2WD Darwin - Kakadu - Katherine - Litchfield - Darwin

We hand in our 4wd and pick up a 2wd campervan again and drive to Kakadu national park. The scenery is slightly less impressive than the Kimberleys or the Tanami Road, but the Aboriginal sites, rock art and stories are again very impressive. We are very glad to see and hear everything, learn and form our own opinions. Again, magical moments at the sacred site of Ubirr, which is bordering Arnhem land (Aboriginal-only, no entries for whitefellas). And the wetlands with their many species of birds, again very nice. We see lotus birds, with their ridiculously big feet and many parrots, jabirus and commorants. We camp out in a beautiful campsite, and unfortunately meet the biggest amount of mozzies (mosquitos) we have ever seen. And of course get eaten alive!

But the next day, after driving some minutes a huge frilled dragon (google this little guy) crosses the road just before our car, not bad ey? We see many more birds in a billabong and visit the very nice Aboriginal Cultural Centre. At the end of the day, we arrive in Katherine, a nice small town.

The next day we take part in a so called Aboriginal cultural experience. We learn how to make a net-painting, typical Aboriginal art of the Arnhem land region. We learn how to make fire, how to throw a spear and meanwhile our Aborigial guide tells us lots of stories about his tribe, his land, his family and his own life. Really interesting and we learned a lot!!

As beautiful and enriching an experience this was, so disappointing was the next part of that day: the Katherine gorge. We had booked and paid our boattrip through the gorge days before, but the people that booked for us had screwed up, bottomline: we could not go. The boatcomapny was nice enough to help us out and offer us something else, so we could still go. The Katherine gorge is nice, true, but it has been Walt Disnified with busloads of people coming in every hour, and the whole experience did not make us very happy!

Enfin, we shrugged our shoulders, thought of the truely amazing experience of that morning and had a nice glass of wine. The next day, we drove to Litchfield National Park, with its beautiful cascades and quirky termite mounds. Nice swimming in the cascades!!

We concluded our trip in the Top End in Darwin. Well let's say the best part about being in Darwin is actually leaving Darwin - and let's leave it at that!

Joost adds: Darwin has only horrible budget accomodation. Even the campground we stayed on in Darwin was expensive and really bad. There is nothing to do really in Darwin except drinking loads of beer. Many places you actually can get free food if you buy beer. Well, you can figure out what the food will taste like and which people will come here.

4WD Adventure Part 2: The Gibb River Road

The Gibb River Road - or regularly travelled road and impressive Kimberleys

Day 1 We drive from Broome to Derby and visit the Boab Prison tree, a huge boab tree. Aboriginal people were held prisoner here in the late 19th century. Onwards, and hitting the gravel roads again! After some 150 km, we take a look at the Windjana Gorge. Hey, guess
what.......... they've got freshies there! Fresh-water crocodiles! And we could almost cuddle them! Hahaha, no joking, but we could get pretty close to them, like 5 meters away. A true Australian mum trusted these little fellas that much that she and her 2 year old toddler sat down next to a freshie, only 2 meters away. You gotta love the Aussies!

After this spine-tingling experience, we continue up the Gibb River Road (GRR) and arrive at our campsite. But just shortly before we actually arrive there, the outback has a surprise for us waiting at sunset.... a pretty deep creek crossing. Joost plunges into the creek to see how deep the water is, my own Outback Jack :) And after we decide that as long as the water does not gulp into the car everything can be done, we drive through it. With dry feet, we cook up our meal
under the stars and toast to a beautiful first day!

Day 2 Early in the morning we hit the road again to explore the nearby Bell Gorge, with it magnificent plunge pool and gorge. Swimming in a cascading waterfall, what else does a person want in the morning? We continue down the GRR and at the end of the day, the GRR decides to hit us! Big explosion, weird noices and a very, very, broken tyre! Beyond repair and totally lassurated on the side :) Changing the tyre in 36 degrees is not that pleasurable and we decide afterwards to call it a day. We camp at Ellenbrae Station, again under a beautiful starry
night.

