Back in Sydney (32468km driven)

It was both nice and sad to arrive back in Sydney after five months on the road. Nice because Sydney is my home in Australia and I love the city and sad because it's raining the whole time and I only have 2 weeks left before I fly home. Actually I am looking forward to come home to see my family and friends again, but I will miss Sydney and the rest of Australia for all it has given me.

Our first task in Sydney was to sell the car. We had exactly two weeks and we hoped that that would be enough time. The first thing we did was put the car on different add sites and print out posters to hang in different hostels and travel agents around Sydney. We had only one response the first days and that turned into nothing, so a couple of days later we decided to try and park the car along the famous car selling strip in Kings Cross. It was there me and Kristin found the car in the first place. We sat there for about five hours without anybody even looking at the car, then suddenly an English guy showed up and wanted to have a look. After he had a mechanic look at it and we discussed the price, he ended up buying it from us. We were really happy because we heard a lot of stories about people that tried to sell their car for 3-4 weeks with no luck. Finally we could take all our stuff out of the car and movie into a hostel, a welcoming change from living in the car for so long! The pictures are of our bed in the car (that we slept in for four months) and the alley we camped in. All together we drove 32.468km in the five months I owned the car!

I never went to the Chinese garden during the time I lived in Sydney so me and Annina decided to go there and check it out. The garden is located in Darling Harbor and it was easy to find. The gardens full name is the Chinese Garden of Friendship and it was built to celebrate the Chinese community in Sydney and the close relationship with Guangzhou, a city in the Guangdong Province, China. From the outside it looks fairly small, but once inside the walls you realize that it has some size. I found the Chinese garden very beautiful with a lot of Chinese art, architecture and plants making the walk through the garden diverse and fascinating. Normally I am not the biggest garden visitor, but I enjoyed it. Be sure to check out the "Sydney 4" album when I post it to see more photos from our visit.

Another thing that we said we would do but never did during my time living in Sydney was the walk between Bondi and Coogee beach. So as soon as we had a day with some blue sky we got on the bus to Coogee. The path follows the coast running in and out of small bays and over cliffs and beaches. The best known beach along the track (not counting Coogee or Bondi) is Bronte beach. The weather was great considering the rain we had the last week but the water and air temperature was still to cold for swimming. It took us about 1.5 hours to complete the walk and we enjoyed it a lot! About half way the path ran next to a huge cemetery. It was a spectacular sight to see the graves in the hillside, from the top of the hill to the cliff edge with the ocean below. Almost at the end the path rounds a sharp corner and Bondi Beach comes into full view down below the cliffs. It was beautiful.

The last thing I will write about in this blog post is the two movies we watched in the cinema. Annina wanted to watch another movie in the IMAX and I am not the person to say no to an IMAX experience, so we bought the cheap cinema vouchers on eBay again and went to watch Toy Story 3. I love 3D movies when they don't misuse the 3D effect and Toy Story 3 was a great example. I will try and get a review up on my movie blog so keep an eye out for that. :) Being a fan of Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight) I got very excited when I realized that his newest movie Inception had just been released. And since Tuesdays are 40% off we decided to go watch that as well.

My plan is to write one more post about Australia before I fly home. My flight is on Wednesday the 4th of August at 16:40 and I arrive in Norway the 5th of August at 11:00. I will try and get all my photos and videos online before I fly home and I will also write a couple of stand alone pages with stuff I have seen and done so stay tuned for that.

Top End Pt. 2 (22521km)

Darwin is only a few hours drive from Kakadu and along the way the road runs through the Adelaide river floodplains. We camped at a rest stop in the middle of the wetlands because we wanted to visit an information centre called Window on the Wetlands. The camping spot we chose was possibly the worst choice we ever made. There was literally millions of mosquitoes. We had to burn one of those insect killing sticks inside the car to get rid of them and when we woke up the next morning there was hundreds of dead mosquitoes in the car. On top of the mosquitoes the weather was extremely humid. It was a horrible night. The next morning the information centre turned out to be a positive surprise. It was nice to get our thoughts away from the nightmare that had been.

