Uluru, Aussie rain and Vacuum Pumps

Long has it been and my sincere apologies to all of you waiting for more stories from down under. Since we got stuck at Warakuna (along the Great Central Road in Western Australia) it seems like the time has passed ten times faster then before and I’ll try to bring everyone up to speed. Remember our breakdown in Warakuna? Well, the mechanic never showed up and it took till Friday the 10th of december until we got help! The local Aboriginal community had been in lock down due to riots within the community for a couple of days before several Aboriginal blokes checked out our abandoned car out - every once in a while after day 3 of being stuck there - looking for stuff that could be pinched off. On Friday the 10th, Coco had enough when she saw them sneaking around KK. She went out, walked up to them and told them who we were and what happened to us. About two hours later, the same guys came straight out of the bush - with a fitting spare part and offered to fix the car for us! You can not imagine how happy we were!

Finally, our journey could continue the next day - heading towards the Northern Territory and Uluru a.k.a. Ayers Rock! Once back on the road everybody was nervous that something could happen to the car again, but KK was fixed and fit - piece of cake! Due to the rain the outback had seen the months before, the desert was extremely green and surprised us with a large number of colorful flowers and bushes along the dusty gravel road. In fact some of these flowers have not been seen in the desert for over three decades!

Once we entered the Territory it did not take long until I spotted something huge further down the road… it was definitely not a car or road train - it could have been a mirage - but turns out I spotted the first camel wandering over and next to the road! How exciting!

Soon after that a huge rock formation built up at the horizon: Kata Tjuta a.k.a. The Olgas. Everybody knows Uluru but in the same national park another rock formation is not at all less breathtaking. If you have a look at the pictures I uploaded you might get a glimpse of how breathtaking the place is - it is simply fascinating and something we had never seen or imagined before! After hiking around the rocks and exploring the windy valley for a couple of hours we continued our journey towards Uluru.

The sun was already setting but we still got to see it from distance and it was absolutely stunning - a sensation that is very hard to be expressed by words. When I originally planned my trip I never thought that the “rock” would be so inspiring! This inspiration also does not vanish after a couple days hiking around the rock in unmerciful heat of the desert - it is simply an amazing place! After spending two nights at the Ayers Rock Resort we packed up and continued towards Kings Canyon which was our next and last highlight on the road to Alice Springs.

And it sure was a highlight! Kings Canyon is an oasis in the middle of the deadly sand - green and fresh - brought to live by springs that form creeks and provide a living basis for a wide variety of plants and animals. Like Uluru, Kings Canyon is a sacred place for the Aboriginals and we easily could understand why they would come there to practice their ceremonies - it is a place of life in the middle of a very deadly and live-hostile environment. Due to the heat we stayed at the creek and I dunked my head in the water more than once to keep a “cool head” - without great success. Despite the heat we continued the trail and explored the whole canyon for several hours until the sun started to set. The nearby Kings Canyon resort was not far and we therefore did not care about arriving late - you don’t want to rush things when you are in such beautiful places of this planet.

The day we left Kings Canyon we were to arrive in Alice Springs - civilization after 5.000km! Before arriving in Alice we came through Hermansburg - an old German settlement half way between Alice and Kings Canyon. Old European style houses remember at the roots of the settlement but the town is now in the hands of Aboriginal people. We stopped at the local supermarket and were the only caucasians with the supermarket staff. Everybody looked suspiciously at us as tourist only come there seldom. It is a totally different world - it seems like you are in a third world country with small children running and playing all over the place - naked and with bare feet in the boiling sand. We also wanted to take a 4WD track to Palm Valley near Hermansburg. To reach the valley it is necessary to cross a winding river several times but the road was so damaged by recent rainfall that we had to turn around at half way. In the river were kids playing, women washing clothes and men standing in groups by their cars. At that time the community was nervous because of a huge come-together of several Aboriginal tribes that brought in Abos from all over Australia. The locals did not seem to be too happy about that and therefore laid their eyes on every and anything not usual to their normal environment. Anyway, we continued our journey towards Alice Springs after a sandwich and ice cold Pepsi. It only took a couple hours to reach Alice - anyway I was very nervous about my bush-fixed bulljoint and I was desperately looking forward to finding a mechanic that could have a look at it. After weeks of driving in the most remote and arid areas of the Australian continent, driving into Alice Springs - an oasis in the heart of Australia - seemed somehow unreal. It felt like we were at the coast - everything green, cars and people everywhere. You would not imagine what it means to dive back into civilization after being practically isolated for several weeks. Unfortunately I did not get to see a lot from Alice, because I had to find a mechanic who fixed my steering and had to do shopping at Woolys for the upcoming roadtrip to Queensland. At that point Coco decided to stay with me until Brisbane, while Karine said Good-Bye and left our roadtrip-team.

On Friday, December 17th Coco and I finally hit the road towards Queensland. The originally planed route over the Plenty Highway - similar to the Great Central Road just east of Alice - had to be canceled because parts of the Highway were closed due to floods. We therefore headed north to Tennant Creek - soon to experience the tropic humidity of Australia’s north. The plain Stuart Highway, which connects Darwin in the far north with Adelaide in the far south does not offer a spectacular route but for sure was not a torture-trip for KK as the Great Central Road was. About 140 K’s south of Tennant Creek, a fantastic stone formation named Devil’s Marbles offered a welcome distraction.

The distance between Alice and Brisbane over Tennant Creek is somewhere over 3.000 K’s and we had to arrive in Brissie before the 23rd so Coco could catch a plane to Melbourne. Therefore we did not loose all to much time along the road and continued towards Mount Isa. The humidity got worse and worse but we were treated a beautiful inland sunset at the horizon which was accompanied by a huge thunderstorm in the far west.

Driving east we could admire this only in our back mirrors because at the time we found an abandoned rest area to set camp, the sun had set. To complete our cooking on the provided BBQ I was pretty busy to keep the fire burning, because I did not find suitable logs to produce cole and therefore ripped a huge bush in pieces and simply gave all of it to the hungry fire!

The next day, we crossed the NT/QLD border and met something what we had not seen much before in Australia and what would accompany for the next couple months: rain. Although Queensland is known to be the Sunshine State we did not see much sun up there but we certainly also did not imagine how much rain we were about to see!

Once we passed the most ugly mining town of Mount Isa, we headed south-east and therefore escaped the humidity with slow 90 K’s/h. The landscape of Outback Queensland is again totally different to everything we saw before: juicy green and partly without a single tree until the horizon at that at 360° panorama with a road straight as a ruler. Hundrets of kilometers without even the slightest curve - that allowed us to even have breakfast and lunch while driving - Coco just crawled in the back of the car to get all the supplies and then served cereals and sandwiches :) You would think that this kind of a road is terribly boring - well we enjoyed it a lot and would do it again in a heartbeat - it’s an experience you will find nowhere in Europe!

