A Rock Tour, a Reunion, Singapore and... The End!

It is 1:07pm, Singapore time, and this evening we'll board a KLM airplane to Amsterdam. It's true, this is the very last time we can let you know what we've been up to over the last weeks. This weekend Paul will be back with his family in Germany and Berrie will be, er... yes, with his family in Friesland! That is no reason to be sad (just yet!) though, because over the last few weeks we took a lot of pictures and saw a lot of things so we can make sure this last travelupdate is going to be one of the best...

In Darwin we took the shuttle bus to Darwin Airport. We had a quick and nice flight to Alice Springs, with clear skies so we were able to get an impression of the landscape (which was empty anyway) underneath us. On the airport we were picked up by a courtesy bus from the Youth Hostel we were staying (funny system - they pick you up from the airport in order to get you in, but when you want to get back you're told to book a taxi or airportshuttlebus!) and so we were suddenly in the very center of Australia!

We liked the towncenter of Alice Springs surprisingly much, the main mall has a good atmosphere and about half of the shops are aboriginal art galleries. We didn't have much time to have a look, because the next day we had to get up at 4.30. In the absolutely ridiculous cold morning we stood there with our shorts and little tourbackpack, waiting for the tourbus.

The bus came and soon it became clear that we had a very, er... special tourgroup! There was a Serbian/Polish family with their 19 year old son, a group of loud and noisy but very nice Irish/Scottish girls and then there was a mixture of different nationalities (Slovakish (?), German, Italian, Finnish, Dutch, Swiss...) and that all in a group of only 21 people! Our tour guide, Dylan, told us right away what this tour was about; a lot of driving, a lot of walking and a lot of fun...!

Obviously, the first thing to do was driving; well we only had to sit in the bus for several hours. Our first destination was King's Canyon. This national park was absolutely stunning! The red/brown rocks in weird shapes give a unique feeling and we were happy to find out that our tour included a good 3+ hour walk and not just a quick look around. We took some great pictures (see pictures on above and below) and visited sites like the Garden of Eden (which looked like just another waterhole to us...).

The end of the day was coming close by then (don't forget, there was a lot of driving again!), so we were heading for a bush "campground". But, on the way there, Dylan suddenly stopped the bus in the middle of nowhere (a term which you can use at any location in central Australia...) because we had to search for firewood! It was done very quickly because everyone was giving a hand and soon there was a nice pile of dry wood on top of the trailer.

So then we arrived at the bush "campground". We suppose they called it "campground" because they didn't know what other word to use, but it was definitely not a campground. The only "facility" was a firepit. Yes, we we're definitely "roughing it" (another favourite Australian term), as we sat on a rolled swag (rough canvas extra sleeping bag with mattress, to use around a normal sleeping bag...) around the campfire (see above). Dylan prepared a meal while we were drinking cans of Toohey's beer that we bulk-bought at a roadhouse on the way (some people bought up to 20 cans!).

You probably expect that we sang songs and played games and laughed and had a good time at the fire, but we were way to tired so we layed our swag out and went to sleep. But not for long, because long before the sun rose Dylan woke us all up. After a quick (and to be honest, not very big) breakfast, we moved on to Yulara, the Ayer's Rock resort. There was just enough time to go to the toilet, and then we got back on the bus, moving towards Kata Tjuta. Kata Tjuta is another nature miracle; huge, round and red rocks rise from the flat desert to form this national park. We did the Valley of the Winds walk, a very appropriate name - hats flew off our heads! The walk provided good views (see picture below) and yes - we had a good time again.

It was time to drive to the place where the Rock Tour is all about: the Rock! Or Ayer's Rock, or the official aboriginal name: Uluru! There was time to read about the aboriginal dreamtime stories in the visitor centre, and then we walked a short part of the base walk. Dylan explained a lot about rockpaintings and plants/trees and their use. Uluru might seem small on pictures, but believe us, it was an overwhelmingly big rock and standing right next to it (and touching it) felt really strange (see picture on right)! It was getting late again so it was time to go to the "Coaches Sunset Viewing Area". The people there do know that they are managing a major tourist attraction, so yes it is rather "touristy"... Our bus just fitted in between about 40 other buses, and we all waited for Uluru to undergo its famous colourchange during the sunset. We were very enthusiastic and took way too many pictures, but it was just amazing to see that red giant getting redder and redder - a sight we won't forget (see picture below).

