Australia – the East

First 2 months of my 4 months tour through Australia by Greyhound Bus.

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This was my very first solo trip after I finished school, in 2010 / 2011. At a travel office back home, I booked my flights to Sydney and back, the Greyhound Bus ticket (based on kilometers if I remember correctly), as well as a hostel and activities for the first few days in Sydney.

At my bank in Germany, I ordered some Australian Dollars in advance. I had the MasterCard from the Deutsche Bank which allowed me to withdraw money from Westpac ATMs without surcharges.

As travel guide books, I had the Stefan Loose with me, and also “The Australian WWOOF Book” (even though I did not WWOOF in the end).

Since the mobile internet was just in its kids shoes and smartphones did not exist yet, I got an Australian SIM card for my cellphone and a Dodo WiFi Stick that I could put in my Netbook. Most of the time I sat in my hostel or at McDonalds to get internet, though.

My first day Down Under

11 November 2010

Today I landed in Sydney. The flight was very long and unfortunately the second breakfast had to be canceled due to turbulences. But the view of Sydney during the landing was awesome, as the sun was just setting in the back.

After checking in at the Woodduck Hostel (which was complicated, of course, since I was somehow booked into another hostel), I went to pick up our plans and SIM cards at the office a little up the road with Sameria from London. We also went shopping in a supermarket, but the prices here are just terrible! A kilo of apples costs 8 AUD… . I anyways treated myself to an apple, and we bought something to drink.

I share the room, I’m staying in, with 4 boys and a girl. One boy is German, then there are a few Belgians and one guy from England, as far as I know. It’s incredibly tiny and it smells bad, plus the window faces the street, so it’s noisy as well.

In the evening, there was a bit of a program – BBQ on the rooftop terrace, where I talked to some Germans, a Swedish girl and Sameira. Dave and Ton, the organizers, had to get vegetarian stuff first (fortunately Sameira doesn’t eat meat either…).

The highlight of the evening was Glenn, the “Aborigine” (who knows ^^), who danced for us, played Digeridoo and told us about their history.

Sydney

14 November 2010

Here’s a glimpse of the room that I’m currently living in with a girl and 4 boys… Narrow, hot and with humidity like in the tropics -.- Luckily there is a fan that I use from time to time at night…

Yesterday we had “orientation” in the morning, which means we went to close a bank account with Timo (our “guide” or whatever) and applied for tax numbers (of course there was a problem with my account in Germany, so I couldn’t withdraw any money at first, that’s it but fortunately clarified now –.-).
That was the first time I was in Sydney like that. It’s amazing what kind of animals are running around here 😀 I felt like I was in the zoo. Just like the plants – palm trees and colorful trees to see everywhere 🙂 In the city center, there are huge skyscrapers next to colonial looking houses, totally interesting!

In the evening, we went to the Backpackers Lounge and there was Cheese and Goon (that’s the wine here) and a Travel Talk, where a blond guy introduced us to Australia.
This morning, I went to buy a hat with Sameira.

Then we had a harbor cruise, we walked through the botanical gardens to the harbor. There was even a UV warning level 13, so I put on sunscreen a thousand times.
In the botanical gardens, huge bats were just hanging out on the trees!
The view reminded me a bit of Central Park… Only hotter and with more zoo feeling.
Then we walked to the harbor, past the Opera (from up close, it’s not as beautiful as from further away). Then we went on a ship that took us – past the most expensive villas ever (with a view of Sydney’s skyline) – drove to a beach.

Before we get to Watson Beach, we had a walk to a lighthouse, past Hammer lookout points and beautiful houses… and a nudist beach…

It was really windy up there, but the view was great…

Then we went down to the beach, the sand was more yellow than white, totally beautiful! I was even completely in the water 🙂

Later, down in a park, some got something at a fish stand, I went with a couple of guys to get a doner kebab 😉 was actually better than I expected. I was even finally able to photograph a cockatoo. They just fly around here! On the way back, it got a bit cloudy, but fortunately it didn’t start raining, and it was very pleasant after we sweated it out all day at 30 degrees in the shade…

After we were back in the hostel, I went to the backpacker lounge with Lucas and we booked a flight to Cairns relatively spontaneously. On Thursday at 6 a.m. in the morning -.- That means we have to take a taxi there at 4 a.m., that will be fun 😀 But since we always wake up around 3 a.m. anyway because of jetlag and the heat, hopefully that won’t be a problem.

14 November 2010

There was a bit of a party last night, there was a meal and 2 more drinks and entry for free at the “Gaff” for ordering a drink, actually pretty cool! Music was also great, lots of backpackers there, we haven’t met a real Australian yet – except maybe Glenn, but apparently he was also half Irish 😀

Today, we had the beach walk. We walked from Bronte Beach to Coogee Beach. In a terrific heat and mega sun … I’ve got a bit of sunburn on my face now, but it’s still ok.
Actually, the walk would have started at Bondi Beach, but since there is some exhibition there and it was so crowded that you couldn’t take a single step, we started further down (and to be honest, I was happy about that 😀 it was exhausting enough).
We went for a short swim at Coogee Beach, but the waves were sometimes so high that I was spun around and everything was ripped off me… phew, I’m looking forward to it Surfing tomorrow… Although Timo said the waves there weren’t that big…

16 November 2010

Today, we went surfing. Unfortunately, it rained like crazy, but we got wetsuits and when we got into the water it was really comfortable! Before that, when everything was explained to us, it was really cold. We went to a secluded beach, which was totally empty – cool. We then drove to the beach in a four-wheel car or whatever it is called. Well, of course I wasn’t able to achieve a masterly performance in the 2 hours 😀 But it wasn’t quite as bad as my snowboarding beginnings. A few times, I made a nose dip, a few times I drank delicious salt water and with a few exceptions I was always thrown elegantly into the water 😀 But it was a lot of fun, only changing afterwards was a bit difficult,
Apart from planning my trip down the East Coast, I didn’t manage much… By the way, I’m flying to Cairns alone because Lucas bought a car with a few others – that’s okay too 🙂 It starts on Thursday – yippiiieeeee

Oh, I took a look at Kings Cross (the district where the hostel is located – actually the RedLightDistrict :o) )… The travel guide describes it as similar to Hamburg’s Reeperbahn. But it wasn’t particularly interesting, lots of red bars, a McDonalds, internet cafes and lots and lots of backpacker stuff… that’s about it.

Blue Mountains daytrip

16 November 2010

Off to Cairns

21 November 2010

I finally arrived in Cairns. This morning, I got up at 3am to take a taxi to the domestic part of the airport. Samiera came to the hostel again at this time (she moved to another on Monday) because she came from partying :-D. It was really cool because then I could say goodbye to her again. Shortly before 4 am, I was at the airport… way too early, my flight was at 6 am – well, I didn’t want to miss it.
I had to change flights once in Brisbane – what a story. I saw: Aha, my flight leaves Sydney at 6:00 am, boarding in Brisbane is at 6:40 am – kind of a tight schedule. At 7:20 am (that’s when the flight was supposed to leave Brisbane) I got a little uncomfortable up in the air… shit, why am I missing the flight now, we didn’t leave that late in Sydney after all. Hm, well, when we landed, I finally realized that there is an hour difference in time… Well, on time and with a flight an hour longer than expected (I didn’t have breakfast and was hungry!) I flew over the Great Barrier Reef (beautiful from above) to Cairns and as soon as I left the plane, the heat kicked me. Humidity like under the shower and heat despite a relatively cloudy sky.

From above, I thought at first that the city couldn’t be Cairns, I assumed that there would be at least a few skyscrapers here. But no, the town is small and nice, much quieter and “flatter” than Sydney and surrounded by wooded hills in a totally idyllic location. I met a few German girls right away and went for a walk through the city with Tabea. You are not allowed to swim in the sea here (danger of crocodiles), but there is something like a huge free saltwater outdoor pool right by the sea.

The hostel here is also a Woodduck hostel, but it’s a lot bigger, with a pool and each room has its own shower and toilet. There are quite a lot of Germans here…

Tonight there is a BBQ at half past seven and tomorrow morning at half past seven we will be picked up to drive to Cape Tribulation. Tabea happened to have booked the same thing, only one night longer… She was even on the same plane as myself from Frankfurt to Singapore!!! 😀 awesome

Cape Tribulation

19 November 2010

After I had dinner with Tabea (for free) last night, there was a BBQ at the hostel. It’s totally funny what kind of people you meet there. One guy, Jan from Stuttgart, wants to study industrial engineering at the KIT… which I’ll probably do too 😀 Most of them went to a bar to party afterwards, but I got up at 3 a.m…. And I’m less interested in partying here anyway – Carpe diem. My God, I didn’t think it would be so pleasant to sleep in the heat either. I slept really well.

This morning we were picked up by a minibus at half past seven to drive to Cape Tribulation. Into the rain forest. Yes, and it’s not called RAIN forest for nothing…

After everyone was picked up, we first stopped at a café somewhere on the road through nowhere, then we took a boat across the Daintree River … Unfortunately we only saw one small and one large crocodile. Well, little by little it started raining again and again, longer and harder.

As we went further and further north, at some point our guide said we could turn off our mobile phones, there was no network anyway.

We drove over a bridge and herad the story that – although newly built and higher – was a meter under water due to a huge rain shower 4 weeks ago, so that no one could drive back.