After days of (straight) driving we slowly entered more civilized areas and people in oncoming cars would stop to greet. With more traffic also the stress level rose and we were soon in pumping cities - full with people and cars. Scary! To stay on schedule we drove till Toowoomba and booked in a motel to treat our backs - for once! Next day we reached our destination: Brisbane! Grey and fairly ugly Brissie welcomed us not from its best side and we were quite disappointed. At the airport, Coco got a planeticket to go to Melbourne for Christmas for the next day. We carried on towards the Sunshine Coast - north of Brisbane - which was going to be our home-region for the next two months. At that time, we didn’t know that yet though! Meeting Sabine (a lady that exports Australian Native Foods to Europe and that I know through my work for the VeggieWell) at the Nambour Twilight Market was great - she always served as my security backup and I had only spoken to her on the phone so far. “Security backup?!” Yes… if you enter remote areas in Australia you are advised to inform someone of where you are going and when you expect to arrive. If you don’t check in after your original ETA, this certain someone will inform rescue services. Fortunately Sabine never had to send for help! Due to the loving hospitality down under, Sabine invited Coco and me to stay at her house in Maleny, up on the Mountains of the Blackall Range. After Coco left for Melbourne the next day I stayed with Sabine for Christmas - happy not to be alone. Anyway christmas was not very spectacular and I reckon that Christmas in cold weather just makes more sense to me! Being in the tropics for this holiday simply feels strange… Relaxing after the long roadtrip was great - sleeping in, eating nicely and just hanging around was our occupation for the whole week! At this time Coco decided to come back to Queensland - we still had to see quite a lot and thought it’d be a good idea to continue together.

Before New Years Eve, the region has a major event every year: the Woodford Folk Festival. Bands like “The John Butler Trio” initially got famous at Woodford and so we decided to go have a look. Due to the never stoping rain the Festival, that is hosted on a former farm was renamed to Mudford, because it was more of a swamp than anything else. Protected by ponchos we still had a blast and we even got to see my favorite Australian band “The Cat Empire” live on stage! This was absolutely amazing and had been a dream since my friend Julien planted the seed in my head to go to Australia sometime in 2007/8. Besides “The Cat Empire” the Festival also hosted heaps of Jazz, Folk, Country and a ton of other artists which really knew what they were doing!

Since the rain would not stop and we did not feel like spending New Year’s in Brissie, we spontaneously decided to pack the car and drive some ridiculous 1.000 km (one way) to go to Sydney! It took us one and a half days plus three fourths of a night to reach Sydney and once there we stayed 14 hours at the perfect spot, waiting for the famous Harbour-fireworks - a once in the lifetime experience.

You could not imagine the crowds of people that gathered throughout the day and once it got close to midnight we felt like being cattle forged into a tiny box - not being able to breath without touching at leas three strange persons! Anyway, the waiting in the sun was was with it - the fireworks that only lasted for about 10 minutes were great and we started the new year looking at an amazing scenery - what do you want more?

After the fireworks we met Tim (Tim’s really good!), Leo and Jan who we meet in Perth and in Carnarvon - caught up and wanted to go party. Since Australia is very British when it comes to opening hours of pubs and clubs we had a hard time finding something still open (Yes, even on NYE!). We actually didn’t find anything other than the queer quarter, that still had open bars but then their audience was a little too colorful for us ;) Since all caravan parks were booked over the days Coco and I had to find someplace to stay for the night - no easy task when you are in Sydney with a 4WD. I ended up driving until the sun rose until I found a perfect place in the northern suburbs - an abandoned restarea in the middle of a park - it almost seemed like we were bush-camping although we were in the middle of the city! We slept till 2pm and took the first day of the year very slow.

The way to Queensland was not especially spectacular - although the Pacific Highway has some amazing scenery to offer! Back in Brisbane the weather decided to be a party popper and changed from bright sunshine to pouring rain - the rain that brought Queensland in the news. It poured and poured - wouldn’t stop - day in, day out! You wake up with rain hammering on the roof and you go sleep with rain still trying to get trough to you. You wake up in the middle in the night and guess what: it’s still raining! And that for weeks! For the rainforest, this is usually nothing special - same thing up north around Darwin. But the Sunshine Coast and the Queensland Hinterland had not seen rain in the last nine years and now experienced rainfalls that were more than apocalyptic! The drought over the years had sucked all water out of the ground and left dry and infertile land. When the masses of water came, the ground was too dry to suck it and the water just pearled off! As we were on top of a mountain we fortunately did not suffer floodings but as you can see in the video, the water flooded the only access road we had that lead into town. The little creek, that usually is not even worth talking about changed into an aggressive 15 meter wide stream that hammered down the mountain - accelerated by gravity. There was absolutely no chance of passing - even with heavy 4WDs! And so we had to wait until the rain stopped (or at least got less). That took quite a while - fortunately we had a fridge full of food! Once the rain calmed down, the water level droped from 70 to 40 cm - a dangerous (due to the strong stream) but makable depth to give it a try to pass. You would think that then everything was fine? Well, landslides further down the road posed a further problem and therefore huge detours had to be driven to reach town. And as it wouldn’t be enough - once there some of the shelf spaces at the supermarkets (veggies, meat and bread in particular) were completely empty since Brisbane was in lockdown and no trucks could supply the supermarkets with goods. It took weeks until the roads were fully fixed and life was somewhat normal again.

At that time our financial situation was more than critical and Sabine offered Coco and I to sell her native wild food gourmet sauces on the local markets of the Sunshine Coast to create some cash flow. Due to the floods though the people had other things in mind than spending money on sauces and that is when we met Mo - a salesmen of a so called food vacuum sealer - a device to vacuum seal meats, veggies and other stuff to prolong its lifetime. Other than expensive vacuum mashines, Mo’s product (http://www.airlockstore.com) is a manual handpump that does the same job but costs way less. He seemed to be the only guy still making some money and offered us a job and an opportunity to make a reasonable income. We accepted and moved down the mountain to the coast and rented a little apartment in Mo’s house in Buderim. In Buderim we were closer to the markets that we would attend from now on Wednesdays (the famous Eumandi market), Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Now we were making enough to life from but all money we made was spent on food and accommodation - savings = 0! Since the weather continued to be grey and rainy we talked with Mo about taking the airLock down south to New South Wales and Victoria - which had been less flood affected and also offered better weather. After a semi-successfull weekend at the Goald Coast south of Brisbane Mo agreed to send us to shows and field days! Our first show was in Rockhampton (approx. 800 K’s north of Brisbane) and wasn’t as good as expected but we already felt the difference between takings of markets and shows! Now we were ready to get to the real stuff. We rented a trailer, packed it up with stock and took of towards Horsham, Victoria where the first field day was waiting for us. The Wimmera Mashinery Field Days offer a wide range of farm equipment and while the farmers check out the newest machinery, their misses gather around the Lifestyle Pavilions to buy all sorts of products for Home and Garden. The roadtrip to Horsham took us three days and we enjoyed the driving on remote roads, closer to our most favorite part of Australia - the outback. Sleeping on rest areas along the road reminded us of the good old roadtrip times.

Once we arrived in Victoria we noticed a severe climate change at nights - it was freezing cold and sleeping in the car/tent really got uncomfortable. We had to start the car in the middle of the night to warm up and when we stayed at Caravan Parks we used Cocos hairdryer to supply warm air during the night. Hot showers in the morning were more appreciated than ever before! The field days were not as successful as expected but we still covered our petrol and accommodation costs and made a little more. At least we got to see more of the country now and were back on the road. That’s real work and travel if you ask me! After Horsham we continued southwards and spent two days in the Grampians National Park. It was so good to finally go for a hike again - smell and experience the beautiful nature of this continent. Due to storms and floods that had occurred in the region several weeks prior to our arrival most of the NP was closed tough and we had seen more impressive in WA and the NT anyway. Our next destination was Adelaide in South Australia but we had a week and decided to drive along the southern coast. More rough camping - finally also again at the beach - including beach driving! I loved it so much that I even took the trailer on a 4WD-sand-track through the dunes but after about a kilometer were taught a lesson and got stuck.

