Der Ausblick aus unserer Wohnung in St. Kilda, Melbourne...


Besuch in Kölle: Meine Nichte und ich schlemmen ein Eis, auf das wir lange genug gewartet haben!

Skifahren in St. Anton im März...


Jetzt ist ja schon fast wieder Halbzeit, ich sollte also mal wieder ein kleines Update vornehmen.
Mittlerweile bin ich wieder in Melbourne angelangt, und habe ein paar bewegte Monate hinter mir. Zunächst ging es nochmal zurück nach Neuseeland, mit einer weiteren Tour von Wave Reisen. Es gab keine Verletzten und die letzten sind auch noch gerade knapp vor dem großen Erdbeben aus Christchurch nach Hause geflogen. Nach einer Stippvisite in Melbourne ging es dann nach Kölle, mitten ins Karnevalsgeschehen rein. Aus verschiedenen Gründen war ich dieses Mal kein Jeck, aber ich bin auch wieder nur ein paar Tage später in den Bus an den Arlberg gefahren und habe dort die nächsten 4 Wochen gekocht und bin mehr schlecht als recht Ski gefahren. Die Saison war einfach schon fast um und der Schnee dementsprechend nicht mehr ganz so toll.
Wieder zurück daheim begannen meine 2 Monate Pendelei zwischen Wuppertal und Köln. Das war gut, ich hab bei Wave im Büro ausgeholfen. Es war sehr schön, zuhause zu sein und ich vermisse alle sehr.
Tja und jetzt...jetzt sitze ich in meiner Wohnung in Melbourne, die ich mit meinem Tony, dem Iren, bezogen habe. Ja, wer hätte das gedacht, ich habe endlich mal meine eigene Wohnung. Rucksack ist ausgepackt und liegt im Schrank, die Möbel gehören alle uns, und ich habe sogar einige Sachen von zuhause hier, die in einem Paket nachgekommen sind. Jetzt muß ich nur noch ein bißchen warten, dann habe ich hoffentlich bald das richtige Visum, um arbeiten zu dürfen - Jippeh! Es ist ja schon schön, mal so die Beine hochzulegen, so richtig anzukommen nach doch nun jahrelanger Rumreiserei, aber ich bin ja immer noch dieselbe und das wird auf die Dauer doch was langweilig. Also bleibt es noch ein bisschen länger spannend... wie könnte es auch anders sein!

Happy New Year 2011 everybody!

I spent my last months in Queenstown, New Zealand.

I went on walks, tried out hot Yoga, went camping and cycling. But I also extended my cooking skills at the renowned Mafia-Italian Restaurant Lucianos. Yummi Pizzas I can tell you, and all homemade.

Back in Australia now, and getting ready for the New Year. What will it be...more tourguiding? Settling down?

Stay tuned...

And what am I doing now you ask?

Knitting, reading, jogging, and spending time in the Snowies and Melbourne before I head off to New Zealand in October!

Day 92 -SYDNEY!!!

Canberra Parliament

Lake Hart salt Lake

The Ghan

Morning mist..

Joey Baby

Feeding the Kangaroos


Opal Mining

The dog fence, surrounding great parts of New South Wales, to keep Dingoes from killing sheep


Dingo fence









Valley of the Winds, Kata Tjuta

Birds Nest



King´s Canyon

If you listen close enough, you can hear the water running below...or your blood...


Garden of Eden


Learning about Aboriginal Punishment laws



We had a good and informative walk around King´s Canyon and learned a lot about Aboriginal law. After a windy lunchbreak at the King´s Creek Station, we drove on towards Uluru. Another night by the campfire, with a Redback spider in my tent, and getting up reeeaaallly early, for another sunrise. We watched it near the Kata Tjutas and headed straight to our first walk through the Valley of the Winds. Spotting Kangaroo and budgies and the beautiful nature....No rest for the weary, so we got dropped off at the cultural centre for a quick visit and started our walk around the base of Uluru. To finish off that day, we had drinks and nibbles and watched the sunset at Uluru...

Long driving days ahead on our last stretch to Sydney. First stop - the Opal fields and Coober Pedy. We slept in an underground hostel, which is not very uncommon there since about half the action is under the surface. People can just dig their houses as big as they want, party because it is much cooler during hot summer days in the middle of the desert (constant 21°C), partly because they can be lucky and become rich while digging their Scheisshaus .... If you find the Opal, you can keep it....
We also got the chance to visit a couple that looks after Kangaroo Joeys during their feeding time, which was quite a special experience.

During our drive to Adelaide we stopped at a huge Salt Lake in the Flinders Ranges and a Winery in the Clare Valley. Everybody was getting tired and looking forward to arriving. One more Barbecue in Narrandera and one more long drive, really early rise, quick stop at the Parliament in Canberra and here we go - we arrived! Sydney, after 3 months, what an incredible journey! It´s been about one month now and I am still digesting. It was exhausting, tiring, hot, sick, impressive and just great! I learned a lot about people, cultures, countries and last but not least myself and I do not want to having missed a single day of it!!!

Men collecting firewood...

Honey and Apricot Chicken, cooking in the fire - yum!

Masterchef Australia!

Short stop to collect some wood for the bushcamp

4 x 4 dirt track on the way to King´s Canyon



flooded roads

The Tropic of Capricorn


Devil´s Marbles

What a spot for a good Meditation



Green Tree Frog
Daly Waters Pub, and the Entertainer with his Eagle in disguise as a chicken who made us, the ozbus crew, come up the stage and sing Waltzing Mathilda...