Day 3 Rising at daylight, and onwards to Kununurra. We see a beautiful giant lizard, a goanna. We cross many creeks, floodways and finally: the Pentecost river. Again, as long as the water is not actually in the car, everything goes. The Aussies that cross the river first take a look at the people coming from the other side of the water, so we do the same and then decide it can be done. Again, dry feet, and final part to Kununurra.

We arrive in K. for some shopping and drive to the east to meet my brother and his friend on a roadside parking, where we will cook for these to great champs! Take a look at what they are doing: www.100dagenvoorkika.nl
And with that our second 4wd track ended!

The next morning the boys are of early to cycle the last 160 km to Kununurra. We take things easy and catch up with them on the border of Northern Territories and Western Australia. We make a big pancake lunch for the four of us, just before we have to throw away all fruit and vegetables to be able to enter WA. We just bought everything the day before in Kununurra (WA), but make that the cat wise :-) We follow the guys back to Kununurra and have dinner there together. This was really great, these 36 hours meeting in the middle of nowhere! The next day the boys cycle further west and we head of to the east to drop off our 4WD in Darwin in time.

4WD Adventure: Alice Springs - Darwin

PART 1: Tanami Track - or the absolute emptiness and beautiful flowering desert

Day 1 's Ochtends vroeg uit Alice Springs vertrokken. Beide 90 liter diesel tanks vol getankt, bandenspanning in orde en toch nog even wat reserve cash gepind. Bij het eerste roadhouse, Tilmouth, de bandenspanning van 50 psi naar 35 psi terug gebracht, opnieuwbijgetankt en koffie gedronken. Voorwiel hubs gelockt en auto in high range 4WD.

Vanaf hier 800 km dirt road, waarvan 600 km zonder voorzieningen. Nou, dat gaat prima! Dit zijn echt prima wegen. 150 km verderop naar een art gallery in een aboriginal dorp. De zaak wordt door blanken gerund met iphones, internet en een enorme server om de kunst ook via internet te verkopen aan mensen die geen zin hebben om zelf langs te komen. Verder voelen we ons in het dorp een beetje misplaatst. Gelukkig is de kunst fantastisch en betalen kan met creditcard. Dag idylle van aboriginal kunst van de artiest zelf kopen! 50% gaat naar de artiest, 50% naar de ondersteuning van dorpsprojecten. Als we door het dorp rijden, treffen we een onsamenhangende puinzooi van huizen aan. Wel is er een mooie school, maar wat de aboriginals zelf onderhouden is een zooitje.

Bij de ingang van het dorp is een soort vergane toegangspoort, die de lokale politie gekscherend de arc de triomph noemt. De politie vraagt of we ons willen inschrijven als we naar het noorden gaan, maar het is geheel vrijwillig. Toch maar doen. Gelukkig kunnen ze ons nog net vertellen waar we diesel kunnen vinden, want over de rest van de route weten ze
helemaal niets! 'Geen idee, dat is over de grens.' (andere staat). Tijdens het maken van een paar sfeerfoto's al rijdende door het dorp, begint een man wild met zijn armen te zwaaien, dat foto's maken niet gewaardeerd wordt. We kunnen ons iets voorstellen bij het moeizame samenleven van blanke Australiers met aboriginals.

We duiken rond 15 uur pas weer de weg op met pas 150 km dirt road op de teller. We zetten de auto uit het zicht langs de kant van de weg in de middle of nowhere met totaal 450 km op de teller. Oops forgot to write in English.

We camp out in the middle of nowhere, no people, no amenities, no nothing. And no beer! We thought about everything except a cold beer! Even the wine from the Clare Valley is not cool. But our fridge cools the white wine down quickly, so finally we enjoy our sunset with a good meal and wine :) When the sun is down all life goes to sleep. No crickets, no birds, no insect, nothing. We hear absolutely nothing. There is absolutely nothing. With the darkness a layer of fog comes over the land, numbing all sound we make and covering only the weaker stars in
the sky, so the star gazing on the Tanami is still pretty amazing. This is so far out of our comfortzone that we get visions of crazy dingos attacking us during dinner and people passing-by robbing us in the middle of the night. Digging a hole to go to the toilet (the
proper way) is also a new experience!