We took it as it came, smiled and started digging. After all we had seen and experienced so far, this didn’t worry us too much - I had already digged KK out in W.A. once and now knew what to do: dig, deflate tires, 4WD in low and pray! Of course we made it out and searched for a more appropriate road. Since the highway was to boring though I took a turn and we drove through little forest tracks, that didn’t pose a problem for the trailer.

After about four days of driving we arrived in Adelaide and booked in the Big 4 Holiday Park - right next to the beach. Set up at the showgrounds on thursday and on Friday the ABC Gardening Show started and we got busy selling heaps of airLocks! Four days of show and we were ready for a break again but we didn’t get much. We had to take off to Lucindale, S.A. where the next field day was already waiting for us. Another two days - now very successful though and we finally started dreaming of our airLock-demonstration. As we were now part of the “circus” we met other exhibitors again and met really lovely people. As we are demonstrating how to use the airLock we’re considered “demonstrators” and it is very entertaining to get to know other demonstrators to hear their stories and learn their tricks. One of them (I’ll keep his name confidential ;-) ) came see us and said “Hi Kids! Havin’ fun?” “Yes, great and you?” Him: “Great! Told some lies, sold some mops - life is good!” lol In Lucindale we also met Nic and Simon again, a couple that sells a magic pealer (even peals pumpkin and grapes!). After a couple beers they invited us to stay at their house in Melbourne as all of us were also headed to the next field day - east of Melbourne: FarmWorld in Warragul. Before that we though had one week to enjoy the coast and therefore headed back to the sea and soon hit the famous Great Ocean Road towards Melbourne. Unfortunately we were surprised by rain. Despite falling drops we enjoyed the road and the most amazing scenery along the road. It is breathtaking to see the strong waves whipped by the cold winds from Antarctica, splash on the coast - slowly but surely outwearing the soft rock. Give it another 10 years and the 12 apostles will in fact be history!

When rough camping north of Geelong we found a very remote and quite spot at an abandoned boat ramp. To our surprise we woke up during the night because of strange cars parking not far from us. We were concerned what these people were doing there at such an early hour of the morning. Fortunately they eventually drove off again. Due to the next field day east of Melbourne, we only had time for a quick stroll through Melbourne Docklands - an exquisite new quarter with nice yachts and restaurants, near to the port. As Nic and Simon offered to stay with them during the field day we hit the road - straight through the Melbourne CBD which turned out to be a nightmare due to all the traffic. After hours of stop and go (just for the record I would like to remind you that this all happened with a massive 4WD PLUS a decently sized trailer - not the greatest equipment for busy rush-hour streets…) we arrived without me having a minor heart attack. We ended the day by drinking nice Löwenbräu beer from the local battleshop and had pasta and pizza. Set up next morning and a pretty slow first day of the show… but the next day was supposed to be on of those that will be remembered forever. Since we almost run out of stock, Coco had to leave from Warragul at about 11am to pick up stock at a warehouse in West Melbourne. It took her till after 7pm to come back due to all the traffic around the city! But not only Coco lost a large quantity of nerves that day - I did too because all customers at the show seemed to had signed a pact not to purchase products. I had an awfully hard time to convince customers and did about 25% of what I had planed to make - shocking! On top of this our competition got on to us because we had moved our stall the night before because the original stall was located at the end of the street and we had hardly any traffic coming through. Despite their unprofessional complaints to the show manager we could keep our spot, which was definitely better than the one before. Still, if a busload of unmotivated customers waste your time, you get very frustrated. Let me tell you, from salesman to consumer: Please do not insult us by saying “I’ll have a think about it!” You can not imagine how often you hear this and in 99% of all cases it is a straight lie. Tell me that my product sucks or that you don’t like it or that your wallet was stolen - whatever really! Just don’t tell me that you’ll “have a think about it”. This causes major depression and a motivation to kill! Fortunatley Saturday and Sunday turned out to be okay and we were satisfied by the final result - even when we originally expected more. But then the life of a salesmen centers around “doing more” ;-)

After FarmWorld we headed back to Melbourne to pick up a key of a vacation house at the most southern point of Australia which belongs to the parents of a friend of mine. I had met her in Berlin and when I told her that I was going to Australia, she spontaneously offered me to spent time down in the house. How awesome is that? The initial deal was for me to mow the lawn but when I picked up the key the intresst in clean windows appeared to be more welcomed. Fair enough! :) And there we were, taking off to Yanakie - close to Wilsons Promontory National Park which had unfortunately been closed due to a storm that washed away the only bridge that leads into the park. We still loved the house and relaxed, eat well, watched TV shows and walked on the largest beach I have ever seen (in Australia): Sandy Point.

Karijini NP & the Great Central Road

Karijini National Park is situated about 600 km east of Exmouth and all nicely sealed highway. This distance should be makable - keeping in mind that I don’t drive faster than 90 km/h in order to actually see the country I am traveling in plus having an optimal fuel economy (or ‘milage’ for my fellow Americans ;-)). Of course this only works when the car is packed and ready to go early in the morning - a scenario that is an even bigger illusion than Elvis sitting on some lonely island somewhere out in the ocean. Anyway, we hit the road and headed east - soon to arrive in the mining lands of Western Australia. The North West of WA is called ‘The Pillabra’ and is known for its rich soil and large mining industry.

All the big mining business are present and soon it was a rare occasion to see civilian cars but only miners in the work vehicles. About 100 k’s ahead of “Tom Price” - the biggest town in the area - we left the highway and took a shortcut over an unsealed road. During the day we had 50° C at around 15:00 and once we were on the dirt road it started to rain cats and dogs combined with thunder and lightning. The latter even started several bushfires about 1 km to our left but since this area is without mobile phone reception there was no way to inform the authorities until the next day. Since we were not to reach “Tom Price” we decided to camp wild - in the middle of the bush. Due to bushfires on the left side of the road, I searched a tree-free spot on the right side of the road to set up the camp.

After a couple more K’s we found the perfect spot - a huge but dry creek bed with cow poo all over the place. You might think I am ironical right now, but this definitely was the best spot to camp! For the first time in down under I started a fire - of course according to the rules of wild camp fires (dig a hole, put stones around it and keep the flames low). We cooked our diner on the hot coles and enjoyed the dark sky of the night, which slowly started to clear up again.

The next day started early, because we hardly slept and were woken by several cars speeding by. Breakfast - pack the car - hit the road towards “Tom Price”. Once there supplies had to be refilled. Fortunately Tom Price has one of the major supermarket chains (Woolworths & Coles) and we could buy groceries and diesel for relatively human prices. Usually mining cities like “Tom Price” are extremely expensive, mainly because of the horrendous wages mine workers receive. To prevent non-miners’ and tourists’ financial breakdown the mining companies subsidize groceries and fuel. After our shopping tour and a quick sandwich in the nearby park we headed out of town in direction of Karijini National Park, which is situated approx. 50 km east of “Tom Price”.