We arrived at the Marrdja Boardwalk, a loop trail through the rainforest. Our guide rushed a bit, which I didn’t like that that much. But it was beautiful! There were leaves that feel like plastic, everlasting lianas, smelly mangrove forests, spiders, a hollow tree and finally even a little dragon 🙂

We finally went to Cape Tribulation, a huge city… not… at least there is a small supermarket. Tabea was already let out there, the rest of us then took a bus to the Beach House. Incredibly beautifully situated huts in the rainforest. And here I am staying in a room for six, which I share with a nice Swiss woman and a married couple (the woman snores -.-)

Well, and since the whole thing is called a rainforest, it didn’t stop raining cats and dogs for hours. At some point, my rain jacket was no longer of any use to me.

First of all, I treated myself to muesli which I bought yesterday. Finally MÜSLI again <3
And then, despite the rain, I went exploring the area. I’m only here for one night.

First I went to our own beach, Cape Tribulation Beach, which I could reach from my cottage in about 30 seconds. It is totally beautiful and I was completely alone.

By the way, you are not allowed to go into the water here. Here you can find the deadliest jellyfish in the world, the Irukandji jellyfish: as big as a thumbnail and transparent, you’re dead if you touch it (oh, I’m looking forward to snorkeling the day after tomorrow… ). There is also the box jellyfish and both saltwater and freshwater crocodiles. Well, it rains all the time anyway.
I found two huge, beautiful crabs or something (I had to free the first one from the sand with my orange juice to take some pictures 😀 ). By the way, the beach is not suitable for me. Far too many shells and pieces of coral were lying around… They are now in a bag next to me 😀 Oh and coconuts are driving around everywhere (I didn’t pack them by the way).

Since I hadn’t walked enough, I hiked further to the neighboring beach, Myall Beach. It went down the road, through the rainforest, past a viewpoint for Cape Trib Beach and again I was totally alone – really nice. But also a bit creepy when I thought about, when I would ever be found if a crocodile attacked me…

After 4 hours of just walking, I was sore all over and I was completely, really completely, soaked. After a warm shower and with dirty clothes, I’m lying in bed and lazing around for the rest of the evening. The temperature here is also just perfect. Not too hot, not too cold… awesome…

Incidentally, it suddenly gets dark here. It’s dusk between 6:30 and 7:45, after that it’s pitch black.

So, now I’ll make myself some pasta with sweet and sour sauce and then… hm… what do you do without internet when it’s already dark at 7? Maybe read (the German book I got from the hostel in Sydney)… Then sleep…

Cape Tribulation and back to Cairns

20 November 2010

Today, I got up relatively early (7am) so that I could go for a hike before the bus picked us up again at 1am.

I walked an hour and a half to a swimming area or water hole in a river. Unfortunately, the sun came through from time to time, so I much preferred the pleasantly cooling rain that kept falling.

The river wasn’t particularly interesting and I asked a couple from Cairns who were about to drive back if they could drive me back to the Beach House in their 4×4. In 10 minutes I was back home and was able to spend the rest of the morning reading on the beach or (when the rain started again) at the covered bar.

On the way back to Cairns, we saw a big crocodile, walked another path through the rain forest and stopped in Port Douglas for 45 minutes.

Back in Cairns, I went to dinner with Jan and then to bed 🙂

Great Barrier Reef Snorkeling

21 November 2010

This morning, shortly after 7am, I had a snorkeling tour to the Great Barrier Reef booked. We drove to the Ulouro Reef… or something like that… The boat stopped in 2 places, and we were allowed to snorkel for ages. That was sooo much fun 😀 I also met two girls from Germany with whom I often sat together.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know that there was food on the boat (breakfast, lunch and lots of snacks in between), so I bought some myself beforehand…

First, I wore a stinger suit because it’s actually jellyfish season. But the crew said they hadn’t seen a single jellyfish, so at some point I joined the majority and didn’t wear one anymore 😀 It was even easier without a life jacket (you can’t dive down with it, totally stupid :D)

At the second station we could also go to a sand island… totally cute and small (probably 20m long?). Unfortunately I scratched my sunglasses a bit when it fell into the sand :/

There was a ray, huge starfish (and small ones), obnoxiously large clams that closed their mouths when touched, a turtle I swam with for a bit (god I love those animals <3), a few Nemos, a sea cucumber you can touch (bargs… reminded me of Jackass :D), a mini shark and thousands of beautiful fish.

Conclusion: I love snorkeling 🙂

Mission Beach

23 November 2010

Yesterday morning, I went to the Peterpan (there’s free internet there 😉 ) pretty early in the morning to book my Greyhound bus and the hostel for Mission Beach. Everything worked out great, I booked the same hostel as Lisa, and we went there together today.

At noon, I lazed in the sun… if there was any… and finished my book. Now I still have “The Files” by Grisham, I hope that will be better than the vampire stuff I read 😀

In the evening, I went to the Woolshed with Caro and Sarah, whom I met while snorkeling. It’s a bar where we got dinner for free, for example. But somehow the one guy they met while snorkeling was a bit weird, as was another guy who joined later. At 11 o’clock they went back to their hostel anyway, because they had to wake up early the next day.

I then sat down in my hostel and played drinking games without drinking 😀 Alan always had to drink for me… very nice of him.

This morning, we started packing, then I showed Greta, who had just checked in, Cairns and went with her to buy provisions and we had to walk back to the hostel from the Esplanade in the heaviest rain 😀 Well… rainy season… Hopefully I’ll meet up with her again in Townsville, just like maybe with Caro and Sarah. I want to be in Townsville on Friday because there’s going to be a huge party on Magnetic Island.

At half past one I walked with Lisa (again in the worst rain -.-) to the terminals on the Esplanade to catch the Greyhound bus at 1 am.

We arrived in Mission Beach just before 3:30 and – again – no cell phone reception… It’s probably a bit smaller here, I have to look around tomorrow, I haven’t gotten any further than Woolworths today. And internet is also very expensive! Fortunately, the English lady in my room gave me her remaining few minutes of internet. I guess I’ll use them tomorrow to book a hostel in Townsville.

The hostel (absolut backpackers) is great – totally new, clean, large, friendly employees and the 3 girls in my room are also super nice 🙂 Only now, when it is dark, the loud frogs and animals outside are annoying (there is still a rainforest around here).

In the afternoon, I first called the people I was going to the Whitsundays with (the call costed $1 from the phone from reception -.-) and I got a shock. The woman first said there was no space left until December 30th… Whoa, my heart sank. But then I just misheard, she said November. So now I’m going to the Whitsundays on November 30th for 2 nights with a trimaran. At least, I hope it doesn’t rain all the time – that would be such a pity… well, the beaches are nice even when it’s raining, as I already know…

Tonight there were wraps things. For 5$ on a nice “table” with tablecloths and candles. An English guy showed us the video of his skydive and told us that he saw great white sharks in a cage in South Australia in December… (500$ 🙁 I want to do this too…). Lisa has booked a skydive for Thursday with her friend who is coming tomorrow. Hopefully hers won’t be canceled like the French girl in my room was because of the bad weather.

After dinner Then there was a DVD evening with the film “Grown Ups”, unfortunately I had already seen it (fortunately in German :D) on the flight to Australia… Well, at least I understood more of it in English.

So, now I’m going to sleep… Good night 😉

24 November 2010

The first day in Mission Beach started out very rainy… In a dry minute I went for a short run and at noon I wanted to go to Mission Beach North with Lisa. But since the bus left right in front of us, we hitchhiked 😀 an elderly lady took us in her truck.

Then we walked the way back for an eternity on beautiful beaches, the sun even peeked out for a while and it didn’t rain 🙂 We found a half-dead fish that Lisa saved it by putting it back into the sea, we went for a short swim in an area separated by nets and had to cross a shitty river (fortunately there were no crocodiles in it :D)…

Back at the hostel I lay in the sun by the pool, ate something and read my book…

25 November 2010

This morning, I accompanied Stephanie, Lisa and Laura to their skydive jump to take photos 🙂 It was totally cloudy, but it was awesome for the three of them… Even I was excited even though I didn’t jump. In the afternoon, we went shopping at Woolworths and then the sun came out, and I lounged around a bit, read, ate… In the evening at 8 o’clock there was a quiz… Tomorrow morning at 10 am my bus leaves for Townsville 🙂

Townsville

26 November 2010

Today at 10 am my Greyhound bus left for Townsville (it was 45 minutes late -.-). The ride was quite long, and we made a stop in Cardwill where Lisa and Laura will be staying with a family.
When I arrived in Townsville, I suffered a little shock. The guy at the hostel reception was totally rude and when I went to get money, through the “pedestrian zone” I only saw construction sites… All along the street.

But the hostel is beautiful, unfortunately there isn’t something like quiz night or any joint activities like in the Woodducks….
In the evening, I walked along “the Strand”, a beautiful, long promenade on the beach. Thousands of parrots (the slightly smaller ones, green, red and yellow) sat in the trees and screamed like crazy, on the beach there is a beautiful park with a pavilion, colorful fountains, completely renovated and really cool! Even the palm trees are illuminated 🙂
Luckily I was back home shortly before dark, because there are obviously many homeless people on the street as soon as it gets dark. In the hostel, I talked to two Russian women from Germany and to the girl from my room (who got a tattoo today). I also found out that Caro and Sarah are in the same hostel, so I saw them briefly this morning 😉

Magnetic Island

27 November 2010

This morning at just before 9 am I got to take the ferry to “Maggie”, the island off Townsville. The weather was beautiful, consistently sunny and quite hot.
After wandering around for an hour because I didn’t know whether I should rent a bike or take the bus, I decided to take the bus (it’s really hilly there and Sarah and Caro had been on the bike and told me that had been super tiring).

