Six weeks through the fifth continent
21st day:
In the morning we went to McDonalds for breakfast. Then we returned to th hotel to check out there and left Sydney driving the Hume Highway. We went via Goulburn directly to Canberra, the capital of Australia. A few kilometers before reaching Canberra we saw some posters beneath the street advertising fo Summernats, some kind of car racing. Due to this there was a crowd in the visitors information; lots of people looking for accomodation for the weekend, so it was almost impossible to get one. So we decided to visit the sights first. But Canberra does not have a common city center. The city was planned very straggly right from the start with lots of green spaces inbetween. In fact in the real center the new parliament house is located on a hill somewhat below the old, substancially smaller (but more beautiful) parliament house and something apart from there a park with the Thomas Cook Jet Fountain. You will vainly look for a shopping mall or dwelling houses there, something like that only exists in the suburbs. In the virtual center only was a food mall we visited next. But the word mall is exaggerated by far, we found a few snack bars and only two of them were opened. After lunch we visited the Captain Cook Jet Fountain and the New Parliament which is acessable for the public. But when we had visited this we were through with the main sights of Canberra. We just went to the TV tower at the Black Mountain neraby and then left the Australian Capital Territory quite disappointed. We followed a small road to the coast and arrived in Batemans Bay in the evening, where we got a pretty nice flat for four for A$100,-. We had two bedrooms there, a living room with kitchen, a bathroom and even a washing machine too. We took advantage of this, bought a box of washing powder and started the machine. Actually we wanted to have dinner now and to plan the route for the next days then. But while browsing thru our travel guide we read about Pebbly Beach, a place nearby, where kangaroos come to the beach every evening. Due to the dusk coming in right now we did not want to wait any longer and startet again. After about 15 kilometers on the sealed road and eight more kilometers gravelroad we reached the beach. There was a campground there and everywhere they had signs not to feed kangaroos, but we could not see any of these animals. We went closer to the beach and discovered two rabbits at a meadow, but nothing else. On the way back to our car we saw a single kangaroo shy jumping into the forest. And suddenly, a few meters away a whole herd sat on the grass and did not seem to care about us. At the parking place close to our car we saw another single kangaroo that did not mention our headlights so that we had enoght time for taking photos and for filming. Happyly and satisfied we drove back to our flat.
22nd day:
We had breakfast in our flat, packed up the washed and dried clothes and left Batemans Bay. We went south on the Princes Highway passing Lakes Entrance to Philip Island, a long distance and so we only stopped once for lunch. We had made some emergency-sandwiches before we started and so we did not had to watch out for a restaurant. We reached Cowes at Philip Island late in the afternoon, booked two rooms and went out for dinner. About one hour before sunset we drove to the penguin parade. Every evening after dusk hundreds of penguins come ashore, where they can be watched by tourists from special platforms. This evening was quite cold and there was a strong wind coming from the sea so that we got cold while waiting for the penguins.; and they really kept us waiting. Sometimes small groups met on the shore, but returned into the water again and it took a long time before several groups went to the dunes in single file.
23rd day
We left the motel in the morning, had breakfast in a bakery and finally went to `The Nobbies`. There they also had a blowhole, but as in Kiama here the weather was not right fot this spectacle, too. The cliffs here are hatchery for seagulls, so a lot of them were to be seen and we were lucky to see a nest with two chicken. Normally seals can be watched at Seal Rock, which is located in front of `The Nobbies`, but the path (which is acessable at low tide only) was closed due to the breeding season of the seagulls. So we returned to the mainland and kept on driving to Melbourne. There we went to the visitors information first and asked for a cheap accommodation. Following we went to the bureau of the RAV (automobil-club of Victoria) to get a city map. Now we drove to the Georgian Court, our chosen accommodation. It was located a few minutes apart from the city center, nearby the Fitzroy Gardens and the tennis stadium, where annual in January the Australian Open take place. We liked the Georgian Court and so we discharged our baggage, parked the car behind the house and walked back to the city. On our way we came thru the Fitzroy Gardens, passing Captain Cooks Cottage (which had been teared off at Cooks birth place in York and rebuilt here) and the Botanic Gardens and after about twenty minutes we were back in the city center. We had lunch at Fast Eddy´s, a steak house, and made a sightseeing tour then. Furthermore we turned a loop around the city center using the free historic tram. Following we strolled to Flinders Street Station, the Town Hall and St. Pauls Cathedral and finally returned to our hotel. In the evening we went into the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. It was not as crowded as in Sydney (o.k. it was not weekend yet) and so it was no problem to get a table. On our way home we saw some possums in the Fitzroy Gardens which live there obviously. Some people came with their children to feed this pretty animals and so we decided to do this next evening too.
