Somewhere in... going up to Cairns

It looks like that waking up at 5:30am will be now something which will happen quite often... but let me start from the beginning.

We have left our fantastic hosts in Brisbane and made our journey up to north of Australia (well it is still 1300km:). Passing great beaches and small little towns like Noosa, Collum Beach, Rainbow Beach, driving to 1770 or Agnes Waters. Gorgeous! I just can't describe it differently. We were worried that we won't be able to swim anymore, as the stingers still might be in the sea. But it looks like that they didn't like the beaches above and left already, so we could have enjoyed some more swimming. Check the crowded Saturday beaches....!

We planned as well to visit Fraser Island and the Lake Mackenzie with lovely blue coloured water, but it looked like that the weather didn't want us to do this and as it was cloudy and rainy, we have decided to move more up and enjoy more sun until we can ( I guess New Zealand won't be so sunny and tropical hot:). For a night we camped in the national park, just by the beach in the white sand. Of course the national park department told us we won't have any problems to drive there (normally for Fraser Island and surroundings they require 4WD and our poor campervan is definitely not coping). Of course we got into some small issues:) Within 10 meters from the first turn into the park, we got completely stuck in the sand and definitely couldn't move forward or backwards. It is really great that all Australian Mates are so friendly and helpful and ready to help tourists, who have no idea what to do. We got successfully unstucked and could continue our drive through national park! It looks like as well that there is one common joke going around. When you ask them if you can swim in the sea and if there is something you need to pay attention to, they say no worries, all stingers are gone, but we have some crocs around.... They are all very dissappoined when you tell them that you have heard this joke before.....

The town of 1770 wasn't on our GPS, as I think it was a bit confused to recognise numbers as a town name. By the way we have changed voice of our GPS to pracise a bit Australian accent and Steve Irwin is helping us to find way around and teaching us a lot about australian animals and dangerous manouvers in Australia as well. 1770 is a very small, hidden town with a small Captain Cook Memorial to remember that this was the second place where he landed. He must have loved it - deserted beaches, fantastic views, great bays with rivers going to the sea, turtles (which we haven't seen). But we have hired a boat and went up to the "creek" and the national park to observe crabs, stink rays, and all possible water fauna.... WOW! Pedro is really improving his "sailing, driving the boat" skills.


Still heading up north we stopped in the Cape hillsborough national park and this was the other place where we woke up at 5:30am - without being forced. The camping place was just on the beach and believe it or not, wild wallabies and kangaroos are heading at this time to the beach for a "swim". And yes, it is true - just to be a bit patient and you see them all. I must say though that the kangaroos are from the local sanctuary, so they are a bit domestic.... But... even better - who can say: I have petted kangaroos on the beach on Monday morning, 5:30am in Australia! (sorry for the thousand photos, but they were really sweet:)!!!



We are now in Airlie Beach, the best way how to get to Whitsunday Islands. They looked just fantastic and like a small paradise.... but unfortunately we are not going to explore them. To do so, we would need more than one day and for that we have the time, but not the finances:) So who knows, may be other day and we will have an excuse to come back to Oz:)

OK, it stopped raining. Sorry... have to go to the beach!:) have fun everybody.....

Somewhere in... enjoying Queensland

So it really happened after one more day on a beautiful beach in Byron Bay we woke up at 5:30am (the night was still dark with the australian star-field sky above us) and drove in our campervan with a great speed to Brisbane to meet Brian & his cousin Phil... We haven't woken up so early for a long time (even though we were trying to catch up with our alarm clock, which was not so successfull:). When our lovely GPS got us to the Phil's house the boat for the Moreton Island was ready to go. We sailed for approximately for 30 minutes before we got to a fantastic sandy island surrounded by turquoise clear water.

Gorgeous place to relax and enjoy couple of beers when floating in the sea. This is as well what we have been doing. (yes, I know it sounds really stressfull) By the beach there were couple of artificially sunken boats, to create a perfect environment for snorkling. Phil was ready for everything and had couple of fish as a bait. Snorkling was just great, like small Great Barrier Rief with all kinds of colourful fish eating of our hands the bait we were giving to them. We were so lucky to see as well wobbygong (huge teethless, vegetarian shark). I think we were snorkling forever, forgetting time, place, what day or date it is ( though this we might have forgotten already before:).

On the way back (as we didn't have any more beers and had to go home to refill) we saw the real shark, sting rays and lots of huge sea turtles, star fish, stone fish (I would say, the Nemo movie all over again!) Brian had to leave the next day to Melbourne, but Phil and his wife Catarina offered us to stay one more night with them in their gorgeous house (I really do like the Australian style of living, everybody has huge houses with lots of space). So we just chilled out by their swimming pool, watched some films in TV and as they were going to a party, we "baby sit" their cute dog Ruben.

Sunday is a perfect day to get the boat again on the water and sail on the river around Brisbane. I actually can't imagine better way of introducing Brisbane to tourists:) This was the best view of Brisbane and you feel kind of special when you look at all the tourists on the ferries and you are cruising the river in a private boat. We stopped in an expo area for a beer and had just the perfect Sunday afternoon.

