Tuesday 30 November 2010

The Great Ocean Road and Wilson's Promontary

We got to a small rural area close to the beginning of the Great Ocean Road and stayed in an empty campsite in one of the towns. It wasn't totally empty, though. Other than us there were a couple from Belgium, Natasha and Fredrick, who were travelling around Australia with their van. We didn't mention it before but Itay was a bit of an order freak. We had 3 large plastic boxes to keep the back of the car organized and few smaller ones. Now that we had to say goodbye to the car in few days, we wanted to give all our fortune to other travelers who could find use to it. Natasha and Fredrick fit that description. In return to all the gifts from our side (Natasha called it Christmas) Lilya got a very nice head band made by Natasha.
On the next day we had the most English day we had in Australia. Like any proper English day it started with gray skies.

Monday 29 November 2010

Pictures

Pictures from the Great Ocean Road and from Wilsons Promontory NP:

Great Ocean Road



Prom

Sunday 28 November 2010

Just passing through - South Australia and the Grampians NP

After more than two weeks and more than 12,000 km our time started to run out. Stressed by the upcoming flight to New Zealand on one hand and the heaps of things we still had to see, on the other hand, it was the time to make a tough decision. So we decided to leave South Australia for the next trip and drive it straight through.
We drove quite a lot on a single day through the wilderness of the northern part of South Australia. We passed through the famous and the infamous miners' town Coober Pedi but didn't stop there for more than a picture. The most needed shower, after 3 days, came later when we just stopped in a caravan park for that.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Pictures

Pictures from our drive through South Australia and from the Grampiens National Park in Victoria:

South Australia:



The Grampiens:

Sunday 21 November 2010

Uluru and Kata Tjuta

Close your eyes and think about Australia. If the first thing that comes to your mind is a huge red rock in the middle of the desert, it is Uluru, the famous Australian symbol.
Uluru and its impressive and less known sisters - the Kata-Tjuta (or The Olgas, in their European name) are remote. More than 2000 km in every direction from any major city, except one: Alice Springs. You probably wouldn't call a city with about 25,000 people major, but Alice has become quite famous due to the fact it is located near (only 500km) a rather large rock.

Saturday 20 November 2010

Pictures

Pictures from the famous Uluru and the Kata-Tjuta

Thursday 18 November 2010

Darwin and the Stuart Highway

The nice thing about staying in isolated places in Australia, is that you are never alone, even if there is no other person around you. You share the toilets and the showers with light green frogs (not poisonous), and on the way there you try not to step on toads that are spread on the grass. While eating dinner a strange noise usually comes from the refrigerator, those are the geckos. And we can write a book about the different sounds that woke us up at 5am every morning. The bird variety is truly amazing. There is the Laser bird, the Reverse driving bird, the disappointed bird, the bird from the video games from the 80's, and many many others. Too bad it was too early for us to think to record all those fabulous sounds.

Monday 15 November 2010

Pictures

Pictures from Darwin and the road south to Uluru:



Saturday 13 November 2010

Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks

Kakadu is a huge national park in the far north of Australia. It is about the size of Israel, but since it has only two main roads passing through, it is mostly inaccessible to the visitors, which gives a real feeling of wilderness.
We picked up Aviv in Katherine and drove north to Kakadu. We drove into the park through the southern road on our way to Ubirr.
There are three rivers that cross the park: The West Alligator, South Alligator and East Alligator rivers. However, if you want to see an alligator, go to Bolivia. In Kakadu National Park you can only find salt and fresh water crocodiles. The salt ones are dangerous and large and they can be sometimes seen in the rivers as well. On our way we stopped few times and did few short hikes such as the one in Yellow Water, that goes near the South Alligator river, and on a platform from which you might see crocs, but we saw only their noses sticking out of the water from a distance.