Darwin
The last few weeks I and especially Annina have been missing a real bed so we decided to sleep in a hostel in Darwin for two nights. We got a nice double room with a awesome bed and a fridge and it felt like a hotel in comparison to the car. We could also buy food that needs a fridge again like cold milk, cheese and butter. Hot showers as often as you want is also a great thing! I really liked the hostel. It had a lot of trees and plants that made it feel like an oasis in the middle of the city.

Apart from relaxing and enjoying our new comforts in the hostel we also went out and explored Darwin. The city is named after the famous Charles Darwin by a friend that wanted to show him respect. The city is quite big for being so far away from everywhere else, around 100.000 people live in the area. One of the attractions we visited was a Taoist/Buddhist temple. There is a lot of Asian people in Darwin (especially Chinese) and they built the original temple in 1887. In 1974 cyclone Tracy destroyed the temple and the building you can see today is a rebuilt version. During WW2 Darwin was bombed by the Japanese and their oil reserves destroyed. The city decided to build underground storage tunnels to protect the oil from the air raids. But by the time the tunnels were completed the war was over. 50 years later the city opened the unused tunnels to the public and they are now the second most visited attraction in Darwin. Since I find stuff like that interesting I visited them as well. It was quite interesting to walk through these massive underground tunnels and to look at photos from WW2 that were on display on the walls.

Because Darwin is so far north the waters are almost always filled with box jellyfish which makes it extremely dangerous to go swimming in the ocean. On top of that there is always a crocodile threat in Northern Territory anywhere where there is water. To make people happy the city has created a project called the waterfront precinct where there is a beach with nets out in the water to stop the jellyfish and a wave lagoon next to it. The wave lagoon was a fun place to relax. Every half hour they make waves for the people to enjoy. You can either just swim around and have fun or grab one of the free bodyboards and go play. When you are bored of the water you can lie down on a beach chair and enjoy the sun. From the waterfront precinct we walked along the coast back to the hostel. The path took us through the Bicentennial park, a long park with lookouts, benches and plagues. My first impression of Darwin were not that great, but it changed as I explored the city.

That evening we went out partying. First we went to a bar where they showed Australia vs. Denmark, a friendship soccer match before the world cup. Australia won. Then we went to three different clubs. The two first were really backpacker places and the last one was more of a mix. We both had a great night and I was pretty drunk in the end :P I can remember eating a monster hamburger on the way back to the hostel and thinking it was the best burger I ever ate :) It was nice to do something different than just sleeping as soon as it gets dark. (There is not much else to do when you are camping at a rest stop along the highway).

We went to the Northern Territory museum and art gallery on our last day in Darwin. Originally we planned to be there for about an hour, but it turned out to be much more interesting than I first thought. It was a nice blend of art galleries and museum exhibitions. Among the highlights was a gallery of indigenous art, a natural history of Northern Territory exhibition, an exhibition about cyclone Tracy and a crocodile exhibition. I think we spent over three hours looking at everything and we still had to hurry through the last few things. I found the natural history section especially good. I took a lot of photos to try and show some of the things that I liked. Here is the album I made from our visit:

Museum and Art Gallery of the NT: 02. June 2010

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Litchfield National Park

We finally had to leave the NT museum and art gallery before it became to late to drive to Litchfield national park. Litchfield is located just south of Darwin and is a popular getaway for locals and tourists alike. There are many waterfalls and plunge pools to swim in and the area is rich in natural beauty. We arrived at a place called Florence falls that afternoon and went for a quick swim in the pool below. You could swim right through one of the two waterfall to a small hollow behind it. Big rocks were visible just under the surface in the middle of the pool and you could sit on them and relax. A few kilometers upstream is a place called Buley rockholes. Here a series of small waterfalls form several rockholes that are ideal for swimming in as well. It was getting to dark to go swimming, but we came back the next day. That night we camped at a campsite next to the rockholes.

Our first destination the next morning was a place called The Lost City. From the main road we had to drive a 4x4 track 10km into the woods. At the end of this road is the "Lost City". The place looks like ruins from a lost civilization. However it is just stone pillars and walls remaining from what was once a permanent layer of rock many many years ago. The place is still very impressive. We walked along the short track between the stone formations and it really did feel like it could have been an ancient civilization living there thousands of years ago.

