Six weeks through the fifth continent
31st day:
After getting up this morning we went shopping to the supermarket first and went back to the hotel for breakfast then. Following we drove to Port Adelaide passing some nice beaches. There they have a big cargo port and a very nice historic center. We went to the visitors center first to get an overview about Port Adelaide and made a short scenic walk then. But they did not have so many attractions there right now and so we left again after a short time. We went to Mount Lofty Summit Lookout, a scenic lookout with a cafe and a tower from where we had a great view about the area of Adelaide and its suburbs. But we hardly did not reach this lookout due to less fuel. When we started in the morning I had already realized that we will run out of fuel if we do not fill up next. But I forgot about this and we hardly reached a gas station below the Mount Lofty (we read about a 70 liters tank in the car papers but filled up more than 86 liters...). We went to the city center of Adelaide for lunch and stoped for a bite at a greek restaurant in the Rundle Mall. After lunch we went seperate ways for shopping. We (Doreen and me) saw thet there is a switchback in the upper floor of Myers (a big shopping center) and some small roundabouts too. We bought a few souvenirs before we went to meet Karsten and Christina. They told us that they want to take the historic tram to Glenelg and so Doreen and me could use our car to get to Reynella, a southern suburb. I wanted to meet people there, who also use a C64 computer like I do and I already told them in an e-mail that I would come around for a visit these days. It was quite easy to find the house of the Gassons and they gave us a warm welcome. We talked for about one hour while having a cup of coffee and compared some news about our computers. Furthermore I bought the book "The Internet for C64/128 Users" which is the only internet-guide for the C64 and was written by Gaelyne Gasson. Then we went back to our hotel to meet the others. We strolled thru Glenelg a while and went to Fasta Pasta for dinner where we got really good food for less money. Then we walked along the busy beach and back to our hotel where we drunk some wine before we got to bed
32nd day:
We had breakfast in our hotel again and then made a short shopping tour thru Glenelg. Following we went to the Barossa Valley, one of the bigest and best known wine growing areas of Australia, located north from Adelaide. We tasted several wines in different wineries until we got the idea of having lunch now. So we watched out for a nice restaurant. We did not like the first we found and kept on driving. In Tanunda we found the Cafe Heidelberg that is runned by Heinz and Doreen Baumert. Heinz originally came from Freital and enjoyed talking to someone from his former home. So we talked about fifteen minutes before he asked what we would have for lunch. After he took our order (of course we were excited of the many german meals offered here and ordered slaughters platter and Doreens special meal: Cordon Bleu) he came back with a free bottle of wine. From time to time he had to pay attention for the other guests of course but he always returned to us for a little talk. So he told us how he left East Germany, what he did since then and how he came to Australia. We kept on talking for a while, Heinz brought some glasses of portwine for tasting and showed us an article in an ADAC-travelmagazine where they had written about him and his restaurant. After the excellent meal he introduced his family to us and we talked some more. Originally we wanted to have a short stop only but we finally stayed there for three hours. We took some photos when we left and he gave a really big cake to us...to have it later. After this great experience we were not in the mood for tasting wines anymore. So we only visited th Seppeltsfiels winery, the oldest winery in the Barossa Valley, and went back to Glenelg then. Here we jumped into the pool first and made some coffee then to have with the cake from Heinz. Then we packed up our baggage, because we wanted to fly to Alice Springs next day. We went to Fasta Pasta for dinner again and spent the rest of the evening in the hotel where we emptied our big pack of wine.
33rd day:
After breakfast we went to the airport where we returned our hired car and got on the plane to Alice Springs. When we arrived there we took the Shuttle Bus to Brits Australia, where we got our two Bushcampers. These vehicles have two 90-litres-tanks, optional 4WD, a camping roof, cooking facilities and dishes as like a shower, so that we could leave the main roads in the next days and we did not have to watch out for any accommodation. We went to Pizza Hit for lunch, where we had the all-you-can-eat-menue, then we went shopping and bought things we needed for the next days. In the visitors center we were told, that the Finke Gorge was closed due to extreme temperatures, only the track to the Palm Valley was accessable. We bought a permit for the gravel road to Kings Canyon and left Alice Springs then. Firstly we drove the Stuart Highway south until the road to Hermansburg branched off. From here there was only a small sealed strip on the road and even this ended after a few kilometers. At the branch to the Palm Valley road constructions were made, which means that they shifted the red dust a bit to patch some big potholes in the so called road.
