Exploring Noosa and “Share, it's more fun” – Fraser Island trip (19. – 25.06.2006)

On Monday morning we started the inland drive to Maleny that Shawn had adviced us to do. He had drawn the way in our map. We had breakie at the Mary Cairncross Park with a close by lookout point. Afterwards we saw some nice houses and landscapes up in the “mountains” (let¥s better name them hills;-)!).
In the afternoon we arrived in Noosa and did a stroll on the finally sunny beach. We walked a little bit towards and in the National Park and saw some dolphins playing in the water. We found a nice sleeping spot near the Dolphins Hostel where Silke had stayed in 2000. We cooked dinner near the beach and went to bed early as usually.
The next morning we started walking for about two to three hours in the National Park to do some exercise and to spot some wildlife. But except an interesting bird we did not spot anything!
In the evening we watched the movie “Cars” and afterwards the German soccer match in an Irish pub. There were heaps of people in the pub – such a busy bar we had not seen for a long time…
The next day we bought Dirk¥s first sleeping bag in his life and a new lens for Silke¥s camera to shot some close-ups of wildlife – both for our coming trips.
We also booked a tour package: three days and two nights four wheel self-drive on Fraser Island, a dolphin kayaking tour in Rainbow Beach that we got as a freebie, two days and two nights sailing on the British Defender at the Whitsunday Islands, one day white water rafting in the Tully River and a three day 4 WD guided tour in the Kakadu National Park. As some more freebies we got two nights in Cairns, some free drinks and free food at some different locations. We booked all this at Peterpans in Noosa for a quite reasonable price and we are very much looking forward to these trips.
From Noosa we were driving directly to Rainbow Beach. After arriving in our first hostel on the trip so far (we just stayed in the hostel because we got three nights for free with booking all our tours in Noosa) we were sorting our stuff, reading, writing and talking to two crazy German girls in our room. The two German girls left to Fraser Island the next day and they managed to need more than three hours to pack their things for the trip. They were discussing about every single item, also how many underwear they were going to take with them. And because they were talking in German you were not able to not hear them:-(! The next morning they packed for another hour from 6 – 7 am. So we decided to get up, too and enjoy the free pancakes at the hostel.
This day it was raining tons so we nearly stayed in our room the whole day: reading, writing diary, doing stuff on the ibook etc. In the afternoon we had our briefing for Fraser and meet our group (three Canadian girls, a Swiss couple and one guy, a Dutch guy and another German guy). We had some drinks with them in the evening and enjoyed some pasta together.
The next day same start: free pancakes, then checkout from the hostel and packing the jeep for Fraser Island. Around 9.30 am our trip started. First we drove to the Champagne pools at the Northern end of the island. We had a bath in these saltwater pools. Afterwards we took a look at the wildlife in the water at Indian Heads and we spotted some turtles, sharks and dolphins. Silke was only missing a whale;-)!
After walking a lot we found a nice camping spot right on the beach. We built up our camp and started cooking dinner and drinking beer and wine. During doing the dishes in the ocean there was a huge wave coming surprisingly so that we all got soaked and one Canadian girl lost one of her thongs (luckily she found it the next afternoon on the beach when the tide has gone). We had some great laughs and later in the evening it started raining really heavily and we had to hold the tent cover above our heads to stay kind of dry. When this trick did not work anymore we moved inside the jeep where Dirk did a lightshow with a CD so that we could dance there;-)
The problem on the trip was we only had two CDs (Jack Johnson “Curious George” and Donovan Frankenreiter who sounds like the twin brother of Jack Johnson). All other music that we have is in MP3 format and this didn¥t work in the jeep. After listening a thousand times to Jack Johnson¥s “Sharing Song” we got crazy and the sentence “Share, it¥s more fun” started being our running gag of the trip.
The next morning it was still raining but we were lucky because as soon as we left the jeep the rain stopped and the sun was showing up for a while. We had a look at the Maheno shipwreck and then had a run or roll down the steep sand dunes at Lake Wabby. Back at our old camp (we left it at the same spot because the tents were soaked) we prepared dinner and had another funny night.

The last morning we got up really early to try to see the sunrise at the beach but it was too cloudy to see it. Silke tried spotting a whale instead but wasn¥t lucky. We left the camp spot quite early to spend some time at Lake McKenzie. The water there was still beautiful blue and tasted as good as six years ago;-)!
After having a lunch pick-nick on Rainbow Beach, cleaning the jeep and the camping equipment back at the hostel we spent some time with the other people of the group on the beach and at the hostel bar (still making jokes about Jack Johnson).