24th day:
After an excellent miscellaneous Continental Breakfast we went to the Old Melbourne Gaol by car. This is a preserved part of the old gaol of the city, where Ned Kelly was executed in due time. After this we walked to the ANZ-Tower, because we read in our travel guide, that there would be a public lookout platform. But the tower was a commercial building only and there was no lookout platform. As we found out later our tavel guide was not wrong but misleading. However, we parked our car and went to the Rialto-Towers, where they had a visitors information cine, a couple of souvenir shops and a floor with scenic cafe and so we still could watch Melbourne from above. Around noon we drove to the suburbs. We had read that there would be a couple of special restaurants and even whole districts with only greek, italian or turkish inhabitants. We found a small greek restaurant for lunch and following went to St. Kilda. This is a popular suburb by the sea having an alameda, a joyride etc. and is often compared with Bondi Beach in Sydney. But due to the more vicissitudinous weather in Melbourne there are not so many people and we did not agree to this compare. That was also the reason why we did not stay very long there but went back to our guest house where we parked the car and went shopping into the city. We were not on the mood for a big dinner this evening and so we made a short stop at Hungry Jack´s (the Aussie Burger is really delicious) and went back home then. After sunset we walked to the Fitzroy Gardens again to feed the pretty possums and take some photos of them. We finished the day in our room, drinking a glass of wine and watching the new taken video scenes.
25th day
After another excellent breakfast in our guest house we left Melbourne. We went to Ballarat, where we visited the old gold digger town Souvereign Hill. We participated a guided tour thru the main tunnel of an old mine, but it was not as great as at the digger in the Dead Horse Gold Mine near Nundle due to the masses of tourists here. We watched some shows too, where we were told how they coined and made bullions years ago; furthermore we threw a bowl at a very old bowling course. In Ballarat we stopped for lunch and after this we went via Colac to the Great Ocean Road. At the coast there is the Oatway National Park, where we made a short walk. Then we went on to Levers Hill. We read about a motel owned by Germans who serve excellent german meals there. Unfortunately they had no vacancy and moreover it was the only hotel there at all. So we watched out in the vicinity and found some farm houses where they offert bed & breakfast too. But even there was no vacancy and they alway sent us to the next farm. We had already left Levers Hill when we got a hint from a farmer to leave the main road some kilometers later to get to another farm located a bit apart from the road. So we kept on searching and finally found this farm where a young woman welcomed us. She offered a small cabin some minutes beyond the farm house to us. Together we got there and visited the cabin. When we discussed about this cabin the women suddenly asked in german with a swiss accent: "Oh, you speak german, too? So this is more easy for me..." We talked a while and she told us that she and her husband bought this farm six months ago. The cabin was A$25,- per person and we could come to the farm house for breakfast. We liked it and it was the only accommodation anyway. So we agreed and went back to Lavers Hill then to have dinner in the roadhouse (the pizza there was quite good). After dinner we went to Melba Gully, a small pool nearby, and we read about platypuses there. The walking track was marvellous but we did not see any platypuses in the water. We spent the rest of the evening in our cabin planning the route for the next days. But it got colder and colder and there was no heating and so we went to bed soon...