The Finke Gorge is the dry river bed of the Finke River and one will vainly look for a road there. Only a few hoop marks left by cars passing this area before showed the way. Sometimes we had to go thru rough boulders or dispered sand and sometimes we had to cross small rock plateaus but anyway we made only slow progress. But there still were other difficulties on the way to Palm Valley: fosses, rocks an some small watercourses from time to time. Without 4WD and sufficient ground distance any pull through would be impossible; it took us one hour for about 14 kilometers. When we finally reached the Palm Valley we chosed the short walking track due to the high temperature even in this afternoon. The valley got its name right. Here in the outback there were palm trees, that must look quite better after heavy rain. On the other hand the thousands of small flies that rushed on us at once and followed us all the time were really bugging. At sunset we went to a lookout were we met a guided tour which started travelling in early December following almost the same route like we did but continuing the travel till February. Following we went to a campground nearby where we had a short dinner in front of our bushcampers and went to bed then. But we could not sleep well due to the hotness in our cars.
34th day:
We got up at about 5:30 a.m. because we could not sleep anyway. We had a shower and had breakfast in the bushcamper to evade the flies coming up with the first rays of the sun. Then we drove trhu the Finke Gorge back to the gravel road on which we continued our travel to the Kings Kanyon Resort. We arrived there at 10:30 a.m. parked our cars at the campground and spent the next two hours in the pool, because it was too hot for any other activity. Later we entered the cafe for lunch where we got a simple but quite good and surprisingly cheap meal. Then we jumped into the pool again, where seemingly most of the people rested at this time. Unfortunately we did not think to put our shoulders under water and so they were heavily burned in the afternoon... We drove to the Kings Canyon and walked the short track (about 30 minutes) into the canyon. The extreme heat and the flies made the hell out of this trip and so we were glad to get back into the pool after this, where we had a wonderful view over the canyon glowing red in the evening sun. We had our dinner in the bushcampers again and went back into the pool then, because this was the only place where the heat was bearable, and stayed ther up to about 10:00 p.m. In this night the temperature kept high again and so we turned our campers in the direction a little wind came from and left the doors open all night.
35th day:
We got up at 4:30 a.m., had breakfast in the bushcamper and went to the Kings Canyon then. At about 5:30 we started the steep ascent of the long walking track around the canyon. Even under normal conditions this was a torture, but the extreme temperatures made it the hell for us. This was why we started as early as possible carrying enough drinking water. By and by it got light and with the light came the flies. It took us about fifteen minutes to get up, where we had to make a little break due to a camera team taking some scenes of the sunrise for a Sydney-2000 promotion movie. We walked along the crest where we over and over again enjoyed the phantastic view. A small way from the main track brought us to the Garden of Eden, where we found water and a couple of palm trees. But the waterfall we read about being here we did not see, due to the extreme drought there was no waterfall there at all. We went back to the main track leading to the descent. Tere we met the guided tour from the Palm Valley again, starting the walk around the Kings Canyon in opposite direction now. We went back to the campground, jumped into the pool once more and drove to the Lasseter Highway then. So we came to the Ayers Rock Resort, passing Mount Conner and the Curtain Springs Roadhouse. We went into the visitors center first. We were told that the park is opened from 5 a.m., but in case of extreme heat the Uluru ascent may be closed at 8 a.m. due to safety reasons. Furthermore we could see photos from the ascent leading to the top at the westside of the rock providing no more security than a chain at the most steep part. We agreed that we should be in top form for this trip, what we would not be for sure when spending one more night in the camper. So we decided to rent a room with aircondition for this night. But firstly we went to Geckos Cafe for lunch. Then we went to the campground, rented a cabin with two sleeping rooms and jumped in the pool then; fortunately this pool was roofed by a sail. But suddenly something unexpected happened. Big black clouds came up and a slight rain began, changing into a tempest later. We jumped in our cars and hurried to the Uluru to be within this spectacle. Here the sky was deep