, lots and lots of fish come close to the ramp so that they can be fed by tourists (that's us!). This was quite a fun experience.
When you stand in the water, the fish even begin to nibble on your tows, thinking they could be yummy! Especially the (fortunately) toothless fish are really enthusiastic when trying to get hold of the bread. Lots of different types of fish were pointed out to us, while they were being fed.
Katherine
Thursday we drove from Darwin to Katherine, a drive of 300 km, so not too bad. The temperature was again above 30 degr. but fortunately we do have airconditioning when we are driving. October is the month leading up to the wet season in the Northern Territory, but so far nothing wet in sight yet! Although is hasn't rained since the last wet season, the landscape (besides the yellow grass) is still green. Around Darwin it is mostly flat but closer to Katherine there are more hills.
We also visited Katherine in 2001, so we knew already a lot of the sights.
Our first night we stayed at a campground near town.
Nearby you had natural hot springs, where we went swimming the next morning. Luckily no crocs were around when we were there!
Friday we moved to a campground near in Nitmiluk National Park. This was the same one as last time.
The campground is known for its wildlife just walking or flying through it. We got a few visits from the cutest wallabies and we saw white parrots and colourful parakeets. Also at night the laundry room was visited by frogs.
Saturday we did a 4 hour walk through the Butterfly Gorge. The walk itself wasn't too hard, but the high temperature and the rocky surface of the track made it a tough walk anyway.
The walk let us through a narrow gorge with (of course) lots and lots of butterflies. After two hours we reached the Katherine River, giving us a beautiful look on part of the second gorge (the Katherine Gorge National Park counts 13 interconnecting gorges). I (Linda) went in for a swim, which was a great cool down after our first part of the walk. Rolf on the other hand could only be persuaded by me to take a extremely short dip, since he expected crocs to appear at any time!
Our way back felt like it lasted forever. We were so heated up and tired, that the last bit went on auto pilot.
After our return to the campground, it took us a few hours to feel back to 'normal' again.
Also that day we were paid a visit by a few wallabies. Since you weren't allowed to feed them, we picked up leaves (which they eat themselves too), to give to them. At night we also saw the smallest version of the wallabies, who are more scared than their bigger brothers.
The Kimberley region
Sunday we drove from Katherine in the direction of the Kimberley National Park. After about 300 km we decided to stop in Timber Creek. Although a dot on the map (suggesting some sort of town), it only consists of a gas station, a pub and a campground (but what more do you need!).
End of the afternoon they organised a crocodile feeding at the creek near the campground. As soon as the crocs noticed the meat bungling on a rope, you could see a number of them surfacing and trying to grab it. It would definitely not have been a good idea to go for a swim here! There were some pretty big ones swimming around.
Two hawks also got the chance to catch some of the meat. That was truly an amazing site to see one of them coming down from high up in the trees and catching the meat with their claws when it was thrown at them.
Monday the 23rd of October we drove from Timber Creek to Kununurra (around 200km)crossing the border of Western Australia. Because of the strict quarantine regulations we had to get rid of all our remaining fruit and vegetables before the border (so we made a few kangaroos very happy).
Lying south east of Kununurra we visited Lake Argyle, a giant man made freshwater inland sea some 800 square kilometres in area and the largest body of fresh water in Australia. Overlooking the dam and the water outlet, we took a break to have lunch.
On our way back from the lake, we passed a few campervans standing still on the side of the road. We stopped as well and asked if someone needed assistance. A Dutch couple driving their own campervan, had a flat tire and they couldn't get the spare tire from under the van since they didn't have the right tools. Rolf and a swiss guy tried several times to get it loose with different types of tools (spoons, knives and other kitchen appliances), but didn't succeed. We finally gave him a lift to Kununurra, leaving his wife with the campervan. There we brought him to a tyre repair centre who took him back to the site and replaced the tyre.
At night we met each other again on the campsite and had a really nice time exchanging travel stories and having a few drinks. They had also been to Aussie a few times and could give us some good tips on what to go see and do.
Tuesday we booked a tour for the next day, visiting the Bungle Bungle Massif. We will fly to the beginning of the National Park and then have a guided walk through some amazing rock formations. We also spent some time in the Internet café updating our site with a few stories and some pictures.
Wednesday we were picked up at 05.30 to go to the airport. We then got on a Cessna like plane with two other Australian tourists. The one hour flight took us over the irrigation project of Kununurra, the enormously huge Lake Argyle (of which we had only seen a tiny part by car), the Osmond ranges, some cattle stations (in the middle of nowhere) and finally the Bungle Bungle Massif (Purnululu National Park).
The weather was beautiful, blue skies and not too much wind, so it was a calm flight over some amazing scenery. We were especially impressed by the beauty of the Bungle Bungle Massif. The beautifully shaped rocks, mountains and gorges were created by the erosion (by wind and water) of an elevated sandstone plate, millions of years ago. The massif was only discovered by accident in the eighties when someone was making a documentary of the cattle stations.
Today only 5% of the National Park is open to visitors. They are currently negotiating with the indigenous Aboriginal tribes to get a larger part of the Park open, since it has of course great potential for more tourist operations.
Arrived at the airport near the National Park, we were picked up by our tourguide Mark, who brought us to the campsite. They were already breaking down some structures since before the end of the year the site will be abandoned. As soon as the wet season kicks in, the complete park becomes inaccessible due to the flooding of the roads. The park operators return the beginning of April to clean up all the mess and rebuild the site.
Before heading into the park, we first enjoyed a nice breakfast. Thereafter we went into the park by 4WD. Although it hadn't rained in about 7 months, the scenery was still pretty green.
After an hour we reached the beginning of the walking trail to Piccanini Creek. In the wet season the river is roaring and raging, deforming the bottom of the Creek with sand and rocks. After the rainy season the river dries up within 2 months time, leaving it the way we saw it now.
The mountains surrounding the river looked like they had been built up in layers of different materials. They are however completely made of sandstone. This material is usually white, but in this case algae which grow in the wet season come out of the sandstone and turn grey and black if they die during the dry season. The red colour is silica, forming a protection layer on the sandstone.
After Piccanini Creek, we walked another impressive site inside the park, Cathedral Gorge. This is a beautiful cavern, with a high rock ceiling and still a small pool of water in it, which fills up rapidly as soon as the rainy season starts. Nobody dared to sing else we also could have checked the beautiful acoustic in the cave.
Our last stop after another hours drive was Echidna Chasm, where cracks in the sandstone plateau created small passages with enormous walls on either side. The vegetation here was quite different from the vegetation around the Cathedral Gorge.
Here we saw a great number of beautiful palm trees reaching for the sky.
Inside the cracks sometimes big blocks come down because the sandstone structures are extremely fragile. This particular site was definitely one of the highlights of our Bungle tour. You felt like an ant when walking through it and looking up to these huge walls.
Late afternoon we flew back to Kununurra. After seeing another part of the Bungle Bungle massif, we then returned via the Argyle Diamond mine, the Ragged Ranges and the Carr Boyd Ranges. Especially the open Argyle mine was an amazing sight.
Initially they mined about 9 tons of raw diamonds per year but that has now gone down to 6 tons. It is however still the largest producing diamond mine in the world.
The closing of the mine was foreseen for 2008 but since they will now continue with underground mining, the closing year is now set for 2020.
Thursday we left Kununurra and drove about 700km to Fitzroy Crossing.
Our initial plan was to stop halfway in Halls Creek, but after driving around town a bit, we decided to move on. Although they form the cultural heritage of this country, it doesn't mean that the Aboriginals make a town more pleasant to stay in. I am generalising a bit here, but we usually see them lying drunk in the park or hanging around doing nothing but making a mess of things.
End of the day we arrived in Fitzroy Crossing, a tiny settlement still in the middle of nowhere. We could really do with a nice cold beer (actually a few!), so we visited the local bar which was actually part of the campground we were staying at.
Friday the 27th of October early in the morning we visited Geiki Gorge National Park.
We had just missed a cruise along the river, so we decided to do a 1 1/2 hrs walk. The Geiki Gorge is part of the Devonian Range, a barrier reef millions of years ago.
We walked passed peculiarly formed grey rock formations and through a tropical rain forest before ending at the Fitzroy river. Now not a very wide river, but you could clearly see how huge it would get during the wet season. We walked back via the riverside, which gave us a good look on the other side of the gorge.