Karijini NP is known for its breathtaking gorges and natural pools - supposedly very “Grand Canyon”-like. Since the surrounding landscape looked like Nevada (just way greener), this could be true but still had to be verified. Throughout the park all roads were gravel roads and it was time for serious dusting. Dusting? you are probably asking yourself right now… Yes, dusting! Driving on gravel roads obviously causes huge amount of dirt and dust to be thrown in the air. Especially down under, where gravel roads are covered with loose, red sand any bigger car (like KK) leaves a dust track that lasts up to one kilometer! Anyway, shortly after we entered the park I saw a car sitting in the bush. Usually that is nothing special since many people that crash their cars in the bush just leave them there to corrugate. This car though was new and had been crashed recently. I stoped KK, got out and soon saw a guy coming out of the bush who obviously just went out the recycling. “Ya’re a’right, mate?” “G’day. Naw, just lost to f****n’ tires!” Well, great! I couldn’t really help him, because I hadn’t got a plug kit and an air compressor but as life sometimes is, just five minutes after I stopped (and I was the first car to drive by since he crashed two hours earlier!) another 4WD came by. And luckily they had an air compressor and helped the poor fellow. Poor, yes but also not very bright to drive on a 4WD track with a normal car… Since the sun was to set soon we continued and headed towards “Eco Retreat” - one of the two camp grounds in the park. After a quick chat with the grouchy girl at the reception we agreed to pay to rude amount of 39$ a night! Rude because we usually pay 39$/night at nice caravan parks with clean facilities, powered sites, pool and rubbish bins. Yes, in Karijini you waste your time to search for rubbish bins, because it is to expensive to have them emptied regularly. I can not understand this, because it obviously promotes littering in the park, but I guess that’s one of these special Aussie-things… However, I reckon (reckon = “to think” in Australian ;-) ) that for 39$ rubbish bins should be included in the price! Especially when the facilities are everything but acceptable!
The next morning started rainy, as the day before had ended. Anyway we packed our things and drove to the closest gorge and went on a hike for a couple hours. Fortunately the clouds cleared a little bit and the rain stopped - the sun was still missing though. The gorges we saw in Karijini actually really reminded me a little bit of the Grand Canyon but then they were way smaller and way greener. Very very beautiful though! The pools that are situated in the valley of the gorges were mostly very green due to algae and didn’t look very inviting.

On day 2 in Karijini we wanted to try the 2nd camp ground and therefore headed east in direction “Dales Gorge”. Surprisingly the gravel road stopped and ahead laid a nicely sealed highway. And then happened what I always hoped to prevent - it made “PSHHHH” and the rear of KK slowly lowered itself. A nervous look out the window and I realized that I had just lost my first tire. :( Of course I had all the tools to jack up the car and change the broken tire but then it was the first time for me to change a tire and half way through the program I realized that I was indeed missing the right tools to unscrew the spare tire. To make a long story short I had to stop four cars until everything was set again.

At this time a young National Park Ranger - who had been alerted by the staff of the visitor center that drove by when I was changing the tire - arrived and gave me a hand finishing up the tire changing. Now, ready to hit the road again we asked for the next best camping ground and were surprised to be invited to simply spend the night at the Rangers headquarters. Why not? After a great sleep in real beds we got up the next morning and headed back in the park to “Dales Gorge” to go for another hike. After several hours of hiking through tough jungle we found a beautiful natural pool - it seemed like we just found paradise. Unfortunately we were not prepared to this unexpected exploration and therefore hadn’t taken any swimming gear. Anyway we had to go to Newman that day… And so we climbed back to the top of the gorge and drove off towards the south. First thing to do in Newman was to get a brand new set of rear tires. 450$ later I was the proud owner of a beautiful set of new tires plus one additional spare - make that two. And since I have not found the money-berry-trees here you can imagine how happy I was. For the big trip through the outback towards Brisbane via Uluru and Alice Springs we had to supply with food and water for 14 days because the next supermarket after Newman is in Alice Springs - which is roughly 3.000 km “down the road”. In between lay hundreds of kilometers of hazardous, hostlie desert.

If you wont get killed by any of the lethal animals the heat will do the job unless you prepare very wisely. We would not be the first people to take this road and never arrive. The number one rule is to be in contact with the locals - and that is what I do whenever I can find some. What are the road conditions? When have you had the last rain? Any chances for cyclones? and so on… The road from Newman to Laverton via Mekatharra, Wiluna and Leonora was a piece of cake but after Laverton the real road starts. Ahead lay over 1.200 km of rough dirt road and nothing but desert and only a handful of Aboriginal communities and a couple of roadhouses. But before we could get on the so called “Great Central Road” - a.k.a. “the longest shortcut” - we had to apply for a permit to pass Aboriginal lands since large parts of the outback have been “returned” to the possession of the indigenous people of Terra Australis. And since we arrived on Saturday afternoon everything was closed - visitor center (place to get the permits), shire office, local grocery store - even the police station! Therefore we decided to spent our second night in a row in the bush. Like the night before, we drove out of town and searched for a good spot to leave the highway and drive straight in the bush - about 200 to 300 meters - and hide the car behind heaps of bushes. Of course when nightfall comes the bush is 100% black and you are left to your ears and headlights but then this is the real adventure I have been looking forward to.

The next morning started with a new shock: the front left tire was flat - punched by a tiny little branch of a bush. “Why is this happening to me?” was the major question I kept on asking myself. But then I had already changed a tire only three days earlier and so it didn’t take me long to change the tire. Another skill learned! Now comes the good part: it was sunday the 5th of december, I had a flat tire and 1.200 km of dirt road waited to kill some more. So I drove back to town and asked my way through until I found Henry - a hung over, old but very friendly Belgian who immigrated to Australia in 1963 and happened to have a workshop. Since it was sunday and a local party had lasted longer than expected he did not want to help me before monday morning but I could convince him to make an exception and help straight away. Good on him he did and fixed the tire for 100$! Now we finally could get on the road, once the permit was issued. The bored lady at the visitor center wasn’t especially friendly - more of the most grumpy women I ever met down under. It must be the boredom and heat that makes some people go mad here. It took longer than expected to get the “Northern Territory” permit but after 45 minutes we were good to go.

Outback, here we come! It was time for transiting the desert - time for serious off road driving! This day, roughly 550 km had to be driven - a long way if you consider the road conditions of an unsealed gravel road. We counted 138 cars that broke down on the way and were left behind to fight corrosion. A fight that can not be won out here. Weather and temperature conditions in the outback are not only extremely hostile but also totally unpredictable.

Within minutes the conditions can change from 50°C and bright, sunny sky to 28°C and a summer thunderstorm with strong winds and apocalyptic rainfalls. Most of the time it’s just unendurably hot. Surprisingly the desert isn’t as red and sandy as I expected. Due to rainfalls throughout the last spring the ground is covered with green spinafix - a very spiky grass - right now. After many hours of driving we still had not arrived in Warburton, when the sun set and turned the desert into a huge black box. Although we had not seen any camels yet, this territory is the home of thousands of wild camels that were brought to Australia in the 19th contrary by the Europeans and later set free. To hit a camel is pretty much the last thing you want to do with your car - really any car. Cows are a piece of cake compared to a camel!