We have realised as well we are kind of tired and we would like to stay on one place little bit longer. (Even though we have JUST 2 more weeks in Australia!) That is why we are still in Brisbane and enjoying company of our two new couchsurfers Jo & Simon (we are wondering around Brisbane, sleeping a lot in a nice bed - it is a good change to our Abba campervan, looking at their wedding photos:) - and getting ideas....) So it is perfect. We will be moving tomorrow north of the Golden coast and making our way to Cairns (which is 1700 km from here!) after we pass the obligatory check of our car. We have as well unfortunately lost ouf diary:( where we had the whole itinerary planned, so we need to find out again how and where we are going (So I can say we are a little bit "lost" in Australia:)

And just a small comment for those who knew that I was trying to pass my German certificate (Das grosse deutsche Sprachdiplom) by Goethe Institut - the results came and .... YES, I have my certificate !!! HURAY!

So please, feel free to celebrate for me a little bit.... We will!

Somewhere in ... Byron Bay

Days are flying here in Australia! It has been already three weeks from the time we have arrived and we have travelled thousands (yes, we can say thousands) of kilometers and thousands are in front of us. Coff's Harbour experience was amazing. We have seen the touristic - Big Banana (please don't ask me to explain, I will upload the photos soon:) and mostly important we have visited Caths & Evan's house! (I know I am repeating myself, but house by the national park, with water so clear that you can drink it directly from the river and a fantastic house in a quiet place - what can you wish for more?)

We needed some beach experience so we have moved to Byron Bay ( Australians geography - we are approximately 15okm from Brisbane). Byron Bay's beaches were so great, that after a day trip to national park, we have returned to enjoy a bit more sun. And another lovely thing happened! Brian came to see us and spent a day with us. Especially as we started to miss our friends, it was fantastic to see a familiar face again (yes, we have met in Sydney already, but twice within two weeks! On the other side of earth! It is like a miracle). Anyway - it was great, we chilled on a fantastic beach, had a coffee and great chocolate cake and bought some beers and just talked in front of our camparvan! Just fantastic! Unfortunately we have no photos to prove it, but when you see in the office how Brian is suntanned, you will believe me!

As we caught a rainy day (yes, it can rain in Australia), we have moved to the national park near the coast and climbed the mountain Warning. It was quite a long trip (5 hours), 8.8km and the mountain way was pretty steep, but it was a nice difference than to be lazy on the beach. The rain forest in the national park was really old with amazing old trees. The camping place was completely deserted and the animals probably didn't know any human beings, so they were not afraid at all. The birds ( I call them E.T. birds - as they make such a noise) were eating almost from our hands (but you see them at the photos next time)

We are back in Byron Bay, possibly going to Brisbane tomorrow and see - yes you have guessed it- Brian:) We will let you know.... We heard that the spring is coming to Europe, so enjoy a nice weather and stay in touch:)

Somewhere in Coff's Harbour.. successfully found some kangaroos

It is a long time again, when we have uploaded our blog, but this task seems to be more difficult in Australia, than it was in Asia. Not sure if it is because we have less time or because it is more expensive here:)

Anyway just a quick update as we are staying in Dairyville, which is approximately 11 km from Coffs Harbour by a lovely couple Cath & Evan! They have this gorgeous huge house, really your dream house just by the entry of the national park and they have allowed us to enjoy this house and their company for two days.

After Melbourne and lovely Barossa valley with lots of vignardes, we were on our way to Sydney, passing Canberra and mostly important Wodonga! NO - we havent stopped there. Sorry! We had no time and we were rushing to Sydney to meet with Lisa H., Irina S. and Brian... We spend a lovely afternoon in Sydney harbour on 38 foot long sailing boat, sailing accross the harbour and havinf lots of fun, finishing with mardi gras party (the biggest lesbian & gay party in Sydney:) - was lots of fun! We were really learning how to sail - it was fantastic (and bit scary when the boat turned 180 degrees:) but it was great to see our friends (and believe me we were not talking about work)

Sydney is great. We spent one day in the Sydney gallery (watching japanese manga films) and second day wondering around Sydney with Brian (having beers with views - that is how we called them:) It is a beer with 50% more price as you are looking straight to Sydney opera. All of this was possible as well with our couchsurfing hosts Elisabeth & Mitch, who lives not far away to the city, in the suburb called Lewisham. This part of Sydney is completely occupied by Portuguese - you can here this language everywhere, there are fantastic portuguese restaurants with Sagres and aquardent:) just lovely to spend your Sunday evening! It was great.

Afterwards we were on a road again... to Blue Mountains. Great national park with great views (but all national parks in Australia are just great!) We past Port Stephan's, Head Hat (yes, this is the originalk name), ended up on fantastic bach in South West Rocks and now we are staying in Dairyville with Cath & Evan in their great house.

Australia is fantastic! Not just that we saw dozens of koala bears (we have visited the oldest koala hospital), but we saw as well echidnea (in wild), hundreds of birds ( which are very difficult to photograph) but as well, at last we have seen some kangaroos! Yes, my quest for finding Skippies is complete! We have found them today, enjoying the afternoon sun on the cricket pitch, gazing into the sun and just relaxing.....

So we all wish you great weekend or week day... whenever you read our blog and we will hopefully keep you posted soon again.

There are lots of things happening, there is no time for writing, but just to make the story short - we love Australia!