First I went to Arcadia to Alma Bay, a beautiful beach situated in a small bay where no jellyfish had been sighted.

While waiting for the next bus I met Marie, an Australian girl with whom I then spent a few hours in Horseshoe Bay. She’s from Yamba (south of Byron Bay) and joined the Army for a year after finishing school last year. She was stationed in Townsville, went to Maggie for the weekend and we had a lot in common. She’s also a vegetarian, has two cats (okay… and lots of chickens) and is also her first time away from home on her own. After we had a delicious meal together, we went into the sea (there was a stinger net) and then relaxed on the beach… Later, two of her friends joined us (one is traveling through Europe for one or two years in February). We talked a lot about different things. For example, I was interested in what they learn about history here in Australia (Australian history is very short). She said they just learn Aboriginal history and then colonial history and also a lot of modern times. History isn’t a compulsory subject here either, but she continued to choose it and then there was a lot of ancient European history and especially World War II.
She wanted to know how it is in Germany with dubbed films, whether it doesn’t bother you if the mouth movements are wrong.
She also asked what we do when the weather is bad and cold (she is only used to summer weather), and how we do sport then. I also told her that our boys HAVE to either do compulsory military service or do community service. She was quite surprised (doesn’t exist in Australia) and didn’t understand why the girls didn’t have to do that.
And I tried to explain to her that the bread here is not nearly as good as in Germany. And since she likes traveling so much and would like to go to Europe, I said, then she can taste the good bread, try the cheap cheese and cheap good chocolate.
We talked quite a bit about the two school systems, the different lifestyles and climates…
At around three we parted again because I wanted to see more and she went to sleep in the hostel.

I drove south to Picnic Bay. This is where ferries used to dock and depart, and the long “Jetty” pier is beautiful. Then I walked to a beautiful lookout, the Hawkings Point. It was quite a hassle up because it was so hot, but I saw and heard white and black cockatoos (damn, are they loud), lots of beautiful flowers and spiders and was rewarded with an AMAZING view 🙂 The difference to the tropics was really interesting. Completely different vegetation, lots of rocks, grass, eucalyptus, but I’m always fascinated by Australia’s plants (especially flowers) and animals.

Arriving back at Picnic Bay, I first cooled off in the sea and enjoyed the last rays of sunshine. Shortly after dusk set in, I took the ferry back (I had to wait an hour because I didn’t see that the ferry at 5 to 6 only runs Mon-Fri… but I was not the only one :D)

Back in Townsville it was already dark, I booked the bus and the hostel for tomorrow, looked at Townsville in the dark (pretty nice houses) and had muesli in the hostel. When I was about to go into the room I saw Stephanie (one of the girls who was skydiving) and her friend sitting around, but unfortunately the reception was already closed and that’s why they’re in another hostel now.
Anyway, I’m dead tired now… Tomorrow at a little after 12, my bus leaves for Airlie Beach 🙂

Townsville and Airlie Beach

28 November 2010

Today in the morning I was at a market in Townsville, where they sold little chickens. Then I watched the Bundesliga match FC Bayern vs. Frankfurt in the hostel.

Afterwards, I had a quite a long bus ride to Airlie Beach, with a stopover in the middle of nowhere.

When I got here I was totally exhausted… I took a quick look at Airlie Beach – it really is a very nice town, more lively than Mission Beach, more touristy than Townsville. Then I got my Whitsundays trip ready, started putting stickers on my netbook and watched a movie… I still had some from the girl in my room.

29 November 2010

This morning I walked the Bicentennial Walk to the next Coles a few villages away (there is only an expensive, small supermarket in AB). This walk was newly created and very nice along the beach… But it was blazing hot and 4 kilometers to the Coles…. Fully loaded, we then went back the way -.-

The cool thing is (well… I thought it was cool :D) that the sun is actually at its zenith here at noon. This is never the case here in Germany (and I believe also in southern European countries) because we are too far north! That is to say, when I walked back fully loaded, the sun banged on my head from above.
Unfortunately, it was also low tide, which is why the beaches were a bit muddy and the jellyfish net was dry xD… Still beautiful water.
Incidentally, in Airlie Beach itself there is a wonderful “lagoon”, similar to that in Cairns – artificially created – only nicer, I think. I really need to take a bath there.

I also asked everywhere for a broadband WiFi stick (I wanted the one from Vodafone), but it was nowhere to get. After I bought another pair of shorts (the ones I brought with me from Germany – patched twice already – have holes again and will soon be gone), eaten, read and relaxed, I went to another shopping center at half past four drove further out because 2 ladies in a small shop said they had more knowledge regarding the WiFi sticks there. In fact, after a long search, I found an electronics store with a guy who knew what he was doing. He said that the Vodafone stick would be too expensive and that Vodafone only has the 3rd best reception or the 3rd best area. Telstra would be the best (but also the most expensive and crappy tariffs), then Optus would come. Now I have a Dodo stick from Optus for $50. I activate it on Friday and can then surf 100 hours in the next month (or 5GB… but I think 100 hours is better).

In the evening I went to McDonalds to have internet for a short time. It started to rain so heavy that the streets became torrents and I had to wait until I could go back to the youth hostel -.-
At dinner I chatted with a German guy. We’ll probably go together to Agnes Water/1770 on Saturday…

Well, tomorrow at 11 I’m off to the Whitsundays 🙂 I’ve already bought Seasick Pills because I’m going to be on a ship for the next 3 days… happy!

Whitsundays trip

30 November – 02 December 2010

Agnes Water / Town of 1770

06 December 2010

After 10 hours of an uncomfortable night, in which I barely slept and got a stiff neck, I arrived at Agnes Water this morning at a quarter to 10… As I’m only staying one night I had a full program:

First I did a free “city tour” where we drove to a viewpoint over the village of Agnes Water. Then we went to 1770 (this village has 120 houses and only 60 permanent residents) to a vantage point over the sea and beautiful sandbanks…

Back at the hostel (“Cool bananas”) I booked a Scooteroo trip (I thought about it for a long time… but after I heard that you don’t have to have a driver’s license, you just have to sign something, I invested the $55 … )

With a flame leather jacket, cool tattoos and on a pink bike, I then sped through the area at 80 km/h for three hours. We saw kangaroos and wallabies, as well as quite a few flattened amphibians and reptiles.

The weather was great, it was cloudy at first, later the sun came out briefly, but it wasn’t too warm. Unfortunately, when we wanted to watch the sunset, a thunderstorm came up and we had to rush home early to escape the rain.

It was awesome 😀 Motorcycling isn’t that bad… although 80km/h was enough, I think 😉

Tomorrow morning at a quarter to 10 I’ll leave for Hervey Bay…

The weather will definitely not play along on Fraser, I’m already preparing for some rain… Well, I’m used to it 😀
It’ll be just as rainy afterwards in Noosa, where I’ll be camping in the Everglades for 3 nights from Saturday and going out in a canoe (Gagaju Bushcamp).
I’ve already met some of the two tours who have done it… However, the weather was good… To be honest, I’m quite scared of the Noosa tour. I’ve already researched travel reports on the internet… Hm… 😀 it didn’t alleviate my fear 🙁 The three day tour goes from Boreen Point, across Lake Cootharaba to the black waters of the Upper Noosa River. You’ll camp at Harry’s Hut both nights and on the second day are a canoe and a hike away from the amazing giant sandpatch in the everglades. All camping gear is supplied, but not food.

I’m glad when I have it finished and finally come to a larger city (Brisbane) again !!! There are so many buggers on the east coast, it’s slowly enough for now…

I am in heaven 🙂 Today in the evening, I surfed on Gumtree and found a family in Brisbane who is looking for someone for the period from Christmas to New Year’s Eve to take care of the children and do a bit of housework… I just wrote to them, but never expected them to answer. It is so cool that they did and I hope it works – that would be a dream!!

They want to meet up soon though and I’m canceling my Noosa canoe trip tomorrow (that’s also close to Brisbane so I might catch up afterwards!) so I’ll be in Brisbane from Saturday on…

Hervey Bay

07 December 2010

This morning I drove 4 hours with the Greyhound bus to Hervey Bay. In between, we stopped at a gas station. When we passed a construction site the road was a bit wet and a truck (with 2 trailers) that was driving in front of us turned sideways and almost crashed into the cars in front of us if one of their drivers hadn’t dodged to the oncoming lane… phew…

On the bus, a guy asked me about my Burton backpack, whether I snowboarded… It turned out that he’s also from Karlsruhe 😀 and therefore always shops at the same store than I do, really funny!

When I arrived in Hervey Bay the weather was surprisingly nice so I first went to a book store and then to the beach – to read.
I think I read all the books here that I know from my parents at home 😀 Hakan Nesser, the Eifel series, Grisham 🙂

We then met at half past six to prepare for tomorrow… that took forever, we still had to go shopping and stuff… It’s quarter past ten now and I’m going to pack up my stuff, tomorrow we’ll meet at quarter to seven in the morning -. –

Fraser Island trip

08 – 10 December 2010

Brisbane

11 December 2010

Today, I drove with the Greyhound to Brisbane. The funny thing was that 5 guys who were with me on Fraser took the same bus 😀 2 of them even booked the same hostel in Brisbane as me.

There were only Germans in my room, Dominik, Silke and Kathrin, later Sebastian joined them. I went out the same evening with the former and Chris (there were others from the hostel with us). I absolutely loved how people are dressed here – totally freaky, like you only know from fashion magazines or from the catwalk… You could never walk around like this back home.