After another hour of driving in the dark (I usually never do this because the probability to hit something after sun set is simply to high…) we saw lights at the horizon and the little aboriginal community of Warburton unveiled from the dark. The roadhouse’s caravan park had already closed when we arrived but we soon realized that there was no way to camp wild - the Aboriginals that immediately appeared after we arrived at the roadhouse seemed a bit scary. Since there was no bell or phone number of the roadhouse’s manager I opened the Caravan Park’s gates and parked the car in the deep grass of the campground - accompanied by loudly barking dogs - anybody came out though and we decided to stay (without setting up our tents - all three sleeping in the car!). The next morning started with another shock - again a flat tire! I honestly wonder what is going on with these tires - but maybe I am simply unlucky. The roadhouse manager pointed me in the direction of John - the local mechanic down the road. So I changed the tire and drove down the road to John. Even at daylight the community looked kind of scary - pretty much a large dump and Aboriginals sitting around all over the place - on yards, streets, sidewalks, wherever you look. Cars were parked in the middle of the streets and I had to drive around cars and their owners having a chat and suspiciously looking at the visitors. After I found John, a very friendly Kiwi, my mood soon got better because the tire had only been slightly punctuated and could be fixed for only 40$! Finally we could resume our journey and hit the road towards the Warakuna roadhouse. Here we wanted to drive in the nearby mountains but were told that permits were required to enter these lands - permits we did not have. Since we had not rested in the past days at all we set up the camp and enjoyed some relaxation time. At night two Italians and a German arrived and it was good to see a couple new faces from Europe. After packing the car and having a shower the following morning we were ready to go to Uluru - the great rock! Unfortunately my steering didn’t do what it was supposed to do and it didn’t take long until I realized that I had another problem: a broke bull junction. According to the roadhouse manager the local mechanic was supposed to be back on sunday (it was monday) - but there was no way to reach him. Apparently he doesn’t carry a cell phone on him and then it wouldn’t really matter… we are in the middle of the desert and the next cell phone reception is approx. 700 km east and west of here. So we had to wait… wait for the mechanic to come. Today is wednesday the 8th of December and we are still waiting. Maybe tomorrow is our lucky day - who knows. Anway this forced break at least happened at a roadhouse and so we stay at the camper kitchen all day long - hiding from the heat and trying to fight boredom. Now I have heaps of time to work on pictures and if you have a look at the gallery you will see that I recently uploaded over 100 new pictures. Enjoy!

Roadtrip Grande - Part I

After four weeks of fruit picking in the metropolis of Carnarvon it was time for a roadtrip. A roadtrip that would certainly be the longest, most expensive, exhausting and dangerous one. The final destination is Brisbane and in between many beautiful and remote places wait to be visited. About 6.500 K’s (like the Aussies call “Kilometers”) of net distance will have to be mastered - many of them through the most remote and hazardous areas of this continent - probably even of this world. Although I was sick of Carnarvon after four weeks it was sad to leave this place, because of the people that were to be left behind. In the past weeks, a small community of backpackers, all working on the plantation near the Gascoyne River, was established and we had a jolly good time! But since the plums were diminished due to “hard picks” the week before, it was time to say “See ya, guys!”. My highlight of the week was a female redback spider sitting in one of my crates (boxes in which I put the plums). This little spider has enough poison to severely injure someone - it can be deadly! Anyway I didn’t want to take any chances and killed it with my Kiwi work mate “P” - 0:1 for me. And trust me, you want to keep the 0 on the other side ;-) I want to add that we also experienced our first rain over here - it was more some drops falling of the sky but the locals praised everyone of them and called it their monsoon. Believe it of not but of them had not seen rain for over a year!!

Anyway, Saturday the 20th of November was departure day and after I got my new roofrack packed (oh yes… roofrack and two new tires for KK = 560$!!!) we (Tanja and I) took of to collect Karine, a Quebecian girl that worked with us on the stonefruit plantation. She will do the roadtrip with me until Alice Springs since Tanja will fly to Melbourne from Exmouth. The first destination was “Coral Bay” and as you can imagine from the name, this place is known for its beautiful corals and sealife. The nearby “Ningaloo Reef” is supposed to be even more beautiful than the “Great Barrier Reef” because of less damage to the corals. This had to be verified! After a good three hour drive and a million of huge ant houses (see the pictures! They are amazingly high but also totally abandoned. Apparently the ants build them and then move on to build a new one…) we arrived in the tiny village of “Coral Bay” where we immediately met Coralie and Xavier - two Frenchies I met in Perth and who visited us in Carnarvon a couple days earlier. After checking in the worst Caravan Park ever (at least until now) we took off for the beach and went for a first snorkeling trip. Since the sun was covered by clouds the water was dark but one could already imagine the beauty of this place at daylight. The next morning we (Xavier and I) gave it another try and decided to swim to the reef - far out in the ocean (probably something like 2-3 km) where huge waves are breaking! It took us about two hours to get about in a distance of approx. 100 meters but since the waves were so huge and powerful and the current underwater unpredictable we aborted and snorkeled back to the beach. Nevertheless it was breathtaking: beautiful corals, hundreds of different fish - even turtles!

On Monday (22nd of November) the road was calling again and we took off on a 4WD track heading towards the north. It was time for “Cape Range National Park”. But until there, some 180 K’s had to be done and since the track was in bad shape all I could do was 40 K’s/hour. After about 20 K’s the track was suddenly covered by deep sand - a nearby dune expanded enormously. And then it happened… I got bogged and boy… it was bad. The car digged its way down the sand until the whole car was sitting on sand and the wheels were throwing a huge fontaine of sand in the air. Great! What should we do? In the middle of nowhere? “No worries, ladies” I said “We’ll get him out. No worries!” That’s when the digging started - but now it was us digging heaps of sand away to get KK out. It took about one hour to uncover the wheels again and clear the bottom of the car from sand. We unpacked the whole car, laid plastic lids of our food boxes and wood under the tires and gave it a try - a successful one! Ouf! The rest of the day was a piece of cake compared to what we had on the dune. As you will see on the pictures it was extremely beautiful and untouched nature! Finally I saw more living kangaroos than dead ones! :) At about 16:30 we reached the National Park and soon approached the famous “Yardie Creek”. Why famous? Because it is known to be highly unpredictable and extremely dangerous. And since there is no bridge the only way to keep on driving is to cross the creek. Since it’s only about 50 meters of the ocean its level of water depends on the tide. At low tide it is about 30 cm deep and rises to about 180 cm at high tide! The sand is so soft that it is very likely to get stuck if one choses a bad spot to cross or simply drives to slow. My plan was to cross the creek without leaving my car to the ocean and so I walked through the creek several times to decide that it was no good idea to cross short before nightfall.

Therefore we set camp closely and had diner in the wild. Since it was dark by the time we had cooked, we couldn’t set Karine’s tent anymore and so I decided to sleep outside on a mattress strapped to KK’s motorhood. Jeans, a pullover, my sleeping bag and (most importantly) a mosquito net over my head kept me warm and protected from annoying wildlife that wanted to check me out whilst sleeping. The night wasn’t cool and it was a greater experience than anticipated. At 5:00 the night was over and we packed the car to cross the creek at sharp 5:30, when low tide was supposed to be at its lowest point. Before crossing the girls got out of the car (I guess they didn’t want to sink with me…) and I walked the creek another couple times. “Let’s do it” I said, got in the car and pushed the accelerator. KK worked his way through the deep sand of the beach in 2nd gear before driving down the creek’s banks at full speed and then SPLASHHHH!! A giant wave of water soaked the whole car but didn’t keep it from going making its way through the creekbed to the other side, where KK worked his way up the bank - then through deep beach sand again and on the dirt track. WOW!! If I hadn’t given full speed (probably like 30 km/h) KK and I would have died out there! But we made it and proved once again that we are a good team :) Nevertheless, this isn’t something for people with edgy nerves! After breakfast we got back in the car and started to search Coralie and Xavier, who travelled to the National Park using “official highways” with their camper van. Since we didn’t have any cellphone reception I checked out every single campsite on the road coming from the creek heading north. It didn’t take long and we found them parked on a camp side near a beach approx. 15 K’s north of Yardie Creek. Since the Ningaloo Reef is very close to the coast at Cape Range NP we went on a snorkeling trip at several beaches: Turquoise Bay, Oyster Staks and Lakeside. Especially Oyster Staks was absolutely amazing and breathtaking because of the wonderful corals and shallow, clear, warm water. It was like swimming in an aquarium and I only stopped because the sun was mercilessly burning my back. Oh what a wonderful place!! But of course this wasn’t enough for one day… Cape Range National Park is on the Western side of a large peninsula which is divided into two sides by a range of small mountains. For some reason I felt drawn to go for a hike in the mountains. And there I was, getting my equipment ready and leaving the camp at 16:00 heading east towards the mountains. There were no official tracks - also no unofficial ones. My way lead me through thick bush with heaps of wildlife. After a one-hour-hike through the bush I arrived at the foot of the mountain and started to climb up.

