My first drive of Juergen's Landcruiser

Last Sunday we did an excursion in Juergen's Landcruiser (model 1972). Juergen showed us his former home turf and he was surprised how much has changed since he has been there the last time. Our final destination was a boomerang oval where we got some more boomerang flying lessons. Tomorrow I will go to Perth City and look for some Christmas presents. Besides I will meet some people who are interested in traveling to Melbourne with me at the end of November.

Visiting our ranger from the lake in Secret Harbor

Chris is the ranger at the lake where we are staying. He is really nice and always offering us some jobs so that we don't have to pay rent for staying on the campground. Last Saturday he invited us to his house in Secret Harbor. After a drive that should take us around an hour we finally managed to arrive there after two and a half hours of driving. We had our bad working personal navigation system Juergen. When we finally managed to arrive there and we made the first steps in the house we were surprised how many children were sitting and running around. But they all were wonderfully happy and kind children. There were also two adopted Aboriginal babies because they couldn't stay with their biological parents. Chris' parents were taking care of them. Chris' dad also showed us around his property and we met some pet emus, kangaroos, nice birds, six puppies and kangaroos. It was a fun day and a nice day with a big Australian family - a whole new experience with so many well behaved Australian kids because normally they do what they want.

My new boomerang career

Knowing Juergen means also knowing an Australian known and official boomerang instructor. The last week we were practicing a lot of flying boomerangs. My shoulder already started to hurt but I am getting used to it now. Juergen is trying to educate us to some boomerang instructors. Yesterday we repaired and glued all his broken treasure-boomerangs and today we tried to fly them. Later in the evening we did a competition whose boomerang would land closest the person throwing it. And believe it or not but I won :-)!

Climbing Diamond Tree (51 meters) and our spectators

Down in the southwest you can climb a really old Karri tree near Pemberton. The tree is called Diamond Tree and a former fire lookout. There were some metallic steps in the tree so that we could climb up to the viewing platform at 51 meters. The way up was a little scary or at least increased my adrenalin level a bit. But the way down was quite easy.

Wine/cheese tasting and visiting Cave Lake near Margaret River and Denmark

Near the famous wine and wind-surfing town Margaret River we had some nice wine tastings. The best wines and port we found were at Lamont's and Mad Cow. But the greatest spot for wine tasting was the Denmark Cheese Cottage because we could try wonderful cheeses there and some wine in between.
We also did a guided tour through Cave Lake and got a spectacular lightshow in the cave.

Our visit of the Busselton Jetty and Underwater Observatory

Unfortunately we had to realise that we weren't able to swim with the dolphins in Bunbury so we decided to visit the Underwater Observatory in Busselton. The jetty to get there was really long: around 2 kms. Down under the end of the jetty we did a guided tour and saw some nice corals and fish. One "suitcase" fish was coming really close to the watching window and said "hello" ;-)!

Traveling southwest with Norbert and Gudrun and our first nice sunset at a place called Australind

After some "interesting" experiences with travel-mates in general (not only my ones) I decided to visit the southwest with some people whom I already knew. I met Norbert in Cairns because he was writing me a text message when I was looking for a travel-mate asking me if I am serious about traveling around the whole of Australia in an old kombi van. He is a car mechanic from Germany and was really surprised when I told him that I am serious about this plan. Norbert's sister Gudrun came to visit the first two weeks of November and then we travelled southwest together. I had many ideas and suggestions where to travel to and they were happy to have their personal tour guide. We spent ten days and realised that down there all the town are really close to each other. Compared to my former travels in Australia there were no distances at all.

My long-term stay at a lake in the Perth Hills

I really did meet Rebecca in town and we had some cocktails together, It was great because I could stay at her place for a night and the next day use their internet for free.
Most of my time before (24.10.-04.11.) and after the trip southwest (13.11. until now) I stayed at a lake about 45 kms out of town. It is a beautiful landscape and during the week we have the campground for ourselves. I am staying there with Juergen whom I met in Broome and Norbert whom I met in Cairns. We can do some work in the park like raking leaves etc. and then we can stay for free. Today we worked around three hours each and this gives us about a week of free rent.

Arrival and stay in Perth

On October 23rd after a night digging the kombi out of the sand near a rest area ;-) we arrived in Perth. It was quite strange to be in such a big city after four months in smaller cities and the outback. Tine and me booked into a hostel in Northbridge and had a fun night going out until 2:30 am. She first invited me for dinner in an Italian restaurant and afterwards we went for beers and dancing to a crowded bar. The next morning I drove Tine to the airport and we had to say goodbye after such nice holidays together :-(
I spent the last week at a lake out of town because it is much cheaper. Tonight I will meet my neighbour Rebecca Schulte from my hometown who is working in Perth for half a year.

Kombi cruising through the Pinnacles

After visiting Kalbarri National Park with some nice gorges, lookouts and cliffs we drove on to Cervantes. There we got some information from the Visitor Centre and drove to the Nambung National Park. Unbelievable we could actually drive through the Pinnacles as you can see on the photo. I thought that it is so stupid that they let people drive through this beautiful landscape and at the same time it was fun to do so...

Shark Bay: stromatolites, Monkey Mia and Shell Beach

We drove to the Shark Bay Peninsula. On the way to Monkey Mia we visited the stromatolites in Hamelin Bay. Stromatolites are considered "living fossils". living microbes that build the stromatolites are similar to those found in 3,500 million-year-old rocks which are the earliest record of life on earth. Shark Bay is one of only two places on earth where living marine stromatolites exist. In Monkey Mia which is a real tourist spot we encounted pelicans and dolphins. On the way back we visited Shell Beach which is made up of millions of tiny shells.