Back to Yulara Resort, and in mean time the group got to know each other a little bit so this evening we did have that games evening! And there was a lot of laughing! Once again, the next morning we got up very early in order to enjoy the sunrise and its warm colours on Uluru. It was absolutely freezing so it was very difficult to get ourselves out of the warm bus. It was definitely worth it, though! We loved the sunrise much more than the sunset. Uluru was literally glowing (see picture below)!

After the sunrise and a quick breakfast we had the time to complete the basewalk, a 9.5km walk around Uluru. It's nice to be able to say that we walked around Uluru, but it's not a very interesting walk, because the rock looks pretty much the same from every side (and it was still freezing cold!). Uluru was the last major stop of our tour, so after that we got on the bus once again and drove back to Alice Springs.

There was one more stop on the way though - the Camel Farm! For only $5 you could go up and down the paddock on a camel's back. And only Berrie was brave (or childish) enough to do this... It was hilarious (see picture on the left).

Back in Alice Springs we were dumped in front of our hostel. This time we got a caravan in the garden of the hostel, which was very nice! In the evening the group met each other at a restaurant, where we had a good time and there was a didgeridoo band, which organised a didgeridoo competition... There was no choice whether to participate or not - everyone had to. It was embarrassing but also a lot of fun! Most people only managed to make disgusting farting sounds, but some got into it pretty well (we're talking about sounds coming out of the didgeridoo!).

That was the Rock Tour! We had one more day to see Alice Springs and then flew into Perth! It was good but also a little bit weird to come back there, especially coming back to Midland and Swan Valley. It was where we started off and in some way it feels a little bit like our "home in Australia". It was good to talk to Henk-Jan and Paula again!

When we went out for a walk with the dogs in the afternoon we saw a tiny Apollo camper approaching on the street with three people inside that were slightly familiar: Berries family! It felt a little unreal to meet each other in Australia, but it was very good all the same! We shared the cottage in HJ and Paula's garden and the next 3 days we drove around in the little camper. Because we had been to Perth/Midland/Fremantle before, we sort of acted as tourguides and showed them around (see picture below). We had a very good time and the days rushed by, so it was time to say goodbye again, although only for a few days.

Henk-Jan, Erik and Ineke took us to Perth International Airport and we were on our way again, to Singapore as you know. We arrived in the late afternoon and our first few hours in Singapore were, well, not fantastic. It is constantly hot and humid here (we're talking +32degrees and more; even at night its +25degrees)! We can hear people say "what do they complain about", but it's really true - the climate is not comfortable here, at least not this time of the year. We had never been to an Asian city before and even though this might be the most "western-going" Asian city, we were still a little bit intimidated by the huge masses of people and countless skyscrapers. And we had our heavy baggage with us, which didn't make it comfortable to walk around. Still, we had to, because there seemed to be no accomodation left anywhere! We cursed ourselves more than once for not booking our accomodation before we arrived. But in the end we were "lucky". As we went into the fifth dodgylooking hotel to ask, without much hope anyway, if they had a room available, the lady said: "$40" and a young man took us 3 buildings down the street to another man, who took us to another building and showed us a tiny room. By that time we would've accepted anything they offered us anyway, though...

Our hotel is actually not yet a hotel. They are renovating an old building, the toilets still need to be done (which gives you an idea what they are like) and the only thing in our room was a bed. But it was clean AND extremely cheap (20 euro per night!), so we did decide to book it for all of our 4 nights in Singapore. (Picture above: the city is like a big park!)

Singapore is great! You feel safe all the time, there are literally too many shopping malls with too many shops to visit, it is extremely clean (with fines for chewing bubblegum and reusable triantickets, that is no wonder) and very well maintained. It has a parkfeeling over it with lush greenery through the whole city. Older districts like Little India (where we stayed) and Chinatown (see picture on left) still give you an impression of what it used to be like (at least that's what we like to believe!).