Our next stop was the Tolmer falls lookout. The falls are not accessible to the public, but there is a walkway to a lookout with great views of them and the surrounding landscape. We then drove to Wangi falls. It is usually a great place to swim, but it was now closed due to increased crocodile risk. The Wangi falls are two waterfalls next to each other both plunging into the same pool below. Since we couldn't go swimming we walked the walking track around the falls instead. It went through moonsoon rainforest at the bottom before climbing up the cliff to the top of the falls. Here we had  a great view of the forest below. It was after the Wangi falls walk that we drove back to the Buley rockholes to swim.

The last thing we did in Litchfield national park was looking at the Magnetic termite mounds. These gigantic termite mounds can get over 2 meters high and are found where there is a clearing in the woods. There are no mammals in Australia that keep the grass growth down like in other parts of the world. Instead millions and millions of termites harvest and eat the grass keeping the natural circle complete. We saw these termite mounds the first time just south of Coral Bay on the west coast and could not understand what they were. From there they are seen everywhere along the whole north part of Australia. The Magnetic termite mounds of Litchfield were the biggest ones we have seen.

On the way back to Darwin we took a small detour so that I could go on a cruise on the Adelaide river. The cruise is famous for showing jumping wild crocodiles. As soon as we entered the boat we saw the first crocodiles swimming in the river. As we slowly cruised upstream the captain talked about the crocodiles living there. The ones that we saw were all saltwater crocodiles which are the biggest of the two species of crocodiles in Australia. They are also the most dangerous and can easily kill a human if they want to. They can get more than 6m long. From the second level of the boat a crew member was dangling pork chops down over the water and crocodiles were jumping into the air to get them. These crocodiles were 100% wild and apparently all crocodilian reptiles have the ability to jump. It was an amazing way to see wild crocodiles close up and to learn more about them. The biggest one I saw was about 4.5m. On the way back down the river at the end of the cruise one of the crew also fed a group of predator birds. She through the food into the air and the birds caught it midair. All in all the jumping crocodile cruise was well worth the money. I left with awesome memories and great pictures.

To save some money on fuel we decided to offer up our two back seats to fellow backpackers that needed a lift to Alice Springs. We posted an add on a website called Gumtree before Darwin and during our stay we decided on two people we wanted to travel with. This was the reason why we had to go back to Darwin after Litchfield national park. Back in Darwin we picked up the first passenger, a German girl called Nicole, and started the long drive south to Alice Springs. The next morning we stopped in Katherine again to pick up our second passenger, a French girl called Florence. It was nice to have some new company especially when you are driving the whole day. It's about 1500km to Alice Springs from Darwin and there is almost nothing to see on the way. As we drove south we also left the Top End and that means the end of this blog post. My next update will be all about the red centre and our journey through it.

Top End Pt. 1 (21021km, half way around the world)

As we left Kununurra it was only a short drive to the WA/NT border. Here we quickly stopped to make a few photos before continuing on towards the Katherine region. Katherine is about a days drive away from the border and we passed a few small towns on the way. It was quickly becoming clear that Northern Territory has a lot more forests and rivers than Western Australia. We crossed one big river called Victoria River and it must have been one of the biggest rivers I have seen so far in Australia.

Katherine Region

The next day we arrived in Katherine and the first thing we did was visiting the Katherine hot springs. Here we relaxed in the permanently 32 degrees water and enjoyed the morning under the shade of the palms. The hot springs come up from the ground just a few hundred meters away from the designated swimming area and there is a boardwalk that takes you to it. It was a really nice place and we came back two more times during our stay in the Top End.

Just east of Katherine is the Nitmiluk national park also called Katherine Gorge. Here we decided to do a 8.5km walk. First we climbed up the steep cliff to a great lookout of the gorge and the surrounding valley, then we walked through the terrain to another lookout further in. Here the Katherine gorge does a sharp turn and the view was spectacular. Not far from this lookout is a waterfall with a plunge pool below. Annina went for a quick swim in the cool water. It was a tiny oasis hidden away from the surroundings. When we got back to the car our legs were hurting but it had been a nice day!

