Almost everytime Nicky and I are somewhere where they guess which country we're coming from their guess is a somewhat strange one. As they almost always estimate me as being 21 instead of 27 (which I got quite used to and might not be that surprising if you see me), they think judging by our accent that we're Canadian. THAT is a little surpising, none of us has ever been in Canada, nor has spoken with any Canadians. The closest I ever got was the Great Lake District, Northern Michigan, USA. Though both speaking english on a regular basis since september/october last year (2004) and pretending to our accent not directly adressable as Dutch it's a bit strange that it's judged as Canadian. Aparently they don't notice the fact that I have to search for words now and then and make minor mistakes nor do they notice my use of aussie-words and minor aussie accents. Not that it really matters, better being mistaken for a Canadian then for an American or Englishman over here but no matter how you turn it, it remains a quite funny fact...
Thanx to Michael we where able to upload some pictures directly from the SD card of Nicky's digi, no month behind, no seeing already dated pictures but hot from the cam online on our gallery.And here they are! Have heaps of fun with it :-)
Off course comments are welcome both here as on the gallery itself.
Cya!
Murf
Hi there... As I have full permission of Michael to use this computer and his internet connection and as I got REALLY sick of another spam run all over the place, both here and on my dutch weblog I decided to take action today. Our solution:
When you want to add a comment you see a tiny box with a 6-digit number in it and a small box below. All you have to do is copy that number into the box below (yes that means typing it over, cut-and-paste doesn't work) and you're fine, if you fail you get a message that the security code was incorrect. This may sound simple and easy to circumvent but as the number is actually an image and due to the grey background not very easy for computers to substract from the image it should work quite allright. Untill the spammers found a way to circumvent this off course...
I'm very sorry that I had to take this kinda impopulair step, it makes it harder for you to add a comment but Jeroen (jnieuwen) and we remove the spam every coupla days you don't see too much of it but we get spammed in the comments with ~200 spams at least every weak. I can imagine better things to do with my sparse computertime here. (So for Jeroen, deleting all those spams from weblog and email is absolutely no fun for him.)
Cya later!
Murf
Well, I presume it's my turn again. Nicky still asleep in the backroom of Michael, her cousin, me behind his computer because some stupid dog next door didn't stop barking for the last 3 hours and I'm very awake (and anoyed) right now. So what do you do then, right, the same as at home when you can't sleep, boot up the nearest computer available (off course in this case with full permission of Mick) and do the usual stuff like email and weblogs. But first I'm gonna find some longsleeve and a map, my diary is still a couple of days behind (updated the 17th) and with a map in hand it's mutch easier though it's not too much of a problem now as the last few days where not THAT exciting. (Though fun, a bit of relaxing is not bad after a full month traveling.)
The last coupla days (we arrived here last friday, feb 18th) we spent in Adelaide, socializing with Michael and his daughter Jessica, shopping, visiting musea and relaxing. Today we're planning to bring the car away to the mechanic, to get it desert-ready. Actually we're planning that the last week since monday but going to town without a car is no fun as the area where Michael lives (Elisabeth Downs) is an hour driving from downtown Adelaide and we have absolutely no clue how the bus-system works here. Not really willing to find out either so today we probably stay in. The weather forecast is not that bad, actually we hoped for rain to give us another reason to stay in but it's just cloudy and 25 degrees. Next tuesday there will be rain, too bad we're probably in Port Augusta by then as we plan to leave on monday morning and then head straight to Port Augusta. After that nothing but desert for the next coupla thousand Km's... Oh, BTW, we're now in South Australia, that means the time above is not entirely correct. You have to add 30 minutes to OUR time. Ok, enough about now and here, back to where Nicky ended a week ago.
