P-Diddy's B-Day party in Sydney

On Wednesday we started out trip to Sydney, because I wanted to be there for my birthday. We stopped at Wilson promontory national park, lakes entrance, batemans bay and Jervis bay.

 

The great ocean drops

Mary, a 23 year old german girl would be my travelpartner for the roadtrip from Adelaide to Sydney. I was really excited to travel in my Van! Mary seemed to be a really nice girl and we agreed quite well on the travel plan. After seeing the exceptional white kangaroo at bordertown we climbed a small mountain near Mt Gambier and discovered a salt lake in the short distance. Off course once we started walking it was more far away then we guessed, and flies were all over me,but it was nice to experience walking on the salt and on the way back we saw the biggest Lizzard till now I saw in Australia sunbathing on a dead tree. 

When nothing goes right

The first days we just recovered behind our laptops and chilled around in the CBD. Slowly we started

to look for jobs.  After leaving our 2 great
relocations, we had to look for new transport for the east coast. The only way to experience it in total freedom and don’t spend all your money on hostels is to buy a Van. So after a lot of searching I bought my first campervan! A 1984 Toyota Hiace, with high top roof and 315000k on it. I bought it in Glenelg, a small suburb at the south west side of Adelaide with a really nice atmosphere and beach. Nigel, the man who sold the van to me was really friendly and helped me a lot. He even invited Flo and me to stay in his house for a couple days. Nigel, if you read this: THANKS A LOT! I did a great deal buying it, but it was empty on the inside. So I had a lot of work to do.  I started to think about a bed, building some kind of kitchen to cook and find a way to put all stuff away.  While Flo was working I worked on my Van every day, drawing plans, going to Bunnings and Ikea 7 times, sawing wood, screwing boards…

Man versus wild: episode one

I had organised a second relocation car from Alice Springs to Adelaide: bigger than the first one. This time we also had a toilet, shower, microwave, kitchen, hot water, automatic gears & cruise control. We had to wait 3h for it because some kids had smashed the windows, but at lunch it was fixed and we were ready to go!  The next 1500km on the road were really boring with an empty landscape and straight road for hours and hours and hours…

To the heart of Australia.

From Darwin to Alice Springs I found a relocation car for Flo and me. For the people who don’t know: a relocation car is a rental car who has to be brought back to a specific city in a limited amount of time. If you‘re smart you end up with an almost new 4wd campervan with airco, fridge, kitchen and you pay no fee, except the fuel. Travelling in style!

Sweetheart versus Hannibal

The first night in Darwin a huge storm passed by. I tried to count lightnings which averaged around 25 per minute. The ocean was falling down to us.  This is what they call the rainseason.  But it was a great relief to sleep in a real bed in a room with airco! I suddenly met Victor and Anja on the street again after splitting 2 weeks earlier and had a reunion drink in the night. We did some sightseeing the first day where I met Gui again, the Canadien guy I met in Perth and Broome. Flo, me and all the reunion class went to the atmospheric evening market. There we were amused by two guys who played didgeridoo in a drum and base version.  A special concert which brought the tourists and the aboriginals together.  

Survival of the fittest

On sunday I leave with Flo and 4 new people to Darwin, a 2000 km trip through the middle of nowhere. Bummer:  Our car broke down after 20 min of riding. Bad luck or good luck? I decided with the guys to not travel with the girls at that point. I hadn’t a great feeling after all and now the car, no thanks.  If I want to cross 2000km of rough landscapes I want a reliable vehicle.

Broome Broome Mc Taxi

On the road to Broome we passed Eco-beach, a beautiful resort that would be perfect for a honeymoon, too soon for me. .  The first impression of Broome was not the most positive. Broome is the first place for me to see some aboriginals suffering in society. A wet T-shirt contest attracted us to the oasis club with “not my kind of people”. The first morning in Broome I got up with An at 5 to see the sunrise. There were tiny clouds, but also a lot of predator birds and more than enough material to try out my camera.  After an effortless search for Dinosaur footprints I went fishing with Mat and Flo and saw a watersnake, stingray and a shark.  

This is F*** awesome!

Getting up early for the whalesharktour  we spotted a giant eagle at the edge of the road. We couldn’t break soon enough for a crossing kangaroo and so we got our first murder.  R.I.P. skippy.

I was really excited to do the whaleshark boat tour, and after nearly 15 min on the ocean we spotted a mama humpback whale and her child, some turtles, a dolphin. While snorkeling in the reef we swum together with a turtle and a reefshark of 1.5m!  Despite a lot of searching the whaleshark seemed to have a day of. Maybe not a bad thing, since the heavy waves started to border my stomach and me and 8 of the 18 other passengers gave the fish something to eat…

One of the whaleshark-guides invited me to sleep at his home, since I was homeless again. A starting point for a new adventure.

Octopussy

On Thursday we drive all the way to exmouth, one of the mayor stops on the way to Darwin. Exmouth itself is nothing special, but the magnificent Ningaloo reef makes you love the region. Anja en Victor felt like leaving the city the day itself and wanted to go Karijini, but I really wanted to see all the spectacular underwaterlife. After some thinking I decided to leave my tribe and join the French/Italian guys we met 2 days earlier. It was a hard decision, but this journey is for me about to live my own live and do what I really want. The day was almost over without doing anything, we drove to a “secret spot” to camp for free and felt asleep in the company of some jumping spiders.

No road No City

Arriving in Coral Bay, we discovered the one-street-city in 5 minutes.  I still can’t believe why this “village” is so small since it is one of the best places in the world to experience underwater life of the unique World Heritage Ningaloo Reef. Think we are just too lucky again.

Because of different ideas to spend our time we decided to think about it at the beach and hired some snorkeling gear to discover the magnificent reef shaped in flowers and other magnificent forms  while the fish with stars and stripes were swimming all around us.

 

Heal the world

We drive away from Perth and go for our queeste to the real Australia. After visiting the pinaccles the first day we got up at 6 a.m. and made thee on the campfire of the evening before. I had a clown as breakfast and I almost hit a kangaroo. In the day we relaxed on shell beach: a magnificent beach with white shells in stead off sand. We saw the stromatolites: the origin of all life on earth while singing "heal the world". Now we've put up out tent right at the beach at shark bay with the fishing rope in the water. WAUW! This is to good to be true...

The great escape

The second day of my arrival I changed hostel. I got to the YHA, good decision. they seem to have a pool, gym, cinemaroom, tv room, pooltable,.. I went to my room and met Martin, a guy from Denmark. I got in touch with him and the next 10 rainy days we played a lot of pool and got to know Perh: the Bell tower, Kings Park, guided tours, drinking on a turning 33 level restaurant, party at the hip-e club, and a lot of other good times.  After 10 days of searching I found a lift with a French guy Victor and a german girl Anja to Darwin. Finally I could leave the City and start roadtripping and adventure. Australia: here I come!

Lonely planet

I arrived in Perth in the middle of the night, my Luggage was lost. "We 'll contact you soon".  I lifted for 10$ to the centre to find a stinky hostel where I took a shower and went to sleep alone in a 4bed dorm. I was still stressed about some issues with the boss of my appartement back in Belgium. The weather sucks here, no sight that looks like any picture I had seen on the internet. The city just looks like any other, except there are more chinese shops than in Peking itself.  I say hello to some guys in the hallway, but not much reaction. So there I am, I go to bed at the other side of the world, no one I know, no job, no plan. Is this it? Is it a lonely planet after all?

                                                                      ...