Thursday 11 November 2010

Pictures

Pictures from the national parks of north Australia:

Kakadu:



Litchfield:

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Kathrine Gorge

It was really refreshing to see some civilization (Kathrine) after 3.5 days of wilderness. After an expansive hour (8 dollars) on the Internet, a short and a very useful visit in the information center and the obligatory visit in the Woolworth (the local supermarket network), we were ready to explore the Northland. We started with Edith falls, about 15 km north to Kathrine. We wished to do the longer trail that goes to the upper pools as well. When we got to the campsite near the falls, we saw a family wearing an insect nets on their heads. We thought it was funny. Ten minutes after the beginning of the walk that wasn't funny at all.

Monday 8 November 2010

Pictures

Pictures from Katherine Gorge:

Saturday 6 November 2010

Outback

Look at the skies. We mean it. Go outside or at least to your windows and look at the skies. We'll be waiting...
...
...
...
How much skies did you see? In most cities, you are lucky to see half of the sky's dome. Out in the nature you'll probably see more. But try to remember when did you the full dome of the skies stretching from one horizon to the other?
Australia is actually made of two parts. There is the coastal part which consists of people, cities, tourist attractions, forests, waterways and animals, and there is the outback which is a big empty nothing. Nothing but skies, that is. If you head to the outback, make sure you love the skies, because that's all you are going to see for some days.
Going to the outback from the east coast is a sharp transition. We left Cairns on the afternoon, after we said goodbye to Itay that started his journey back to Israel, and slept in Milla Milla, high in the Atherton tableland.
This was a very wet night and the mist was so thick that we couldn't see anything, not to mention the tree-kangaroos that should have been there, at least according to road signs.
On mid day of the following day, once we passed the "Great Dividing Range", we were already in the middle of nothing. The air became dry, the rainforest had changed into open Eucalyptus forest and the distances between towns grew from 20km to 200km and on the next day to 500km.


We drove through the northern outback road, which is longer but passes through the gulf savanna. It is truly a beautiful road that stretches through the light forest covered planes of the Gulf of Carpenteria, and passes through tiny towns that pop right out of the 19th century. In between it's the land of the cows, kangaroos and the road trains - massive trucks carrying 3 and even 4 trailers behind. The unfortunate encounters between the kangaroos and the road trains leave a trail of road kills that become the meeting place for craws, falcons and eagles.


We drove more than 10,000km in the 20 days between Cairns and Port Augusta, in South Australia, doing more than 900km per day in some days. We switched every 200km or 2 hours of driving so it wasn't really hard.
On the first night we slept in Kurumba, right on the coast of the gulf. We were hoping to see a beautiful meteorological phenomenon called "Morning Glory" that happens every year few weeks before the beginning of the wet season. Although we didn't see it, we did see a lot of animals in the small caravan park we stayed in. We saw a blue thong lizard, and an owl. We also had a closer look on the wallabies that were eating the grass in front of our tent and on the green frogs that shared with us the kitchen where we made our dinner. We also met interesting group of men that left their wives and kids for a "boys only" fishing trip. They were all equipped and ready for the great Barramundi fishing out in the gulf. They came from Brisbane and had more than a 1000km more to go through unsealed roads until they'll reach the place where they planed on casting their nets. This yearly fishing trip provides them with frozen fish for the whole year. A modern hunters society indeed.


The only major city on the way is Mt. Isa, which we got to at the end of the second day of driving. A big sign welcomes you to the city: "You are not a real Ausie until you have visited Mt. Isa". If that's true, we are probably more Ausies than most of the Australians.
We planned on sleeping for free that night so we took a free and cold shower in the visitor center. But that wasn't too bad since the temperature outside was probably 35 degrees. It was also useless because we slept in a caravan park eventually.
The third day of driving was the longest. We drove about 920km. As soon as we crossed to the Northern Territory, the road kills disappeared and we were left with the skies alone to accompany us.