12 December 2010

Today at 12 o’clock I met my host mother. She came to a coffee shop with the three children, where we then had a drink and talked. Before that I was so scared, whether we get along well and whether the chemistry was right and so on. But I was really relieved, she is really nice and the kids are really cute. All three are girls, 6 and 4 years and 5 months 🙂

In the afternoon I was still in the city, strolling around a bit, the shops in Australia are also open on Sundays.

In the evening we had a small Advent party in the room, Silke and Kathrin cooked mulled wine together and lit their mini Advent wreath (I have one of those too) 🙂 I downloaded a Christmas carol and yes… it was really nice for Advent… then they gave me told her about her plans to go to Australia Zoo today (Mon) so I went along with that…

13 December 2010

At first, I did not have any pictures of the following day since my memory card broke again. I spend 39 euros later that day for a software to restore them though.

This morning we took the train to Australia Zoo. It was very cool, but we agreed that there was a bit too much show done around Steve Irwin… You can even buy dolls from him, his daughter has her own “Barbie” and clothes!! !!

I could pet koalas and touch kangaroos, even lie down next to some, totally cool!!!

After that I went by bus to my family, they live north of Brisbane, about 7 km from the center. I arrived at 7:00 p.m., was welcomed by my father and the kiddies and I’ve already talked to my father 🙂 now I’m so tired that I just fall into bed… good night 😀

Brisbane Sightseeing

16 December 2010

Today Lisa (my guest mum) dropped me out in town while she took the kids to a pool party, so I could see the city a bit. From the main shopping street, Queen Street, I walked across the river to the Southbank. Of course, the Australian cities don’t have any old buildings steeped in history, but there are some beautiful houses and churches and the modern in particular also makes a difference. The Treasury Casino at the end of Queen St is a very nice building, as is the Library directly opposite – a high-rise building with colorful dice babbled underneath.

A beautiful bridge then leads over the slightly brown river; on the other bank you will be greeted by a Ferris wheel and some concrete blocks, namely museums, the concert hall and another library – welcome to Southbank. The riverside of Southbank is lined with a beautiful park area, which offers a wonderful panorama over Brissie’s skyline. There is a Nepalese pagoda, a small jungle path and, as a highlight, a beautiful artificial bathing lagoon, consisting of a kind of river that is divided into several sections by bridges – sometimes with a sandy beach, sometimes as a children’s water park, sometimes deeper, sometimes with large pebbles…

Behind the parkland there is Stanley Street, where you feel a bit like in a beautiful Mediterranean provincial town, not so crowded, small pedestrian zone, a few cafes… nice markets on Sundays, which I’d love to visit.

From there I then went to the IMAX cinema, the cinema with the world’s largest screen, and watched Harry Potter there. For 6.50$!!!! That’s a price <3 Totally cheap, I was thrilled.

When I came out of the cinema there had been quite a change in the weather… The sky was gray and didn’t promise anything good… So I quickly walked back towards Queens Street, my bus station was also quite a bit away from it away -.-
Just as I was on the bridge it started to rain thick drops, by the time I got to the protective sun and rain sails on Queens Street, I was pretty soaked.
A large tropical thunderstorm slowly moved over the city, there was incredible thunder, lightning, wind and rain.
I went to the Myers shopping center in the hope that the clouds would clear up quickly, but even after a while the weather hadn’t gotten any better.
So I ended up walking the 20 minutes to my bus stop through the pouring rain, over torrent streets and through literal wind tunnel pedestrian crossings…
I arrived “home” soaking wet… I hope my running shoes will be dry again soon! And at least I saved myself a laundry 😉

18 December 2010

Today, I accompanied my host family taking Christmas photos with a professional photographer. Lisa’s sister, who by the way has 3 boys of the same age, also came along (6 kids in one picture was quite a challenge ;-)).
Then we went to eat Yum-Cha, that’s Chinese and there are always waiters with trolleys walking past where you can grab the food – but it wasn’t vegetarian.

In the evening I made my own spaetzle, I thought they were wonderful to be honest 😀 so that I turn out so well oO
Maddi, the eldest, didn’t like them 😀

Afterwards, Louie and Maddi took me to the Lookout, that’s just on the hill behind the house (the country here is very hilly… very nice to go for a run -.-). A fantastic view over Brisbane at night!

19 December 2010

Today I was a bit over at the neighbor’s, she is originally from Tübingen and also has a “help” like me with her – Nora, also from Germany. We ate some cookies and drank tea.

Since it rained all day, we baked vanilla crescents (I prepared the dough with Emme, the middle one, on Saturday), after we had visited Lisa’s parents
After initial difficulties with Maddi (the dough continuously broke… but you only have to warm it up with your hands), it worked out quite well, Lisa also helped diligently. Emme designed more like crumb cookies and little lumps… well 😉

Original Austr(al)ian vanilla crescents 😉 – they taste heavenly 🙂 especially since they don’t have vanilla sugar here and so we had to stir a vanilla pod into sugar… yum!

20 December 2010

I have been with my host family for a week now and it’s time to report something again.

I accidentally saw the ad of the mother Lisa on Gumtree about two weeks ago and then answered directly (in such bad English 😀 embarrassing). Since I didn’t dare to hope for an answer from her at all, due to my English and my not exactly outstanding previous knowledge, I was quite flabbergasted when I met Lisa and her 3 girls in a coffee shop last Sunday. Well, on Monday I came here it all started.

My tasks here are loading and unloading the dishwasher, hanging up laundry and occasionally looking after the children or keeping them busy. In return, I get free accommodation and food, a nice shower, my own room and a washing machine.

The kids are 6 and 4 years and 5 months old.

Most of the time, I accompany the mother, Lisa, during the day when she does something with the kids (Lisa is still on maternity leave, so she’s free).

The mother from Louie (the father) is from Salzburg, just like my grandma… Totally funny. And Lisa’s father is originally from Manchester.

Well, I will continue to report, I will stay with the family until the beginning of January. On January 1st we’re going on holiday together to Noosa, which is where I would have gone next anyway (after that we’re going back south, but I skipped Noosa to get to the family faster). There they have booked a holiday home, right on the beach 🙂 let’s see.

21 December 2010

This morning I took care of Emme – the middle one – for a few hours. We walked to the Lookout together and picked flowers 🙂

Tonight we went to two churches, watch Christmas lights… Both were pretty crazy. The first had a huge angel standing in the forecourt and everything was full of lights – Christmas koalas, kangaroos, camels, nativity scenes and angels, shepherds and palm trees and writing… Holy Mary, I thought only the Americans were so crazy 😀

The second church played loud Christmas music and Bible readings all the time – then there was a flashing light theater…. Inside there was a “Christmas path” (where you could also keep little chicks) and … model railways -.-

I wonder where the churches get so much money here from… and… we should actually introduce something like that here too 😀 I would only feel sorry for those who live next to the church…

22 December 2010

This afternoon I met up with Dominik in town… I did my last Christmas shopping and otherwise we just chatted around 😀

It was drizzling, but that was quite pleasant. The last two days it was so hot… I found it very comfortable to wear long jeans and a T-shirt…

We visited a nice (somewhat cheesy) gallery and a German Bakery on the market in front of the library where I bought two good loaves of bread 🙂 We also saw he town hall with the (probably) largest solar Christmas tree in the world.

I was dropped off in town by Lisa, and then I took the bus back.
The buses are routed underground through the entire city to the Transit Center, where they even have their own road.

The problem with the tickets was also solved really intelligently. On the one hand, there are normal paper tickets, but you can get a GoCard for a $5 deposit with which you get a 30% discount on all trips. This card is swiped from a reader when entering the bus/train and again when exiting. The amount will then be debited from the card. Of course, you have to recharge it every now and then.
At the station where I got on, thousands of buses were leaving and people were standing behind the screens for the respective buses in meticulous queues of ones, one behind the other 😀 Totally funny, a bit of English behavior 🙂

24 December 2010

Today at 7 a.m. it got already really loud in the house, but I just pretended to sleep until everyone was out of the house… But as soon as everyone had left, I couldn’t sleep anyway, so I went to empty and put the dishwasher back in and hang out the laundry. Then I made chocolate crossies and sat in front of my computer and watched two episodes of Heroes.

At half past one Lisa came back with Emme and Ali, Maddi was with a friend (her father was working). She was pretty annoyed and totally tired. I made her lunch and talked to her. Then she first went to sleep, which I could understand only too well. All kids were so annoyingly excited for Christmas and I was so tired…
For dinner we had was broccoli and different types of potatoes with peas for me and the whole thing with meat for the rest. The dinner went a bit stressful with the girls being really excited and nervous.
AFterwards, the four of us ate Christmas pudding with vanilla sauce and a few cookies. Then Santa had to have a plate with cookies and milk…
Later, the neighbors came over with her (annoying) daughter and Nora… Presents were unwrapped and I talked to Nora.
When they were gone, the kids were crying since they wanted to go to bed… At 8 p.m. I went to bed exhausted, hoping, the kids don’t wake me up earlier than 8am tomorrow… I’ve already been prepared for 5am 🙁

I want cold and crèche and raclette and Christmas living room and cookies and tea and a REAL Christmas tree and my parents and my sister.

And my Christmas mail didn’t arrive in Germany on time either :/

Hopefully tomorrow – Australian Christmas Day – will be better… Apparently 16 people are coming over.

Now I’m waiting for my family to skype… and then I’ll watch another film… or finish my book… or plan my onward journey…

25 December 2010

Well, today was finally real Christmas here. At a quarter to 6 there was a knock on my door (possibly earlier? and I overslept?)… reluctantly I sat down on the couch at 6 a.m. and watched the children unpack their presents.