Another 30 minutes went by and I was rewarded an amazing lookout over the western peninsula and the Ningaloo Reef. Up there (approx. 300 m above N) I found a perfect spot, had diner and waited for the sun set.

Once the sun was gone I quickly made my way back down the mountain and headed towards the ocean. The camp was 276° West and if I hadn’t been equipped with a compas, I would have had a huge problem - because the bush at night is nothing one wants to experience. It’s a scary place! Dark and dangerous - you never know what is laying on the ground or hanging in the trees or waiting for you behind the next bush. To avoid any encounter with snakes and dingos (probably my worst problem out there) I did as much noise as I could and walked quickly through dark bushes until I hit the road just about 150 meters away from where I took off. Once back at the camp the others were relieved and I was happy and thankful for this amazing trip and safe return. PTL!

On thursday the 25th of November we drove to Exmouth (the “biggest” city nearby) to fuel up and buy new supplies for the next trip. Before we’ll hit the road in direction “Karijini National Park” I will go on a diving tour though tomorrow. The nearby Navy Pier is known to be one of the 10 most amazing diving spots on the world and I couldn’t wait to see sharks and other amazing fish. And let me tell you, this trip was amazing! After a refreshment course (I had not dived in a couple of years…) and some theoretical dive briefings we finally packed the bus and drove outside town in direction of the Australian Navy Base. Since the pier is on a military basis we had to fill out heaps of papers and were checked by federal policemen. Once on the pier we had to wait for the current to calm down since it was still rough and wild. But then it went quick and the dive masters yelled “GO!” and everybody got ready and soon we were on the platform - ready to jump. That’s when the fun really started: heaps of fish surrounded us - big and small, colorful and plain ones - venomous and friendly - name it, we’ve had it! It was amazing diving through the steel structures of the pier and seeing fish I had never seen before. It didn’t take long until I spotted the first White Tip Reef Shark - a wonderful feeling. On the first dive I saw several White Tips and two other kinds: wobbegong and leopard sharks. We also saw some decent coral gardens and nudibranches, stonefish, firefish and some giant fish I can’t remember its name. What I do remember is that it was about 2 meters long, 1 meter “high” and probably half a meter wide - so as you can imagine that was a lot of meat and every shark looked small compared to this fellow. Eventually you don’t want to mess with these kind of giants and back off a little bit. However it was definitely and amazing experience and also the second dive was great. It was a night dive, because we got in the water after the sun had set and dove with torches. This time of the day is especially interesting because the predators started their daily lunch routine. Therefore I saw a shark chasing fish that were on his menu that night… Pretty impressive stuff and you want to make sure, you’re not in the way or they’ll change their plans for dinner ;-)
After a total of 100 minutes in the water we were done for today - tired and poor - but really happy! What a wonderful world…
Now it is time to say “Good Bye” to Exmouth and continue towards Karijini National Park, Uluru and finally Brisbane. It will take some time until the next blog entry - I hope I’ll make it before christmas but I can’t make promises.
Cheers!

Pick it, pack it, eat it

Today is Tuesday the 9th of november and I have been in Carnarvon for three weeks now. If it weren’t for the work I had left this forsaken place a million years ago - Carnarvon is really not worth a (long) visit. Anyway, after three weeks of picking cherry plums, big red plums and black plums I am now an experienced and certified plum picker (although the latter has not exactly been officially declared…)! Picking plums is definitely a good job - especially compared to working on bananas, tomatoes, mangos and capsicum! If it weren’t for the unmerciful heat (mostly over 34°C - sometimes without wind) this would be a piece of cake - well it ain’t but then it could be worse. In order to pick more efficiently I agreed with my boss to start one hour earlier - at 6:30. This one hour earlier really makes a difference! In between 10:30-14:00 it is killer! At least we have a lunchbreak from noon till 13:00! We? Yes… there are several backpackers that work on the farm. A Canadian girl, a New-Zealand guy, a Japanese couple, two more Germans and since yesterday a Taiwanese girl. But we are not all picking plums! The farm also has nectarines and peaches… Anyway, after picking all sorts of plums I was delighted when my boss - Jackie - asked me to pack the plums in the shed (way cooler than out in the fields!! YEAH!) So, there I was: picking plum from 6:30-14:00 and then packing plums. Very nice! Very nice also because working on a stonefruit farm means great supply with tasty fruits! Of course you have to watch it, because your digestion will soon pull strings you don’t want to be touched, but since now I have only enjoyed eating delicious fruits! :)
Originally I was told that there were enough work for about four to five weeks. Since the heat of the last days accelerated the ripening of the fruits we now pick as fast as possible because out of nowhere tens of thousands of new plums surprised us Monday morning! No packing - just picking straight eight hours a day! Puhh… In the worst case, I wont have work next week - not good for my money situation! But then I also want to leave this place - move on to the beautiful North-Western coast and Coral Bay & Exmouth. At least I have enough time to get some things done, when I return to the caravan park after work: select and work on my pictures. I finally uploaded the first 46 today, but there are about 200 more to come (just for the first weeks) and let me tell you, I like them a lot. Today I just uploaded the ‘Perth & region’ ones but the road-trip-pics are still to be revealed ;-) I think and hope that it is worth waiting.
This last weekend was the first that could be used for relaxation. I went to the beach - not really a pretty beach - compared to all the beautiful ones I camped on! But at least I swam in the Indian Ocean and found some time to just life… very sweet! Plus I enjoyed going to the local pub “Troppy” on Friday nights (Backpackers night = free BBQ + cheap drinks) Yah!!
In all my blog posts I have never mentioned the funny words and expressions, Aussies use all the time, haven’t I? Well, I reckon I haven’t, mate. But no worries, mate. Whatever is cracking’ mate - it’s good on me, or on ya or on whoever mate is around! It’s really amusing and I quickly picked it up and joined the game! Good on me! :-D
Alrighty, that’s it for today. Since I primarily wrote about my work I attached a picture of me and Tanja (German mate from Nürnberg) after our first day of picking plums. Please check out the other pictures in the gallery!
Cheers!