26th day:
When we got up in the morning it was very cold so that we dressed with the clothes we weared when we startet our journey in Germany. We went to the farm house where our breakfast was already made. After a small talk with our hostess we started again because we had a big program of sights today. We drove to Moonlight Head first and walked down to Wreck Beach. We had read about shipwrecks here, but all we found were two rusty anchors. We continued driving along the Great Ocean Road. Wind and waves created bizarre shapes at this coastline. Surely the "Twelve Apostels", some single rocks standing in the water, are best known; we also visited Loch Ard (where we found two caves too), Sentinel Rock, The Arch, and of course the London Bridge. The time passed by very quickly and so it was in the afternoon already when we left this phantastic part of the coastline to get to Warnambool. Here we watched out for a motel and finally found a very good one having a pool, a whirlpool and a barbecue area for a moderate price. We decided to have a barbecue this evening and went shopping next. We came back with some pretty good steaks, BBQ sauce and salad and sat around the barbecue. After this great dinner we had a short jump into the pool before we started again to get to the Tower Hill Reserve. This is a small peninsula in a lake (which was a vulcano in former times) having a marvellous fauna. Right at the gateway we were welcomed by two kangaroos that browsed there. We parked our car nearby the visitors center which was already closed. But due to this there were absolutely no tourists and we could watch some emus and kangaroos, one of them with a joey in the bag. In the meantime the dusk began but we kept on walking due to our hope to watch a wombat or an echidna. But we did not and went back to our motel after a while.
We planned to make a trip from Adelaide to Kangaroo Island in the next days and asked our hostess if a reservation of a ferry or a hotel would be necessary. She told us that the ferry tickets could be rare and advised to prebook the ferry before asking for a hotel at Kangaroo Island. So we immediately tried to book ferry tickets by phone but there alwas was a machine on the line only.
27th day:
We had breakfast in our hotel rooms and left Warnambool then. We drove on the Princes Highway to Adelaide, passing Port Fairy and Portland as like some large salt lakes. We were lucky to contact the Sealink office by mobilphone and booked the tickets for the ferry to Kangaroo Island. There were no other highlights during this long and tireing ride and so we all slept except the driver of course. When we had almost reached Adelaide we started to look for a hotel in our accommodation guide which we got in the im `Old Heidelberg` and even found a suitable one. We directly drove there and were lucky to get two rooms which where guests right had left yet. Then we went shopping into the city and later we sat to the pool; for dinner we simply moved a few meters to the barbecue. We relaxed the rest of the evening because we all were quite tyred and no one was in the mood for anything else. We played billiard a while, planned our activities for the next days and booked two hotel rooms in Kingscote at Kangaroo Island
28th day
After our continental breakfast in the hotel we took the car to the city center, parked it at a parking-garage and made a sightseeing walk. Adelaide has a marvellous city with lots of historic buildings and only a few multistoring buildings. The city was right from the start planned with a green belt of trees and parks around the center and the suburbs beyond. So it was not possible to build anything new in the historic center and we liked it as it was. We went shopping in the Rundle Mall and a walk thru the Botanic Gardens and had lunch at Pizza Hut...all you can eat. After lunch we returned to our car, bought something for a barbecue this evening in a supermarket nearby and brought it in our hotel. Then we went to Glenelg, a suburb of Adelaide located near the beach, comparable with St Kilda in Melbourne, but even more beautiful and not as crowded like Bondi Beach in Sydney. Tere was a nice beach, lots of restaurants and pubs and small whopee with a great water slide. Of course we tried this slide for a while; they had four chutes with various lenght and deifferent speeds. In one chute two bents seemed to be calculated a bit barely but it was really great fun. After this we went to Montefiore Hill Lookout where we had a wonderful view about Adelaide and its suburbs. For dinner we sat around the barbecue again and so we had a very pleasant evening.