We actually did one more thing this day before camping. At the other end of Nitmiluk national park is a place called Edith falls. To get there you either have to do a 5 day walk from the Nitmiluk visitor center (where we started our 8.5km walk) or you can drive back to Katherine and then head north towards Darwin for about 50km. From the highway you head east for another 20km and the road takes you right to the bottom of the falls. The Edith falls are not that big, but the pool below is. Here we went for a quick swim across the pool to the waterfall and back again.

Kakadu National Park

The next day we entered the famous Kakadu national park. We first wanted to do the whole place in one day, but we soon realized that Kakadu is way to big for that. Our first stop was a place called Gunlom. To get there we had to drive a dirt road 40km into the forest. It had been raining heavy the night before and the road was flooded several places. Especially two spots were bad. One place the river had risen over the bridge and we had to drive over it without knowing exactly where it was. But we arrived safely at Gunlom. Gunlom soon turned into one of my favorite places in Australia! A massive waterfall plunges into a big pool where you can swim and relax. Because of all the rain the plunge pool was flooded and the surrounding rainforest was full of water. Instead of swimming at the bottom of the waterfall, we walked the short but steep track up to the top. Here several small pools made an idyllic spot to swim and relax. Just upstream a few hundred meters was another smaller waterfall and it was possible to navigate the pools and stream all the way to it. It felt like an adventure! It was also possible to climb all the way out to the edge where the big waterfall plunged down. Here you could stand and look down at the people below and make some amazing photos of the water falling some 30m into the pool below. In the afternoon we wanted to drive back out and go to another place to camp but the bridge where the water was flowing over had now risen to 0.7m over the bridge and it was closed off. Since we could not leave until the next day we got free camping at Gunlom.

The next day we continued our journey through Kakadu. We stopped at a few lookouts along the Highway before heading towards Nourlangie. Nourlangie is famous for the many aboriginal rock art sites which are open to the public. It is also a important place for the aboriginals living in the area. Here we walked a loop of path that took us past all the different rock art spots and old shelters. This was actually the first place I saw aboriginal rock art in the nature. There was also a couple of lookouts in the area that we went too. One of them was by far better than the others, with amazing views of Kakadu and the Nourlangie cliff.

In the middle of Kakadu is the main town called Jabiru. Not far from Jabiru are two interesting centers. The first is the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre and the other is the Bewali Visitor Centre. The first centre is filled with information about the aboriginal culture and has some great informative displays. There is also a lot of aboriginal artwork to look at here. There is also heaps of information about Kakadu at the visitor centre. I enjoyed both places.

The last place we visited in Kakadu was Ubirr. Ubirr is located north in Kakadu on the border to Arnhem Land. Ubirr is another place with many Aboriginal rock paintings. I though the ones at Ubirr were even better than the ones at Nourlangie. Ubirr also has a great lookout over Arnhem Land and it is especially beautiful at sunset. This was what we wanted to see. Many people had apparently the same idea like us and we were a big group of people that watched the sunset. We took some great photos before heading back to the car and driving out of Kakadu. On the way out our car passed 470.000km and when I calculated how far we have driven I realized we just passed half way around the earth! (Equator).

South West (12733km)

Margaret River

We started our trip by heading south from Perth towards a place called Margaret River. Margaret River is a popular vacation destination for local Western Australians with a ton of activities to do. We arrived the second day after camping at a rest stop just north of Bunbury. The first thing we did was visit the information center and grabbed brochures for all the attractions we wanted to do. Then we marked everything on a map and made a route. The first day we visited a Fudge Factory, Candy Factory, Chocolate Factory, a Surf art gallery and a pottery.

In the afternoon we headed to a small place called Gracetown. Krista had told us about a great beach there and we decided to camp there for the night. The beach was really beautiful. We went for a swim and Annina also did some snorkeling, but apparently there wasn't much to see. The rest of the afternoon we relaxed in the sun.

The next day we continued our route. We visited a Coffee factory before heading to where the Margaret River runs into the ocean. There was a great surfing beach and we watched the surfers while walking along the beach. It was a really nice place.