Day 2 We feel great awaking in the middle of nowhere! We want to enjoy this as long as possible, so breakfast takes a while! Well, you've got to enjoy life, don't ya? We get back on the road again at 10am. We stop at Wolfe Creek Crater, only 180 km from the end of Tanami road. We have seen many different forms of nothing. This is mainly: red soil, nasty spinifex, termite
mounds up to 3 meters high, ghost gum trees, many scrubs in bloom, with beautiful desert flowers, and a long red dirt road. We have seen some wildlife in the form of bids, like the boulder bird. Today we have driven 500 km. This is a great experience! We camp out in the
wild again, near the Wolfe Meteorite Crater, this time surrounded by some crazy people like us. And to top it of, again a beautiful Outback sunset.

Day 3 After exploring the meteorite crater, we hit the road again for Broome. After an hour or so, we experience another ultimate outback experience: a big red kangaroo crosses the road, just shortly before our car. Bounce, bounce, bounce, and off he goes! Really nice! Thedirt track of the Tanami ends (and with that our dirt track adventure too) when it meets the bitumen of the Great Northern Highway, shortly after Halls Creek and we are back in normal-people country :) We don't make it completely to Broome, but sleep at a roadhouse 200 km before Broome.

Day 4 We arrive in Broome, small town Australia. Nice, nothing special but with a spectacular beach and even more gorgeous sunsets. You can really see the sun set into the water, no clouds at the horizon. Two days at Broome give us the time to realx, to stock up and prepare for
the next dirt road we are going to travel: The Gibbs River Road in the Kimberleys.

Uluru

After the really bizarre town of Coober Pedy, we head for something completely different: Uluru.
In stead of taking from the earth, people have been living here for hundreds of years with the earth. Beautiful landscape surrounds us and of course the nice big solid red rock of Uluru. We arrive around 4 pm at Uluru and decide to watch the sunset. We already saw some nice sunsets but this one is really special. The rock changes colour every 15 min, as are the surroundings. Birds are singing and a kind of magical atmpshere arrives. To top things off, the moment the sun sets, the full moon rises right above the middle of Uluru. We already had packed our camera but are really fast at getting it out again! Uluru in silver lighting again very beautiful!

The next day we do a part of the walk around Kata Tjuta, the Olgas. Totally different, but also magical. We see some wild parrots and giant butterflies, and there is water pretty much everywhere. And those flowers! In the afternoon, we walk around Uluru and visit the Aboriginal Cultural Centre. The stories about their country and their history make us look at Uluru and Kata Tjuta differently. Never too old to learn, ey?

It's late in the afternoon, but we decide to drive some 200 km, hoping to make it just in time before darkness (you definetely do not want to be driving after dark because of the kangaroos and other wildlife that's crossing!!). Again, magical moments. As soon as the sun sets, the moon rises as a giant yellow ball, right in front of us, lighting up the way before us and kind of pointing us in the right direction. Man, do we live on a magnificent earth! We sleep at a camping site at a roadhouse on the Stuart Highway and head for Alice Springs the next day.

We visit The School of the Air. Alice Springs had the first SotA, which was opened in the 50-ies, and which used the broadcasting network of the Flying Doctors. We saw an 8th grade math lesson being broadcasted (really cool) and students from all over the region joined the lesson through blogs and chat. Kids from as far away as 1000 km joined in from their dad's cattlestation or wildlife ranger house. The only thing missing in the curriculum was some kind of foreign language learning but that can be fixed when I open an Elos branch in Australia :) !!!!!!

Cheerio and take care!

Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy - Opal town!
When you say Coober Pedy, you say opal-opal-opal! Coober Pedy is Australia's biggest opal supplier, the majority of Australian opals are found here. Many kilometers before you enter the town, you already see the big piles of dirt and sand, like molehills. Anyone can claim a 50 square meters of land in Coober Pedy and start digging for opals and this brings a very vibrant, almost frantic, and a kind of greedy atmosphere to the town. Basically, all people are hoping for good fortune and hope to find that one big vain of high - quality black opal which will make them rich.