So we spent a lot of time in the shopping centers/street malls, visited Chinatown, and had dinner and breakfast in the foodcourts. The price of food here is ridiculous! You pay around 1 to 3 euros for your meal! The supermarket is very expensive, though, so it's no wonder that everyone eats out. (Picture on right: impression of Singapore citylife)

Yesterday we went to Sentosa. It's "Singapore's Resort island". It has a themepark feeling over it (with speakers hidden in treetrunks playing fairytale music), but it looks very good (see picture above). We visited the average Butterfly Park and Insect Museum, took a ride over the harbour in the Cable Train and in the evening we saw the cheesy but eyepopping Songs of the Sea show! Water, lasers, lights, music, explosions, fire - it's an amazing show which attracts a big crowd (picture below: Singapore skyline at night).

A bus took us back to Singapore, and we slept the last night of our long journey, and now we sit in an internetcafe a few doors down from our hotel! The end really has come for this journey, the only thing we'll still do is take the bus to the airport. If you did have the urge to feel sad at the beginning of this blog but you didn't because we told you not to - now you can. We are a little bit sad, too, but we are also very happy and thankful for everything that we have seen and done the last 10 months.

We also want to thank everyone who has been reading our blog! We hope (and this is not very original!) that you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed letting you share in our experiences. Also a huge thanks to everyone in Australia who helped us so much along the way: Henk-Jan, Paula, Sjaak, Angie, Tim, Jenni, Selma!

We can't wait to go travelling again, to who knows where!

Paul and Berrie

4000kms later...

...we're writing one of our last blogentries for you!

It's only been a few weeks, but they were hectic, stressful and nervewrecking. Those weeks were full of driving, as we had to drive the huge distance from Townsville to Tennant Creek to Darwin - more than 4000kms - in just two weeks to still have time to sell our car!

But anyway, after the Daintree Rainforest we went straight to Cairns. We only spent half a day in the city, as it wasn't that appealing to us. Apart from strolling through some bookshops, there was pretty much nothing to do for us. So the same day we started the long drive from Townsville into the heart of Outback/Remote-Australia. Around that time we also started advertising our car online,because we were a little bit worried that we would end up giving our car to the wreckers if no one would buy it in Darwin...

Well, on the way to Tennant Creek we stayed in places like Richmond (with a beautifully equipped campkitchen!) or Mt. Isa. We decided to stay in Mt. Isa for 2 nights. We took our time to surf through some shops, hang by the pool and just relax. We also went to see "Get Smart!" in the local cinema.

Our next "bigger" stop was Tennant Creek, but once again only for one night as we had a strict schedule. Our only photostop on that way was the sign which said we had just passed the Queensland - Northern Territory border. But as you can see on the photo, there was not much around to see...

Two fellowcampers advised us to stop at Daly Waters, the local pub to be precise. And so we did, and it didn't look like your average pub! Photos say more than words, so have a look at it yourself.


For the next two nights we stayed in Elsey National Park, near Mataranka. The day in the National Park there was filled with swimming in a +34degrees thermal pool - heaven - and walking along Roper River to a series of cascades and lots of swimming opportunities in the river itself (see Paul enjoying the thermal pool on the left). We were a bit scared to dive into the water though, as dozens of signs warned us for the freshwater and salt crocodiles inhabiting the water. But, brave as we are (or at least pretend to be), we dared to step into the water, even though it was only for 20 second-periods. It was absolutely beautiful and we even found our own little private whirlpool (see Berrie enjoying that below)! We really enjoyed that day being completely back in nature.

The next day we went on to drive to Nitmiluk National Park near the town Katherine. Our caravan park was situated near the Park, and in the evening we had several little visitors hopping next to our tent and even trying to nick our food (we're talking about Wallabies)!
An 8kms return-walk took us to beautiful spots like the Katherine Gorge. We had stunning views over the Gorge (see picture below). A different steeps route over rocks took us to a waterfall, which was almost dry though due to the dry season in the Northern Territory. It wasn't quite deep so Paul took the opportunity to have a little swim (see picture on the right).

After exhausting 4 hours we came back to the campsite, took a shower and went to visit Katherine itself. We had an overnight stay in a campsite which was close to the Katherine Thermal Pools - you can just guess how happy we were about that! Even though the water wasn't as warm as in the other pool, we sure enjoyed our one-hour-swim in the clear water.