The Margaret River region is riddled with caves, with the biggest and best ones accessible to the public. There are three good caves to choose from, but each cave is $20 so we decided to only visit one. The decision fell on a cave called Lake Cave. It was a great experience. The cave was filled with stalactites and stalagmites, both huge and small, plus a bunch of other decorations I don't even know the name off. The most impressive feature was two stalactites hanging from the roof with a "table" connecting them at the bottom. As far as I remember the combined weight was 5 tonns hanging from the roof over the lake. When we reached the back of the cave we sat down and our guide switched on a light show that ran through the cave. It was beautiful.

The rest of the day we did more attractions including a Forrest Maze, a walk trough the dunes outside a small village called Augusta and Skippy rock before camping at Hamelin Bay.

While we visited Margaret River there was a cow festival on. One of the attractions of this festival was 80 cow statues placed all around the region. Each cow had different artwork painted on them. There was tons of normal cows with every type of pattern imaginable. In addition there was more creative cows, like a teacher cow and a batman cow. The latter was our favorite. It was placed over a crater with wires. Very cool!

Pemberton

After Margaret River we headed towards Walpole and Denmark. On the way we stopped in a small town called Pemberton to buy groceries. It turned out they had an autumn festival going so we decided to stay for a little while and look around. We got the chance to have a big snake around our neck while holding it's head. It wasn't poisonous, but still creepy.

On the outskirts of Pemberton is a gigantic tree that was once used as a lookout post for fires. In fact it's one of three trees that was once used for this purpose, but this one is the tallest of them. It is now open to the public for climbing. In a spiral going upwards are large spikes hammered into the tree forming a ladder of sorts. On the top, 75 meters up, is a two tonne metal lookout platform. Its name: Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree. Climbing this tree was a scary challenge. Not only do you have to look down most of the time while climbing upwards, but you can't help but notice that there is no real safety under you should you fall trough the spikes. Still, it looks harder than it really is and once you reach the top you get a fantastic view of the surrounding area. Off all the things we did on our south west trip, climbing
Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree was my favorite.

Denmark

Between Walpole and Denmark is an area called the Valley of the Giants. It is a valley filled with gigantic red tingle trees, a type of eucalyptus. They can reach 60 meters in height. In the middle of the valley is a visitor center with a tree top walk. It reaches 40 meters above ground and takes you through the top of the trees. The tree top walk was fun and exciting and in addition they also had a ground walk that took you trough the trunks of the trees. If you think trees are utterly boring, I suggest going here, as it might spark some interest.

Right outside Denmark along the southern coast is Williams Bay and the most famous attraction there is the Green Pool and the Elephant Rocks. The Green Pool is a series of rocks forming a green looking pool of ocean water, but the interesting part is the waves smashing against the rocks on the outside. It was a windy day and the waves were high which made for some great pictures. Looking at the incredible force of the ocean is a great experience. Right next to the green pool is a bay with rocks that look like elephants, hence the name Elephant Rocks. There was also a cute little beach between the rocks.

The rest of the day we spent by doing wine, cheese and fudge tasting, visiting a chocolate lounge, Denmark Beer Company and Denmark Maze. The Maze was pretty good, built around trees with bushes and grass separating the paths.

Albany

Our last stop in the south west was a town called Albany. Albany was the first place that was settled in Western Australia. We saw the Brig Amity, a replica of the ship that the first settlers came on. Mt. Clarence, a hill in the middle of the town with great views. And Dog Rock, a rock that looks like a dog in profile.

Just south of Albany is several famous natural attractions including the Gap and a Natural Bridge. The Gap is, well a gap 25 meters straight down to the ocean. On the top is a viewing platform with a great view of the waves smashing into the gap with great force. Just next to it is a natural bridge of stone which was also incredible to see. A short drive away was stony hill, with the name explaining just what it is. Here we enjoyed more great views of Albany and surroundings. That night we camped in the north of Two People Bay, another beautiful natural reserve just outside Albany.

The next morning we drove to the south end of Two People Bay to a beach called Little Beach. It was a beautiful beach with turquoise water and white sand. Just behind Little Beach was an even smaller cove where Annina went swimming. I decided not to as it was pretty cold. It is autumn here now and we are in the south of Australia not that far away from Antarctica. We are now heading up north along the west coast and towards warmer weather!

Check out the full picture gallery here:

South West: 28. April 2010 - 04. May 2010

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