Broome
After our walk we drove for about 400 km to Broome. We found a nice campground near Cable Beach, which is known to be one of the most beautiful beaches of the West Coast.
Saturday we visited the local arts and crafts market and did some shopping. We finally bought ourselves a tiny fan, since the nights have been bloody hot! We also booked a trike flight tour for Rolf, leaving Sunday morning.
Sunday morning we got up at 4 in the morning since Rolf his flight was scheduled for 5.30, taking off from the domestic airport of Broome. After having had an instruction on the operation of the trike, Rolf and Charles (the instructor) took off.
Their 1 hour flight took them all along the coastline of Broome. They also did a beach landing, which was pretty cool (so I am told). The plane can manage 60 km per hour in the air, but when they land the speed is only around 20 km per hour, so a bike can easily overtake you!
Monday the 30th of October we went for a sunset camel ride on the Beach of Broome. This is a very popular and famous excursion, so we met a few other camels during our trip! The 1 hour trip was very relaxed (they don't walk very fast) and we got plenty of time to enjoy the ride and the beautiful sunset.
Tuesday we drove 600 kms to Port Hedland, also on the West Coast of Australia. It was a rather tiresome drive, just going straight ahead and not much interesting to see.
Wednesday we drove from Port Hedland to the Karijini National Park (a drive of only 300 kms inland). While driving we saw the landscape change from flat with only bushes, into hills, red rocks and trees. We stayed on the campground of the National Park, which only had basic facilities (meaning no water and a pit toilet).
That same afternoon we did a beautiful walk to Circular Pool, situated in the magnificent Dales gorge. When walking through the gorge, you keep on being amazed by the colours you see, the clear blue water, the green of the trees and the red of the rocks.
Thursday the 2nd of November we got up at 6 so we could do another walk in the gorge before it would get too hot. This time we went to the Fortescue Falls and the Fern pool and then we walked in the direction of the Circular Pool through the bottom of the gorge before climbing back up to the rim of the gorge and walking back to the parking lot. Again this was a beautiful walk with a gorgeous scenery.
It was a pity that we didn't have a 4WD, since a large part of this beautiful National Park can only be accessed through dirt roads.
We did try to drive on one but decided to return after about 1 km. A lot of the dirt roads have eroded so severely, that it is simply to hard to drive on them (and too high a risk considering we are driving a rental vehicle and you are not insured when driving on dirt roads!).
After our walk we drove back to the West Coast, where we spent the night at the campground of a roadhouse.
Exmouth
Friday we drove to Exmouth, a coastal town famous for its diving with whale sharks. We did however miss the right season for that, but instead it is turtle mating and nesting season now, which is also pretty cool!
We stayed at a campground which also has a dive shop, so that was convenient. We booked two dive trips, one going to the Muiron Islands and the other on to Lighthouse Reef.
End of the afternoon we got a few visitors at our site, native to Aussie, emus! They were not too scared of us, but we got a bit scared of them since they got pretty close to us. The other visitors to the campground are the white cockatoos, making lots and lots of noise when flying right over the campsites.
Saturday the 4th of November we drove around the cape to Cape Range National Park. Along the way you have different sites to visit and things you can do.
Of course since Ningaloo Reef is situated just out of the beach, one of the most popular things to do is snorkeling.
We first visited the lighthouse at the far end of the cape after which we visited the Jurabi Turtle centre, explaining all about the turtles who come to the beaches on the West-Coast to lay their eggs.
Thereafter we did a walk through the Mandu Mandu Gorge. Their we saw a couple of kangaroos taking a nap under some bushes. On our way back to Exmouth we also stopped at Turquoise Bay, a famous beach to go snorkeling. It lived up to its expectations, first of all the beach was already stunning, but then the snorkeling was amazing.
We saw turtles, eagle rays and lots of beautiful coloured hard and soft coral. We were already looking forward to our dives the next day!
Sunday we went to Muiron island, just over an hour boat ride away from Exmouth. Here we did two amazing dives. The quality of the coral was unlike anything we had ever seen. We saw a lot of new stuff in the most beautiful colours. The visibility was not too good, but we still got a good impression of the underwater scenery. We saw a nurse shark resting under a ledge and a really cool water snake (which wasn't afraid of us at all, he stuck around to play a bit.
After our two dives the boat anchored near the beach, so after lunch we walked alongside the beach and then snorkeled back to the boat. We saw turtles lying on the beach but the best thing was that we saw many turtles mating underwater. For us the first time that we saw that, so we were thrilled!
Monday we went for another dive excursion, but now only half an hour boat ride away. Again during our two dives we saw beautiful coral, but this time we also saw a wobbegong shark passing us and lots of bright coloured nudi branches (sea snails). On our way back we also saw a few dolphins playing in the water and to top it all off we also saw two giant manta rays. Rolf even got to jump in the water to swim with them.
Monkey Mia / Shark Bay
Tuesday we drove about 700 km to Monkey Mia, where we arrived end of the afternoon. This place is famous for being visited by bottle nose dolphins each day.
Wednesday the 8th of November everyone interested gathered on the beach to watch the feeding of the dolphins. They have three feedings a day and every feeding other dolphins may come, although they do have a few regulars. They are only fed a few Kgs of fish a day to avoid them being solely dependent on this food source. Only the dolphins which are older than three years are fed.
Eventually about 6 dolphins came to the beach of which only 2 of them were feed as the other dolphins were still too young and therefore not in the feeding program. They came really close to where we were standing, so that was a great sight. We were (logically) not allowed to pet them, although I (Linda) really wanted to.
After the feeding we drove through the Peron Peninsula and visited some interesting sites such as Shell Beach and Hamelin Pool.
Shell Beach is, like the name, completely made of millions of tiny shells (no sand at all). At some points the layer of shells is at least 5 meters thick.
At Hamelin Pool we followed a walking trail where we first saw an old quarry for building-blocks made of compressed shells.
The walk continued to a jetty overlooking the largest site in the world of living stromatolites. These stromatolites are single-celled colonies of blue-green bacteria and produce oxygen. They are believed to be the first life form on earth and are probably the beginning of all other life forms. It was quite strange to look at all these different shapes of 'living rocks' and think of it as the beginning of life.
Kalbarri
We then drove further south, through Kalbarri National Park. This park has a few beautiful gorges and also stunning coast lines. We stayed overnight in quaint little town of Kalbarri situated at a beautiful bay. We took a bottle of whine and some cheese with us to the park at the beach and watched the sunset.
Thursday the 9th of November we first went to the park to watch the pelicans being fed. They have been doing that for over 30 years now. As soon as the birds saw the bucket of fish, they rushed to the park, anxious to get some for breakfast. The seagulls were also very keen and were often faster catching the fish. In total 4 pelicans showed up. They are the biggest flying birds in the world.
Geraldton
We followed the impressive coastline as we headed south to Geraldton. In Geraldton (another quaint little town), we booked a dive tour to the Houtman Abrolhos Islands (70km east of Geraldton), which can only be reached by helicopter (just our luck!). They only had availability on Sunday, so we spent the next couple of days shopping, reading and drinking Kilkenny in a nice Irish Pub in town.
We had seen in brochures that diving around these islands is amazing. The other attraction would have been that you could dive on the Dutch explorer ship 'the Batavia' which sank near one of the Abrolhos islands. But they have taken the remains of the ship out of the water, so now it can only be admired in the museum of Geraldton and Fremantle!.
Sunday morning we went with a few others in a really cool, red, rescue helicopter, to one of the uninhabited Abrolhos Islands. The trip took us about half an hour and from the sky we could already see the beautiful and colourful coral around the islands.
We did two dives there, which were just beautiful. We had an average sight of around 15 meters and we saw the largest, undamaged patches of coral ever. At our first dive we also saw at 25 mtr depth a garden full of beautiful cabbage coral. At both dives we also saw the largest number of anemones and anemone-fish hiding inside the hard coral.
After having lunch we went for a short walk on the island to see mummy, daddy and baby sea lion lying in a small puddle of water. The baby had just been born a few days before. Really cute!
We then flew (with the door open!) to a neighbouring island - 'Leo' (only inhabited during cray fish season), to see more wildlife. Here a great number of sooty terns were breeding in the bushes. We also saw more sea lions and a few babies as well.
We then fed a big potato cod (fish), who dared to come through extremely shallow waters to be fed.
End of the day we flew back to Geraldton at low altitude as you are actually not allowed to fly 24 hrs after diving. With low altitude however (few hundred meters) it is safe.
Perth
Monday we drove from Geraldton to Perth, about 400kms. About halfway we visited the Pinnacles in Nambu National Park. Here thousands of sandstone pillars mark the landscape. Although we had already seen them on a previous holiday, we were again amazed by this surreal landscape.
Tuesday we went into town to do some shopping and re-discover the city. It was nice to be in a 'real' city for a change after having seen so many small towns and roadhouses. We did have to get used to the amount of traffic though and the sky high prices of a beer. Amazing how Aussies can get drunk when a pint of beer costs around AU$8,50 (=EUR 5,10). Perth is a very relaxed and pleasant city to visit.
Albany
Wednesday the 15th of November we drove from Perth to Albany, where we arrived in the afternoon. The first thing we did was go to a dive shop and book a wreck dive trip for the following day.
Thursday we did two boat dives. First we dove the HMAS Perth a guided missile destroyer, which was sunk in 2001. This is the largest (133-metre long) purposely sunk ship wreck in the souther hemisphere. The visibility wasn't too good, but we did see lots and lots of colourful soft coral attached to all parts of the ship. In five years time the ship is completely grown over with coral. We went inside the ship where Rolf even took a seat in the captains chair!. This was the first time that we had to wear 7 mm suits because of the cold (18 degr.C.) water.
The second dive was the Cheynes III a former whaler, sunk in 1984. The visibility during this dive was a lot better and also this ship is completely covered with different types of coral. Many fish live in the holes of the ship. At the end of the dive, the guide showed us two sea dragons living around the sea weed. They are really strange looking creatures with much resemblance to a dragon, but they also look a bit like waving sea weed, which is their camouflage. We had never seen them before, so this was definitely a high light of the dive.
Fitzgerald National Park
Friday the 17th of November we drove from Albany to Point Ann in Fitzgerald National Park. The park was really beautiful with lots of native bushes and trees. We stayed on a basic campground close to the beach. Not many people were camping at the time, so it was nice and quiet. Because of the lack of artificial light, you can see countless stars and galaxies at night.
Saturday we first visited the beach and then went for a short walk to look at the seawater inlet. After a short drive, we parked the RV and climbed Mount Barker, the highest mountain in the park, giving us excellent views on the complete park. We then left the Park and drove around it to finally end up at the west side of the National Park, in Hopetoun.
Sunday the 19th of November we first took a dip in the ocean to wake up.
Rolf thought it was a bit cold (but he can be a wuss sometimes), but I found it wonderful and refreshing. We then left the campground and drove through a wildflower region, which although the season is almost over, was still full of flowers and blooming bushes and trees. The variety in flowers and colour is amazing. We will have to return to this region one time to see all the flowers in bloom.
Esperance & Cape le Grand National Park
That afternoon we drove to Esperance. We had heard that you could dive a wreck from there.
Monday we checked out the possibilities at the dive shop. It is however low season, so they simply cannot get enough people to organise a wreck dive. After spending some hours on the Internet checking the money situation (no worries we still have some), we drove a great coastal scenic loop, just outside of Esperance. The cliffs and beaches are simply gorgeous.
Thereafter we drove to Cape le Grand National Park. I know it's getting pretty boring, but also this park is beautiful with lots native bushland, some mountains and great coastlines. We stayed overnight on a park campground near the beach. On and around the campground and on the beach, wallabies were walking around. No matter how many times you see them, they are still great animals.
Tuesday the 21st of November, after taking a short walk on the beach looking at all the kangaroos, we then drove to the base of Frenchman's Peak. It took us about an hour to climb the steep granite slopes to the summit, giving us stunning views on the National Park.
Kalgoorlie
After returning from our walk, we drove around 500 km to Kalgoorlie, the city with the biggest open goldmine in the world. We did a quick tour around the city, which is packed with late 19th century buildings and pubs / hotels on every corner. We just missed the weekend where we could have seen skimpies (waitresses serving beer in their underwear).
Wednesday we visited "the Super Pit", the biggest open goldmine. They haven't exaggerated at all, it was really, really big. It was very impressive seeing all these enormous machines disappear into the pit, until they were little more than toy trucks. No blasting was scheduled that day (bugger!).
When driving through the city again, we also saw another few icons of the city, their brothels (anything to keep the miners happy).
We also visited Kanowna, supposedly mining ghost town, but they hadn't told us that the city had been completely dismantled in 1956. We were expecting a wild west like abandoned town with squeaky bar doors, but nothing of a sort. All that you can see now are new signs indicating where once their main buildings where located.
Beginning of the afternoon we continued our travels and drove to Norseman, where we spent the night.
Eyre Peninsula
Thursday the 23rd of November (yes my birthday), we spent mostly in our campervan, driving from Norseman to Eucla (roadhouse), 710 kilometres! In these 710 km is included the longest straight road in Australia (maybe even the world) - 146,6km. The scenery was not too exciting, a few hills, but mostly flat with native bushes.
At night we almost succeeded in eating all of our fruit and veggies, since the following day we were to cross the WA - SA state-line and there are strict quarantine regulations not allowing you to take any of it across the border.
Friday we drove 600 km from Eucla to Streaky Bay, the beginning of the Eyre Peninsula. We stayed at a nice campground overlooking the bay, with many pelicans. That night we booked a 'swimming with dolphins and sea lions tour' for the next day.
Saturday the 25th of November we drove to Baird Bay where the excursion would start from. After a boat drive of only 15 minutes through the bay, we already saw dolphins swimming and playing alongside the boat. We then drove a bit further and anchored near an island where there were many sea lions. We got into the water where it was more sandy and a bit deeper, since the sea lions use this area to play, which they did! For over an hour, we snorkeled, swam and played with them. They would bite (softly) in your toes and in your hand. I even petted one under the chin! One time, a sea lion came as close as touching my mask with his nose. They are sweet, kind, playful creatures and it was great fun.
After we finished our snorkeling, we went for a short tour around the island to see more sea lions.
Our trip continued by looking for bottle nose dolphins in the bay. When we spotted them, we immediately got into the water. Like the sea lions, also the dolphins loved to play with us. They swam around and under us, constantly checking us out. They also came very close to us, but we were not allowed to touch them.
Because the area is known to be visited by sharks (great whites), our guide had a shark shield device with him to avoid shark attacks. Always re-assuring to know!
After this great excursion (again a highlight of our trip), we travelled further south, passing the beautiful coastline of the Peninsula. We saw some impressive caves and had some great views of the area. Just before arriving in Elliston, we took the tourist scenic coastal drive, where artists had placed their works of art at lookout points.
Sunday the 26th we drove from Elliston to Port Lincoln (225km) which is at the most southern point of the Peninsula. There we went to the visitors centre to check the possibilities to go cage diving with great whites (sharks) (still on our to do list). We were not that lucky (or where we...) since the first possibility would be end December.
We decided to drive another 350km along the east coast, arriving in Port Augusta end of the day. The Peninsula is mostly farmland, so we passed countless acres of grain fields with some patches of natural bushland in between.
In Port Augusta the roads coming from North (Darwin - Alice Springs) and West (Perth - Albany) meet each other to go South (Adelaide) and East (Melbourne - Sydney).
Monday we finally got a chance to update our site (in the library - for free!), since before that time, the possibilities were either non-existent or un-affordable (Kalgoorlie AU$12/hr!). We also exchanged some books, so we have plenty to read again.
Flinders Ranges National Park
Tuesday the 28th of November we drove north from Port Augusta to Flinders Ranges National Park. Underway we did a short hike to look at the Yourambulla caves. In these three caves, some well preserved ancient Aboriginal drawings can be seen.
In the National Park, we stayed on the campground of the Wilpena resort. Since we arrived at midday (hottest hours of the day), we decided not to do any of the walks yet. We just sat and relaxed at the swimming pool. We also learnt that we had just missed 26 Dutchies who were travelling in 13 campervans with the ANWB (dutch automobile association)! So it was nice and peaceful at the campground.
Wednesday we got up really early (6 am), so we could start our walk when it wouldn't be so hot yet. In about 2 1/2 hrs we climbed the Mt Ohlssen Bagge, which gave us a beautiful view on the Wilpena Pound - an oval shaped mountain range with a large elevated flat in the middle. We were glad to have started our walk that early, so that most of the climb was still in the shade. When we got back, temperature had risen up to at least 40 degr.C.!
After a swim and a shower, we started our drive to another part of the park, where we could also camp and do some walks. Although allowed and 'suitable' for 2WD's, the tracks we followed made our cutlery and furniture come flying through the campervan! We then chose another track, but to our surprise, just before arriving at the campground, we had to cross a river (sorry forgot to take a picture). I (Linda) checked the depth of it, which made us decide to return to the campground of Wilpena again.
Thursday the 30th of November we again started really early with a walk. Lucky for us it was clouded, so it didn't get so hot that day. In 3 1/2 hours we climbed to the highest Peak in the Flinders Ranges (1100 mtr) - St Mary Peak, giving us 360 degr. views on not only the Wilpena Pound, but also on other mountain ranges, salt lakes and surrounding plains.
Instead of going the same way back, we chose the longer route(12km) going through the plains of the Wilpena Pound. It was a great walk during which we also saw plenty of wildlife, kangaroos and emus. We returned at 2 in the afternoon, leaving us pretty exhausted and dusty. You can probably imagine that we didn't do much the rest of the day, except take a shower and sit in our chair!
Friday we left the park and drove south in the direction of Adelaide. We made a short detour to visit yet another National Park - Mount Remarkable. There we followed a short track through a beautiful gorge. At some points the gorge was only 2 meters wide. We stayed overnight in Clare, just 120 km north of Adelaide.
Adelaide - Fleurieu Peninsula
Saturday we arrived in Adelaide. We just drove through the city and then went further south to the Fleurieu Peninsula. There we checked out the possibilities to go diving the MS Hobart, which lies just out of the west coast of the peninsula. This proved to be more difficult than we had thought.
The dive school was nowhere to be found and although we checked with many people, everyone told us a different story. We ended our search knowing where to get a permit and where to get your bottle filled, but that was about it. After driving through the same tiny town for the third time, we finally gave up.
A bit further south, we found a great basic campground near the beach, where we stayed the night.
Sunday we drove back to Adelaide again. It was a bit difficult finding a parking spot, but that wasn't too strange since the Ashes (cricket) were being played!
We walked through town, enjoying the beautiful weather, the nice buildings, the pretty parks and a nice beer on a terrace.
Monday the 4th of December we took the bus to the city. We first went to the Library (free Internet - great invention!), to do our homework (website). We then explored the city a bit more. Adelaide is a lovely city, with a great number of beautiful parks, waterways and also some nice late nineteenth century buildings.
Tuesday the 5th we went to the city again, first to book our ferry crossing to Kangaroo Island. We also booked a service on our RV for the following day. We had already driven 13000 km since we started, so high time that it got a bit of maintenance!
That afternoon we rented mountain bikes to cruise through the city and the surrounding parks. It was a beautiful but extremely hot day, so we were glad to be on our bikes and catch a bit of wind (although even the wind was bloody hot).
Early Wednesday morning we brought our RV to the Britz. We got a new high-top RV to cruise around in for that day. We were actually glad that we had the older model, since although the standing space and kitchen area was bigger, the storage space and the drive-cabin were much smaller. Even Rolf couldn't sit up straight while driving.
We first went to Port Adelaide. There we visited an old lighthouse, which was dismantled from its original site and rebuilt on the docks. After having lunch we went to Glenelg, a quaint little coastal town with lots of shops, bars and restaurants and outdoor terraces. Great touristy spot!
We went back to the garage around 3 o'clock, but since there was a problem with the clutch, we had to return at 6 again.
Kangaroo Island
Thursday we drove from Adelaide to Cape Jervis to board the ferry at 12 o'clock. After a ferry trip of 45 minutes, we arrived in Penneshaw.
From there we drove to the bottom of Prospect Hill. We climbed to the summit where we had an excellent view on both sides of the bay and a large part of the island.
Owing to its isolation, Kangaroo Island (50 x 160km) has suffered less than mainland areas from the impact of European settlement. The Island has retained more than half of its native vegetation. More than one-third of the Island is declared Conservation or National Park and five significant Wilderness Protection Areas have been retained. This vegetation supports a large population of wildlife.
From the lookout we then drove through Kingscote, the main settlement on the island. There we took the coastal gravel road, passing many beautiful bays and beaches. The condition of the road was a lot worse than expected, but after a few hours we finally made it to a basic bush campground, at the west side of the island, in the Flinders Chase National Park.
Since our original plan hadn't been to camp here, we had to stay on the campground illegally (without a permit). But luckily for us, no ranger in sight!
Friday the 8th of December (happy birthday to Rolf!), we first made a walk (Harveys Return), through the forest, where we could see the old structures where they used to haul their living-supplies for the lighthouse from a boat up to the hill. While walking through the forest, we also saw some wild kangaroos.
From there we drove to the Cape Borda Lighthouse, built in the beginning of 1900. The lighthouse keepers had a tough life on this remote island. All of their supplies had to be brought by ships from the mainland.
We did two walks, both starting from the lighthouse. The first short walk brought us to a look out with great views on the rugged steep coastline. We then did another walk through the natural bushland to the Oval. The oval was (logically) an oval shaped flat in the middle of the bushland. Nothing really grew there only a bit of grass at some places.
After our return from the walks, we drove through the National Park to end up at the visitor centre where we bought our park pass. We then visited the mayor sites in the park, starting with the remarkable rocks. This is an unusual formation of rocks in lots of different shapes. They were indeed remarkable!
Our next stop was the Admirals Arch. This is a great arch shaped rock-formation, giving you a great view on the ocean. It is also home to a colony of fur seals. We saw a lot of adults and also babies playing around in the ocean and in rock pools. Even one sea lion had climbed up the hill where the viewing platform was, to lay in the shade under it!
Our last walk of that day was the Platypus Waterholes Walk, starting from the visitor centre. This walk lead us around some waterholes where the famous platypus live. We didn't have any luck spotting them, which is probably also pretty logical since it was simply to hot (40 degr.C) for them to come out of the water. Even we felt like we were being cooked.
The end of the day we went to a campground just outside of the park. Because of the heat and all the dust of that day, we felt pretty revived after having had a long shower. Around the campground they had made a koala walk, were we would have a good chance of seeing them. And they were right! Already on the campground we saw a mother and a baby sitting (or hanging) in a tree. During our walk we also saw countless wallabies and a few cockatoos. When we were looking for koalas high up in the trees, we literally bumped into a mother and baby at eye hight! This was really amazing. This was the first time for us to see koalas in the wild!
The koalas are not really active animals. They live on a diet of 1 kg Eucalyptus leaves a day, giving them not much energy. They sleep for 18 hours a day and the other 6 hours they use for eating, moving to a different tree and resting some more!
Saturday we first went back to the visitors centre, since we wanted to do the platypus walk again, but then early in the morning. Unfortunately due to the extreme fire hazard they had close the entire national park. Lucky for us we had seen the mayor sites the day before!
We then took the south coastal road. We first visited the Kelly Hill Caves by an organised tour. These were dry caves with beautiful stalagmites and stalactites in different colours. Even after over a hundred years after its discovery they are still looking for more caves.
After our tour we drove to Seal Bay, where a colony of Australian sea lions live. We didn't take an organised tour, since during our travels we have seen them (and swum with them) many times before.
From Seal Bay we drove to Kingscote where we stayed on a campground in town. At night we tried to spot penguins, but they were probably expecting us, so they were all hiding out in the bushes and under rocks.
Sunday, which was a cooler day, we drove around the Dudley Peninsula, visiting the Cape Willoughby Lighthouse.
In the afternoon we took the ferry back to Cape Jervis. We drove in the direction of Mount Gambier, known for its Blue Lake, volcano's, caves and sinkholes.
Mount Gambier
Monday the 11th of December, we drove the remaining 300 km to Mount Gambier, while passing some beautiful coastal landscape and many salt lakes. After a stop at the visitor centre for some more information on the area, we went to a campground near the Blue Lake.
Tuesday we visited the Blue Lake, an ancient volcano now filled with water due to the underground waterways, which in summer changes colour from steel blue to a beautiful turquoise. This lake holds the water reserve for Mount Gambier, so swimming or diving is not allowed. We also visited the Umpherston Sinkhole, a deep hole in the ground, in which they have created a beautiful garden.
Our next visit was to Port McDonnell where we had heard would be a dive school. The area is namely also famous for diving into caves and sinkholes. We weren't allowed to dive in the Picannini Ponds (the most famous and deepest sinkhole), since we would have to be certified cave divers (which we are not .. yet). We did book a dive at a different site for that night. The site Ewens Ponds consists of three sweet water ponds with a maximum depth of 10 mtrs, all interconnected by small water channels of only 2 meters deep. The thirst pond where we started our dive was just perfectly clear, we could see the whole pond! This was definitely the clearest water we had ever dived in. There is not much wildlife to bee seen, but we did see a couple of fresh water crayfish. We could also see fresh water coming through the sandy bottom creating 'bubbly sand'.
After exploring the first pond, we surfaced and snorkeling through the small channel, which was full of water plants, to the second pond. We only quickly dove through that one, since because of blue algae, the pond is basically dead. After going through the second longer channel, which was also filled with water plants, we finally ended our dive in the third pond. By that time we had gotten really cold, which was also quite understandable since the water temperature was only 16 degrees! This was the coldest water we ever dived in, but we survived.
On our way back to the campground we did turn on the heater to get some feeling back in our hands and feet. This had been a really cool dive and something completely new for us.
Wednesday the 13th of December, after doing our laundry, cleaning the car (which was highly necessary after 2 months!), and updating our website in the library of Mount Gambier, we visited some more sites in town.
First we went to the Engelbrecht Cave where we took a short tour.
The cave was first discovered end nineteenth century by a guy called Mr Engelbrecht (of course!). He had a distillery and used the cave and the naturally formed solution pipes to get rid of all of his waste. Following his bad example, the people of the town then also started to do the same. For over 35 years people dumped all of their waste (also slaughter waste) in the cave.
It then took volunteers 6 years to clean all the mess up and discover the beautiful cave system with crystal clear water in it, filtered by the limestone structures under the city.
Both caves we saw during our tour are now also used by cave divers. One of them requiring a level 4 certification (the highest you can obtain) since it is so difficult to dive in.
After our tour we visited the Cave Gardens, also a limestone cave structure under the city, where they have created a beautiful garden.
Thursday the 14th of December we first visited the Valley Lake area and its wildlife park situated next to our campground. In the park you could barely hear yourself think because of the noise the Cicada Chorus make (really big scary flying insects - check out the pic!). Thereafter we left Mount Gambier and headed to our next destination, Grampians National Park.
The Grampians National Park
The south part of the park which we drove through was unfortunately completely burnt down, as we later heard a bush fire in January 2006 burnt down half of the park.
Fortunately it was already on its way to partial recovery although it still looked pretty grim sometimes.
End of the afternoon we reached Halls Gap, a small town in the middle of the park, where we stayed overnight. Friday we went to the Visitor Centre, to get some information on the areas we could visit and the walks we could do. Because of the bush fires in 2006, a big part of the park was since then also closed for visitors because it still is unsafe.
The north part however is untouched by the fire and has some great walking tracks and look outs with good views on the park. The rest of the day we did absolutely nothing, just read books and enjoy a lovely warm and sunny day! End of that day we also realised that we were on the wrong time, by crossing state lines the day before!, it got half an hour later.
Saturday the 16th of December we climbed Boronia Peak, a walk of almost 7 km. It was a lovely walk climbing through tall Messmate forest and native pines. Arrived at the top we had some beautiful views on the park and the surrounding area.
After returning from our walk we continued travelling north, visiting some beautiful look-out points and doing some more short walks.
End of the day we stopped at the very nice Stapylton bush campground, where we had a great view on the nearby mountain ranges. The campground was also used by many kangaroos, so that was fun!
Sunday morning we did another track, climbing Mt Stapylton. This was a beautiful but strenuous walk, also involving some serious rock climbing! Of course the views on the summit were well worth our effort.
Great Ocean Road - Melbourne - Canberra
When we returned from our walk the beginning of the afternoon, we left Grampians National Park and travelled south, where we arrived in Warrnambool end of the day. This town on the south coast is the beginning of the famous Great Ocean Road.
Monday the 18th of December we started our drive on the Great Ocean Road. We had already been here in 2001, but we both wanted to see it again (at a slower pace this time). We stopped at all the mayor sites to admire the beautiful limestone rock structures, shaped by wind and water. It was a beautiful day, so we felt really lucky. Compared to our first visit, we definitely saw some changes in the structures, at least two pillars have collapsed with the Twelve Apostles.
End of the day we stopped at Apollo Bay where we spent the night.
Tuesday we continued our journey on the Great Ocean Road. Although with this last part of the road there weren't any limestone structures to be seen, the coastline and surrounding forests were still beautiful. In the Eucalyptus forests on the side of the road we also spotted many koalas doing their thing (eating and sleeping).
After finishing the Great Ocean Road we travelled further north, also going through Melbourne. It was nice to have a quick look at the town again. Since we had already visited the city a few years before, we didn't stop here.
I (Linda) had come up with the great idea of going to the Australian Alp area (Mt Buffalo and the Alpine National Park). So we drove from Melbourne north to Wangaratta and then followed the Alpine Road to the mountains. After Wangaratta it got a bit hazy, but it didn't smell like smoke, so we continued. When the haze got thicker and thicker and we could smell wood burning, we turned around. Although the news only talked about the bush fires going on in the Gippsland area (which is further south), we figured that that smoke travelled a long way to where we were!
Back in Wangaratta at a campground, they told us that bush fires were blazing only 40 km south of Wangaratta!
So we had been at 20 km distance from them, no wonder the smoke got a bit thicker (duhhh!). We just felt a bit stupid, but not too much. In the evening the wind turned and the campground was in the smoke as well. Although we weren't afraid that the fires would reach us, breathing did get a bit difficult at night.
Wednesday the 20th of December we drove a bit further north (away from the fires!)to Albury, entering New South Wales. Albury is a pleasant little town, so we decided to stay here a couple of days. We spent those days doing our Christmas shopping and also buying Christmas decorations for in our campervan.
We also cleaned our van and did our laundry. We are always very happy (not) looking at our clothes when washed, since they always leave the industrial, 20 minutes cold water cycle, washing machines with a few more inexplainable stains than when we put them in!
The 22nd of December we left for Canberra situated in the Australian Capital Territory. Because the ACT has a few big national parks, we decided to drive to Namadgi National Park. Although a large part of the parks was destroyed by bush fires in 2003, the south of this park was still in tact. We bought a camping permit at the visitors centre and went to one of the campsites in the park. We stood there all by ourselves (which is nice although a bit scary sometimes, because you never know what retards you might run into!).
Saturday we did a heritage walk through the park. The park was just lovely with original bush forests and green meadows. Instead of cows however, the land is grazed by hundreds of kangaroos! We had never seen so many at one time.
In the National Park at Honeysuckle Creek and in the Orroral Valley, space tracking stations operated from the early 1960's to the early 1980's. They were instrumental in monitoring the Apollo program. Honeysuckle Creek was the first place on earth to receive the images of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.
When we returned from our walk, we left the campground and drove to the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex. There we saw several very interesting displays on explorations in space and also a film of a mission to the Hubble Telescope.
Late that afternoon, after having done some last minute Christmas shopping, we went to the campervan park in Canberra, where we would stay during the Christmas period. We had expected it to be completely full, but it turned out to be extremely quiet instead.
Sunday the 24th we met up with Patrick and Stephanie (from our Galapagos trip)and his parent and sister, at the Australia National Museum.
That night we all met up again at the Irish Club for drinks. Probably everyone had left the city to celebrate it elsewhere, since it was pretty quiet. When it closed at 10 (what time is that for a bar to close!), we went to another (very shabby) establishment situated under ground (how appropriate). Even though the rest of the crowd wasn't all too flashy, we still had a good time catching up.
Christmas morning we spent getting ourselves ready for Christmas dinner at Patrick's uncle and aunts place. We had bought some new clothes to make ourselves presentable for the occasion.
They had prepared a great traditional Christmas dinner with for starters champagne (always good!) and then for dinner different types of roast, beautiful vegetables and potatoes, all of that accompanied by great wines. Desert was Christmas pudding with custard (yummy!). We had such a great Christmas day with lovely hospitable people.
Tuesday the 26th, Boxing Day, we first visited the House of Parliament, which was very impressive. We also went to the roof of the building where we had a great view on part of the city and on the old House of Parliament. We then went to Patrick's parents' place who had invited us to join them for BBQ and Christmas leftovers, and to watch the cricket (also a big Aussie tradition on Boxing Day). We didn't see much of the cricket (maybe just as well since we do not understand the game) but we did enjoy a great BBQ outside by the pool with the family.
Wednesday the 27th of December we visited the Canberra War Museum. This museum holds a very comprehensive exhibition on all the wars where Australians have been involved in; from planes, to maquettes of invasions, to original film material to pictures of war heroes and so much more. We left after about 3 hours while we still hadn't seen everything.
Sydney
After our visit to the museum we drove from Canberra to Sydney. Before heading to a campground we first drove through the city, which was as captivating as ever. We also went to a huge shopping mall in Bondi Junction nearby Bondi Beach.
The 28th of December we went to Bronte Beach in Sydney (next to Bondi), where Crispin was celebrating his birthday. We had met Crispin and Rochelle in 2004 during one of our dive trips in Cairns and had stayed in touch.
We enjoyed a lovely day on this beautiful beach with a nice BBQ and playing petanque and frisbee. We left way too late, so when we finally arrived at the campground, it was closed and apparently completely booked. We did however remember our old access code, so we entered anyway and stayed on a grass site that night (only a bit illegal!).
Friday the 29th of December we left before 7 o'clock, so they wouldn't catch us in the act. Because finding a campground had proved to be a bit difficult (and expensive) in Sydney, we decided to drive a bit further north to Wisemans Ferry.
After we left all the Sydney suburbs behind us, the landscape became very green and hilly, quite a change from the city. The beginning of the afternoon we arrived at Wisemans Ferry, a tiny town at the Hawkesbury River. When we got the last available spot on the campground, we finally realised that the school holidays had begun! We spent the rest of the day just relaxing and drinking a few beers at the camp bar. That night it started to rain, but that had cleared early the next day.
From Wisemans Ferry we drove a beautiful stretch of road alongside the river. By going south in the direction of Sydney again, we also passed some other National Parks. We finally drove all the way to beautiful Palm Beach, which is at the far north end of Sydney. We had hoped to find a nice campground there, but we weren't too lucky. We had to drive for another 2 hours before finally (after some begging) got a place on the parking lot of a campground (for which we still had to pay 25 dollars!). Nevertheless we were very relieved not having to spend the night alongside the road.
The 31st of December we drove to Bondi Beach where we would celebrate New Years Eve with Belinda (ex-colleague of Rolf). We were lucky enough to find a parking place for our campervan just outside of her building.
Even though Bondi is part of a very big city, it still gives you a trendy beach resort feeling. The beach is just gorgeous and also the boulevard is nice. We ended up in a nice bar on a side street of the boulevard having tapas and a few beers (it's a tough life we lead indeed).
End of the afternoon we returned to Belinda's place, where we enjoyed a few glasses of champagne. We were then also joined by Kylee, a friend of Belinda. After the hors d'oeuvres we took a cab to the ferry to watch the nine o'clock fireworks. We had left a bit late (forgot about the time completely), but we made it just in time. Of course the harbour area was already filled with people who wanted to watch the fireworks from the shore. We had to push and struggle our way to get to the ferry. On the ferry we ran into Martin, another Aussie (former POM) colleague of Rolf).
It was just beautiful cruising through Sydney harbour and watching the fireworks go off. It was a pity that they didn't light any fireworks from the Harbour bridge itself, but they had saved that of course for the midnight fireworks.
When we returned to Bondi, we had a few more drinks (great punch, just lemonade!), before watching the big fireworks on TV.
They were great and seemed to last forever. Thereafter we had a beautiful BBQ.
After a good night sleep (although a bit short) and a good breakfast at Belinda's, we continued our New Years Celebration at the pool. With some more champagne and a bunch of shrimps we enjoyed a beautiful sunny day.
Tuesday the 2nd of January we went with Kylee and Belinda to the Iceberg, a swimming club overlooking beautiful Bondi Beach. There we had another few drinks (isn't life a bitch) before leaving Sydney end of the afternoon.
Our plan was to get to the Blue Mountains, where we then could do some walking. By the time we arrived in Katoomba it was raining and the only campground they had was completely booked out! A bit tired and cranky, we decided to spend the night on a parking lot in town. We didn't feel all that comfortable also because we didn't know if it was allowed to camp there.
About half an hour after our arrival, another campervan arrived and about 2 hours later 8 campervans in total had parked on the same parking lot! We then felt a lot better!
The next morning it still rained and we couldn't see one bit of the Blue Mountains. Since the campground was booked out anyway, we decided to leave the Blue Mountains for a next time, and continue our drive further north, where the weather would hopefully be better.
We drove through Wollemi and Yengo National Park before arriving in Singleton mid afternoon. We found a decent campground where we could do the necessary washing. It turned out to be a lovely sunny day, so we also went into the campground pool for a quick swim.
Thursday the 4th of January we could finally update our website (sorry for the long wait but we have been a bit busy... having fun and drinking). That night we also went to the movies. We saw the new Bond movie, which was pretty great.
Hunter Valley
Friday we drove from Singleton to the Lower Hunter Valley. This area is famous for its wineries. It was a beautiful sunny and warm day and the scenery of the valley is just gorgeous! It is quite a large valley situated between the mountain ranges in the distance. Green hills and large stretches of vineyards as far as the eye could see. They were all heavy with ripe grapes as the picking season was only 2 weeks away.
We visited a number of wineries that day and also a tiny cheese factory. At each winery we only tasted their Shiraz wine, so we would be able to make a good comparison. We finally bought two different makes of Shiraz and a port. One bottle of Shiraz and the port we bought at the Wyndham winery, who were the first to bring the Shiraz to Aussie. End of the day we stopped in Cessnock, a cute little town right in the centre of this beautiful valley.
After all of the crap wines (boxes 5 litres for $10!) we have been drinking in Aussie so far, you can imagine that we thoroughly enjoyed our first bottle of Shiraz at the campground!
Nelson Bay
Saturday the 6th of January we left Cessnock and drove to Nelson Bay at the west coast. By driving through town, we immediately noticed by the crowds on the streets that this was a popular holiday destination, mainly for Aussies.
After booking a dive trip for the next day, we walked around the harbour area a bit, bought some fresh fish for on the BBQ and had a few beers in a bar on the promenade.
End of the day we went looking for a place to camp, which was actually a lot harder than anticipated. We finally found a spot in Anna Bay. This was the most expensive place so far, $40 a night (which left us in shock). According to the manager, we were travelling in the wrong season (high high higher peak!). That night we enjoyed our fish sashlicks and our garlic shrimps (yummy).
Sunday the 7th of January we left the campground really early to get to the dive shop at the harbour. There we got our gear and went on the boat who brought us to Broughton Island. The weather wasn't too cooperative, it was a bit windy and cloudy.
Again we had a five mill. wetsuit nonetheless we couldn't stop swearing when we got in the water for our first dive. Bloody hell, it was just freezing cold (16 degr. as we found out while diving). Since we were diving without a hood on, it felt even colder. The dive was beautiful. We went through little swimm throughs, fully grown with coral and we also saw a grey nurse shark, who look more dangerous than they actually are.
After a surface interval of on hour, we had to get back into the water again. Rolf was still trying to warm up after the first dive and since he also still couldn't stop shaking, he decided to sit this one out. Although I had my doubts about going by myself for the first time ever, I still went for the second dive, buddied up with someone in our group. Also this dive was very good (saw a nurse shark cruising right at us this time!) and I was proud of myself that I had gone by myself. After a little over half an hour into our second dive, part of our group had to go up since they were low on air, my buddy and I however could choose to extend our dive. By that time I couldn't stop shivering and shaking because of the cold (second dive you cool off even quicker), so we decided to go up as well.
Luckily on our way back to shore, we warmed up pretty fast. Back in town the beginning of the afternoon, we drove to a look-out, which gave us an excellent view on the complete Nelson Bay area.
Barrington Tops National Park
Thereafter we drove north west to a campground in Clarence Town which is situated near the Barrington Tops National Park.