Our next stop was - surprise, surprise - another National Park! The worldfamous Kakadu NP was the centre of our attention for the next two days. It was a little bit disappointing though, as a lot of the sights such as Jim Jim Falls were only accessible with a 4WD. We stopped at a lookout point before we drove to our bushcamp called Muriela Campground. It ended up being one of our favourite overnight stays, as we had a campfire which gave us enough power to cook a whole meal with it (it also warmed water for tea and for washing the dishes!).


Our second day in the National Park was a bit more exciting, as we visited sights like the Nourlangie Rockpaintings. It is believed that aboriginal people lived in that particular Kakadu area over a thousand years ago! A spectacular lookout point (below) was also part of Nourlangie. After the rockpaintings we stopped at a billabong, the town of Jabiru and a part of wetlands.


On the way to Darwin we also had a very exciting moment! Just as we drove over a bridge, Berrie spotted a crocodile laying in the sun on a shore in the river! We immediately turned, stopped with the car on the bridge (despite the signs warning us "DONT PARK ON BRIDGE") and took a photo of it.


Well, that was pretty much all that we saw and did in the Kakadu. Later that day we arrived in Darwin and had a nervewrecking search for a caravan park with available tent sites. Only after we called 5 parks we finally booked a spot in a caravan park close to the beach!

The first day in Darwin was under the motto: Advertising the car. As you know from our previous blogentries, Darwin is our last stop with our own car! We were busy putting together a leaflet with all the important informations about the car, printing several copies of it, making it look all fancy with textmarkers and putting it on note boards all over Darwin such as internet cafes and youth hostels. We were totally knackered and our nerves were strained like never before as we were really nervous about selling our car.

And - yippie - we had our first call the next day already! Two girls called Hannah and Kelly were particularly interested in purchasing our car, and so two hours after the call they had a look at the car, went for a little test drive and also decided to buy it from us! YIPPIE! You can just imagine how big the stone was that fell off our chests.


The following week was a matter of organizing and packing - we had to reduce the contents of a fully loaded station wagon to the 2x20kg we can take on the airplane. Time rushed by last week but in mean time we did see a few attractions in Darwin. We've tried to get a lastminute tan and found some nice shells on Lee Point Beach, strolled through Darwins botanic garden (even though we never considered ourselves diehard garden fans, we've seen all the gardens in the major cities we visited...), locked Paul up in the very interesting Fannie Bay Gaol Museum (see picture above) and had a look at all the handmade craftwares on offer at Mindil Beachs Sunset Markets.

And yesterday Hannah and Kelly drove our car away, the poor car has to go back to Townsville within 3 days! So we are living like real backpackers again, staying in a hostel in central Darwin. Last night we went to see Mamma Mia: The Movie, which was fun! Tomorrow we'll get on the first of the 4 planes we'll board the coming 2 weeks, so next time you'll hear from us we'll report what we've seen in "the Red Centre", probably from Perth!


In mean time we'll visit a few coffeeshops and cafes, because we're good at that! Yesterday we had a spicy pumpkinsoup for lunch, but, and we're absolutely honest, Jenni: we loved your pumpkin soup much more!

Final distance travelled (in our car): 24471km

"Where the rainforest meets the Reef!"

This time we're writing from the far north of Queensland, from a town called Port Douglas to be precise. That means we moved quite a few kilometers since our stay in Brisbane. And that means that we saw and did a lot of things!

After our stay in Brisbane we got back on the train and bus to good old Gayndah, where we were excited to pick up our car. We were unpleasantly surprised when we found out that the car still leaked oil, and that basically meant that the car would stay at the mechanic for another week. It made the delay in our travelling schedule even bigger, but we had the best place to stay for those days: even though we didn't travel, we had a very nice week at Tim and Jenni's place: playing ping pong, enjoying their amazing cooking, packing mandarins for their markets and changing our travelling schedule for the coming weeks.

As you may know, we planned to drive all the way back to Perth, which would've been perfectly possible if we would have left 3,5 weeks earlier. Now it would become very tight, so we had to arrrange a different way to be back in Perth on time. So, that means, we have to be in Darwin around the 10th of July, where we will have a week to sell our car. Then, on the 17th, we'll fly to Alice Springs, where we will do a 3 day outback tour from the day after. On the 22nd we take another plane, this time all the way to Perth. There we'll see Henk-Jan and Paula again, but also meet Berries family, as they are flying to Australia tomorrow!

