belanda.net

Catching up

Today is the 29^th of March, 2015. I might be exactly at the half–way point of my extended holiday here Down Under, but I'm too lazy to calculate it.

Right now I'm sitting in a reasonably comfy folding chair with a citronella candle to my left, a table in front of me with the left–overs from tonight's dinner and the extension cord with the charging plugs plugged in, as well as a cheap‐ass, but working, solar camping lamp. Also a bottle of red wine that was one of the things we got at the 2015 trashhh. However, it was stashed in my camper van that sat in the full sun the whole day while I traipsed around the Australia Zoo. When I picked it up to move it out of the way earlier it felt decidedly warm, so I wonder if it will still be drinkable once I get around to opening it.

I'll try to keep it short, but to catch up to where I'm at today is going to take some doing. So expect a long one and enjoy the ride…

So, we picked up the camper van (the first one, I'm in a different one now) in Melbourne and headed off. Everyone (mostly the Lonely Planet) says you need to drive down the Great Ocean Road, so instead of heading the right way, which would be about due north–east, we headed the opposite way.

It was not a mistake, but I would certainly like to do it again and take my time. The road is indeed a joy to drive down, with lovely ocean views and nice twisty corners. Only, next time let me borrow the Ferrari or Jag, okay? Then it would really be awesome.

We got to see our first real Australian wild–life besides birds. On a pit stop for lunch we walked a bit and came upon a couple of people, some of whom were taking pictures and others who were being mobbed by a flock of parrots. After taking some pictures ourselves and Sam allowing some of them to perch on her shoulder and hands (I'll just duck, thank–you–very–much), we asked where we should walk to, to see the rumoured koala's. At which point someone pointed up a tree, and said "Ta–da!" (well, not really, but I could see they were thinking it).

And there they were, a couple of koala's. One was ducked away and obviously sleeping, and the other was in a second tree, also not very considerate of picture–taking people. The sleepy–head woke up and moved a bit after a while, though, so I did get to take some reasonable pictures.

A bit further down the Great Ocean Road we stopped at the Twelve Apostles. There aren't twelve of them at all, but it sounds better than "seven and a half apostles", right?

After driving down the Great Ocean Road for a day, the next day we turned around and headed back in the direction we came from. Sydney, here we came.

Not much to tell about the drive up Hume Highway, except that Australia — in the small part I've seen of it up to now, already — has a lot of diversity. It was a bit unexpected, because I've heard people say that it can be very boring. Might be, but the part we drove through up to Sydney and beyond certainly wasn't boring.

On one of our last days before getting to Brisbane (the last?) we camped on a basic camp–site, close to the beach, in the middle of nowhere. To get there, we had to drive along a long stretch of unsealed road and — just before entering the site — through a creek (don't tell the rental company…), which looked quite deep. Luckily another car was waiting on the other side to drive out, so I let him through first and he didn't drown, so I chanced it myself.

We got through okay and then were a bit confused about where the camping site actually was. Finally we saw that we had to go a little further. There were a few other campers there, but mostly it was an empty field and two toilets. Basically a toilet seat set above a hole in the ground with a small enclosure around it.

Mosquito's. And more mosquito's. And even more mosquito's. But also kangaroos. Two, a joey and his mum, I think. The next morning there were four.

We ended our road–trip at the home of Peter and Yvonne, friends of Sam's parents that now live in Gold Coast. They offered me a real bed and great food, so I spent the night at their beautiful home.

The next day I returned the camper van in Brisbane by myself, Sam continuing on with her parents and just arrived sister. I dropped the camper off (all good, so no extra costs) and got picked up by Sjors, where I was staying a couple of nights before moving on to the trashhh.

Not caught up, but out of writing space…

To be continued…