After that I went to sleep again until half past eight and then helped to prepare the table, because Louie’s relatives planned to come over at half past twelve. His mother from Salzburg, his 2 sisters with 3 sons and a daughter and an uncle. The neighbors also came – Joline with her daughter and Nora…

Nora and Joline helped me quite a bit when I had to put all the lunch stuff in the dishwasher and do the dishes and so on… After dessert, I just sat out in the silent group of men with the cousins and avoided doing some dishes…

At 4:30 pm, the relatives left, I helped Lisa clean up and then at half past four I crept in front of my PC for an hour… At half past five we went to Lisa’s relatives, to her sister Mandy, where her parents were too.

There were even more gifts for the kids – my god … And there was more food… But I was so full I almost couldn’t eat… Just some veggies.

At 9p.m., we went home… Now I have a shower, then will finally go to sleep! I’m dead tired… at least my Christmas was good – after being so exhausted yesterday 😀

Oh, the weather today: very warm, very humid, drizzle in between, cloudy… air conditioning, thanks 🙂

26 December 2010

I’m slowly losing track of which day it is… without the stress of booking hostels and Greyhound buses every other day.

Today, I drove into town at 2pm to then walk to Paddington (or beyond :D) with Lisa and Dominik… in the pouring rain. And when we got there the shops were closed and we went right back.

We then rested a bit in Woodduck, where Dominik lives, and then walked to Base, where Lisa lives, to watch a DVD there- (Cruel Intentions 3 – such crap!) and then XXX (awesome :)).

In the evening we went with people from Lisa’s room and a few of her acquaintances, first to the Downunder Bar under the base and then to the Victory. We got back to the hostel around quarter past 5 and I slept in one bed with Lisa for another hour (I had toothbrush etc. with me) and then took the bus home at 20 before 7… phew

Mark, one of the guys works on New Year’s Eve in a German restaurant that he showed us that evening. From there you have a wonderful view of the bridge in Brisbane (whatever it’s called) and he invited us to “visit” him… on va voir, but I think the idea is great, just don’t know if there are also fireworks on the bridge… My Australian sources partially contradict each other.

27 December 2010

Today, I made Kaiserschmarrn for dinner. But unfortunately the recipe was pretty bad and the Schmarrn shriveled up, was sticky and then I also used a strange oil… in the end it didn’t taste like Kaiserschmarrn but with fruit it was quite tasty.

28 December 2010

Today it often drizzled and it was the weather for long trousers and sometimes a sweater. At 4 pm we went to a friend of Lisa’s (my host mother, not the backpacker Lisa ;)). She had a little party with some friends and delicious food. Her two daughters were about my age and I had a good chat with them. I also played “What’s the time, Mr. Wulf” with Maddi and Emme until I dropped 😀

When we came back I wanted to book my flights… Such a nerve-wracking thing! I went down to the family PC because there is a printer there but this computer is so cluttered with so little memory and only wifi internet which is way too slow! It took me all in all 3 hours to book 3 flights!! And I now know my credit card number by heart -.-

Well, at least they are booked now, my flights to Tasmania, Alice Springs and from Adelaide to Sydney!! Yuppidu 🙂

30 December 2010

This morning Lisa’s sister came over with her 3 boys, first I hung out a lot of laundry because the weather was great, and then we had morning tea and lunch together.

When they left we drove to the beach at Redcliffe (that was the first settlement in Queensland, it’s a bit north of Brisbane). The water was quite turbulent and brown from the heavy rain in the last few days. The waves were quite high at times and I thought the water tasted a bit strange… not that salty at all and it didn’t sting my eyes…

The kids brought their 2 new boogy boards and we had a blast with them! Emme wasn’t scared and threw herself into the wildest waves, although she often did a “nosedip” 😀 or was swept away by a big wave and took my bikini with her 😛

Then we went to Louie’s mum Paula, who has a great Austrian accent (although she has lived here for 51 years). Louie went in with the kids while Lisa, Ali and I went shopping for raclette in the evening. Then we drove to Paula.

We got home at around 6 and I immediately started cutting the vegetables and preparing different types of cheese (unfortunately there is no raclette cheese here, so we had mozzarella and gorgonzola). Incidentally, we borrowed the raclette machine from Joline, our German neighbor.
Luckily, everyone enjoyed the food! It was great for the kids because they could “cook” their own food 😉 It was a bit dangerous for them because the raclette machine was so hot, but luckily nothing happened.
We roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes on top of the hot stone… YUMMY! For dessert, there were blueberries, raspberries, apples and bananas with honey or Nutella. Unfortunately, the pans were pretty burnt and I was allowed to spend some time cleaning them -.- but okay 🙂

Tomorrow I have to pack my suitcase 🙁 crap, I don’t even know how I’m supposed to get all my stuff back in there!

But first it’s still New Year’s Eve… so maybe I’ll pack the day after tomorrow… who knows 🙂 Anyway, it’s on January 1st. on vacation :):) happy 😀 vacation on vacation 🙂

31 December 2010

Tonight we had Japanese dinner with the family. We had a private room where we sat on the floor (though there was space under the table for our feet) and in the middle was a table with a (camping) stove. I had ordered a vegetable plate, then there were avocado sushi rolls for the kids and crustaceans (calamari?) for the parents, then rice and water with fine beef was simmering on the stove slices, mushrooms, seaweed, tofu, greens and carrots.

At half past seven we went to the Gelatissimo and everyone got a scoop of ice cream. Then we slowly strolled in the direction of the bridge/Southbank to watch the children’s fireworks at half past eight.

The bridge was totally packed and to get to the Southbank you had to have your bags checked, I felt a bit like I was at a party 🙂 We then sat on the lawn with a view of the river and the skyline and the fireworks watched on the river. I didn’t think it was particularly big, we had a bigger one for our city birthday party… but it was very nice and a great feeling in the crowd 🙂

Then we walked back towards the city center and I separated from my family to meet up with Dominik. We then waited an hour (-.-) in front of the base for Lisa and the rest. Lisa was staying illegally in the base with 3 other girls for the last 2 nights, so it was quite difficult to get through the strict key card control… But after another hour we were all in the room.

At eleven o’clock we started walking together in the direction of Southbank, but then we fought for a place on the bridge and thus a wonderful view of the skyline on the left, Kangaroo Point straight ahead and Southbank with the Ferris wheel on the right.
At midnight there was a countdown and again fireworks on the water… Very fascinating!

Happy new year! I had a happy ending to my 9 hours shorter 2010… and hopefully the 9 hours my 2011 will be longer will be worth it 🙂

Then we walked towards Down Under Bar. We eventually ended up in a group of men dressed as women. We later saw this group again in the bar. Lisa and I separated from the other girls at some point to meet them again later… they were just so extremely slow and undecided about where to go. Admission to the DU Bar was about the cheapest you could get in Brisbane at $10 (in the Valley it was at least $30, one club even charged $110) and the music was great too. We met a few more people from Lisa’s hostel, Mark came at some point; we were chattered up by an Australian (Kira! 🙂 ) who is moving to Holland soon and she knew the staff and got us free drinks; I also saw Tabea again with whom I went to Cape Trib…

We left at 5 because the club was closing, it was already light outside, I said goodbye… and then waited another hour and a half for my bus on King George Square…

01 January 2011

When I got home I had breakfast with the family, then finished packing and then lay down. Shortly before 12 we went on vacation 🙂 We went full-rigged to Peregian Beach, where great weather and a great holiday home overlooking the Sea with pool awaited us. I even have my own double bed with three pillows 🙂 Great!

The kids and Lisa jumped straight into the pool and after lunch and after “Barbie an the musketiers” (or whatever it’s called) we go down to the beach 🙂

By the way, the humidity here is 500%, I have the feeling that you’re already sweaty if you don’t do anything…

Queensland news

02 January 2011

I don’t know if you get the news in Germany, but north of here, in the Rockhampton area (I made a brief stop there on the bus when I was driving from Airlie Beach to Agnes Water), everything is flooded at the moment! An area the size of France and Germany added together is underwater… luckily I don’t have to go north anymore as the roads are closed.

Peregian Beach

02 January 2011

This morning before breakfast the kids were already in the pool. After a hot breakfast I went to the beach with Louie and Maddi. The two were in the water, I lay down and read. The beach is so beautiful! Today, with sunshine, even more beautiful than yesterday when it was cloudy.

There are (unfortunately) plenty of bluebottle jellyfishes; these are blue jellyfish, which are not deadly/poisonous, but are quite painful. Everywhere on the beach you can find dead ones and when you step on them it pops so funny 😀 Anyway, I’m a little scared of these animals… There must be masses of them in the water if you step on one of these creatures every meter… ouch :/

In addition to the thousands of Bluebottles, there are also thousands of Bluepurple Ink Mussels (or at least they are called something like that). These are snails lying on the beach with a tower of bubbles at their mouth. Those bubbles are kinda made out of goo jelly or something, at least they’re very hard to squash. And when you do this, purple ink comes out of the shell… totally funny 🙂

In the afternoon we drove to the market in Peregian (I walked there along the beach with Louie and Maddi yesterday to see if there was a market today). There were lots of clothes, baby stuff, odds and ends, food, jewelry; all pretty cheap i have to say. I bought a dress… well, more like a long shirt… for $5! That’s 4€ for a really nice piece 🙂

After that we ate ice cream and a cookie (free, because we won it) in a café. There was a lot of German stuff there! Mozart balls, filled hearts, marzipan potatoes, mini nut wedges, Florentine almond duo (:D), other pastries, spaetzle and other pasta, jam, cheesecake aid, baking powder, vanilla sugar, vanilla extract, gelatine, pudding, rice pudding, potato dumplings, dumplings, sweet kick, mustard, cottage mustard with horseradish blaablaaaaaa and so on!
Anyway, I bought pudding to show the family what we mean by pudding (here pudding is a kind of cake with fruit that is usually served at Christmas; it just has the shape of a typical pudding like it is on our packaging) ; we also bought spaetzle.