That's about what's still ahead of us, now we'll tell you about what we've done. On the day we finally left Gayndah we didn't drive far, but it was just good to be on the road again. We stayed in Biloela, which was only an overnight stay so the next morning we went on again. This time we drove to Emerald, but on the way we visited the stunning Blackdown Tablelands National Park. There was no one else visiting, so we had it all for ourselves. Our favourite part was the Two Mile Falls. It is the dry season so there wasn't a lot of water, but the surroundings were stunning and it was possible to stand on the edge of the waterfall (see picture below).

Our next stop was Emerald, where we stayed for the night. The next day we drove further to the Sapphire Gem Fields. We wanted to have a look at the Gemstone Information Centre, but it had shut its doors so we just went on to Sapphire, a tiny fossickers town. The friendly man at the Blue Hollow Mine advised us to just walk out to the fields and search for sapphires, which we tried. All we saw were piles of dirt, and even though we're sure it must've been full of expensive stones, it all looked the same to us so we went back to the mine to buy a bag of mine dirt. That means you get a bag of leftover sand/stones, which the miners already fossicked through (see picture above). The next 2 hours we spent searching and washing the dirt, which was good fun! In the end we both had a little bag with some sapphires and zirkons. We both have a gemstone that is suitable for cutting and would make nice jewellery.

The same evening we had trouble finding a place to sleep, all the campsites and motels in country-Queensland were fully booked due to all the dozens of mining sites and their workers. It forced us to drive on way longer than we expected, and we ended up in Mackay. Even here it was very busy (no campsites or youth hostels available), but we were advised to check the McGuire hotel. And so we did! We had the worst night in Australia so far... Our room was located directly above the stage in the pub below, which meant we were enjoying the live band's music all the way until 2am in the morning. We were shaking in our beds (not because of coldness...). It was a huge relief to step in our car the next morning and an even bigger relief to sleep in our own tent in Airlie Beach that evening, because that's where we went next!

Airlie Beach was full of tourists, but we had no problem finding a nice campingground just outside of the city. It was beautifully located in a tropical surrounding, next to the airport... But most of the time we spent in and around Airlie Beach. On the second day we booked a 1-day-tour to the Whitsunday Islands/Great Barrier Reef. (Picture: sunset impression at Airlie Beach feat. Berrie)

Now you also would expect Airlie Beach to actually have a beach, and it does indeed, but no one was swimming in the water due to dangerous marine stingers (even though it is lowseason for them). The only place where you can enjoy a save swim is the Airlie Beach Lagoon - an artificial swimming pool next to the towncentre. It was highly popular with the locals and tourists, so it was packed with people when we decided to give the cold water a go.

On the third day we were excited to go on the tour we booked the day before. At 7.25am a courtesybus took us to Abel Point, a port next to Airlie Beach. One hour later, the tourjet left Abel Point with 60 passengers aboard, to head for the Whitsunday Islands. Our first stop was the Hill Inlet Lookout point, overlooking Whitsunday Island and Whitehaven Beach (see picture left). In the bay where the jet stopped, we also saw some turtles stretching their long necks above the water! Sadly they were a bit too quick for our camera.

After the lookout point we went straight to Whitehaven Beach (see picture above). Even though the wind made the bright sunlight a bit less intense, we enjoyed a nice swim in the crystal clear water and a little bit of sunbathing. When we got back on the boat an hour later, a light lunch buffet was waiting for us to be eaten. While we had our sandwiches, we headed to our snorkeling spot, Border Island Reef.

The Reefjet crew gave us some instructions on how to use the snorkel and goggles ("Don't spit in them!"); we put on our wetsuits, grapped a pair of fins, a swimming noodle (Yes, even the snorkelinstructors advised them a lot) and dropped ourselves from the back of the jet into the water. It took some time to get used to breathing through your mouth only, but eventually we got on with it and could finally enjoy the beauty of the underwater world. (Picture: Paul with snorkeling gear)

It was absolutely amazing and one of our favourite memories of being in Australia!

We also had an underwater camera to capture the colorful corals and fishes, but unfortunately the pictures don't reflect what it actually looks like. We're still going to post two pictures, which we think are quite nice (see pictures right and below).