There are two fun elements in driving in the Northern Territory. The speed limit is 130km/h which is actually achievable with the empty and straight roads, and there is a free coffee for the drivers in every gas station. Not too many of those, though, since they can be as far as 300km one from another. The fuel price is defiantly the downside of driving there, reaching almost twice the price at the large cities.
We stopped at Larrimah, about 200km south to Katherine. Larrimah is a rather large town with a population of 13 (people, not thousands) and 2 dogs. We actually saw all of them in the "world famous" Pink Panther pub which was next to the camping ground. The biggest attraction (except for the people themselves) is the free zoo. The pub owner had a nice collection of native animals, including one salt water crocodile, few lizards, parrots and cockatoos and three absolutely stupid emus. There was also a wallaby that was curious about Lilya's pants so he tried to eat them. These pants are probably appealing to wildlife because these were the same pants that the toucan in Brazil tried to eat.


We arrived in Katherine on the next day and drove to the world famous (this time for real) Katherine Gorge. We were quite happy to complete this part of the road, which we planned for 5 days in only 3 and a bit.
Tip 1: There are rest areas in the Northern Territory that can be used for free overnight camping. Try to get a good road map of the area that includes them. You can get the Northern Territory map produced by the Queensland auto club (RACQ) in Cairns. If you are from the type that needs shower, you can take one in caravan parks. They usually offer only showers for 3-4 dollars per person.
Tip 2: There are good free thermals in Mataranka just south of Katherine. We didn't mention them in the post because we stopped there only on the way south.
Tip 3: The fuel on the way between Mt. Isa and Katherine is very expansive. The far that you are from these towns the more you'll pay. Try to plan your drive so you will not have to fill to much on the way.
Tip 4: The small pubs in these outback towns are an important part of the experience. You haven't really seen the outback until you sat in an outback pub.
Tip 5: There are 50 million kangaroos in Australia and you really don't want to meet one while driving 120km/h. The kangaroos get out at dusk and might be on the road at night. Try not to drive when its dark.
Tip 6: Part of the Gulf Savanna road is one lane for the two direction and there are road trains on these roads. If you see a road train from a distance, coming in front of you, it is best to get off the road and let it pass. You don't want to force these monsters off the road.

Friday 5 November 2010

Pictures

Pictures from our road trip through the Outback:

Wednesday 3 November 2010

The Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree National Park

The Great Barrier Reef is the world larges't reef system and it is one of the 7 wonders of the natural world. If you are a certified diver and you are in Australia, diving in the GBR is a MUST. Even if you are not certified, you can at least snorkel. Since all the three of us carried such a license we went looking for a cruise that will include as much dives as possible. Eventually, we found a special deal that included 6 dives in less than 36 hours. We even got a good price for that.
This time the boat was much smaller and the atmosphere wasn't as fun as on Wings2 and the food wasn't as good, but the thing we came for, the diving, was magnificent.
Once again most of the people on the boat did only snorkeling, and in most of the dives there were only the three of us and a guide.
We left Cairns early in the morning and had 4 dives on the first day, including a night dive. The diving schedule was so intense that all we did the whole time was diving and eating. And what amazing dives they were! Most of the time the water was perfectly clear allowing the sun to color all the beautiful coral reef and the various fish in it. It all looked like a giant bouquet set with dozens of colorful fish.
After seeing Leo's beautiful underwater pictures on the Whitsundays, both Oren and Itay were ready to buy all the possible underwater equipment for their cameras. But before buying it we rented a small camera with an underwater case. It wasn't too long until they found out that underwater photography is not as simple as they thought. You can judge by the outcome... On their behalf one can say, that the camera was much less professional than what they are used to work with.
Even though we had amazing dives we weren't very lucky. It was said that seeing sharks and sea turtles is almost guaranteed in those places, unfortunately, we didn't meet any of them. Something bad happened to our luck there... But the more we dove the better we felt in the water. Even the night dive was fun. Diving is an incredible experience! We enjoyed the reef so much that we went snorkeling even after our 6th dive.
We returned to Cairns in the afternoon, but all the water we've been in wasn't enough, so we dipped in the huge, free, public pool next to the pier.
Cairns, the largest city in the area of the GBR, doesn't give you a feeling of a city, more like a vacation town. The main touristic area is full with restaurants, pubs, tourist agencies and Aboriginal people wondering the streets.
This was our first real encounter with Aboriginals. Even after leaving Australia, lots of questions remained unanswered about those people. It seems that they are having a very hard time to fit in the modern Australian society. Most of the Aboriginal we saw are just wondering in the streets. It is very uncommon to find an indigenous person with a job.Someone told us that they don't know how to deal with money or property. Maybe they are the real socialists. Anyway, it looks like they are facing some real problems because of their failure to fit in. Other than that, Cairns center is very touristic, which means that you can find bars open till late and even serve real Irish Guinness. We spent a night in one of those pubs, not before they checked we fit their dress code.
Itay had to leave us in few days, but before doing that we went on our last drive together. we wanted to go north to Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation which is supposed to be a very beautiful tropical area.
Port Douglas is a very nice tropical town which is famous for being a resort for the rich and the famous of the world. We wondered around the main street but neither Bruce Willis nor Bill Clinton could be seen anywhere.
After we left the town gray clouds started to cover the skies, ruining all the nice pictures we wanted to take from the viewpoints on our way.
We continued on the only road there is going north, crossing the Daintree river on a ferry/raft, but the clouds wouldn't disappear. We did a short hike not far from the Daintree NP visitor center, hoping to see a cassowary.
But no luck there... maybe they were hiding together with Bruce and Bill. we stopped in one of the only camping grounds in the area, next to the only gas station and the only convenient store on the road. While sitting i the car (it was rainy) with the air conditioner on (it was hot), charging Itay's computer, the car battery went flat, for some reason. Luckily for us the Australians are very nice (did you know that?), so it wasn't a problem to find a guy that let us use his battery charger and to make a new friend.
Later that evening, we made friends with a super-nice french couple (Celine and Thibaut), who just like us took a year off, but decided to spend it traveling around Australia. Since they were at the end of their journey, they had lots of very useful tips for us.
Next morning we made two times more pancakes and shared with our three new friends. We wanted to sail on the Daintree river and to see its famous crocodiles but the weather was so rainy that even the most adventurous crocs stayed home. Instead we visited one of the local ice cream "factories" and tasted few strange flavors, like Guinness. "It's a beer, you know.." said the lady behind the counter, as if it was our idea to make an ice cream from Guinness...
We thought to go to an insect museum, but paying 10 dollars each for something you meet right next to your tent or on yourself was a bit too much.
Because of the rain, the road to Cape Tribulation was flooded, we got the hint and decided to return to Cairns.
During the whole trip with us, Itay had to adopt the backpackers way of living, and especially the low budget, which means no restaurants. On the last night together Itay had enough of it and he invited us to a fancy dinner in a seafood restaurant (Thanks Itay!). We, on our hand, invited him for an ice cream afterwords...
On the next day, we were left alone (in the dark) after Itay traded our backpacker's lifestyle for the comfort of a big city, Melbourne.


Tip 1: Even though it's Australia, and it is a part of the modern world, you still can bargain! It can save you some money. We did it with no intention. We just said to an agent that another agent promised us a better price, and that we don't know what it will be. She immediately
dropped the price by 20%. Too easy...
Tip 2: You don't have to wait to Australia. The diving spots in Eilat and Sinay are also amazing.
Tip 3: If you are in the area, there are few nice homemade ice creams in the Daintree area.
Tip 4: Celine and Thibaut have also a blog. It is in French, but the pictures are universally amazing: http://celtibenaustralie.over-blog.com/

Monday 1 November 2010

Pictrues

Pictures from Cairns, Port Douglas, Daintree National Park and the dive in the Great Barrier Reef: