Travelling in Australia - a long email again

[Kristina Hoffmann]

hello from Sydney,
 
it's about time to tell you a bit about my adventures..  now that we've finally left perth more than a month ago. but travelling doesnt help to write emails, especially when yuo are on the road most of the time :)

 

ok, where have i been with telling you about me and my life of my little holiday here in australia?? ... anyway, after having lived in perth for about 6 month, we left the city on 22. june after a really nice farewell party with our friends from there. "we" are saskia (friend of Bine, who owns the car), andrew (her boyfriend), Bine and me. so you can imagine - our car was full! really full :)

 

and believe it or not - after only one hour, we were lost already in big Australia :)  but that's been the only time really. our trip goes first up north - and in the summer. yeah! all along the coast.
 
the first stop after only a couple of hundred kilometers was just to sleep. still in a cabin as temperature is so cold. even if we were laughing when arriving in Australia about the "winter" here given the much colder temperatures in europe in winter, we are freezing here too by now :) 

 

the first real stop has been close to Monkey Mia where you could watch dolphins which came to the beach and were fed. it's really nice, even if we have seen dolphins jumping out and in the water regularly in Fremantle Habour in Perth. it's different to have them 20cm in front of you. 

 
after this touristic attraction we continued up north and it slowly got warmer - so that we had our first night in the tent in Choral Bay. we have a big tent (for 6 people i think) and we got pretty fast in building and un-building it with the time. camping is great! the camp sites are well affordable as well - which is good, as i wouldnt consider Australia as cheap. Choral Bay is a little tiny town at the Ningaloo Reef. the Great Barrier Reef at the east coast is much more popular and known as it is the biggest coral reef, but i would say the Ningaloo Reef is as beautiful, less touristic, less destroyed yet and better accessible. so we used the possibility and went snorkelling. what an experience. soooo beautiful. i have been once before in April (oops - have never written yet about the trip to Queensland, have i?) in the Great Barrier Reef, but the water was so cloudy  there, i couldnt see a thing. but this time - wow! corals everywhere, mountains and valleys, colours, and so many different fishes in all colours everywhere... amazing! i loved it. it's been like you see it in television. 
and the whole coast is just beautiful around here. cristal clear water, white beaches, beaches consisting only of snow-white shells, sun, sun and sun, ... 

 

our next stop has been Broome which everybody had recommended to us. unfortunately we never found out why. nothing to do here. we stayed a couple of days, still couldnt figure out what this town is famous for, but enjoyed the days of "doing nothing but relaxing" a lot. for that - i can really recommend Broome. :)

 

we were more than 1000km north by now, through bushland, red earth, often nothing as far as the eye can see, many many dead kangoroohs at the side of the street, ... but where are actually the ones jumping around and being alive? we still dont believe that they really exist outside wildlife parks. never saw one in more than half a year being here. what a pity. but we saw many roadtrains - big trucks with a length up to 50m racing along the streets. quite impressive sometimes.

anyway, for us, it was time to turn a bit direction northeast - into the Kimberley region. mountains and beautiful nature. and some adventure.

 

well, we have been thinking before that it might be "interesting" to break down in nowhere. given that australia consists more or less of "nowhere" :)

we were on our way from Broome to Kununurra and soon it all started. first, we lost our exhaust. nice one, isnt it? then found a big spider inside the car... no idea if poisenous or not, but we didnt want to take the risk and just killed it given that most of the deadly spiders are living in Australia :)  then our backlights didnt work anymore until the car didnt work at all anymore and just stopped - somewhere in the dark, 85km before Kununurra... the sky at night with the stars is really beautiful here - and we had a bit of time to watch the stars. although after only 10min a car stopped - yes, the australians ARE really helpful. we didnt even wave, this guy just stopped and whoop.. the guys where under the car to figure out what could be wrong. they didnt, but the guy offered to get a rope to tow us to his house. this "only" meant that he drove the 85km to his home in Kununurra and came back after about 2hours with another friend of his - and some drinks of course. australians! ;)  so we had now more men under the car, and us women were busy watching them until we finally got towed away to their home - and offered to camp in their shed. we gratefully accepted the offer and built our tent in the shed in between cars and bikes and parts of those and all kind of other things you can find in "single men's households" :)  
 
but what a lucky breakdown it has been in the end. they not only repaired our car for free (apparently some cables were destroyed when we lost the exhaust), but have also shown us around. we did a boatstour with their boat up the river, saw awesome places, had a BBQ in the forest with view over the river and mountains in light of the sunset,.. we also went to another river to swim and saw a freshwater crocodile. and even further away to watch saltwater crocodiles in wildlife (the ones which also eat humans :) )... it's been great and unforgettable days. 

BUT - still no kangoroos, even if they are normally "always" spotted at the places we have been to... everybody always say that. i dont believe it anymore... 
in any event, as it has been so nice, we stayed longer than expected and decided to leave Darwin out as we had more of an insight in the country, people, nature than we would have just driving to yet another city. 

 

but now it was time to turn south and cross the country again - and go back to the winter temperatures. brrrr ... and you really feel the difference quickly. especially driving 1000km at once - it makes a difference.

we arrived quickly in the centre of Australia - Alice Springs. a city, far from everything. but really nice in fact. and luckily we found a camp site despite school holidays and peak season here. but after one more night in the tent with 0 degree, we decided to move into a caravan - and sticked to that decision until now. fortunately we had taken our little electrical heater from Perth as it "saved" us... we all agree. :)
we did a little tour here in the West MacDonnell Ranges - wonderful. and finally walking a bit (i wouldnt call it hiking) - which was really nice after spending most of the time in the car travelling these long distances.
 
and now we went to the most famous sight of the country: Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock). and i have to say - impressive to see it in real and from really close. we did the base walk of about 10km around it and just enjoyed it a lot - the silence, nature, the red coulour of the stone, ... everything. really nice. and at sunset... waow. it really changes its colour the whole time. the next day we went to Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) - more "stones" close to Uluru where we did some more walking. and i agree with my friend Maruxa that those were even more beautiful! 
(oh - and Maruxa: the new hiking boots are really good :))))

it's somehow strange and unbelievable, but we made it already half way through the country. ... wow. but well, no wonder as we drove mostly about 600-700km/day or even 1000km.

 

so after another long drive we arrived in Adelaide - and YES - we spotted 4 kangoroos on our way there. free and in wildlife. couldnt believe it. but the only ones until now.

we stayed at a nice cravanpark in Cudlee Creek (30km from Adelaide) in the "mountains". it's really funny as we all agree that the nature looks here a lot like Europe. it feels like home actually.

 

and there is a town called Hahndorf which was a German settlement and now just a tourist town. but good for us to find products from home, eat like at home and therefore buy a lot of food there. we really enjoyed it :)

we actually didnt really see anything from Adelaide, and i dont mind. i'm not really interested to do sightseeing here - which is strange. i normally like to do that in new cities, museums and such included. but as this country is so young and not much of culture or historic buildings to be found ... it somehow doesnt attract me a lot.

 

a couple of days later we were off to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road. a road through beautiful landscapes and then just along the oceans shore. really nice, but wouldnt have been nicer in sunshine. as of Adelaide the rain seems to follow us. and it's cold - of course. 
 
we also stayed a couple of days in Melbourne as the car needed a garage again. and this time i believe the people telling me good things about a place - Melbourne IS really nice. i liked it a lot. even with 3 million people liveing there, it didnt make that impression and i didnt find it stressful at all. i think the old trams do a lot to the positive impressions as well. i definitely had a very good feeling for/about (?) the city! and we even did sightseeing here. :)

 
from here it was only 1000km till  Sydney which we also drove on one day - and now, we are here. Saskia and Andrew try to sell the car, we try to find work and figure out how we want to continue our trip. changes will be made and decisions have to be taken. but lets see. you'll be informed. :)

 

by the way - i like Sydney too. also a big city, but nice. we live in a Motel with view to  habour bridge and opera - so nothing to complain about. and we  even had 1.5 days sunshine after 1 week only rain. which we really enjoyed a lot, walked around a lot, did sightseeing (the botanical garden is beautilful!), ... 

 

sorry, but there is not much coming in my mind to tell about the cities. and if there should be something, i'll hopefully send another email. :)
 
maybe i manage to send some pictures from Aaustralia from here too. i hope you liked the others from Thailand and Vietnam.

 

in any event - i'm really good, enjoying the days and looking forward to whatever will be coming. 
 
i wish you all a good new week and send rainy greetings from Sydney. :)

 

and a very very very big sorry again for may laziness and never replying to any emails. and i'm always so happy to receive personal emails and to be thought of!

 

love, kristina
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