black and the rain was heavy. After a while everything was over and we went to the westside of the rock to visit the ascent closer. There we saw a kangaroo skipping across the slippery rock. We drove around the rock and made some stops for visiting rock paintings here and watching the dingos there. When it got later we went to Sunset Point. Masses of tourists were already waiting here. When the sun goes down the Uluru changes its color from brown and pink into orange, red and finally grew. With the sun stepping deeper and deeper the shadows thrown by larger and smaller gaps are getting longer and longer and so the rock changes its look every minute. After this great experience we went back to the campground, had dinner in our cabin and went to bed very early
36th day:
We got up at 3:30 a.m., had breakfast, packed up out baggage and were at the park entrance exactly at 5 a.m. We went directly to the Uluru but the ranger came not until sunrise (at 6 a.m.) to open the ascent. We did not try to climb the rock as quick as possible but made some small breaks. After the first part, where the chain ended, it became very windy so that some people did not go any further. After we had passed a narrow ridge the path became wider and we did not had any problems; the advantage of the wind was that there were no more flies anymore... The way to the top was about 1.6 kilometers but was hard to estimate because one can not see the whole way at any time. But after an hour we had managed it. We were standing in the glaring light of the just rised sun and enjoyed the view over the environment and the silhouette of the Olgas in the west. After a while we stepped down again, particulary rearwards following the chain at the most steep part. It was at 8 a.m. and the sun right blinked over the rock when we arrived at our campers again; the ascent had been closed already. Here there was no breeze anymore and it was quite hot at once. We went to the Olgas and walked the seven kilometers long track thru the Valley of the Winds. In this valley it was so hot that we quite often sat down in the shade for resting a while and drinking some water. About 11:20 a.m. we finished this straining but marvellous walk. In the meantime this track had also been closed due to extreme temperatures and the ranger asked some questions to us (where we are from, if we had enough water with us, what other safety rules we knew etc.). He told us that the rain yesterday was the very first since a long time ant that it had cooled down some degrees therefore (maybe only 3 - t degrees, but we were very pleased about that). We went back to the Ayers Rock Resort and stopped at several lookouts on our way. When we came back to the campground we jumped into the pool again, went to the Pioneers Kitchen for lunch (the burger with the lot were absolutely delicious) and started to go back to Alice Springs. This time we did not go on the gravel road passing the Kings Canyon but drove the Lasseter Highway until we reached the Stuart Highway and then went north. Unfortunately we had to forgo the aircontition for the last 300 kilometers, because it was out of order since the branch to Kings Canyon. We still made a trip to a meteor crater and arrived in Alice Springs at about 8 p.m. We wanted to go to the airport first to reconfirm our flight to Darwin, but they had already closed. So we drove into the city center for shopping and watched out for a campground then. We sat around the barbecue for dinner and went to bed when the light got off at 10 p.m. This time we kept the doors of the camper open again and so the night was quite pleasant.
37th day:
After breakfast at the campground we went to the airport, where we reconfirmed our flight and asked for cars to hire in Darwin. After this we drove to Brits Australia to let them look for the aircondition. One of the mechanics inspected our car, found a torn v belt, replaced it and the aircondition started running again. We went to the airport once again and reserved at AVIS a 4WD in Darwin which was big enough for four persons and the baggage. Then we went to zu Hungry Jackīs for lunch and after this we drove to the Eastern Mac Donald Ranges into the Ruby Gap Nature Park. There was a ranger station in Arltunga, where one should give notice for departure, when driving further into the park. So we did and entered a great 4WD track then. We went over rough and smooth, thru sand and dust, thru waterholes and creeks. When we tried to cross a small creek the wheels of our camper turned free and even though we had four driven wheels and locked the gear differential we did not get free again. The only way was to dig out the wheels by hand and put some stones from the river bed under it to move out backwards. We tried it again at a place where more stones were in the river bed and were lucky to cross the creek there. But after only few kilometers a river had washed so much sand ashore, thet we would not risk a crossing there. So we turned back, only four kilometers before reaching Ruby Gap. But nevertheless it was an exciting, adventureous trip. We came back to the ranger station about 30 minutes after closing time but the ranger was still there and we could report back. He told us, that we would not have reached Ruby Gap anyway due to the river has flooded the whole track on the last kilometers and even experienced 4WD drivers would have had no chance there. We went back to Alice Springs, made a visit at Emily Gap on our way and went to Pizza Hut for dinner...all-yoou-can -eat of course. Then we parked our bushcamper at the campground and went to bed