Meeting and staying with nice Australian locals in Caloundra (18. – 19.06.2006)

After the meeting we went further up North still hoping to be faster then the rain, which is following us since we started in Sydney!
In Caloundra we stoped to spend some time in the little city and drink somewhere a coffee!
On the beach we met Shawn, a really friendly Australian guy! After chatting for a while with him we ended up in a local pub and playing pool for nearly five hours! We met some more Australians, some fishermen playing next to our table!
After heaps of pool games we get invited for dinner at Shawn¥s place, we picked up his daughter and went to his place. There we ate some really nice food and enjoyed the evening with watching a movie, chatting with them and waiting for the Australian soccer game at two in the morning!
On the end nobody make it until two, one by one went into bed and Shawn offered us an airmatress on the floor of his living room. Our first night of the kombi since two weeks…with loosing all the air of the matress after only five minutes lying on it;-) not that comfortable like we used to sleep! In the morning we had a coffee together and went after another short chat!

Kombi Club meeting on Bribie Island (17. – 18.06.2006)

On Saturday morning we went early in the morning around 30 kilometres back towards Brisbane. There was the second meeting point with the other kombis. Driving in a convoy is always great fun of meetings like this and we really enjoyed the one hour drive from there to Bribie Island! In the convoy we were 12 kombis, on the end we even grow up to 24 kombis - a nice picture as you can imagine;-)!
It was a really relaxed meeting, not a lot planned, we went to a camping ground (our first time that we stayed on powered ground since beginning of hour journey) start drinking wine at lunchtime, eat the whole day chips, and other unhealthy junk food until the barbecue in the evening started!
After the barbecue with our German sausage and Leberkaese we spent some more time with other kombi drivers and more kombi stories! Later in the night both of us, Silke and Dirk had some problems, we spent more time at the toilet then in the van. It was raining and we both felt bad! The reason we don’t really know yet, maybe the esky in the van doesn’t work properly or our nice German food was off already or we were not used anymore eating nice German food or something else because two Australians were sick, too!

Redcliffe – best sleeping spot right next to the beach (13. – 16.06.2006)

Because we would like to go to the kombi meeting on the weekend we have to spend 4 days near by that we don’t have to drive the way back for the meeting! We end up on a peninsula and in a little town called Redcliffe, not really a lot to see and do there but okay for spending some time!
We went in a little museum to learn a little bit about the history in this area, on the end we really enjoyed the exhibition:-)!
For sleeping we went two nights to Petrie, a little village inland and nearby Redcliffe with a nice free camping ground on a lake! From there Dirk went one evening to Brisbane, because he already missed the big city, nice pubs, music and people around him!
The other two nights we spend on the beach, a little spot just five meters away from the water! It was really quiet and nice. In the morning we saw the sunrise directly out of the kombi - that was really nice!
Also in Redcliffe we found a little shop with German/Austrian food. We bought real bread (black like cole), Vienna sausages, Leberk‰se, etc.
One day at Scarborough Beach on the Redcliffe Peninsula we bought half a kilo of fresh prawns and put them on a BBQ that they provide everywhere for free use. That was fantastic enjoying freshly prepared prawns right on the beach.

Distance to Darwin and first farm work (12. - 13.06.2006)

During our drive to the Locker Valley and Gatton we saw the first street distance signs to Darwin. We were thinking of going there directly for a short moment. But in the end we decided to do a short stop for some farm experience in Gatton. We spoke to some German girls in a hostel in Forrest Hill, they and another hostel owner told us that there isn¥t a lot of farm work available at the moment because they did not have enough rain and everything is too dry. Anyway we met some other Germans on our unofficial campground and they told us that we could have one of their jobs for the following day as they had two jobs. So we went to the local pub that had to close at 10 pm. But after pre-ordering some more beers we could stay til the Australian soccer match started and watch it there. Except of us there were heaps of Japanese people watching the game. Unfortunately at 12.30 am we were really tired and decided to leave the pub, besides the game was quite boring – only one goal for Japan til we left. The next day we heard from Flo that Australia was doing really good in the soccer and we were really surprised and could not believe what was going on.
The next morning we had to get up at 5.30 am to be at the meeting point for the fruit picking job at 6 am. We managed to find this guy for the job and he took us with him. Then we had to cut iceberg lettuce. There was a tractor and about 10 people in a row, cutting the lettuce and throwing it in boxes. After only three hours Silke had such a bad back pain that she had to quit this new job. Dirk was sociable and quitted with her. We then decided that we have to find another farm job where we can pick somewhere higher.