We took a tour with George, a local, to the typical underground houses and Serbian underground church. Because of the extreme heat in summer in Coober Pedy (the mercury will
rise to 50 degrees and above) people started to make underground-houses to beat the heat. These houses are so popular nowadays that they cost a good deal of money. Living in an
underground-house provides also an extra opportunity for finding opal: if you enlarge your house with an extra room, you have to dig out a fair bit and George told us, people found opal worth over 20.000 dollars this way. Not bad ey?

Next to all the opal-fever, Coober Pedy has a very nice attraction that has nothing to do with opal: a kangaroo orphanage. Unfortunately, mother kangaroos get killed by roadtrains and cars (Coober Pedy is right next to the Stuart Highway) and their babies are left behind in their pouches. Sometimes, these babies are lucky and are taken to this orphanage, are raised there and released into the wild after they are 1 year old. All the kangaroos here have sad stories, some are mentally 'strange' and behave weird. Sad to hear and see but really positive to see there's a place like this, so lovely and nice in a surrounding such as Coober Pedy's. Have a look at our photos, cute as a button!

2wd Bendigo - Broken Hill - Clare Valley

Our days in the big city are over. The vast lands of Australia await us.
We just picked up the campervan from Britz and head out to Bendigo. In
the middle of the goldfield region.
We have to drive on the left which is always a struggle at first,
especially with the windowwipers and direction indicators switched
from place.
So every time you want to give direction, your window wipers flash in
front of you.

Bendigo is the third largest city in the state of Victoria, but with
only 80.000 people. It's a quiet but nice city. Wide streets and
beautiful houses. The first night in our campervan we spend on the
communal campground, which is actually the showgrounds with toilets
and showers. It is really not a camping. So it feels a little bit
awkward and we hope this will not be the same for all the other
nights, but then again, it makes a good first experience!
We spend the afternoon strolling past the beautiful buildings of
Bendigo, but we are actually on the way to Broken Hill, so it is soon
time to make diner before it gets dark.
Very early in the morning we get back on the road again. First to
Mildura, which is the fruit capital of the region. Out of nothing we
suddenly drive through fields of fruittrees and just as suddenly as it
started, it stops as we cross the Murray river north of Mildura into
the state of New South Wales.
300 km of vast nothing! We arrive in Broken Hill an hour before
sunset, so we quickly find a caravanpark and a supermarket, cook
diner and get some sleep!

The next day we have time to explore Broken Hill and the semi-ghost
town of Silverton (filmset for movies like Mad Max). We first visit the Royal Flying Doctor Service. They have
a little museum and a short tour through the base. Broken Hill is the
only place that does that. So we get to see the nervecentre and the
planes. It all gives a good idea of how it all began, how it evolved and
what is happening nowadays. Unfortunately, a little bit less romantic than the TV series and definately no Dr. Tom, Margo or Dr. Geoff :(
It's time to head off to Silverton. This is really nice. Not much
happening here, but the surreal views of a semi-ghost town in the
desert are fantastic. Unfortunately for us, there was so much rainfall this
year that the desert is exceptionally green and is not revealing as
much red earth as usual. So the real desert feal is lacking a bit.
They even postponed the filming of yet another Mad Max movie, because
it's too green!
But then again, seeing the desert in bloom is beautiful as well, so we
are not complaining :)
On the way back we drive a dirt road for 30 minutes (which is not
allowed with our current rental van, moehahahahah) to see an old silvermine. We
actually go down about 30 meters with batteries and headlamps. Our
guide is a weird but funny man who has such a strong accent, it's hard
to follow him. Very nice!
On the way back we just have time to visit the Broken Hill Sculpture
Symposium. A set of carved stone statues on a hill, beautiful changing
color during sunset. This is a really nice spot with beautiful views
of the desert, sunset, and oh yes the sculptures. But the best moment
is the drive to and from the place where we get to see our first kangaroos in the wild. Really great !
We end our day without seeing much of Broken Hill, but actually there
is not much to see. Broken Hill is an arty mining town (nice combination ay). The mine is
not open for tourists, because China and Japan recently started
mining silver again. The mines were already almost completely shut down, because Australia didn't want to continue investing in the mines any more. But apparently there's enough left.
The next day we take an hour to briefly see the museum and art gallery
of Pro Heart (please google for more info), before we head back to
civilisation: the wine region of Clare Valley. As soon as we leave
Broken Hill, the vast empty desert takes over immediatelly. The
landscape starts to change only in the last 100 km, when we suddenly
find ourselves driving through green hills and vineyards. Clare Valley
is touristy, but manages to keep a real countryside feal with nice
little villages, old monumental buildings and pubs serving diner until
9 pm.
After setting up camp in Auburn we treat ourselves to a pub diner with
a glass of local wine of course! The next day we spend wine tasting
and sightseeing. We end up buying 6 bottles of gorgeous wines for ourstrenuous trip through the Outback :-) And man, did they taste great! In the
afternoon we already drive 200 km to Port Germain on the coast (with
the longest wooden jetty in Australia) to make the trip to Coober Pedy
for the next day a bit shorter.