Finding a job up north

As said before, my original plan was to find work around “Monkey Mia”. Therefore this place was my first destination in the “Shire of Shark Bay”. Unfortunately neither the resort nor the restaurant required workers and I left awfully disappointed. It is one of the most beautiful place on earth and I would have loved to stay there… To compensate my defeat in “Monkey Mia” I decided to treat KK and myself with a 4WD-ride in the famous “Francois Peron National Park”. This is a 4WD-exclusive area where only serious vehicles are allowed to enter. It was mandatory to reduce the pressure of my tires significantly and after a couple meters I understood why: ahead of me lay hundreds of kilometers of red, soft sand which challenges both machine and driver. The track was so narrow that whenever a car came the opposite direction one of us had to get off the track and in some bushes so that we could get pass each other. I have made a couple videos and tons of pictures and hope to upload them asap to give you an impression of what it was like. It was for sure the most challenging but also absolutely best 4WD ride I ever did and it definitely is the paradise for all off-road-freaks! At the very top of the National Park I had a breathtaking look at the coastline and spotted dugongs and manta rays. After a 30 minute break and another 500 pictures it was time to get back in the sand. Because of changing weather I followed an Aussie’s suggestion to stay the night at the beach “Herald Bight”. The 50 km drive was quite rough and now also included some parts where the ground wasn’t red sand but white “birridas” (similar to clay) with huge holes in which the car could easily get bogged. When I arrived at the beach I got stuck in the deep soft sand for the first time but managed my way out before I got stuck again in a dune further down the beach. As the car would not move forward anymore I decided to have reached my camp site for the night. I got out for a stroll and found myself at the doorstep of snake heaven. The dunes were covered with snake tracks that had been preserved by the sand. Wonderful! Scared to death I ate curry chicken rice and closed all windows before going to sleep. The night was not very comfortable as you can imagine with a) worries about my little friends and b) without fresh air… The next day began early and I watched a wonderful sunrise. Before I could leave the beach I had to dig away an awful lot of sand as KK had sank deep into the soft ground. Fortunately I got him down to the lower part of the beach close to the water (which on the one hand is good because the ground tends to be more stabile but can also be your worst nightmare if it is soaking wet and you actually drown in water….) At that time of the day, the ground was strong enough to serve as a reliable way back to the red sand track towards the exit of the National Park. But then it happened - I got stuck for a third time and now the tires were spinning and digging their way deep in the sand. Thank god my reverse saved me and I backed up towards the water and tried a different place to re-enter the sand tracks - now successfully! Wow! That was close… very close to being bogged and lost somewhere in the middle of nowhere!
After another 40 km I reached the parks exit and headed towards “Denham” - the capitol of the “Shire of Shark Bay”. I checked in the local YHA backpackers hostel and had a wonderful shower (the first after four nights). I finally felt human again! :) The accommodation was simple but clean and I met a couple of nice people (Aussies, Swiss’, Germans, …). Together we decided to go to the local community center to see an Aussie comedian entertain the folks of this little forsaken village. Although his humor was terribly sexist and completely out of line, a decent load of pints of beer supported our amusement. As you can imagine I slept fantastically this night - beer ‘n bed - what do you want more? ;-)
The next day I got up early to find a job and whilst walking down the main street of Denham I met a 70 year old fellow called Tim who spontaneously invited me to his house. We talked for hours and he warmly asked me to stay the night and for supper in return of some computer tutoring.
Since Denham didn’t prove to be an oasis for working backpackers, I continued my trip further north - in direction of “Carnarvon”. On the road I came along the famous “Hamelin Pool” which hosts a whole lot of stromatolites. Many people go crazy when it comes to these living fossils - I did not really get a kick out of it - maybe also because I was under constant attack from the most aggressive flies I have ever seen on this planet. Australian flies really are the most annoying creatures ever! Seriously, there is nothing as penetrant and disgusting as these little (excuse my French) bastards! Once I was back on the “West Coastal Highway” towards “Carnarvon” my statistic of seen roadkill some significant change. Since I arrived in Australia, I keep track of all wild animals I see on the road (dead or alive). So far I saw eight kangaroos alive and 52 dead! 41 of whom were lying on the road between “Denham” and “Carnarvon”! I have also counted ten wild cows of whom six had been killed recently by cars or trucks. Yes, they have wild cows over here! After some 350 km I reached the middle sized town “Carnarvon”. Although the guide claimed 9.000 inhabitants, I found a very sleepy, nearly dead little city which really does not have anything attractive other than the brochures that are a wonderful prove of good marketing: make crap look good and sell as hell! Anyway, I came here to look for jobs. To do so you got to spread the word that you are looking for a job in town. Therefor you gotta talk to all people that appear to be locals. An so I did… I also went to all pubs, restaurants, motels, hotels and so on to offer my services - none of them had a job for me! On Saturday (23rd) I also drove by all plantations that Carnarvon is famous for. Many of them had signs on the street saying “NO WORK”. Some even had signs saying “NO WORK, DO NOT ENTER!” Really friendly, isn’t it? Anyway I decided to give it another try on Monday morning, as I was told by a French couple, that would be my best chance. And so it was: I got up early and started my plantation-tour at 7 am and the first plantation without signs was chosen to be my first hit. And let me tell you: hit and sunk! I asked for work and the answer was “Yeah, I have work for ya, mate!” 5 minutes later I stood in front of a field with plums that had to be picked. 8 hours a day - 18$ per hour! I guess this time was my turn to be the right person at the right place at the right time! Lucky, happy me! PTL! The work is really good - although the sun and flies (and unfortunately mosquitos) are killer! Picking plums though is definitely a good job - picking bananas, mangos, tomatoes or capsicum seems to be way more exhausting! Unfortunately I have met two other snakes - unfortunately living ones.
Today is Saturday the 30st and I have already worked one week - got paid (500$) and purchased a broadband internet surf stick. Although it is awfully expensive I am sick of searching for internet and now can surf wherever I want - well, I need some civilization around because you really don’t have a lot of reception… For those of you that still wait for pictures - I am afraid that you’ll have to wait a little bit longer until I find a McDonalds (they have free wi-fi). The data I purchased with the stick is simply to precious and expensive to use it for picture-upload… That’s it for today. All the best from W.A.!

