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