SomewhereSouth.net

a little less luck

Because Murf is taking Yada under construction takes I will write a piece about the last week. For a start we weren't that lucky. We brought our car to the garage and we could pick it up that night. We tryed to pick up our Bali visas. Which went wrong because they gave us visas for the wrong dates. And because of the tsunami we can only change that on a later stage of our journey. So for now we have a visa till the 11th of april. :s After hanging around in the city. (internet!!) We wanted to pick up the car... Didn't work because the leak turned out to be a broken waterpump. So they were replacing it. We could pick it up the next morning. The next morning we got a call that it would be that afternoon because the waterpipes were leaking. And they had to be replaced. So we went shopping for some stuff for our journey. And went to buy some sandals for Murf. Which was a lot of calling from home because all the sizes go till 12 and he has size 13. But after 75 calls we finally got a store which sold them. So into the city for the shoes. (Which we got with discount!) And an early dinner because we couldn't pick up our car yet. During dinner we got a call that the temperature of the engine still was to high and the radiator was probably blokked. So we could pick it up the next morning... :-S Because they had to replace it. Next morning we gave them a call.. Ordered the wrong one, would be done that afternoon. We went that afternoon and finally got our car back. (phew!)

That night it was packing. And the next morning we hit the road. First to Bulli lookout. Stunning. Then to Kiama for the blowhole (hole that blows though the build up pressure of the waves in a cave underneath the hole) that could reach up to 60M. But off course when we went there, he didn't want to blow. After that we pretty much drove along the Princes Highway (main way down) with some touristic drives on the sides. Halfway the afternoon we drove straight into a thunderstorm. Which was so heavy with so much rain that we had an early stop that day. (because I didn't want to drive any further in that weather) So we parked at a picknick spot right after Batemans Bay and had food in the van. And as a toilet a hole in the ground. (which is the main picknick toilet along the road.) The next day we pretty much just drove. Till about Eden. Where we visited a killer whale museum. And spended just some hours in reading local fisserman stories and look at whale bones. That afternoon we just crossed the Victorian border. And set up camp. (a couple of K's before Cann river) Just a camping spot again. The next morning we had a 'cuppa' (cup of coffee or tea) with some fellow travellers. (although they already done this for at least 10 years) Had a nice chat and got an adress to stay over if we wanted to later in our journey. After a nice cup of tea we went driving again. With just a couple of touristic drives and a walk in a piece of rainforest. Eventually that brought us in the middle of nowhere along the beach. Where we set up camp behind some dunes.(Woodside beach) Was very cold that night. (The lower you get the colder the summer) But was fun and got some very nice pictures.(forgot to bring the discs so can't update any, sorry sorry sorry)

Yesterday we wanted to complete the trip to Melbourne and stay over in the city in our van. Before Melbourne just a stop at a little town to sort out our boat trip to Tazzy. After that went to Phillip Island. Where they have the smallest pinguins. (15 cm.) Was very qute. Although you can't tell the difference very good between an seagul baby and small penguins. So we were told afterwards that we saw both and not only baby seaguls. (as we thought) Because the have a lot of seaguls on the Island. And because of the breeding time ,which was when we were there, there were a lot of baby seaguls. Bought some little souvenirs and left for Melbourne. Where we discovered after a couple of hours that you can not possibly find a sleeping spot in your van in a big city. So exhausted and tired. Almost crying we drove straight out of the city. After some 'food'. (KFC) We felt a little bit better. But after half an hour drive we gave up and just parked somewhere next to a house and went to bed. This morning early up. To go to Travellers Auto Barn. Because yes our car gave us another signal. We were leaking oil. And some other minor problems. Instead of getting it fixed and go into town. We had to drive to some outer suburb to get it fixed. And stayed till late in the afternoon waiting till our car would be finished. After that straight into the city to get some internet. And we actually have to hurry at this point to get to our boat.

Love
Nicky and Murf