Visiting Annette and Dicksie in Carnarvon

After leaving Exmouth Norbert caught another big fish (a cod) that we took with us to Carnarvon to Dicksie's house. I met Dicksie and Annette (German girl) in Darwin at the horse stables of the farmers Margaret and Bevan. I bought some white wine to enjoy with the fish and some beer to celebrate my birthday again ;-) We had dinner with Annette, Dicksie and his two kids. Later on we played cards - an Aussie game called "asshole" and had heaps of fun. We stayed in Carnarvon for two nights and went cruising again on October 18th.

My birthday at the Ningaloo Reef

In the morning we went snorkelling in Lakeside and saw beautiful fish. I also saw my first shark :-) but he was away really fast. Near the water refilling station we saw heaps of emus. The baby emus came really close to us because they wanted to drink some water. So we could shoot some nice photos of them. We drove to a beach outside the National Park where there should be heaps of turtles mating in the ocean. Unfortunately we only saw one turtle, might be that we walked in the wrong direction. On our further way to Exmouth we saw the brumbies again. We gave them some carrots. In the afternoon we did a whale watching tour. We saw some humpback whales that were far away. One whale was jumping out of the water quite close to us. We got prawns and champagne on the cruise. In the evening we went to an Italian restaurant in Exmouth and had dinner there. The next day I was snorkelling and could touch a turtle while swimming :-) On the way between Exmouth and Coral Bay I saw my birthday greeting on the street...

The Cape Range National Park and the Ningaloo Reef

After two more days of driving southwards we made our way to Exmouth. On the way, just some kms before town we saw some emus. We were walking through the heat and some itching plants to get closer to them. Finally and after so much effort we got some photos of one emu and were happy. In town we saw a whole emu family closeby and started laughing about ourselves and the effort we done before. After buying snorkel equipment for Tine and a new snorkel mask and some fins for me, some food we decided to leave town and drive to the Yardie Homestead Camping out of town. On the way we saw heaps of kangaroos, more emus, some wild horses called brumbies and the sunset at the lighthouse.
We had some dinner and started talking to some Aussies in the camp kitchen. One of them drove with us to a nearby beach and we watched two turtles building nests on the beach. It was amazing to see how big they were and how much strength they needed for digging a hole in the dunes.
The next day Tine and me drove to the Cape Range National Park. After getting some leaflets from the Visitor Information Centre we went snorkelling at Turquoise Bay. At Tulki Beach we found a nice camp spot and had dinner with "Fred" - the kangaroo. On the campground was that roo that we called Fred and he was sitting about one metre next to us when we had our dinner. The next morning we were taking photos of Fred and his family when our friend Norbert suddenly turned up there in the middle of nowhere. He had asked some people first on the beach, then at the Yardie Homestead, then the ranger if they have seen two girls in a blue and white kombi van. So he managed to find us there. We went snorkelling on another spot at Turquoise Bay again, this time more fish and nicer reef :-) At our camp spot for the coming night in Pilgramunna Norbert caught a big fish as you can see on the photo. We had it for dinner and also for lunch the next day. "Yummy for my tummy ;-)!"
After some more snorkelling at Oyster Stacks we found another camp spot at Lakeside.

Our three day stay in the Karajini National Park

From October 6th until October 9th we did some hikes and spent some time in the beautiful Karajini National Park. We visited the Fortescue Falls, Fern Pool, Circular Pool, Joffre Gorge Lokout, Knox Lookout, Handrail Pool, Junction Pool, Oxer Lookout, Hancock Gorge: Amphitheatre, Spider Walk and Kermit's Pool. Besides some gorgeous views through the gorges we did some really amazing walks. The most exciting and funniest one was the Spider Walk. First we had to climb down a ladder and then we had to climb between two rock walls and with water in between like a spider. For this kind of climbing we left our equipment somewhere safe, in our bikinis, Tine barefoot and me with my sport shoes. You can imagine how it looked like if you see the photo below ;-) The last morning we got up at 6 am to do the Honey Hakea Track at Mount Bruce which is the second largest mountain in Western Australia. After around 150 kms dirt road in the Karajini National Park the kombi was all red and I had to take a photo of that.

First destination Port Headland inclusive visit of a salt mine

On October 4th Tine and me finally started our three weeks trip all the way from Broome to Perth in the good old kombi Hazel Quince. Our first destination was Port Headland where we got some information and maps about the Karajini National Park, some more food and water supplies. We were on our way to a sunset lookout when we coincidentally saw a big salt mine. We stopped and took some photos over there. A mine worker in a car passed by, turned around and told us to be carefull because of all the road trains passing by. He then asked us if he could give us a tour through the area. We were really happy and got a free tour with some interesting information.

Tine's arrival and farewell party in Broome

Tine arrived around 5 pm on October 2nd. In the end I didn't walk to the airport because I was running late on time. After taking some photos and movies of Tine's airplane landing I had to hurry up to get to Broome International Airport ;-)! First thing we did was driving to Cable Beach, watching the beautiful sunset there, drinking some beers and having dinner right on the beach. The next day we did the same thing, just a little bit earlier to watch the camels walking on the beach. Afterwards we went to the Sunset Pictures to watch a movie and to let Tine experience a huge airplane right next to the movie screen. Later that same evening we went to Jay's house where we had a small farewell party as it was our last night in Broome.
Big thanks to Jay and Ashley for letting us stay in their carpark :-)!