After a short flight from Cairns to Darwin we tried to accomodate to the tropical heat by slowing down. On our free day we visited the Indo-Pacific marine - an Aquarium that is more a living experiment than an aquarium - they have pools where they didn't change the water and didn't feed the fish in the last 30 years! The main pool is 15 years old (without feeding and cleaning) and it is amazingly clean, colourful and so full of live! Really worth a visit.
The guy who took us around was a marine biologist from Rostock, germany and he directly invited us to a game of poker lateron. That was big fun as well even though Christoph and me were out of money rather quickly... However, it was worth the fun.
The day after that we left for the first part of our tour - three days Kakadu national park.
We were really lucky as our tourguide Yvonne had studied something like environmental ecology or at least something with environment and nature and she had aboriginal friends herself so her knowledge about nature, geology and aboriginal history was immense.
The nature in Kakadu is great and even better is the place Ubirr where you can see old paintings from the Aborigines from some at least 5000 years ago... Amazing... Even more, because these paintings are not only art, but just as well a part of history and it shows, how they taught their children to behave, what to do and what not to do...
Donnerstag, 30. August 2007
Montag, 27. August 2007
Pics of the Red Center
Uluru
Kings Canyon
The last Stop of our Red Center-Kourney (looking to Palm Valley)
Sonntag, 26. August 2007
Cairns
For the first time we had problems of finding a double room without previous booking.. looks as everybody ends up here at some opint of travelling.. Well, it makes sense - it's the northern end of the Greyhoud-route along the east coast and it has an airport...
We spent our first day trying to find a cheap car rental - found one and booked a neat little car for the next two days.
On our first day as "part-time-car-owners" we drove up north to Kurunda, a little said-to-be Aborigine-village, but it was actually a tourist-stuff-selling-place... But we made a nice little walk in the tropical heat to a lookout for a big waterfall.
After that we headed of to the beaches north of Cairns and visited Palm cove and Port Douglas and went on a walk along the four-mile beach with a coffee and a hot chocolate. Sweet :)
The next day we decided to leave out Cape tribulation and spend the last time we had in Daintree where we made a little river cruise (spot the crocodiles - cool) and walked two kilometers to a waterfall wich we had for ouselves - not a single person on all the way! Just - we had to runn all the way back to reach our plain to Darwin... Well, some sports... And it was so much worth it!
We spent our first day trying to find a cheap car rental - found one and booked a neat little car for the next two days.
On our first day as "part-time-car-owners" we drove up north to Kurunda, a little said-to-be Aborigine-village, but it was actually a tourist-stuff-selling-place... But we made a nice little walk in the tropical heat to a lookout for a big waterfall.
After that we headed of to the beaches north of Cairns and visited Palm cove and Port Douglas and went on a walk along the four-mile beach with a coffee and a hot chocolate. Sweet :)
The next day we decided to leave out Cape tribulation and spend the last time we had in Daintree where we made a little river cruise (spot the crocodiles - cool) and walked two kilometers to a waterfall wich we had for ouselves - not a single person on all the way! Just - we had to runn all the way back to reach our plain to Darwin... Well, some sports... And it was so much worth it!
Magnetic Island
A small and quiet Island next to the eastern coast, close to townsville (a very strange town where I actually wouldn't like to spend more time than necessary... but it has a great aquarium wich we didn't have the time to visit... a pity...)
On Magnetic Island we stayed at Base backpackers hostel wich is amazing. Many small cottages - ours was directly at the seeside, so we could see the ocean out of our bed - isn't that cool?! (Just the people working there were kind of unfriendly - actually the first unfriendly people w met in australia...)
Our first day was just for relaxing and a little walk to town where we spotted a little pizzeria where we stopped on the way back and enjoyed the luxury of dining out.
Our second day on Magnetic Island was for extreme relaxing - it was raining, so we had a wonderful day of reading, staying in bed and so on.
On our third and last day we brought our bags to the ferry terminal, took the bus up north to horseshoe bay and started walking along the little beaches, climbing the rocks, vpotted some coala bears on our way to the fort and finally (after at least ten kilometers of walking up and downhill) took the bus back to the ferry and left the island.
We would have loved to stay another day for pure relaxing but they did't have a free double room...
On Magnetic Island we stayed at Base backpackers hostel wich is amazing. Many small cottages - ours was directly at the seeside, so we could see the ocean out of our bed - isn't that cool?! (Just the people working there were kind of unfriendly - actually the first unfriendly people w met in australia...)
Our first day was just for relaxing and a little walk to town where we spotted a little pizzeria where we stopped on the way back and enjoyed the luxury of dining out.