On the way back we made a detour to Noosa (10km north) and toured it briefly by car. A pretty nice little village, which I will continue to travel to afterwards. Noosa is a collective name for the towns of Tewantin, Noosaville, Noosa Heads, Sunshine Beach, Marcus Beach and Peregian. Anyway, we cruised all over Noosa. I think we’ll be going there again soon. On the way back, Louie briefly bought seafood.

When we got back we jumped into the pool to escape the heat. 31°C in the shade… phew…

After lunch it was quiet time, the kids watched a DVD and the parents and I lay down and slept.

In the afternoon/evening we met two families that were friends in Peregian. I got involved again in a discussion about being vegetarian (as I always do when I meet meat-addicted men) and otherwise there was fish, chips/fries, prawns (creepy sea creatures), chicken nuggets, spring rolls for me and an Australian potato specialty (potato slices roasted in butter… yuck) and also glowsticks for the kids 😀
As far as I understand, we’ll meet them again tomorrow on the beach.

03 January 2011

This morning I got up at 7 a.m. to go for a run, while the family drove to the guarded beach, where I got to jump straight into the sea after runnig… oh… luxury

When we got back we jumped into the pool.
For lunch we went to one of the family friends who have their own holiday home… for $1.4 million oO with a pool and purple… In the afternoon I was in the pool with Maddi 🙂

Oh yeah, nice day, quite a lot of sun… fortunately no sunburn…

04 January 2011

This morning we had breakfast at half past six and then drove straight to Noosa to “Fishi Beach” – actually Noosa Main Beach. There we met a friend of Lisa’s. The waves at Fishi Beach weren’t as high as at Peregian Beach as the bay around Noosa is nicely sheltered; every now and then a big breaker came, one of which “surfed” me all the way to the beach on my body board… and my knees are open from the sand now –.- ouch. The beach owes its special kids-name to the many fish. No special fish, just these colorless / sand-colored gob fish, as you know them from everywhere…

We were back around 10, then I drove to Coles with Louie and in the afternoon I looked after the 3 girls for about 4 hours while Lisa and Louie had lunch with friends. Ali slept very well the whole time, Maddi and Emme wanted to be entertained. Unfortunately, I was incredibly tired and that made things even more exhausting. Why couldn’t the 2 just watch a DVD and I could read my exciting book (The Company)?
Well, so we played Pot Smash, Hide and Seek, Human Knot and Snap, did handicrafts (Christmas presents :D) and painted, made popcorn and icy drinks and in between I luckily managed to persuade the two of them to watch a crazy clown DVD : )
Lisa came back at 4 a.m., exactly on time, when Ali woke up and I moved her to the living room (but she didn’t scream etc., she was just sweetly quiet :))
After that I got a turquoise fish with my fairy married under the supervision of the Barbie priest on the pink horse. But after this fish cheated on me with a purple fish and only married me because of my glitter hair anyway, I then laughed at a sexy Mermaid-Ken, who gave me a glitter sticker flower on my left wing / fin as a wedding present. When he left me too, I could only marry the evil dark-haired Barbie, which I didn’t feel like doing, which is why I then went into an eternal sleep.
Tonight we had burritos and I announced that I would continue my travels on Saturday … sniff 🙁 It will be a difficult farewell.

05 January 2011

Today I was woken up again at 6:30 am to drop off the 2 oldest kids and Louie at a friends’ house after the brekki and pack two of Lisa’s friends into the car. We then drove as a group of girls to the market in Eumundi. The market was huge and it was getting hotter and hotter. Luckily we were there shortly before 8 a.m., because around 10 a.m. the area filled up rapidly and the heat became unbearable. There were clothes, jewelry, food and odds and ends. I found the Potato Slinkys funny, the potatoes were twisted through a grater with a drill, then crumbled on the skewer so that they were in the form of a screw and then fried. Must taste good.

After the women bought quite a few things and even I finally bought 3 buttons (peer pressure :P) we picked up Louie and the kids again, drove home for a short time (where I needed a shower!) and then on to the Surf Club Sunshine beach,
At the entrance, as over 18s, we had to fill out a form that registered us as guests…we weren’t club members. We had lunch with Louie’s former boss and his wife with the most amazing view of the beach.

I had a dish with eggplant in puff pastry and honey glaze… really delicious!! Even if it sounds a bit strange 😉 When we got back it was only 3am and I was already ready for bed. I still went for a run on the beach – wonderful! Especially because it had become a bit cloudy and there was a nice, warm breeze!

And since I was running in a bikini, we immediately went into the pool, where a short time later Emme, Maddi and Lisa also appeared. I now also know what bikinis are actually for: To help 4-year-olds to grab and stay afloat -.- But I can’t be mad at Emme for that, she’s sooo sweet, with her big brown eyes, practicing swimming and always half sinking down and asking “May I touch the bottom here?” or “Do you watch my summersault?” or “Sunny Sunshine is my friend. Him doesn’t throw me off.”… Ah <3

And on Saturday I’ll leave 🙁

06 January 2011

Today we went back to breakfast at half past six and then at half past eight we went to the Noosa Springs Resort.

We met the other families there again; Lisa booked a spa with the other moms, Louie played golf with the other dads. For the children, there were two babysitters and an extra rented apartment in the resort. I was responsible for baby Ali and held her in my arms until 3 p.m., rocked her until she fell asleep and giggled around with her… Totally cute 🙂 But I think tomorrow morning I’ll have a lot of sore muscles in my left arm! She just fell asleep on my arm while I was walking around. I grabbed one of the two bed rooms and was even able to finish my book! Watching Ali look at herself in the mirror and giggle to herself was awesome 🙂

For lunch we ordered fish, steak, chicken, chips and salad for the 8 children, something vegetarian for me. Of course, the salad was still untouched when the kids were full… well 😛
I also stocked up on the little shower things in the two bathrooms… shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, shower gel and soap 🙂
Unfortunately it started to rain heavily… hopefully this will stop again :/
Only 2 more nights, then I’ll leave 🙁

07 January 2011

Today it rained again almost continuously… That’s why I was relatively unmotivated; like everyone actually 🙂
In a short rain break, I took a run to Peregian.

At noon we went to the Surf Club in Noosa Heads for a farewell lunch; Delicious food with a beach view. That’s where I found out that there’s Ironman and Ironwoman on Sunday. And since the weather is going to be awful, I canceled my Noosa canoe bush camp again after lunch :/ I just don’t want to camp when it’s raining! I’d rather watch the Ironmen on Sunday 😉

After lunch we strolled around in Noosa Heads and ate an ice cream.

My new plan now is to stay here until Monday, watch the Ironman on Sunday, and then head straight to Surfers Paradise on Monday…

In the evening there was Ali’s first… what’s that called… tooth wax sticks? She looked so cute!

08 January 2011

Hmm… today the weather was suboptimal again. I got up early, then drove to Noosa Heads at half past nine (because the buses are free here over the Christmas period until January 9th!!) to look for a bikini there.
Both of my bikinis that I have with me are either pretty old or totally worn out because of poor H&M quality. Finding a new one was quite difficult because I set myself a limit of $50. But then I found one and then we went back.
After lunch I lay down, watched an episode of Heroes and then fell asleep. At 4 o’clock I went for a run and then I swam a few laps in the pool.
Then,I played and painted with Maddi, then we had dinner and I just booked my bus to Surfers Paradise on Monday.

Eventful day 😀

09 January 2011

This night it stormed violently and this morning we actually wanted to go to the beach at 7 a.m. But it was raining and storming so much that I got up at half past 6 for nothing :/
Our substitute was the Ginger Factory, where Louie, Maddi, Emme and I went together
We watched a bee show there, in which we were told a lot about bees, a woman showed us beehives (behind a fly screen and behind glass) and included a honey sample. We were able to try 3 different types of honey (eucalyptus, Tasmanian Leatherwood and ebbs) and Louie immediately bought jars of all three. The woman also said that a special medicinal honey from New Zealand (Manuka Honey) had already cured cancer… yeah yeah. There was also a ginger-honey mixture that I didn’t like at all.

After an ice cream (there was even ginger flavor :/ ) we actually wanted to take the little train but it stopped running, because the tracks were flooded. The puddles were sometimes calf deep! Really crazy. I’ve never seen as much rain as here in Queensland.

Hoping that the rain would get lighter, we went to a Macademia and a souvenir shop in the Factory. We bought different fudges there.

On the way back we listened to the radio (you had to turn it up pretty loud because it was SOOOO raining!) and there was even a warning for the northern Sunshinecoast (that’s where we are 😉 ) for flooding. That doesn’t surprise me either, with 30mm of rain per hour and continuous rain since yesterday.
I just looked it up on the internet. A number of roads – also south of here (-.-) are already closed due to flooding. Gympie, 70km to the north-west, is quite badly affected and the highway there has already been closed.