38th day:
We left the campground and went to McDonalds for breakfast. Following we strolled thru some souvenir shops in the city and returned our bushcamperst to Brits Australia then. There we took the shuttle bus to the airport where we got into the plane to Darwin. At Darwin airport we got our reserved car, a Toyota Landcruiser. When we left the airport building we became aware at once, that we were in another klima zone now, namely in the tropics. The weather was not as hot as in the outback but the humidity was even higher. While we drove into the city we looked for a suitable hotel in our accommodation guide. In the second hotel they still had two free rooms for A$55 per double including breakfast. Furthermore they had a big, very neat pool and we liked it. After we checked in there we visited the city. After Darwin was destroyed in WW II the hurricane "Tracy" almost annihilated the city in 1974. Darwin was rebuilt completely new and so there are only a few historic buildings. In the main promenade we found the bureau of Singapore Airlines, where we reconfirmed our flight back home. Then we went to the visitors information, where they told us that all 4WD tracks are closed in the Kakadu N.P. - itīs the wet season... In the evening we went to Sizzlers for dinner, where we had a great steak including the free salad bar. On the way back to our hotel we bought a big pack of wine in a bottle shop and spent the rest of the evening at the hotel pool.
39th day:
In the night heavy rain began and it continued even in the morning. After breakfast in the hotel we drove east on the Arnhem Highway. At Bark Hut Inn, a very snugly roadhouse, we stopped for lunch and made a trip into the Wildman Reserve to Shady Camp and the Wildman River Wilderness Lodgethen. Following we drove until we reached the entrance to the Kakadu N.P. Here they also told us that almost all 4WD tracks were closed and that we had to take a plane to see the Jim-Jim-Falls and the Twin Falls (magnificient waterfalls and surely two of the most popular attractions of the park). We moved on to Jabiru and detoured to get to the visitors center. But it was already closed and so we went to a campground and rented a cabin there. There we spent some time in the pool and went in the BBQ kitchen nearby for dinner. After relaxing a while in the whirlpool wa still drunk some glasses of wine and went to bed finally.
40th day:
We went to a bakery in the morning to buy something for breakfast to have in our cabin. Then we drove to the Jabiru airstrip and booked a one hour scenic flight across the Kakadu N.P. with a Cessna. This flight was A$ 100 per person but it was really worth it. We saw a couple of waterfalls (of course including the Jim-Jim-Falls and the Twin Falls) which were very impressive due to the heavy rainfalls in the last days. After this we went to Burdulba to the Iligadjarr Walk, where we reached the pool area after about one hour. There were some rockholes providing excellent swimming facilities.Unfortunately a group of tourists had just arrived so that we stayed there only for a short moment. We followed the creek for some meters and found a little waterfall where we could have a bath allone. After some really refreshing minutes we walked back to our car and went to Nourlangie Rock, where we saw some interesting aboriginal rock paintings. Suddenly we were overtaken by a cloudburst; it was not really unpleasant because it was quite a warm shower, but we were really soaked when we reached our car. It was just in the afternoon and we continued driving until we reached Cooinda, where we rented a lodge. Then we entered a bistro for a short snack, jumped into the pool then and following drove to Jim-Jim Billabong. On the way we saw a pack of dingos near the street that followed our car for a moment. But suddenly the road ended. Due to the heavy rainfalls of the last days the billabong had expanded for some kilometers and the new shore was right at the road. In the meantime it was dark and we could not see, how deep the road was flooded. So we decided to turn back to Cooinda and sat into the bar for dinner. On the way to our lodge we went to the reception and booked a Yellow Water Cruise starting at 7 a.m. next morning.