30 minutes later we got back on the jet, and cruised back to Abel Point. At 4.30pm we arrived back at the port, feeling a little bit wet due to the occasional wave drowning us on the sundeck. Nevertheless, we had a fantastic day at the Whitsunday Island and especially the Great Barrier Reef.

From Airlie Beach we went on to Townsville for a night. We had our tent replaced there for the second time without any problems (Thanks K-Mart!). The next day we went to Cairns, and we planned to stay there for a night or two, but the campinggrounds were just too expensive. We drove on to Port Douglas/Mossman, close to the Daintree National Park (see pictures below).

That's what we discovered yesterday! Daintree National Park exists of dense tropical rain forests, inhabited by crocodiles and cassowaries and other sorts of animals. Unfortunately we didn't see any of those mentioned animals, even though we saw dozens and dozens of signs warning us not to drive over them.

The rainforest itself was another highlight of our journey. It's just like what you imagine a jungle to be like: lush green palms, bushes, trees and clear creeks. We did two boardwalks which showed us the rainforest and a mangrove forest.

And that's it for this blogentry! See you soon!

Distance travelled as of 26/06/08: 20200+ km

Back in the city!

Yes, we were brave enough to step out of the save environment of Gayndah to continue our journey through Australia! Since our car is still pretty much screwed and only to be fixed by next thursday, we were forced to travel with the bus and the train from Gayndah to Brisbane. It was a last-minute-decision and luckily for us, both bus and train had available seats for us! (Picture: Skyline of Brisbane)


So with the help of Jenni we booked our tickets, packed our backpacks (it is the first time we actually really use them!) and first got on the bus to Maryborough, and later on a train that took us to Brisbane. The cityfeeling was just overwhelming; it seemed like a decade had passed since we last saw a huge shopping mall or a different supermarket than IGA!

With our heavy luggage on our backs we made our way to the caravan park located just 10 minutes outside of the city centre.

We dedicated the first day in Brisbane entirely to shopping, shopping, having a nice coffee in between, then some shopping again, having a snack at subway, and some more shopping. All the lights and the smells of the shops seduced us to buy a little thing here and there. And that basically sums up the first day of our stay in Brisbane. (Picture above: Shopping malls at night)

The second day was a bit more colourful than the one before. Well, apart from a nice coffee in a cafe in the morning, we had a lot more on our schedule to see. First up were the Botanic Gardens, which were, quite frankly, not half as impressive as the Gardens we've seen in Melbourne or Sydney. Either way, we took a nice stroll along the Mangrove Walk (Picture above) up to a bridge that took us to the South Banks, a beautiful strip along the Brisbane River, covered with grassstripes, shops, rainforests and even a little beach! Eventually we wanted to see a movie at night, but after all we decided the choices (such as "Sex and the City" or "What happens in Vegas") did not quite meet with our needs. After seeing the South Banks we went back into the city centre - the City Hall to be precise. We had a look at two expositions, one about the immigration to Australia in modern times and the other about abandoned rooms. Sounds exciting? Well, it wasn't quite something new, but it was very well made and put up. (Picture: Berrie and the South Banks)

We also took a very old lift (about 90 years) up to the middle of the tower of the City Hall. There we had a good view across the centre, even though we were only about 78m above ground! The rest of the day we spent strolling through the streets, watching the world go by and having an occasional ice cream. (Picture: Church in the middle of skyscrapers)

Our third day was going to be a bit different, because it was a public holiday due to the Queens Birthday. So a lot of shops, malls and sights were closed; therefore we stayed at the caravan park all day until the late evening. Our plan was to go online from 10pm until 8am in the morning in one of the plenty internetcafes in Brisbane.

And now here we are writing our new blogentry at 5:35am in the morning! Believe us, we are rather sleepy at the moment, so the following day will be full of soft snoring, little movements and hiding underneath a blanket, trying to get as much sleep as possible.

This week we are also going back to Gayndah to pick up our car, so the next time we update the blog, the kilometercount will have changed, promised!

See ya!

Still In Gayndah...

Hello!

We would love to provide you with some amazing news about our journey through Australia, but even after one and a half months we are still in Gayndah! And yes we are still picking mandarins aswell. (Picture below: Paul at work)

We can't really say that we've been up to a lot since we work 6 days a week from 6:30am to 4:30pm, and then, after we came home, we hardly have enough time to cook our dinner before the darkness sets in and we have to make our way to our sleeping bags... Life's not easy for a picker. (Picture below: our view during the last 2 months...)