Our second day on Magnetic Island was for extreme relaxing - it was raining, so we had a wonderful day of reading, staying in bed and so on.
On our third and last day we brought our bags to the ferry terminal, took the bus up north to horseshoe bay and started walking along the little beaches, climbing the rocks, vpotted some coala bears on our way to the fort and finally (after at least ten kilometers of walking up and downhill) took the bus back to the ferry and left the island.
We would have loved to stay another day for pure relaxing but they did't have a free double room...
Whitsunday Sailing and diving
After 13 hours of sitting in a greyhoud bus (me sleeping most of them actually) we arrived in Airlie beach where we could enter our boat: Matador. An old Maxi racing Yacht, built in 1990, having won many important races it was still an amazing ship wich scared quite some of the passangersby its sailing abilities. As our captain does race sailing as well, we cuold experience quite some adventourous sailing!
But the best part (for me and I think for Christoph as well) was the diving. We had the first dive free (wich was Christoph's Intro-Dive) and did two more on the next two days - it was georgous! The coralls were so colourful and there were so many fish aroud - wow!
The hardest part on board was to understand our diving instructor that spoke his australien ("english") quite funny. (Example: "Hey goas, this is the loaf vest. Put it over your head and fix it noace and toaght aroud your waist." Kind of funny... Lateron, I asked him about a fis - he said, it was a loan fish. me:???? after the third try, I got it: a lion fish!)
The whitsunday trip is still my highlight of the hole trip.
But the best part (for me and I think for Christoph as well) was the diving. We had the first dive free (wich was Christoph's Intro-Dive) and did two more on the next two days - it was georgous! The coralls were so colourful and there were so many fish aroud - wow!
The hardest part on board was to understand our diving instructor that spoke his australien ("english") quite funny. (Example: "Hey goas, this is the loaf vest. Put it over your head and fix it noace and toaght aroud your waist." Kind of funny... Lateron, I asked him about a fis - he said, it was a loan fish. me:???? after the third try, I got it: a lion fish!)
The whitsunday trip is still my highlight of the hole trip.
Montag, 13. August 2007
Hervey Bay / Fraser Island
That was a great time!
We went on a whale watching trip in Hervey bay and saw several!
One young one that kept dancing aroud, really close to our boat and later three grown up ones that swam aroun majestetically - 2 meters below our boat - wow! Are those creatures huge!
On Fraser Island we had our own little Jeep (We called him Idefix) who wasn't exactly soft in his driving on the sand (wich was really bumpy inlands) but we could push him out everywhere where we got stuck! (meaning all four or five times and meaning Christoph could ;) )
The Island has unbelievably pretty lakes - sweet water lakes on a sand dune - who would have believed that!
We went on a whale watching trip in Hervey bay and saw several!
One young one that kept dancing aroud, really close to our boat and later three grown up ones that swam aroun majestetically - 2 meters below our boat - wow! Are those creatures huge!
On Fraser Island we had our own little Jeep (We called him Idefix) who wasn't exactly soft in his driving on the sand (wich was really bumpy inlands) but we could push him out everywhere where we got stuck! (meaning all four or five times and meaning Christoph could ;) )
The Island has unbelievably pretty lakes - sweet water lakes on a sand dune - who would have believed that!
Brisbane
Is a nice city! Whatever people say.
There are two Univerities in the city centre and both campuses (sorry - how is the correct plural? campi?) are definitelt nice places to hang around!
First Griffith University - there are swimming pools, a big beach area, you can walk along the river, well yeah, it is nice. There you see what other people do if students pay money for their studies - I think I would pay for studying if my Campus would look like that...)
Secondly there is the technical university of Queensland (QUT) - there is a free Arts museum where they show older and temporal art of local artists. Yep, worth a visit!
And there is a forrest next to the river - ok, I don't know, if it really belongs to the University but you can stroll along the river and watch cute possums sitting on the bins looking for food and maybe even jumping down, sitting in front of you, the rest of an apple in their front paws...
There are two Univerities in the city centre and both campuses (sorry - how is the correct plural? campi?) are definitelt nice places to hang around!
First Griffith University - there are swimming pools, a big beach area, you can walk along the river, well yeah, it is nice. There you see what other people do if students pay money for their studies - I think I would pay for studying if my Campus would look like that...)
Secondly there is the technical university of Queensland (QUT) - there is a free Arts museum where they show older and temporal art of local artists. Yep, worth a visit!
And there is a forrest next to the river - ok, I don't know, if it really belongs to the University but you can stroll along the river and watch cute possums sitting on the bins looking for food and maybe even jumping down, sitting in front of you, the rest of an apple in their front paws...
Abonnieren
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