FLOOD WARNING FOR THE SUNSHINE COAST RIVERS
Issued at 1:39 PM on Sunday the 9th of January 2011 by the Bureau of Meteorology, Brisbane. The heavy rainfall during Sunday has resulted in fast river level rises along the Maroochy and Mooloolah rivers and small rises in the Noosa River catchment. Further rises are likely as heavy rainfall continues.
Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland

^{There we are by the black arrow on the radar – right in the storm…}

We then drove an extra lap in the car because it was so interesting on the radio and because we didn’t want to get out into the rain 😀 When we got to the house, Louie called Lisa to open the garage for a moment. Lisa then fetched us up individually from the car with the parasol – haha 😀

By the way, the IronMen Competition has been canceled for today; The IronWomen took place early in the morning.

Tonight we went to the Surf Club in Peregian for dinner with several families we were friends with. It was really great! And I will miss my family so much 🙁

By the way, our pool is so full to the brim that it constantly overflows… And the skate park opposite the surf club has become a lake… and it’s still raining. A friend of Lisa’s had to stay an extra night here in Noosa because access to Gympie is closed. And Gympie and Maryborough (that’s near Hervey Bay) are already flooded.

Goodbye and off to Surfers Paradise

10 January 2011

Today I got up again at 7 a.m. to enjoy the last breakfast with the family. Then I washed my last clothes and threw them in the dryer, then went shopping with Louie – and we got sooo wet on the way back to the car :D. The kids jumped into the pool when the rain stopped for a while (that was often the case today), but it was too cold for me. The nice thing about the rain here is that the temperature is still around 25°C, which means at least you are not freezing.

For lunch we had wraps and then I was driven to the bus station in Noosa. The sun came out and I had to say goodbye… 🙁 I cried a bit and hugged everyone tight – ahh!

When I was waiting at the bus station, it was first said that the bus to Brisbane wasn’t coming and a bit of panic broke out. But then a replacement bus came (without a toilet!!! -.-).
In Brisbane, I had to change buses and arrived at Surfers at half past five.

The first problem I had here was that I didn’t have any money… That’s why I was driven to the Westpac ATM by car 😛 such a luxury. The hostel employee then also dared to take my suitcase, meaning he carried it up the stairs to my room 😀 It’s always funny how the guys struggle with my luggage… I don’t want to weigh the thing… damn… soon I have some flights to take :/

Tomorrow I’ll do some sightseeing, I’ve booked 2 nights, then I’ll quickly head south again… so that I can see the sun again as soon as possible!

11 January 2011

Today after my arrival I walked into town twice more… unfortunately it was drizzling the whole time but also windy which was a struggle for the umbrella.
Surfers is a big concrete jungle with several skyscrapers. The city looks a bit like little LA or little Miami, I imagine. The main street is a boulevard lined with palm trees and branching off from it are semi-covered shopping arcades. There are also a number of amusement things: Ripley’s, Dracula, a perception confusing house or something similar (:D) and of course the big amusement parks outside. But I didn’t feel like spending money on something like that.

When it was dark, I walked into town again (approx. 15 minute walk) to see the it at night. It wasn’t raining anymore and the lights made the atmosphere a bit more holiday-friendly (it didn’t quite work out when it was raining^^). Actually pretty nice.

Before it was dark, I watched the news with my roommate (because it rained so much, I spent a lot of time in front of the TV that day…). Anyway, the news was pretty scary. The whole time there was only news about the flooding and now Brisbane has also been affected. I’m really worried that my host family will not be able to reach their home again… Today my host mother wrote to me that some friends have already found shelter in her house… Luckily it’s located on a hill.

Coolangatta

12 January 2011

This morning, I checked out relatively early and then took the normal bus to Coolangatta via Miami (!!! cool city name, right :D). The sun was shining the whole time… But by the time I was able to go to my room (I had to wait forever), clouds had come up again… and later it started raining again.

I then walked around Coolangatta and Tweed Heads despite the rain and stood on the NSW/QLD border (so one leg was an hour later than the other 😛 – NSW actually has Daylight Saving Time unlike QLD)… When I got back it had stopped raining (yay!) so after lunch, I went straight on towards Kirra Beach and enjoyed the great view.

When I had the feeling that the sun might even peak through the clouds, I ran back, put on my bikini and ran back to the beach. Unfortunately, the sun didn’t really come out, and a short but heavy rain shower got me completely soaked, but after my run, I went into the sea for a short time and then to a second viewpoint, from where you could watch the thousands of surfers off the coast could… In the far distance in the haze of the rain you could even see the skyline of Surfers…

Tonight my darned money problem was finally solved, the Sparkasse had taken forever to transfer money to Deutsche Bank, whose card I can use to withdraw money here for free! I made the online transfer on Saturday and the money didn’t arrive until Wednesday… phew -.-

The hostel here is in a pretty cool location, you’re a minute away from the beach (if you’re lucky with the traffic lights 😛 ) and the “main street” of Coolangatta (relatively small) is around the corner… The room is pretty cheap too, at least when you compare it to the Byron Bay one I’m moving into tomorrow… a whopping $11 more expensive there! Per night! But okay. Byron is also said to be one of Australia’s most beautiful spots – let’s see 🙂

Byron Bay

13 January 2011

This morning I checked out early and still had 7 hours until my bus arived… I put my luggage in the luggage room and strolled along the beach… I went back to the second lookout from yesterday, I sat in the semi-shade for ages, where it was already too hot and I watched the surfers… Then I strolled to Tweed Head again, looked in here and there and couldn’t avoid shopping at JayJays… Everything was super discounted! There was also an Aldi there.

At some point, after I had cooked my lunch, I went to the Greyhound bus station with my super heavy luggage. There I talked to a Belgian girl and we got a bus earlier (but it came so late that it came at the same time as our actual bus :D).

On the way I set all the clocks an hour later and in Byron, I went straight to my hostel.
Full of motivation, I then set off to walk to the lighthouse… I didn’t know how far away that was… With flip-flops and an unnecessary beach towel and umbrella in my luggage, I started walking. It was relatively late, and the flip-flops were hurting like hell. But I still managed the 5 kilometers… and I was rewarded with a magnificent view!

By the way, if you continue along the path after the lighthouse for another 500 m, you will reach Australia’s most easterly point! I’ll definitely do that anytime soon – maybe in the morning to be the first to see the sun in Australia?

On the way back I walked a hiking trail in the forest, it was a bit shorter but a bit hilly… and it was already getting dark.

Back at the hostel (I was on the road for 3 hours) I quickly cooked something to eat (I was starving!!) and then I played cards with 5 Swedes and 2 English guys. First outside, then when it started raining, in one of the rooms.

14 January 2011

Quick recap of today: rented a bike, rode to the beach, baked in the sun, drove back, lounged around, slept badly (same as the night before… for whatever reason. Maybe because it’s so hot?).

15 January 2011

Some time after breakfast today I was able to bring myself to rent a bike again and once again I was eager to climb Cape Byron – meaning to ride to the lighthouse. Without gear shift. Up the hill. With small, fat tires and a saddle that is set too low.

Unlike my first trip to the lighthouse, today the sky was almost cloudless and it was midday.

Nevertheless, I then climbed the hill in 3 stages and finally arrived at the top – wet like after a shower. First, I went to the toilet, washed my face, put on a bikini, put on my flip-flops and quickly went to the shadow…
I almost couldn’t get out of the latter, it was so pleasant to just sit out of the sun in a tiny, cool breeze.

Well, at some point I had to move again, my next destination was within walking distance – down the mountain. Over a number of steps in the midday sun and beautiful vantage points, I first reached the easternmost point of the Australian mainland, then Little Watego’s Beach.

It was so beautiful there! The waves were abnormally large and powerful, foaming and crashing on the many rocks that lay on the other side of the small headland. I lay down on the beach for a while, strolled along in the water (I didn’t dare to go all the way in because of the strong current) and then went back at some point (I was hungry. And my water was almost empty).

Before I could start the long awaited descent, I first had to climb this mountain again. Thousands and thousands of steps…
In between I took a breather at a viewing platform and watched dolphins. And a sea turtle. Cool!

With a few Chinese, I then made the last section of the stairs. At the top I rested briefly in the shade – next to one of the Chinese – and then I hurried to the bike. Of course, the saddle was hot as a stovetop, but with the cool headwind, that didn’t really matter.

At some point halfway up I decided to take another picture of the lighthouse… Actually, I didn’t feel like digging out my camera and taking the thousandth picture… well, I couldn’t dig out my camera either, because it wasn’t there!

SHIT!

Just bought it, spent half a fortune!

All right, hop on that non-gear bike and blast up the hill like a Tour de France champion. But just before the end I got so dizzy and my coughing could probably be heard down in the village. So I left my bike and ran the rest of the way. Not better either.

When I got to the top, I panicked and asked everyone if they had found a camera. I even asked a Chinese guy who was currently drinking from a water dispenser.
Luckily! He said something about his friend seeing one. The friend came right away, and it turned out that he was the one who was sitting next to me on the bench in the shade before I left. He said I hurried away so quickly that he couldn’t follow me and maybe his friend would have the camera, so we went to see his friends. I was totally done with the world. Luckily, the friend of the friend then said he had given the camera to the souvenir shop.

Stormed in, out of breath and asked in total disarray. Yes, I got it here. Waited for the customer to be served in front of me, then got the camera handed to me. Everything’s all right, no reason to worry anymore. Thanksthanksthanks, thankyousomuch!

I don’t know how many times I said thank you to the Chinese. I first sat down at her table to come down again. And when the Chinese left, they even left me a huge piece of watermelon. My water was empty anyway and I was so hungry. Thank you so much.