Our visit of Brisbane - lagoon and Story Bridge walk (11.06.2006)

Nearly two days (just daytime, because there wasn’t a place to leave the car overnight or to sleep in it) we went to Brisbane - another big city (one of the three or four in whole Australia) on the East Coast! We spend the day with some walks through the city, visiting the “famous” lagoon, walking through the botanic garden and passing by the Story Bridge! We also spend some time with window shopping and spending money on food.

Our too long stay in Coolangatta, Burleigh Heads and Miami

On this weekend there was the Wintersun Festival in Coolangatta. It¥s a really huge (compared to the size of town) Rock & Roll Festival where heaps of old American cars (Cadillacs, Chevrolets, Corvettes etc.) come together and cruise down the streets. People dress up like in the 50ties and dance Rock & Roll to live music. They also tried to do a Guinness book world record in the biggest Rock & Roll dance event.
In Coolangatta we also met Adele from New Zealand whom Silke got to know during her trip through Australia in 2000. We met her in town and spent some time with her in her house.
The other people we met were an Australian couple that we met on the highway a week before. They were the people who left the highway to help us push our kombi when we had some starter problems.
On a windy day we watched some great surf in Burleigh Heads. The city and the beach there are famous for their surfing possibilities. The day before it was really boring but this day we could take some great pics :-)!
We also did an excursion to the “famous” Surfers Paradise. You can see the quite amazing skyline of the city in the background of the surfers.

Washing and recharging our electrical equipment

After one week of travelling and living in our kombi and without staying on a caravan site we finally had to recharge our technical equipment (ibook, mobile phones, camera). We also had to do some washing so we found a laundrette with electricity plugs. There was nobody working there so we could plug in all our stuff without anybody noticing. We sat there and burnt some photos and music CDs pretending that we had so much things to wash. (Today Silke is in another laundry but unfortunately the electricity doesn´t work here:-(! So the ibook will only last some more minutes and the washing is nearly done…). But on Sunday we are back at our old laundrette where we can recharge and finish the blog update. Next thing will be to find an internet place…

Second repair of the starter and checking for the long trip (07.06.06)

On Wednesday we got an appointment with a VW specialist in Burleigh Heads. We got a recommendation by another kombi driver down in Byron. It was really good, he just fixed some necessary things, organised some spare parts for our trip and found out that our starter was still working just lost the connection to one cable. After around three hours we left the garage with a working starter, some more tips for our trip and still more money we expected to have afterwards!

Byron Bay – swimming & showering again, pub crawling and Sunday market (03.-06.06.06)

Our next stop was Byron Bay. In this area we thought we get fixed the car more easily then in other towns, because the kombi is quiet famous there and on the gold coast nearby! After a journey of around two hours without stoping the engine (even during our petrol stop the engine had to run) we found a nice spot up a hill at Clarke´s Beach, for pushing on again the next day. On these spot we met a French couple (Sonia and Luic) again whom we had met a couple of days before in our night in Anna Bay! They offered us pushing the car in the morning ;-). We went out with them for a drink in Byron Bay. After passing by two local pubs we got the info that they have live music at 9 pm. With still three hours to go we decided to try out the local music. Our night finished at around 10.30 p.m. on a Saturday night, tired like hell, because we are not used anymore to this awakening times!
At around 6.30 a.m. we got woken up from a local ranger by knocking against our kombi window! Of course the place where we stayed that night was not legal to camp on. After a couple of times trying to open the sliding door of the kombi from insight, he even gave us a hand opening the door. Still asleep, Silke´s first words to the ranger: “Sorry we have a problem with the car…!” he just answered “Yes you have a really big problem with your car you can´t even get out of your own car by yourself!” After a couple of minutes he told us we have to move of course…. with or without car, doesn’t matter! At least we didn’t get a fine, it can cost up to 500 $ to camp on premises like that ;-(
The second and third night in Byron we stayed at the Tyagarah National Park with the German Ingrid and Peter on just 30 meters away from the beach, on a really small spot a bit away from the city near a small airport! It was like heaven, kilometres of beach without any other people. We went jogging in the morning, swimming afterwards etc…wonderful:-)!

Sunset walking and bird spotting in Nambucca Heads (02.06.06)

After we left our overnight place early in the morning, without breakfast we decided to stop for a coffee and some breakfast on a small spot near the ocean “Corindi Beach”.
After a break of around an hour we were ready to hit the road again but our kombi didn’t make a sound at all and the engine didn’t start. With a helping hand and a push of a friendly tourist from England we carried on our trip. With the next hill in front of us we did something really stupid! We switched of the engine again, trying out if it will get on again! Of course it doesn’t work out, and finally we stand on the bottom of the hill with our dead engine! An Aboriginal guy passing by and a couple in a nice huge Cadillac gave us another push to go on with our journey (they got of the highway to help us:-)!)! The couple in the Cadillac we have already met three times afterwards! But more about that later!
This night we stayed in Nambucca Heads where a really nice lady in the tourist office gave us an advice where we could sleep in the van. We did an evening sunset walk to the V-Wall where every single rock was painted by tourists.