That all sounds a bit negative, but we are still having a good time! We had nice (but very noisy) French (-Canadian) colleagues, and the best boss you can imagine! Every now and then he and Jenni invite us over for a "smoko" (coffee break), with loads of selfmade cakes and cookies. Selma (Jenni's mother) takes good care of us aswell! We won't forget our sunscreen or 4l waterbottles for sure! (Picture below: the fancy caravan park, can you find our tent?)

Our original plan was to stop working after today, but our car has been a troublemachine lately! It's a complicated story but right now its at the auto electrician and we're hoping to have it fixed sometime next week! After that we go to Brisbane for a few days, and then we'll start the huge journey back to Western Australia!

On our rare days off we've been to Childers a few times. Childers is a town which is hardly any bigger than Gayndah, but at least our bank has a branch there and the internet is a lot cheaper... It is a big drive though, so most days off we just spend at the caravan park, washing our clothes and cleaning the tent! We've been to Bundaberg two times. Bundaberg is a lot bigger than Gayndah, but we didn't see much of it (yet?), because we were busy booking our returnflights back to Europe there! We've got them now, and on the 26th of july we fly from Perth to Singapore, then we spend 4 days shopping/relaxing and on the 30th we fly back to Amsterdam! (Picture below: Berrie at work with "our" Massey Ferguson tractor)

But, before the end of july we hope to see a lot more of this big country. We're hoping to do an Outback tour, to visit Uluru and the King's Canyon. We're not sure yet if our timeschedule will allow us to do so, because we still have 1000s of kilometers to drive in the coming 2 months!

One last thing; we killed 5 mice in our tent over the last weeks! It's cruel, but they're very cruel too (eating our cheese and bread, and shitting all over the place (including our clean dishes))! Here is the proof:

All right, that was it for the moment, hopefully we'll be in Brisbane soon! They have 24h internet cafes there, so there will be no excuse for us not to update the blog with much more exciting news than this time!

See ya!

Distance travelled as of 29/05/2008: 16.500km+

Our March in Australia

Here it is! This is the entry we prepared for you some days ago, now in all its glory with all the pictures:

Here we are again, apologizing to you for the late update... but oh well, at least we've found some time in our (now) busy working schedule to write a new entry on the blog.

The last time you heard from us we just "finished" working at the plumorchard. We actually thought that we would have to get a new job straight away, but just before we wanted to leave Young, Berrie got an Email from his aunt Gerla. She got in touch with far relatives from Berrie, Jennifer Ulcoq and her husband Tim from Gayndah, Queensland. They were looking for mandarinpickers and offered us two positions in their pickingteam from late March on. That came much to our surprise, but of course we accepted it with delight!

So after our stay in Young, we spent nearly a month travelling up the eastcoast of Australia. Our first stop via Bathurst was Katoomba, beautifully located in the centre of the Blue Mountains. The biggest attraction was the famous rockformation called The Three Sisters (see picture below). We were among hundreds of people (mostly asian), taking pictures and just generally being amazed by the rocks.

After that thrilling experience we couldn't wait to get to..... Sydney! Yes, we've been in Australias most popular city! We spent a full week discovering the charme and attractions it had to offer. Our caravanpark was located just 30 minutes from the city centre, in the middle of a National Park. Again we had some nightly visitors who loved to sit in our pan and crawl through our trash. Right after we put up our tent we had a close encounter with a 1,5m long Bluetongue Lizzard. We also had a brief meeting with the Funnelwebspider. It made itself a cosy home between Pauls shoes before he bravely kicked out the spider with a bit of a hysterical squeek...