Katherine Gorge

Katherine Camp


Family fun at the Rodeo



Taming wild horses at the Rodeo


Beautiful Waterfalls in Kakadu National Park

What a view! Chilling out on top of the mountain at Gunlom Falls...

Tiger Snake! Spotted and caught!


The boss sitting in the pole position


Birds at the Yellow River

The Oz Bus Australia next to a gigantomanic Termite Mound, and: Beware of the Crocodile!


Sunset at Ubirr Rock

Learning how to play the Didgeridoo and Weaving



The Welcome to the country ceremony





And now, welcome back to Australia!

It was grat waking up in sleepy Darwin, back in the good old backpacker hostels, with some more sun to shine on our noses before we would head down into the cold Australian winter. Another couple of days of doing not much, going for a walk to the beach, stocking up on tinned tuna and boxed wine for the big camping trip through Crocodile country and the Desert, and meeting my friend Hayley from the Snowies.

Kakadu National Park was great, and I have to admit being on a chartered tour with a guide who knows everything about the smallest bush, bird or Kangaroo pooh is a lot of fun!
First we watched the Crocodiles jumping on the mirky … river. Then we got welcomed by an aboriginal community and got shown some of their hunting techniques, cooking, weaving, painting and dancing and the good old didgeridoo. He told us that after his blessing we would face no harm during our time there, but mine was followed straight by a moskito bite. Maybe this one did not pay any attention to my blessing... We spent the afternoon at Ubirr Rock, the great Crocodile Dundee lookout and had our first night in camp. It was really ready set-up tents with beds in it and electricity and a kitchen tent with barbecue grill and all that comfort, but it was really good to get away from the usual hotels anyways. And the stars were amazing!

The next day was probably one of the best ones on the trip, we drove along dirtroads, picked up snakes on the way and had swims in beautiful waterholes on top of big waterfalls. Nobody had really expected that so we were all in the best moods. To finish off a day like that, what better could there be than a Rodeo-show in Katherine. Finally we could see some real men, riding all sorts of wild horses and Bulls, fierce fighting to win their points and get through to the finals. Dinner had to be kangaroo burger, of course! A brillant show, followed by one, or maybe ten cups of wine by the campfire underneath the stars...

The wheels on the bus keep rolling and we get closer to the centre. Next stop, Daly Waters, but not without visiting the impressive Katherine Gorge National Park. Boat cruising, canoeing, hiking, and everything finished off by another dip into the cool and refreshing water. Again I have to say how much I love Australia and this is certainly the best way to end our big journey!

Our lunchstop was at the Devils Marbles, the giant balls in the middle of nowhere, yet another great Kodak moment. It was funny going back to all these places that Beckie and I have been to before, but I have to say that I probably still enjoyed myself just as much as I did the first time! I was even happier that we were staying overnight at the Daly Waters Pub, that quirky place with Tshirts, Bras, Drivers licenses, and anything you can imagine stuck to the walls. We had a substantial meal – Burger with Fries again – and got asked to move up to the stage where this crazy guy with his chicken (sorry, it was really an eagle in disguise!) was performing his nightly show. Apparently he had been doing this for ybout 70 days in a row, just like us we thought. Very professionally we were singing along to the tunes of Waltzing Mathilda and had this way another kind of Welcome to the country ceremony. To be a real part of it, we were all sleeping underneath the stars, in swags. To those who don´t know what this is, it is like a sleeping bag, but bigger. You can put your sleeping bag inside, it´s got a mattress inside and can be zipped up all the way to the top, so that the snakes leave you alone. So that´s what we all did, after months of hotels, some better, some worse, some 0stars, some 4, and much to the delight of some and the horror of others, this was our only choice at Daly Waters. But everybody survived, and I thought it was absolutely great!

Back on the road, off to alice Springs. We got there just in time to stock up on alcohol, not the easiest thing to get there, due to the very strict laws in the Centre of Austrlia. You have to bring your passport as ID and are not allowed to buy more than one box of wine per person. And it is better to take a taxi to and from the Bottle-O which makes it quite a dear glass of Red. But after all these beers and Gin Tonics in Asia, there was really no way around it. And who wnats to sit around a campfire without a drop of booze in your hands... We had a very good Aussie Dinner at Bojangles Saloon, when my dear family spent the afternoon watching me online and even dedicating some songs, which was really good! I did not go for the 800g-Steak option, even if I would miss out on a Certificate for having eaten it, but had a very good Kangaroo and some Oysters instead.

The drive to Kings Canyon, about 5hrs southwest of Alice, was another real otuback adventure. We left the sealed roads and drove along the Larapinta Road for about 2 hrs, only stopping once to collect firewood for our next camp, and watch the sun going down...The views were great and I was happy sitting on the uncomfy front seat of the big 4 x 4 Truck and be able to see it all! And also, even though the roads were just as bumpy as the ones in Nepal, we were still driving twice as fast as there....

The camp in King´s Canyon was the best and we had some great Tucker. Honey-Apricot Chicken, cooked in the fire, and real Australian Damper. And swagging underneath the stars again...not before Andy and Tony chased for some more firewood, and because they couldnt find any, just stripped down a tree. It was dead though, but so is Andys leg now...

A beautiful walk around the top of the Canyon was waiting for us early in the morning, and we learned more about the aboriginal culture.