Our visit at the Koala Hospital at Port Macquarie (=Mack-Quei-Arie - Dirk´s favourite word;-)!) (02.06.06)

Driving forward to Port Macquarie we past a Koala Hospital. We stoped there, because we haven´t seen a Koala on our journey yet! A nice old lady just finished her volunteer work at the hospital that day and gave us a really nice private tour through the small hospital. It was really fascinating to hear how the people manage to save the Koalas they come to the hospital. Some of them were injured in bushfires, other got attacked by dogs or hit by a car. In the hospital the koalas get help from around 150 volunteers (sometimes they need attention 24 hours a day). All of it financed just with donors from people all over the world (most of them from Germany the women told us). It was also a German lady that gave so much money that they could open a new building last October.

Kombi surprisingly on ferry at Myall Lakes National Park and unsealed road (01.06.06) – followed by the first repair of light machine in Taree (02.06.

On our way up north we decided to go beside the highway for seeing nicer landscapes of Australia that you will miss by only using highways. We didn’t know that the smaller road next to the ocean will get us on: a ferry, and finally on an unsealed road for at least 20 kilometres ;-(
Too much for our “old lady”, near the end of the road the light broke down and we couldn’t drive anymore! Silke had to hold the “Blinkerstock” for full-beam until we found a spot to stay overnight! We stayed in a little village with a handful population, it was hard to find something to eat at six o’clock at night. Lucky that we always get up early, so we decided to go asleep at around nine after a pizza for dinner!
The next morning we started going further up north, during the daylight we didn’t need the driving lights and we decided to get it fixed in a slightly bigger city then we stuck in for the last night! In Taree we found a electrician for fixing the kombi, it takes some time until the found out what happened and it cost us 72 $ for a small spare-part ;-( - but compared to Germany it was still cheap!

Dolphin and whale watching tour in Nelson Bay and no cost 4 WD tour on Stockton Bight (01.06.06)

After the second night at Anna Bay we drove to Nelson Bay to do our booked 3 ½ hours dolphin and whale watching tour with an “Imagine” sailing boat. While shipping out to the open ocean we could lie down in a net at the front of the boat. Dirk was practising his role in “Titanic”. We saw heaps of dolphins playing around and also a starfish. Unfortunately we couldn´t spot a whale:-(!
After the cruise we drove to Stockton Bight (the longest moving sand dunes) to take a look at the Sygna wreck. We started walking to the beach because only 4 WD cars could go there. On our way we tried to hitchhike but the passing car did not stop. Some metres further the same car had to get off some air for driving in the sand and Dirk asked the driver how fast the wreck was away. He told us that it will be about an hour return walking. So we went on. After five more minutes the same car passed us and the driver asked us if he could give us a lift. So we got a 4 WD to the wreck and through the huge sand dunes for free. Driving there and seeing only sand it seemed as if we were in the desert and if we would have never got there on our own without this lift.

Hunter Valley and spotting the first kangaroos

Our first destination was the Hunter Valley. On our way we spotted the first kangaroos (unfortunately also about 30 dead ones). The Hunter Valley is one of Australia´s famous wine regions. We tried some wine in the Briar Ridge and the Petersons Vineyard. In the last there was an Irish traveller working who gave us some advice for our first night on the road. Because of her and the tourist information assistant´s advice we stayed behind the Wollombi tavern for the first night. There was also another kombi parking and we got to know Barry and Mary. Barry´s kombi was from 1977 and he bought it 29 years ago new. He and his son had been travelling in the kombi all around Australia in 1989. We cooked our first “meal” (=two minute noodles) and drank some famous Jungle Juice in the tavern. There we had some great chats and laughs with Barry, Mary, two local dudes and the waitress.

Start of our adventure & all around Australia trip (30.05.06)

On Tuesday, May 30th 2006 we started our trip in Bondi Beach at about 8 am. Our kombi had 58.500 km. We found a nice spot to take some photos of our kombi (now baptised Hazel Quince) with Bondi Beach in the background.
On our way through the city we made a first stop at Aldi in Edgecliff to buy some Haribo and some other food for our long journey. So we could avoid the rush our in the city.