Sydney & Melbourne

Sydney

The real holiday part of our world trip is over. Now the vast land of Australia is awaiting us! After a long flight via Auckland we land in Sydney, a trip with the airport shuttle bus brings us to our hostel/hotel in Kings Cross. This is like the area around Rembrandt square in Amsterdam: a lot of cheap eateries and pubs, sex shops and lots of weird people! A lively and cheap neighborhood is exactly what we need because Australia is really expensive at the moment! There's a kitchen in the hotel we can use, so we also can make our own meals.

After a good night sleep we start exploring Sydney. We start of in the city centre and walk down to Darling Harbour. Really touristy, but nice to walk around and look around. This is also the place where the Wildlife centre and Sydney Aquarium are. We start of with the Wildlife Centre, where we see all kinds of venomous snakes and spiders, a salt water crocodile, bugs, and the more loveable animals like kangaroos, koalas, wombats, etc. All the animals that only live in Australia. We spend a lot of time in here and by the time we come out the sun has set already.

We take the ferry to Circular Quay, the next harbour and big tourist center with the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House and lots more. Our ferry crosses the harbour of Sydney to the north side of Sydney, sails under the Harbour Bridge to Circular Quay. This gives great night views and shots of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Especially because there is a special festival going on in Sydney at the moment: Vivid. A big part of this festival is about artsy laser projections on buildings. So the Opera House is constantly used as a big projector screen for light shows. Really beautiful! We spend the evening strolling through the old harbour neighbourhood, The Rocks, with beautiful old houses and warehouses, all beautifully lit by Vivid art.

We eat in a really typical English pub, where we are confronted for the first time with ordering and pre-paying our food and drinks at different counters. The waiters will only bring out the food. The rest you have to do yourself! That takes a little bit getting used to. Tired but satisfied we head home after our first full day in Sydney.

The next day we plan to spend in Manly. Manly is a suburb north of Sydney Harbour on the Pacific ocean. Already the trip by ferry to Manly is impressive with beautiful views of Sydney and all its suburbs. Manly boosts a real laidback atmosphere. The beach is deserted with impressive waves rolling in from the east. It's autumn/winter in Sydney and the temperature is about 16-18°C. Way to cold for Australians to be on the beach. We take a local bus to the north Harbour head where we again have beautiful views of Sydney and its harbour as well as the high cliffs on the east coast of Australia. The wind is strong so many sailing boats and surfers can be spotted! By the time we get back to Manly it's time for afternoon tea and relaxing! Followed by early dinner at a Malaysian restaurant before we head back to Sydney.

Because of the Vivid festival there are a lot of performances in the Opera House. We decide to go to an Australian band, but tickets are sold out, so we get tickets for saxophone legend Sonny Rollings in the Concert Hall of the Opera House, which is the most beautiful podium of the Opera House. We are really exited, but have to wait till the next day.