29th day:
For this day we had tickets for the ferry to Kangaroo Island. It departed at 3 p.m. from Cape Jervis, so we could spend the whole morning for other things. We went to the Fleurieu Peninsula to the Mc Laren Vale, one of the wine growing areas in South Australia. As we already did in the Hunter Valley we tasted various wines in different wineries. Then we drove to Jervis Bay where we wanted to have lunch. But they only had the ferry landing stage there, a gas pump and a hotel. So we had lunch in the hotel and enqueued the cars waiting for the ferry at 2 p.m. When the ferry boat had docked a very precise piece of work started, because 28 cars and some trailers had to fit the small storage place. The crossin took about two hours. When we arrived at the island we went to the visitors center first, but they had already closed. So we went to Kingscote next where we found our hotel at once. We made a short turn thru the town to get an overview and went back to our hotel for dinner then. But actually wa wanted go to Seal Bay watching sea lions yet. So we asked the waitress how long it would take us to get there and when the last guided tour starts. The girl was quite natty and gave them a call at once. Unfortunately the last tour was to start in fifteen minutes but it takes about two hours to get to Seal Bay. So we rejected this for today and got more time for dinner this way. We just joked around with the waitress and finally asked her about places for watching platypuses, because we had read about. She called several service offices again but could not get any precise information. But anonter waitress knew about this very well and told us that we had to be there before sunrise and that it would take us about 2 1/2 hours and she told us about places where to watch koalas an penguins too. So after dinner (by the way: the best steaks of our whole travel) we started again to watch koalas. In a small forest of eucalyptus trees, nearby the street, we saw koalas in some trees indeed. Following we went back to Kingscote, where penguin nests were to be seen nearby the wharf. When we arrived there it was already dark and there was a guided tour watching the penguins. We followed this tour but the ranger was angry about this and told us that the other people had payed for this. So we went back to our hotel, we had already seen penguins at Philip Island anyway. Due to our intention to get up very early next morning we went to bed instantaneously.
30th day:
We got up at 2:15 a.m. and had breakfast in our room. The hotel stuff had been so kind to put it in the fridge the eve before; otherwise we would had to start without breakfast yet. About 3 a.m. we put our baggage into the car and started to Flinders Chase N.P. On the way we saw possums, kangaroos and wallabies beside the street and we had to drive very carefully not to knock down any. About two hours later we arrived at the ranger station but there was not anybody there at this time. We took our flashlights and and went to the walking track. On the way we saw a couple of kangaroos and even a koala mother with a joey on the back climbing up a tree. After walking a while we reached a pool where platypuses were said to be in. We found an information board with something written about this shy animals and we read that it would be necessary to set down motionless and silent to watch one in the early morning hours. So we set down on the shore and kept waiting. Sometimes there were small circles on the water indication a diving platypus. But we had to be patient for more than 1 1/2 hours unless a little platypus appeared and passed by nearby. In the meantime the sun had rised and so we went back to the ranger station. We could watch browsing kangaroos again and even the koalas were still on the tree they clibed up before; the joey clamped on the bole, the mother sitting on a knot eating eukalyptus leaves. Later we passed the visitors center where all visitors have to stop for paying the entrance fee. But still there was nobody there and we kept on driving...one of the advantages of getting up so early. We drove on a gravel road to Admirals Arch where we were lucky to watch a couple of seals. From there we went to the Remarkable Rocks. These rocks are remarkable indeed due to they were washed out from wind and water over millions of years; almost hollowed out. Then we went to Seal Bay and joined a guided tour to the beach, where sea lions were to be seen. The ranger told us that these are no seals as we could see on the light, coatless skin. There are only about 12,000 of them in the world, and even 5,000 here in South Australia. After this we drove to Penneshaw where we had lunch and waited for the ferry then. After the crossing we drove to Glenelg, where we watched out for a motel for the next few days. We went to KFC for dinner, jumped in the hotelpool and the whirlpool then and went to bed finishing this long and straining day.