Category: Continent

On Monday I arrived at my final Australian destination, where I’m staying with my friend Nancy and her family. I’m enjoying myself a lot, and not just because I have my own room (even with ensuite bath!) and wireless internet… *g* On Tuesday I met up with Barbara (who I’d met in Broome) and we went to the pretty harbour town of Fremantle. Yesterday I explored Perth’s CBD (Central Business District) and went to see a concert – Panic at the Disco, Cobra Starship and The Academy Is… – which was awesome despite it getting quite squishy in the first few rows sometimes. Almost the best bit was that I ran into Panic’s drummer, Spencer Smith, in the street while out sightseeing. 🙂

As always, all photos can be found here. Less than a week now until I leave down under and head to Singapore for a couple of days…

Also, I discovered another little movie I made in Monkey Mia – pelicans vying for fish leftovers at sunset:

All day yesterday I didn’t get internet, but now it’s suddenly working again, so I’m using the opportunity to get caught up with my photos. Staying here is wonderfully relaxing – after the dolphin feeding in the morning, all you can do is hang out on the beach, read or listen to an audiobook until a glorious sunset. I also met a few nice women here – Susie and Rebecka in my dorm room, who both volunteer here, and Shan (?) from England, who was on the bus with me. Both her and I are leaving tomorrow morning – at 4am, so that’s going to be fun, but I’m really glad I had the three days here.

As always, all photos are here on Flickr. Also, I made two little movies of dolphins:

My 3 days in Broome are almost over already – tomorrow it’s 25 hours on Greyhound to Monkey Mia. I met a few nice people here, including Barbara from St. Gallen and Miguel from Zürich, so I got to talk Swiss German. I’ll also be on the same bus with Frederike from Hamburg, but she’s going to Exmouth, not Monkey Mia.

It’s been a relaxing few days. Monday evening I went to admire the “Stairway to the Moon”, which was incredible – I’ve never seen a moon that big or that golden, it was almost like a sunrise… On Tuesday me and Frederike went to Cable Beach, which is all white sand and turquoise water, and in the evening Barbara and I saw “Mongol” at the open-air cinema, which has been showing movies for over 90 years. Today I went to the beach again and walked along it to a place where you can see dinosaur footprints at low tide. Unfortunately the tide had turned when I got there, but it was still a beautiful place. As always, all photos are here on Flickr.

Also, Dave sent two group shots from the Uluru tour, which our guide Mike took at Kata Tjuta:

Left Darwin yesterday, spent 26 hours on the bus to Broome – the bus ride was better than I’d feared, as I had two seats to myself and it was quite warm. Wireless here at the youth hostel doesn’t seem to work, but they have ethernet access, so I was finally able to catch up on the photo uploading.

There are a couple of from the train, where I met Arin from Taiwan and Tina from Germany, quite a number from the daytrip to Litchfield National Park Tina and I did (where we met Vanessa, also from Germany) and of course some from Darwin, which I enjoyed a lot – sunshine, beaches (no swimming, though), stunning sunsets and meeting some old friends again: Gill, Chris and April from the Uluru tour and Mike and Lauren from Melbourne-Adelaide.

And a small movie from the Sunset Market, where we enjoyed two sets by the didgeridoo & drums combo eMDee:

As always, all photos can be found here on Flickr. I’m going to miss bumping into people I know now that I’m on the west coast! However, it seems very busy here, all hostels booked out. But because the tourism industry here is much smaller tours etc. are much more expensive and I don’t think I can afford any more daytrips. Luckily there’s a beach only a busride away from the hostel, so I’m sure I won’t be bored – if I can find a book exchange, that is, as I’m almost out of reading material! 🙂

I got myself an Ethernet cable from the desk here, because I don’t want to have to upload several hundred photos at once. At least I was able to put up the pictures from the tour – as always all are available from Flickr.

Had a lovely, lovely time on the tour to Kings Canyon, Kata Tjuta (previously known as the Olgas) and of course Uluru. The group was a bunch of nice people and, although the nights outside were freezing, it was an awesome experience. Then I took the Ghan up the Darwin, where I’ll be until Sunday, when I’m heading down the west coast to Broome. I’m having a good time here, hanging out with girls I met on the train and yesterday on our daytrip to Litchfield National Park, where we got to swim in lovely cool waterfalls…

I wanted to share the many incredible pictures I took, but the internet is very slow today, so I think I’ll try again tomorrow. Here are two photos I managed to upload, from Kings Canyon:

The journey on the Ghan was just as I’d expected – the 25 hours passed quickly and the only not-so-great thing was that I didn’t have two seats to myself and it got quite cold at night. Trains are just so much more suited to long distance trips than buses or planes, I’m looking quite forward to the trip from Alice Springs to Darwin!