Our first day in Sydney was a bit different than we thought it would be. First of all it was somehow near impossible to find a parking space in one of the suburbs (from where we took the train to the city centre). Available parking spaces in huge garages would have cost us up $40 a day! So we decided to always take the bus and the train, even though it took us one full hour to travel. Anyway, in the first days in Sydney we saw what every tourist just has to see: the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, the Rocks and Darling Harbour. It was very impressive and of course we took all the obligatory pictures (one of them you can see below...) that you would expect from a visit. We spent two evenings on the ferry to suburb Manly, with magnificent views of the skyline. If you thought Sydney was breathtaking by day, you should have seen it with all the lights of the hotels and business towers. Berries pictures couldn't capture this magical sight (the camera isn't good in capturing nightviews and gets a bit shaky on a not too steady boat), but Pauls videocamera did a very good job! Our visit to the Sydney Tower was a bit similar to the one at Melbournes Rialto Towers, but if we are very honest Melbourne has the better view from the top. But what we absolutely loved was the holographic representation show of Australia, which was included with our entry to the tower. Also included was a ride in a 3-D moving seat, which "took" us through different landscapes of the country. (Picture: an impression of Sydney [with Sydney Tower in the background])

What we really liked was the Barracks Museum. It gave an impression of how live was for a convict on a ship and, after he was brought to Sydney, in the barrack house and working site. The actual house where the convicts lived is still standing and is now a nicely refurbished museum.

The Royal Botanic Gardens were quite impressive aswell, but not exactly because of the variety of plants. As we passed some huge trees we heard some squeeking and after one look up in the air we noticed thousands of flying foxes (= bats) hanging from the branches. You can see one of the flying bats on the left.

Our caravanpark organized a spotlight tour through the park. We participated and had a good time searching for all the animals you hear at night, but never really see. Thanks to our guide we saw some Ringtail- and Brushtailpossums, Bandicoots and sleeping birds. Even though we are in meantime used to having a Brushtailpossum in our tent, it was nice to see them in their natural environment.

(Picture: Paul befriending a possum)

After all we have to say that we really liked our time in Sydney, but we definitely prefer Melbourne, as it has more of a cityfeeling to it. At one point we even struggled to find a supermarket in Sydney! But still it's a pretty (and hectic) city with worldclass architecture and a whole lot of history (for australian standards...).

The next days we spent some time getting an even nicer tan! The temperatures and the nice beach next to our campsite in Newcastle allowed us to just lay in the sun and do nothing. We found some amazing shells, but at one point we couldn't search for them anymore. Stinging (but not poisonous) jellyfish were all over the beach and in the water. Some people advised us not to have contact with them. So we just stuck to flaunting our bodies on the beach (poor us, huh?)

It has also been Berries birthday! Many of you didn't forget that, and Berrie wants to thank everyone for their amazing emails, ecards, and even postcards! We spent Berries birthday around an old convict jail, with an amazing beach. For the first time in Berries life he was able to swim in a warm ocean on the 13th of March... that goes for Paul aswell (even though of course it wasn't his birthday). We got some fancy food for the evening, like vegetarian burgers. As a sidedish we had gourmet candy such as chocolate coated raisins. We loved it!

Along the eastcoast we stayed in several towns like Grafton, Ballina and Toowoomba. Not much happened in the first two towns, but that was about to change in Toowoomba. Berrie was clumsy enough to leave his bag in a park near the visitor information and only realized that he was missing something when we arrived at the caravan park 15 minutes later. Of course we raced back to get it back, but as we arrived and searched for it, we found out it was already too late! It was nowhere to be found and two stressful days followed, worrying about Berries belongings. All our pictures, Berries passport and documents were in the bag so it was a good find for the lucky new owner. We already gave up our hope and started requesting new documents, when suddenly on the third day (about 1 hour before we wanted to leave again), a staff member of the caravan park told us that someone handed in the bag at the police station!We packed our tent in a new record time and went to pick up the bag. In the end we got everything back, except for the purse which is still missing. So thanks to the person who found it and gave it to the police!

Our moods cleared up after that and we were ready to move on to Gayndah. We travelled through the beautiful Bunya Mountains (see one of the tropical rainforest-roads below) and arrived in the Orange Capital of Australia on the same day. The city is famous for its good mandarin soil and so you can just guess where we are working now and what we are picking at the moment! Yes, mandarins!

We had a great welcome to Gayndah at Tim and Jenni Ulcoqs house, where we also met their daughters Anna and Carla. We spent the whole afternoon and evening talking about relatives, work and travelling. They even invited us to have dinner with them - the BBQ was amazing!

Some days ago we started working on the orchard. The weather is pretty bad at the moment as its raining bucket loads, so we have a day off now as we can't pick the fruit when it is wet.

Distance travelled as of 29/03/08: 14800km+