41st day:
Firstly we went into the shop to buy some cookies and a bottle of water, then we walked to the quay, where the boat tour on the Yellow River started. During the cruise we could see lots of waterfowls and a pair of seaeagles, but no crocodiles even if there are warning signs everywhere in the park. Our guide told us that crocodiles like to lie on the shore but now in the wet season the whole area is flooded and this is why we may not will see any crocodile. We got back to the quay, passing the flooded bus port, where only a few roadsigns sticked out of the water. We had breakfast in the snack bar and left Cooinda then. We drove out of the Kakadu N.P. towards Katherine but turned north when we reached the Stuart Highway at Pine Creek. After passing Adelaide RIver we left the Highway to get to the Litchfield National Park. We wantef to have lunch in the Rum Jungle Clubi in Batchelor. But we did not were members there, and so we had to sign the guestbook first, before they took our order. Then we entered the park. Even here all 4WD tracks were closed, but there were a lot of sights to be seen by using the sealed roads. We crossed the whole park first, to get to the other end to the Wangi Falls. On the way we visited the Magnetic Termite Mounds, which are built strictly in north-south line. Normally there are swimming facilities in the Wangi Falls pool, but due to the masses of water falling down there, the pool was closed for safety reasons yet. So we went to the Tolmer Falls and the Florence Falls next and took a bath in the Buley Rockhole. When teh dusk began we left the park again and followed the Stuart Highway to Darwin. We checked in the same hotel as two days before and went to Sizzlers for dinner again. On our way back to the hotel we went to Woolworth for shopping. There a joung pair of lovers asked us, what dip to prefer if we had the choice between herbal or smoked salmon dip. We spontaneous decided for salmon; the young man seemed to be very pleased and the girl agreed. They blandly thanked us and went away. A few minutes later we met them again, as they could not get agreement about the color of champagne glasses. And so they asked us again: uncolored or blue? Benath there were yellow glasses too, but these they did not want at all and so we told them to take the blue glasses. Later, when we looked for a pack of wine in the bottleshop, we met this pair again. They smiled and told us that this time they will pick the champagne themselves. When we were to pay our wine the young man hurried toward us and showed their choice: a blue and a yellow bottle. We joked around that they should have taken a blue and a yellow glass too, but when he asked if we would be so kind to change the glasses for them, we negated and told them goodbye. Who knows, what they still would have us to decide for them...
42nd day:
After breakfast we went shopping in the city. At about 11:30 a.m. we drove to the Darwin Crocodile Farm, because we had not seen any wild crocodile until now. While the feeding show we saw, how quick these seemingly lazy reptiles can move. We had a (quite delicious) croc-burger for lunch and drove back to Darwin, where went to the Aquascene in the afternoon. This is a bay, where thousands of fish come up with the high tide and vanish again with the low tide. This is a great attraction for many families with children, they can feed the fishes coming close to the hands there. After this we went back to our hotel and sat by the pool for a while. For dinner we went to Timīs Surf & Turf, which we had found as we had watched out for a hotel. The menue was the same as like in Townsville at the Fishermanīs Wharf and so we decided to order a seafood platter for one person per pair and it was enough for two again. We spent the rest of the evening by the hotelpool, where we emptied our bick pack of wine before we moved to our rooms to pack our baggage.
43rd day:
We had breakfast in our hotel and went to the airport at about 8:30 a.m. The AVIS office did not open until 10:30 a.m. and so we checked in first and kept waiting to return our car. At 11:15 a.m. we started to Singapore. There we had to wait several hours for our next flight and therefore we had reserved a room at our stop on the way to Australia six weeks ago. But we did not reconfirm this (would have been too expensive by phone from Australia to Singapore) and so they did not have a reservation and we tried to spend the time otherwise. We strolled around the shops in both terminals and went to the Transit-Cafe dor dinner. At 23:55 p.m. our flight to Frankfurt started.
44th day:
During this flight I could not get much sleep again. I watched some films and spent the rest of the time trying to win any points in the Nintendo tennis game. After a smooth flight we arrived in Frankfurt at 6:45 a.m. When we tried to check in the plane to Dresden they had problems with our baggage. We did not get any baggage-tickets in Darwin and could not tell the numbers of the pieces to transship to the clerk. So we hurried thru the whole airport and asked the clerk at the office of Singapore Airlines about the numbers (the Lufthansa stuff denied any call or other activities). With this numbers we hurried back to the gate and cougth the flight just in time. The flight was straining too. Two passengers got into a dispute, because the one (a mid-aged businessman) did not want to switch off his Gameboy during the start, where all electronic equipment is to shut down. In Australia things run more smooth anyhow... And there was another surprise waiting in Dresden: Fog and a termerature of 10 degrees below zero...welcome back home.