Anyway, I’m now in the red centre of Australia. The train crossed miles and miles of nothing but red sand and shrubs, and the country around Alice Springs is just how one imagines Australia to be – including kangaroos and other wildlife right at your doorstep. This I learned today when I did some nice bush walks in the area, because the tour I’d booked was full and so I’m leaving tomorrow and will get back to Alice only with enough time to grab my bags at the hostel and go to the train station instead of spending another night and most of the day here on Monday. At first I was quite annoyed, but it’s hard to be in a bad mood when the sun is shining brightly and it’s warm enough to walk around in sandals and a t-shirt (although the wind is quite cold and nights are icy).

As always, here are all photos on Flickr.

It’s not a very impressive city, not in the way that makes me take a lot of photos at least, but me and Lauren had a good time here nevertheless. Sunday night we went out to dinner with Mike and Lulu from the tour, because they both left on another tour to Alice Springs early the next morning. Monday we went to a shopping mall to buy some gloves and hats for the cold desert nights around Uluru and then checked out the pretty little seaside town of Glenelg.

I also had to organize my trip down the west coast, which proved much more difficult than expected because Greyhound runs only irregularly, much to my dismay. I’ll have to spend a couple of nights on the bus and only managed to fit in two stops (3 nights each, in Broome and Monkey Mia respectively). But at least those two stops I’m really looking forward to.

Tuesday we wanted to go to a Wildlife Park, but the weather was less than ideal, so we checked out the Central Market instead and then visited the historical Ayers Mansion, which was very interesting. In the evening we went to see the new Batman movie in the theatre – Lauren loathed it, I quite enjoyed it, and we both thought Heath Ledger was brilliant in his last role. Afterwards goodbye drinks at a pub, and early this morning Lauren left on another Oz Experience tour to Alice Springs. I’ll hopefully be meeting her and a couple of others when I’m up in Darwin.

This morning I’m packing my things for the 25 hours on the Ghan train to Alice Springs, which I’m quite looking forward to. As always, all photos can be found here on Flickr.

Arrived in Adelaide in one piece last night, after a packed 3 days with Oz Experience. It was a blast, not just because of the stunning landscapes of the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians, but also because we were an awesome group of people – 13 altogether, plus our guide Kate. We all got on like a house on fire, which made it all that much better.

But first I need to recap the last days in Melbourne: I spent some more time exploring the city, including the Botanical Gardens, the Queen Victoria Market and the Shrine of Remembrance (war memorial). I also took a tour of a lovely historical home, Como House, and looked at an impressive Art Deco exhibition at the National Museum.

Then the tour: The first day we drove along the Great Ocean Road to the famous 12 Apostles. On the way we saw wild koalas, cockatoos and parrots, took a walk among the tree tops at Otway (nothing for people with vertigo) and generally got to know each other. In the hostel in tiny little Princetown we met a tour going the other way (Adelaide – Melbourne), including a Swiss girl from the Valais (yay for Swiss German! *g*). The second day we left the coast (lots of wind and rain – and rainbows!) and drove to the Grampians, where we did a hike in the Wonderland, which was great but incredibly windy. That night we stayed at the best hostel EVER, in Halls Gap. The third day consisted of another hike (or rather, mountain climb, as we had to go on hands and knees for most of it) up Hollow Mountain and then a long drive to Adelaide, leaving Victoria behind for South Australia. We saw emus, wallabies, kangaroos (including albino ones) – and naked men… *g*

In Adelaide a bunch of us (Lauren, Layla, Mike and I) ended up at the YHA and we met up with a few others for dinner that night. Us three girls then proceeded to buy matching t-shirts to commemorate the tour and the almost-loss of four backpacks when Kate forgot to close the trailer!

Today we had to say goodbye to Layla and then Lauren and I met up with Tom, Sonja’s husband from Melbourne, in town for business, and we went to the Botanical Gardens and the South Australia Museum. We also bumped into three people from the tour – Alan & Jane from Scotland and Kim from Korea, and tonight we’ll meet up with our French girl Lucile for dinner. Altogether I’m having a simply marvelous time! Stay tuned for more exciting adventures, and in the meantime enjoy the photos on my Flickr…