The next day is all about the beach! Bondi Beach! But as can be expected, there is not much going on on the beach itself. Too cold, but a lot of gymbunnies run by on the coastal walk. This coastal walk is actually pretty famous and stretches all the way down along the coast to Coogee. It's really a beautiful walking trail from the busy, bustling, hip and trendy Bondi to relaxed and laidback Coogee.

After all this salty air it's time to visit the Sydney Aquarium. We start off directly with the famous platypus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus). This animal is about 50 cm long with a wide beak which looks like a giant duck beak. The rest of the animal looks like a beaver. Of course we also see a lot of beautiful fish and other sea creatures like the dugong! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugong) And also sharks, manta rays, corals, seahorses, giant crabs, lion fish, etc! Really great!

We end up having dinner at an asian restaurant for the third time, because these are the least expensive. First night: Japanese noodle soup (ramen). Second night: Malaysian. Third night: Wagamama (Modern Japanese food with other asian influences.

The last day in Sydney is spent exploring the rest of the city centre and sending a big parcel home with souvenirs gathered so far. We visit the Art Gallery of New South Wales and end up drinking beers in the super hip Wooloomooloo harbour. After a quick dinner, we head home because the next morning Qantas will fly us to our next destination in Australia: Melbourne!

Melbourne

After the flight and some bus and metro travelling, we can enjoy our apartment in the really hip neighbourhood of South Yarra. It is great to have our own 'home' again after many months of travelling and lots of experiences. We spend the rest of the day exploring the neighbourhood, shopping for dinner at the supermarket and a great fresh produce market.

The next day we spend exploring St. Kilda : Melbourne's famous beachtown. Melbourne is even colder than Sydney, about 15°C. So nobody is actually on the beach, but again the vibe of this neighbourhood on the beach is great. We walk up the pier of St. Kilda, at the end of which dwarf pinguins live and nest! Pinguinsare cute but imagine dwarf pinguins. Really great! In the afternoon sun, wefinish off this day at a bar, drinking really expensive cold beers. Great!

The next day we head downtown, exploring all the beautifull shopping arcades! We have some really warm soup (it's very cold in Melbourne), and great coffee. The third day in Melbourne we visit the Melbourne museum which is a very nice museum with expositions on basically everything in Australia: wildlife, Aboriginal art, historical machines, handicrafts, history, etc. And a temporary National Geographic exhibition on Tutanchamon, which we find less interesting.

We cook up our last dinner in our temporary 'home' and next day, we make our way to the Britz office to pick up our campervan. The next part of our Aussie adventure will start from here! And which city we liked the best? Hard to say! They are really different. Sydney being the mondaine worldwise city with a really bigcity feel, and Melbourne being smaller yet more artsy and hip. We just enjoyed and loved them both!

Red Centre !!

Hello !!!

G'day mate! How are you going! It's been a long time.

Internet is not readily available, Australia is really expensive and we have so much to do.

So here is a quick update with the highlights so far. We will get the full story out as soon as possible!

Sydney

Vivid festival: lightshows, light art and Sonny Rollings live in the concert hall of the Opera House!

The Bondi to Coogee beach walk !

Melbourne

Watching dwarf penguins at St Kilda pier!

Walking through the wonderful arcades sipping perfect coffee and great hot soup! 11°C

Broken Hill and Silverton

Old Silver Mine, Flying Doctor base, Semi-ghost-town Silverton (set for Mad MaxMovies)

Clare Valley

Sipping wine (and buying lots; fuck the budget!) at about 30 wineries!

Coober Pedy

Opal town, desert town, outback driving, salt lakes!

Seeing underground homes (dugouts), learning about life as an opalminer

Uluru (Ayer's Rock)

The views, the stories, just being there. You can look at as many photos as you like, but it will never be the same as being there.

Quotes

Hi lovy, how are you going?

Hello, this is Lebara mobile, how can I put a smile on your face?

Right now:

In Alice Springs, swopping cars (to 4WD) !

Preparing for Tanami (1000 km of dirt road, and a 600 km part without water, fuel or anything), Broome, Gibb River Road (600 km of dirt road) and finally meeting the boys, cycling around Australia for KiKa (www.100dagenvoorkika.nl) in Kununurra !!