Monday the 8th of January we started to explore the south side of the National Park. It was raining a bit, so we kept our walks in the park rather short. The Park was just beautiful. Large green forests (because of all the rain of course), mountains, little creeks and plenty of wildlife (lots of birds, kangaroos and wallabies). The most part of the park is inaccessible. As a matter a fact a plane is stilling missing after crashing in the park fifteen years ago!
In the afternoon we drove south to Singleton again (where we had been a few days before as well). It was a bit hazy in town, caused by the direction of the wind blowing the smoke from the Victoria Gippsland fires all the way to the south part of New South Wales.
Tuesday we drove via the west to the north side of the Barrington National Park. Via an unsealed gravel road we climbed up till we drove practically on the mountain ridges. The views on the National Park and the surrounding areas were simply amazing. This park has some of the steepest mountains of whole Australia.
That night we stayed on a bush campground near the beautiful Devils Hole Look-out. We lighted a fire and enjoyed one our best self prepared dinners ever; we prepared our vegetables and potatoes in the campfire and had beautiful fresh fish with it. At night we just enjoyed the serene quietness, our glowing campfire and a perfect starry sky.
Wednesday the 10th of January, we drove further through the park, visiting some more great look-outs, before finally leaving the park.
Armidale & New England National Park
In the afternoon we arrived in Armidale, a beautiful town, full of history and nice historic buildings. The weather was great, nice and hot (35 degr), so the swimming pool at the campground came in handy.
Thursday after having done the necessary laundry and cleaning of the car, we walked through town a bit and visited the local pub, which had nice amber beer on tap.
Friday the 12th of January we left the campground and went to the visitor centre where our historic tour of Armidale would start from. During this very interesting two and a hour tour, we learned all about the history of the first settlers, the great historic buildings and so much more. We also visited two art galleries, the historic train station (with only 1 train to Sydney each day) and the historic University House.
After our tour we left Armidale and drove west on the Waterfall Highway. This highway is the third most scenic route in Australia (after the Great Ocean Road in Victoria and the road up to Daintree National Park in Queensland). After driving it, we can say that we totally agree.
The road lead us past beautiful forests, gorges, waterfalls and look-outs over the beautiful New England National Park. End of the day we drove via an unsealed road into the park, where spent the night on a beautiful bush campground. We were visited by a kookaburra, really a nice looking bird with a very distinctive sound (a crazy hysterical laugh going like: ooh ooh ahh ahh ahh ahh ahh. Click to hear it), which is very catching.
Saturday the 13th of January we did a nice walk to Wrights Look-Out. It was a beautiful sunny day and when we reached the top we had an amazing view on the park.
We think that this is definitely one of the most beautiful national parks of the country.
Coffs Harbour
After our walk we left the park and drove through mountains, green hills and pastries with cows and horses, to Coffs Harbour. There we booked a dive tour for the next day and did some web browsing in the library to figure out our next destination when we hand in our campervan.
Sunday morning really early we went to the dive shop to get geared up. The boat then took us to the Solitary Islands Marine Park. It got pretty choppy on our way over to the dive site, making me feel a bit nauseous. Luckily this feeling usually passes when I get into the water.
When we got into the water for our first dive, we first did a buoyancy check, to see if we had enough weights on to get us under water. This attempt failed miserably, so we added some more weight and swam to the front of the boat where we would descend from. By the time we reached the descend line we were already exhausted from the swim against the current. When we still couldn't get down, we swam back to the boat to add even more weights. After our second swim to the descend line I was really tired and getting a bit anxious as well. That time I descended but Rolf still couldn't. I then resurfaced and returned to the boat, basically giving up to join for the first dive. Rolf returned a bit later, since he had found out that he had lost his weight belt altogether, so there was no way he could get down!
We felt pretty silly by that time (and I still felt nauseous as well). We did however got a second chance when the rest of the group returned from their dive. We got a new guide who took us with him, while the rest of the group took their break. The diving was just awesome! The coral was beautiful and the marine life amazing. We saw a grey nurse shark, nudi branches and the biggest wobbagong shark we had ever seen (2 mtr), resting in a coral cove.
After this dive we had a short break after which we started our second one. By that time I was really sick, resulting in all sorts of unpleasantness. Fortunately while diving the feeling past away, so I could still enjoy this dive. This time we also saw a beautiful turtle.
The one hour trip back to shore was just one big disaster (for a number of people on the boat, so I didn't feel too embarrassed). After our return we bought some pills to make sure this doesn't happen again! The rest of the day we just relaxed (even slept a few hours), to recover from this very strenuous day!
Monday the 15th of January, after having updated our website and did some shopping, we left Coffs harbour.
From Coffs harbour we drove a bit further north to a campground at Red Rock, situated on the coast at a lovely bay.
Washpool & Gibraltar National Park
Tuesday we drove inland to Washpool National Park which is also part of the New England Mountain Range. In the park we found a beautiful bush campground which lay in the middle of the forest. Many different types of birds came to pay us a visit that afternoon and evening. The remainder of the day we just relaxed, enjoyed the animals and naturally built a nice fire.
Wednesday the 17th of January, after breakfast, we did a very nice walk through partly a subtropical rainforest and partly a dry sclerophyl forest. The latter can survive bushfires which comes in handy in Aussie and 80% of all forests in Australia are of this type. During our walk we also saw a very rare 1000 year old tree, which was just huge! The walk finally led to a summit giving us excellent views on the park.
After our walk we drove a short distance to Gibraltar National Park (still the same mountain range). There we stayed on another bush campground which was definitely more popular than our previous one since all sites were occupied. This campground also had (cold) showers which was very pleasant after having walked a few hours in the heat.
Thursday the 18th of January was yet another lovely warm and sunny day. In the morning and part of the afternoon we did two walks in the park. On our first walk we went to the Needles, an interesting rock formation and the second was around a swamp with a climb to the summit of some very large rock formations. The swamp was full of beautiful flowers and the summit gave us 360 degr. views on the park and the surrounding areas.
Glen Innes to Tamsworth
After our walk we left the National Park and drove further west, ending up in Glen Innes, a 'Scottish' town, very proud of its heritage. We found a campground just outside of town where we did our laundry and enjoyed a well deserved rest.
Friday we first visited the Australian Standing Stones, 'The Site to see' in Glen Innes, commemorating their heritage.
Thereafter we continued our drive to the west. By doing so we descended from an altitude of almost 1000 mtr to around sea level. After having enjoyed the nice warm days, the pleasantly cool nights and the green hills and lush forests, we now arrived in yellow grassed, dusty and dryer surroundings. Quite a change you can say.
Just before arriving in Warialda, we took a turn to Cranky Rock Nature Park, where there was a campground. Even though it didn't have all the amenities, the fact that it had its own little bird park and was visited by possums at night, made up for a lot! The caretaker also provided us with some cold beers, which of course were very welcome in the at least 40 degr. heat!
Saturday the 20th of January, after having had a cold shower out in the open, we walked to Cranky Rock, just outside of the campground. There we had a nice view on the creek below and the surrounding park.
When we entered the park we were notified by info bulletins that the park had just been re-opened after its December 2006 and January 2007 bushfires! After another few kilometres we saw the extent of the burned area, always a sad sight. Unfortunately a few camping areas and walking trails where therefore also closed.
Further west however we found a beautiful untouched forest area which also had a great bush campground with every amenity possible, flush toilets, hot showers, barbeques and fireplaces. The place was also crowded with many animals, like rock wallabies, kangaroos, kookaburra's etc. etc. In short, a great place!
Sunday the 21st of January, after breakfast, we did a few walks in this gorgeous park.
We went to a few look-outs with amazing views on the park. Because of the great location, the nice weather, the animals and the great price (only $6), we decided to stay another night. That evening we could even watch our favourite show ("so you think you can dance"), because just a few hundred metres further, on top of the mountain, there was the radio and television tower. Never had such a good reception before!
Monday we left the park after breakfast, and by driving down the mountain range and further south, we immediately noticed the temperature rising to an uncomfortably high level.
The beginning of the afternoon we arrived in Tamworth. There the biggest Country Music Festival in the Southern Hemisphere is held each year from the 19th till the 29th of January.
The main streets and all the venues were filled with people enjoying the numerous music acts. After having enjoyed several acts and several beers, we went looking for a campground. We were extremely lucky to find an unpowered site on a campground just 3km outside of town. However with only 1 shower and 1 toilet for at least 80 people, it wasn't the best campground we ever visited (but for sure one of the most expensive)!