On the road…

…towards the north! On Sunday, October 17th it was time to leave Perth in direction Monkey Mia. Up there, not only a job (hopefully) but also “Shark Bay” and “Coral Beach” expect me! It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places on this continent and therefore on the world. Since I “got” checked out by the hostel (I thought I payed the bed until Monday…) the scheduled departure on Monday morning was thrown over board. Unfortunately all the supermarkets were already closed - so it was sandwiches that should keep me alive until Monday. And then it began, my long trip on the road. And let me tell you: this piece of land down here is breathtaking. I really can not find the right words to describe the beauty of this region. Hopefully the pictures will give you an idea of what I am enjoying so much. Back to the roadtrip: so there I was, leaving Perth behind me and knowing that the sun sets at 6pm. So it was highly important to start looking out for a place to stay over night. Since I took off in the early afternoon, I found a very little town called ‘Guilderton’ and decided to stay the night over at the beach. KK’s 4WD was needed for the very first time! After some yummy sandwiches and a spectacular sunset, the back of the car was prepped and eyes were closed at 8pm when the sun had set and everything was dark. Despite the calm rhythm of the waves that regularly landed of the beach I had an awful night. Not only was I rolling to one side of the car (KK was parked relatively unleveled - of course it was in the sand) the whole night, but it also got surprisingly fresh - let’s even say bitterly cold! The sleepingbag was not enough, and a cover was packed somewhere in my backpack. So I stayed up, trying to sleep. At 5:30 am the sun finally rose again and a new day was about to begin. Soon, everything was packed and KK rolling towards the “Indian Ocean Drive”. Of course, at this time everything was still closed and so I made some kilometers until I reached the town “Sea Bird”. Once there, coffee was made on the brand new gas cooker and teeth were brushed. Further down the road, the town “Lancelin” (which I chose to rename in “Lancelot”) was chosen to be the next stop to tank and buy some groceries. After that KK got his first serious off-road challenge: “Nambung National Park” invited 4WD-drivers to find their (car’s) limits. And let me tell you, at least I started sweating quit a bit. After a short chat with a park ranger that drove by I decided to take KK on a very (and if I say very, I mean very very!) bumpy and rough ride on the beach. “Just keep driving! Just keep driving!” was all I said and prayed. Stuck on that forgotten beach would have been the first disaster! Of course it was an amazing lot of fun, but still: this is hard work… After several kilometers of praying and jumping from one sand hill to another, we arrived in the latino-influenced village “Cervantes”. This was the perfect spot for another load of sandwiches and drying cloths that had been washed the day before.
At this point, I decided that “Coronation Beach” near “Geraldton” would be the destination for the day. But first, some 300 km had to be driven, but they flew by fast even though I never drive above 90 km/h. Some 30 km ahead of “Geraldton” a sign indicated that “Greenough Wildlife & Bird Park” was close and I decided to invest 8$ to see and feed all kinds of Aussie animals including sheep, alpaca, donkey, wild horses, goats, emus and of course kangaroos! I skipped the python cage and had a very nice chat with the owner of the place. Back on the road, I reached the city limits of “Geraldton” only half an hour later. Now I finally found a larger supermarket and did some grocery shopping. This will be the last “bigger city” for quite some time…
My shopping-trip took longer than anticipated and I had to speed up to reach “Coronation Beach” before sunset. Tough, but not completely impossible. I arrived at the camp site at around 6:20 pm and immediately started fixing some pesto noodles in order to see the most beautiful sunset together with a cooled and tasty beer. By the time the noodles were done, the sun had already set, but it was still nice due to the wonderful colors of the horizon, far out on the Indian ocean.
The next day started a little bit later for me, because it wasn’t as cold as the day before and I also slept more comfortable. Once awake I got out of the car and walked a few meters through the dunes and then on the beach. The rising sun spent warmth and I stayed there for a while, looking out for dolphins that were seen there the day before as I was told by an Aussie. Unfortunately, they didn’t show up again and it was time for breakfast anyway. The next destination was “Kalbarri National Park” which was especially recommended by the Aussie who sold me all the camping equipment. On the road towards “Kalbarri” I saw my first two snakes - fortunately they were driven in the asphalt and got to kiss my tires! By the way: there is a lot of road kill down here. I have counted ten dead Kangaroos until now (Tuesday, 19th of October) and heaps of dead goats! Anyway: after a couple of hours long drive I saw the sign indicating that I had reached my destination. “Kalbarri NP” is especially known for its bluffs (cliffs) and reefs. The huge and powerful waves that hammered against the rough coast line were breathtaking! But then my time had come to see the first snake that had not been killed (yet)! I was walking down a path to a lookout when I saw something green and approx. 1 meter long creep over the path ahead of me. SHOCK!!! I immediately turned around and walked in the opposite direction. Later, I was told that I had seen a python which - of course - is not that dangerous - as the Aussies tried to comfort me. Yeah right, nothing is dangerous with them. They kept on telling me “We’re still here… and they’re more scared of you than you of them. Y’ll be a’right, mate!” After that shock I was graciously compensated because once at the lookout, I could see humpback whales swimming and jumping in the bay. I counted about eight of them and they had a blast by showing off their mighty and power. My camera ran hot because of the hundreds of pictures I shot! It was absolutely amazing what just happened in front of my eyes - maybe just 1-2 km away! Afterwards I hit the road again towards the famous “Shark Bay” where “Monkey Mia” and hopefully a job was waiting. But first, about 250km had to be driven and once arrived, my tank was empty. Of course I had enough spare diesel in canisters but I did not want to challenge my luck and decided to tank a little bit. Of course, since I am at the absolute end of the world they charged outrageous 1,55$ per liter! Since “Monkey Mia” was still 75 km away I decided to stay right at a beach down the road. The beach is fantastic and I parked KK about 20 meters of the water - this is only possible because the bay is huge and flat - there are no waves that will drag me into the ocean. After a wonderful sunset I had diner and watched the stars (plus Venus!) before getting in the car and writing this post.

News from Perth, WA

Cheers! I am very sorry for not giving any news these past days but it really isn’t the easiest thing to 1st: find a free wi-fi hotspot and 2nd: find time to work on pictures and write stories ;-) I have been very busy and have organized the most important things by now: bank account, mobile phone & car!
Especially the car search was a pain in the a** and really difficult. I ran around the suburbs of Perth to look at a million cars until I finally found the one. To make a long story short: it’s a beautiful 92’ Nissan Patrol 4WD Diesel with a lot of power and fun-guarantee. I named it KK (Kangaroo Killer) ;-) As you can see on the pictures it is very massive and the spoiler will definitely take care of my barbecue meat! Although diesel-fuel is more expensive over here (around 1,31AU$) this car will have way more fuel economy than petrol 4WDs… Just one note to Aussie car dealers: if they could they would sell you their grandmother in a heartbeat and still say, she were hardly used and is in perfect condition to travel. (Yeah, right! Laying in parts on the trunk of a service truck!) Papers? Pah… nobody needs no papers… It’s a jungle out here, folks! Even though Perth is supposed to be civilized!
But apart from Aussie car dealers I have to say that I am overwhelmed by the friendliness of the Aussies. Be it bus drivers, police officers, park rangers or random people on the streets - the Aussies are a wonderful people - happy, relaxed, helpful and very talkative. Down here, everyone asks you how you are doing and they actually want to know it and be asked as well. They even are irritated if you don’t react to their question of your well-being… very very nice people! To give you one example: I took the bus on Tuesday to go see some car dealers and the bus driver spontaneously gave me his phone no. so I could call him if I needed help! And Wednesday I talked about 30 mins with a bus driver about cars, dealers and the dangers of Australia. He gave me dozens of tips and was extremely helpful!
Now, to Perth: Perth is a nice and relatively calm city at the Swan river. For some reason I thought it would be near the sea - well it isn’t. :-) With a population of 1.4 mio people, Perth is described as a metropolis - but if you ask me it’s a big country town. Around 6pm the streets of the city start to clear out - around 7pm it is almost empty!! If it would be the desert here, I were missing strolling desert balls. The weather is decent - gets pretty hot during the day (I already got sunburned - of course!) but really, really fresh after 6pm due to a constantly existent and strong wind that comes from the sea. Clouds are moving so fast the you get the impression, everything is in fast-forward mode!! As for today I have seen all down town, the Swan river esplanade and the so called Heirisson Island on which wild Kangaroos are supposed to live. After searching for about two hours in the bushes of the Island I managed to spot my first three roos! Chillin’ in the shade they didn’t really seem to bother about my presence and so I took pictures and tried to imitate their noises (which is like a grumbling deep down your throat) in order to provoke some reaction - without success! Anyway, I kept my distance to avoid being bet up by these creatures. Since the immigration officer, who by the way had me empty ALL my luggage for inspection and drug/explosive screening (I am actually not over exaggerating), told me that she didn’t want to see my face on Aussie news next to the headline: AND AGAIN: GERMAN BACKPACKER KILLED BY CROCODILE or WENT MISSING IN THE OUTBACK et cetera I thought it wool be a good idea to take it slow ;-)
This morning, I checked out of the hostel and will head towards the north. My destination will be Monkey Mia and I hope to find a job there quickly since my finances are killer right now. The car is packed and the drive is supposed to be fantastic with many 4WD beaches and awesome nature. I am not sure when I will arrive since it’s some good 900km drive. Anyway: don’t worry: everything will be fine. Hopefully, I’ll be able to give news soon! Please check out the pictures in the gallery since I can’t upload all of them in the blog. I am still working on the pictures from Singapore - I hope to upload some from Australia by the end of next week. This week has been very stressful due to all the things that had to be taken care of! Sorry ‘bout that…
All the best!