With the camera, I went back down to my bike and then all the way down to the village, to shop at Woolworths, to take a shower, to the kitchen, to the dining table, to have a quick look at a book exchange store (all my German books are read. But the shop had closed) and now I’m lying in bed and I’m dead, done…

Cape Byron is clearly one of the most beautiful places on earth – at least in my opinion 🙂 If only it weren’t for the sun.

But I’m not sunburned! At least nothing hurts yet 😉

Tonight, I went out with Chris, Jake and Emma to Cheeky Monkeys, a bar that is directly across from the hostel. It was ladies’ night so when we walked in there were some guys stripping.

16 January 2011

Today, I went to the beach with Chris, but it was closed because the waves and the current were too strong. We went in for a bit anyway, but I thought I was dying.
The countercurrent back into the water was so strong that I was pulled into the next wave and couldn’t get out. And the waves were so incredibly huge! Well, and since I forgot to apply lotion, I now also look like a clown.

Then we sat down at the pool in the hostel (sunshine again :/) and in the evening the three of us strolled to the market.
However, it was already closed and there were only a few hippies sitting around, drumming and dancing. Then we sat down and watched.

I said goodbye because I had to get ready to catch the 9 pm Greyhound bus.

Port Stephens

17 January 2011

Overnight (10 hours) I drove to Newcastle to take a bus to Port Stephens.

Now I’m here at Samurai Beach Bungalow, a beautiful hostel!!! awesome 🙂

After my arrival, I just lay in the shade, read and tried to fight my sunburn (by doing nothing). In the evening the possum that lives in the bungalow I’m staying in came out to say hello 🙂 absolutely adorable!

18 January 2011

This morning I took the bus to Nelson Bay, which is a small town that is beautifully situated by the sea. I walked along the beach and as Port Stephens is a huge bay, you always saw the other end of the bay as if you were just at a lake.

It was a bit cloudy (which was good for my sunburn), but unfortunately the sun came out quite strongly… Which of course improved the view 🙂 Water just looks nicer in sunlight.

I walked to a lighthouse (which wasn’t a tower but simply a house -.-) and then back again. There were so many horny shells on the beach! Well, if you know me… they are all in my pockets now 😉

On my way back, I also walked through a small reserve where you could see native plants (they were labeled) and spot birds – like parrots or kookaburras… I also saw a girl who fed them by hand… I think I’ll try it too 😉 By the way, these creatures scream like monkeys!

When I came back, I went for a run. I had no idea (like most of the time) where to run, but somehow I ended up at Samurai Beach. Such a huge beach 😀 You could only make out the sea on the horizon, but I was too lazy to run across the beach (I think it would have been too far). Actually, the beach is only intended for 4WD.

In the evening Mark (the hostel owner) fetched the snake Syphor, a diamond python that lives wild here but seems to be quite sociable.

Well, I played a few more cards tonight, but I was too tired to last long 😛

19 January 2011

Today I was in “the largest continuous mobile coastal sand mass in the Southern Hemisphere”.

I borrowed a sandboard from reception (free!) and then took the bus to Anna Bay, where the bus driver dropped me off right in front of the entrance to the dunes. From there it was a sandy, long way to the dunes, then up. I felt like I was in the Sahara! Really cool.

The board had to be waxed every 2 times with a regular candle in order to be able to slide properly again. Even falling down didn’t hurt at all (I thought falling on sand hurt).

Then I walked to the beach (uff, looked closer than I thought), sat down by the sea and ate and then I had to go back to the bus station. I walked through a village and unfortunately the sun came out just then… Phew, that was exhausting.

When I got home I discovered a virus on my PC, which is why a program is about to run over it.

Also, I’ve just applied for a number of jobs in Melbourne, where I’ll probably arrive next Monday and then have 2 weeks time… Well, let’s see if something works out.

20 January 2011

Today was a very Australian day. If I could take one day in Australia with me, this would certainly be among the first choices (who knows what’s about to come :P). Even if it was very exhausting!

This morning it rained and when the short shower had passed I actually wanted to do a dolphin cruise. Unfortunately, it was already full and only available for tomorrow, so I decided to go on a bike tour.

Luckily, the bike that I borrowed directly from the hostel had a very good gear system, no coaster brake but normal hand brakes, good tires, bottle holder and was just a top mountain bike.

The maps that I had, on the other hand, were a bit cracked. I had a map that mostly showed walking and cycling routes, but no exact street names and was not to scale (as I soon found out) and then another one that detailed the streets and was also to scale, but had zero and nothing on bike paths.

I marked my route in pink:

Well, at first equipped only with the first map, I went to work motivated, right out of the hostel and onto the Gan Gan Road . Whoa! This looked so short on the map and I realized the downside of maps again… They don’t show me where mountains are!

Half dead, I finally came across a slightly larger street and I first drove to a shopping center. There I bought water and some provisions and also – since I was strangely hungry as hell – treated myself to two sushi rolls… Yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was totally exhausted, although the day had only just begun… But this gan gan road…

In any case, we went on to Salamander Bay with its beautiful beach. However, I didn’t take a break, just descended briefly, take a photo, continue…

Next I arrived at Bagnalls Beach and continued my ride along a really beautiful (but initially very steep) bike path along the sea to Nelson Bay. There I just bought a sticker for my netbook and a patch, then I continued on to Shoal Bay .

I got there at half past one, which means I had already been on the road for 3 and a half hours! Doesn’t sound like a long time writing this down. Afterwards, I arrived at another beautiful beach! Few hotels along the road, a bit touristy but not too much. And a view oO and the water oO

Then I drove to Zenith Beach, which was relatively difficult to find due to my crappy maps. But I also got to this beach via a wooden boardwalk. It’s a little out of the way so there were hardly any people to be seen. A small, beautiful bay facing the open sea and unlike the previous beaches, is not protected by Port Stephens Bay.

But since there was really no shade there and the water was pretty cold, I didn’t hop in after all, I sat on a stone, enjoyed the view, thought about my further path and then walked back to the bike.

First along the road and then on a beautiful cycle path I went to Fingal Bay.

On the way, a nice old lady pointed out a koala chilling in the trees. I struck up a conversation with her and she then took a photo of the German with the koala 😀

Woohoo a wild koala!! That’s how it should be! Not just the zoo animals.

The reason for my trip to Fingal Bay was an island that can only be reached at low tide and has a wonderful lighthouse on it.

The beach was awesome again, only the weather scared me a bit. Pretty black clouds were gathering on the right side of the island… But after waiting a bit and studying the direction of the weather, I came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t get wet.

I was pretty happy to be able to go to the island at all, Mark, the hostel owner, said the low tide wasn’t until 4pm and I thought it was too late… Well, everything worked out. I switched beaches via a short, calf-deep waterway.

^{What I saw on the beach (my finger for size comparison)}

At the end of the beach the sand turned completely black and there was quite a lot of sea stuff lying around. But also LOTS OF SHELLS – God, my shell collector’s heart almost stopped beating! There were the biggest and prettiest bits I’ve ever seen… At least that I’ve seen on the beach, for free!

Up a hill and then along a beautiful path, I went to the lighthouse on the “Spider Island”. I have never seen as many spiders as here. And so big!

Soon I saw the lighthouse and I was all alone on a beautiful lookout. Once again the view was breathtaking.

On the way back, the sun stood beautifully over the beach that led to the island. Over the short waterway – the water had risen a bit in the meantime – I went back again.

Incidentally, quite a few people have drowned in this section because the tide had set in… A father, who had asked me on the way back what there was to see on the island, told me that the water when he was here yesterday it was up to his neck… Really strange to imagine that when you’re wading calf-deep in it.

With my two maps I then had to find a way through the Tomaree National Park … I found the entrance surprisingly quickly, although you had to drive into a sports club for it…

The partly very sandy and gravelly (dismount -.-), partly very pleasant path went through forest and fields to the… Gan Gan Road!
It was exhausting but also beautiful to drive, the sun was a little lower and when two kangaroos watched me I knew that it had been a perfect Australian day.

What I have to say: When you drive through the local eucalyptus forests you always get a drop that smells incredibly like eucalyptus and anyway everything smells so wonderful!

On the Gan Gan Road (which wasn’t that strenuous anymore, I only had to drive a little bit) I went back to the hostel, where I arrived at half past six – after an eight and a half hour cycling and hiking tour .

I was starving so right after a dip in the pool and a shower I made myself something to eat! Happs!

Now I can hear the possum rustling again, which lives here on the roof 🙂 Whoa and these Kokkaburras or whatever they are called 😀 These monkey-birds! They are screaming so incredibly loud!

And to be honest I am not looking forward to tonight because the old lady in here is snoring so loud that I kept waking up last night 🙁

Oh, one more thing I have to say as a summary:
I don’t understand at all why my travel guide doesn’t praise Port Stephens highly and sacredly. It’s not even recommended, and I think this place should AT LEAST be on par with Byron Bay! If not even higher. So. I’ll write to them…

Dolphin Snorkel Cruise

21 January 2011

Today at noon I did a boat tour for 3 1/2 hours.
We drove to Lighthouse Island, anchored there and then went snorkeling. The water was crystal clear and the crew said they haven’t had such great weather/water in a long time.

I saw a 1.5 m ray, a few smaller rays and there were also 2 huge (about 2.5 m) sharks (grey-nose?? something). Pretty cool!
Of course there were many small fishies and thousands of jellyfish (I was a bit scared of them, but they weren’t poisonous^^).

Tomorrow, I continue to Canberra! And on Monday I’ll hopefully be in Melbourne… One of the 1000 jobs I’ve applied for now has to be something :/ well, otherwise I’ll look for something there!

Continue reading through my journey in
Australia’s South and Center…