Tuesday the 23rd of January, after having watched and listened to a few more acts on the streets of Tamworth, we left for hopefully cooler places. Tamsworth had been an amazing hot experience, but the festival had been fun though.
End of the afternoon, after driving through a beautiful National Park and visiting two waterfalls in the rain, we found a sign to a campground. We booked in at a resort and then drove a few kilometres further where the campsite would be. There wouldn't be any water, since the water pump had just broken down but since we didn't feel like driving anymore, we negotiated a lower price and went anyway.
The campground was nothing more than a meadow with some rundown buildings and a lot of cows on it! The cows left soon enough, but they left a lot of cowsh.t behind. The surroundings were however very pretty. The rain cleared the end of the afternoon, so it became quite pleasant.
Port Macquarie
Wednesday, after having had a shower at the resort, we drove east to Port Macquarie. Here we found a nice campground just outside of town. Port Macquarie is a very nice coastal town with a lovely beach. That afternoon we did some shopping and walked around town a bit before returning to the campground.
Thursday the 25th of January we updated the website, did a nice walk and visited a local pub to test Tooheys Old (lovely dark beer).
Friday the 26th (Australia Day), we drove from Port Macquarie further south. We made a short detour inland to Tapin Tops National Park (and almost ending up back in Port Macquarie again!). In the park we did a few short walks to a beautiful waterfall and some look-outs.
New Castle
Thereafter we further in the direction of Newcastle. Our plan was to check out some of the festivities for Australia Day in a big city. On our way to town we drove through a beautiful area with many coastal lakes.
Unfortunately (like in 2001), we also missed out on this years celebrations. We simply couldn't find them. Since it was already beginning of the evening, we started looking for a campground in or close by the city.
And of course, we couldn't find that either! After having driven another 40 or so km further south, we finally found a terribly overpriced caravanpark in Belmont.
Saturdaymorning we drove back to Newcastle since we hadn't really visited the city back in 2001. We were pleasantly surprised by the city. It has some lovely old buildings and a couple of great beaches. We did a long walk alongside the coastline. Thereafter we found ourselves a nice bar with an outside terrace on the waterfront (who could ask for more).
In the afternoon we left the city and drove to Watagans National Park, a tiny park south west of Newcastle. There we spent the night on a free bushcampground (to compensate for the night before!) This time, because of a total fire ban, we weren't allowed to build our own fire.
Kiama & Wollongong
Sunday the 28th of January, after driving through the park some more and visiting a nice look out, we left the park and drove south. The end of the day we arrived in Kiama, which is 120 km south of Sydney, on the coast. We had already stayed on the same campground in 2001, bit it had undergone some nice changes in the meantime.
Still situated right at our own private beach, but now also with swimming pool, internet facilities and tennis courts.
A bit tired of all the driving around, we decided to stay here till Friday morning.
The next few days we spent swimming in the ocean (great way to wake up), shopping in Wollongong, walking a very nice coastal trek to Kiama and relaxing. You may think how can they get more relaxed than they already are, well, you can never be too relaxed!
Sydney
Friday, the 2nd of February, after having made a short detour to Saddle Back Mountain look out, where we could see part of Budderoo National Park and part of the East coast, we travelled to Bondi Beach. We had been invited by Belinda to come and celebrate her birthday.
We met up with Belinda and Kylee for drinks at the Beach Road Hotel (which we found after having walked around for about an hour and having sent numerous text messages back and forth). That evening we had dinner with Belinda in a very nice Italian restaurant on the boulevard.
Saturday morning, we walked to Bondi Beach for some shopping, internetting and sightseeing. In the afternoon Belinda cooked us a great BBQ lunch, to provide us with a bit of a base for the big party taking place that evening.
The party started end of the afternoon with drinks (and a lot of them) at the Bondi Beach Hotel. At around 8 that night we went to a great Thai restaurant for a wonderful dinner (with some more drinks). It was a great group of people, so it was a lot of fun.
After finishing dinner most of the guests went along for the big finale, a karaoke bar in downtown Sydney. We had some doubts beforehand, thinking that we would never ever get on a stage and make complete asses of ourselves... But this was different than expected. We had a small private booth, with some couches, a tv, some microphones and a lot of famous karaoke songs. Everyone just sang along and we had a fabulous time! One hour wasn't even enough, so another one was quickly arranged. After all this singing we were a bit thursty, so we visited another bar. This was the end of the party for us, but a few went on till the early morning!
Sunday wasn't the best of days (for me), to say the least. It was pretty uggly, of course suffering with a mayor hang-over from the night before, but also having caught some sort of bug, leaving me feel pretty nauseous throughout the day. End of the afternoon I had recovered enough to pack up our stuff and leave Bondi again.
Blue Mountains
Like the beginning of this year, we headed for the Blue Mountains again (hoping that it wouldn't rain this time around). It was a lovely day and we made it in time to the campground in Katoomba, so we didn't have to spend the night at the carpark.
We then visited the Edge, a six story high movie screen, showing a beautiful film on the history and future of the Blue Mountains. In the afternoon we went south, to Janolan Caves, which lie on the west side of the Blue Mountains. This area is famous for its cavesystems. The complete area is about 9 km long and 300 mtrs wide and it is believed that some of the caves could be more than 340 million years old, making them the oldest known caves in the world. Currently 10 caves are open to the public, but explorations of the area still continue. The little settlement itself, situated between steep walls of rock and with views on the mountainrange, was just adorable with a few beautiful historic buildings, reminding us of Belgian houses.
We found a campground in Oberon, 30 km further than the Janolan Caves. Tuesday we returned to Janolan and booked two tours for the day. We first visited the Temple of Baal in a 1 1/2 hr tour. This cave was just beautiful with many white cristals, helictites, stalagmites and stalagtites. In one part of the cave they showed a waterfall light display while playing the classical version of Queens "who wants to live forever". The acoustic in the cave and the lights flowing over the limestone formations, made this an amazing experience.
After lunch we did the second tour, visiting the River Cave. This cave has big clear pools of water in it, which naturally means great reflections.
We had to climb and descend almost a thousands steps during the tour, but it was worth the effort. This cave has three of Jenolan's largest crystal formations and the beautiful 'Minaret'. Even though we have only visited 2 of the 10 caves, these were already the most beautiful we have ever seen (and we have seen a few).
Wednesday the 7th of February we drove from Oberon to Janolan Caves again. Included in the tour of the day before, we could still visit Devils Coach House and Nettle Cave by a self guided tour. Also these formations were amazing and quite magical.
End of the morning we drove to Lithgow. After updating our website in the public library and doing some shopping, we went to the camground. By that time we were in the middle of a hailstorm with very large hailstones. Pretty scary actually. We couldn't do much packing then, so delayed that to the next morning. In the evening we received a phonecall from Ronald (Linda's brother) saying that we had become uncle and aunt of a nephew, Sven Johan! Everything is well with mother and son (and father).
Thursday the 8th of February we packed up all our stuff (and we have accumulated lots of stuff!) and drove back to Sydney. After dropping our luggage off at Belinda's, we returned the Britz campervan. We then went back to Bondi by train and bus. To 'celebrate' the end of Aussie, we went to a nice bar for some drinks and tapas.
Friday morning we went to the airport to catch the 9 o'clock flight to Fiji. Here we will spend the last (boeoeoeoeh) 2 weeks of our trip.
The End of Australia
Like always we have enjoyed ourselves very much during our time in Aussie. When we arrived here the middle of October 2006, it felt like coming home. Also the way of travelling (by campervan) felt very comfortable. It was a great luxury to be able to unpack and leave it unpacked for the next couple of months. Also being able to cook yourself was great after having had so many restaurant meals the months before!
In about four months we have driven around 20.000 kms. We loved the west and south coast of Australia, parts we had never seen before. We visited some beautiful National Parks, did some beautiful treks, did some great dives and saw some nice cities.
We also enjoyed a great Christmas and New Year here with lovely people.
This time we did the camping thing a bit different than usual. Instead of going to all the four star campgrounds we now did a lot of bushcamping, which was a great experience.
The last month we took it a bit slower, staying in the same state and trying to visit all the mayor sites. We really loved that. New South Wales is green, has mountains, vineyards, gorgeous beaches and some lovely cities.
Now it is time of leave again, feeling a bit sad, but not too much since we still have one last adventure to look forward to!
Till Fiji!
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