After my adventure up Mount Difficult (my wounds are healingg, my right knee however seems to have given up, as soon as I start walking it starts buggin' me, not very painfull but just a bit nasty an uncomfortable) and doing our groceries in Horsham (before that we actually visited our first aboriginal-art site, which was so dissapointing that we decided not to visit the next one) we went on. Back on the road again. Actually going back to the Princess Hiway, who follows a great piece of the aussie east and southcoast. That's where we started, leaving Sydney our first main road WAS the Princess Hwy and we followed that for a long long time, departing it only for a couple of detours, Tassie, the Great Ocean Road and our trip through The Grampians. Halfway on our trip, just before Bordertown we crossed the next state border, this time that of South Australia. I almost yelled Nicky's ears of, finding it quite exiting that we where now in the 4th of the 6 states we will visit down under. (The other ones are Northern Territory and Queensland, after we did New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia) No evidence however, you can't stop on a hiway just to take a picture of a roadsign saying "Welcome to XYZ". The hiways here are not more than a single 2-lane road which in Holland we'd call a B-road, that is, as long as you're in the country. Aproaching big city's like Adelaide they turn into our well-known multilane monsters. Smashed throuh Borderdown, headed off to the coast again to a nature reserve (Coorong NP). Actually that wasn't as exiting as I expected it to be. It was nice but it became quite clear that both of us where extremely spoiled by Tassie. Untill now nothing can even remotely compete with the beautifull nature we've seen there. As Nicky was VERY tired after 350Km of driving we decided to park in a rest area. Unfortunately not well hidden, with traffic passing us at 15 meters all night long annd no facilities whatsoever, only a litter bin, but it worked. Next day we did 2 walks in Coorong. The first one was through a previous Chinese settlement with a well and saltlakes surrounding. Learned some about Chinese merchants setting foot on land near Adelaide. The second one promised the view of pelicans but too bad. More funny that we walked into a german couple (45yo) kissing who felt kinda busted and talked in german to eachother wandering if we did see them kissing (or maybe even more?). Very unfortunate for them that we DO understand german ;-) Good, next stop Victor Harbour. A free ferry to cross the river, straight running into the famouns wine region of Australia. Not that we're really familiar with wine so we tried to skip the whole wine tourism and do alternative things. Harder than it seems, the region doesn't have much to offer if you're not interested in wine though we had some fun there. Slept on a hill 7km north of Victor Harbour, our first spot on the hill next to a couple who did a little more than just kissing. Decided to watch sunset and then go down the hill, to a less visible point behind a big bush. That worked, some privacy and the next morning just a couple of people walkin with their dogs and such. Next day visited the city centre to do some souvenir-shopping (that's addicting!) and to send out a couple of packages home with mainly our own memories in it. Impossible to take them all home ourselves this is the way we get important stuff home before we're there. It's not too expensive and hopefully the people at home even enjoy getting our memory-tubes :-)
Next thing sending home will be my photo's and negatives, insured and with a tracking ID on it. Should be around $20,- which is not too bad for sending 2 months of photo's to the other side of the world.
Cause we planned not to be in Adelaide before friday we had to spend another day in this area so we went too McLaren Vale. First through a small town which name I forgot to grab some info and visit a Catholic church. Off course we walked into the wrong church first, the one we where looking for was on the other side of the street. A small, lovely church with the windows somewhat different than usual. Normally they show holy bible scenes, this one showed scenes with the actual environment in it. The other thing special about the church is that there where sightings there. Off course we didn't see it but it feels funny to be in a place considdered very holy. Churches here are a bit different than those overseas. As the history of "modern" Australia started around 1800 all churches are much newer than those back home and the building style is different. The churches are small and more farmer-churches than the big and impressive 17th century cathedrals in europe. As with all the buildings here, you really can see that the modern Australia is quite young compared to europe. A big contrast here, on one hand Aboriginal Australia which is VERY old next to the modern Australia wich is very young. In that town we visited some small galleries, same as in McLaren Vale. I ran straight into a beautifull painting which I really wanted to buy but with a price of $1600 it was just a little bit above my budget ;-P (Though my late valentine present for Nicky, a couple of earrings, was much more affordable and bought in the same gallery.) The night we spent at a paid camperpark as so close to a big city there are not many free spots and I really was craving for a long, hot shower and drinking beer without beeing afraid to be chased away. Well, it was quite cheap, $18,- is definetely not a bad price for an unpowered site with all facilities you can dream of. Kitchen, shower and a nice (but small) camping ground. Friday evening we finally arrived in Adelaide. What a relief, the city is still a big city but MUCH smaller and relaxter than Sydney and Melbourne. Went shopping (what else do you do in a city) and at evening headed off to Michael and Jessica. Took us around 2 hours to get there with only a global map of the suburbs and 2 detailed maps of both downtown and Elisabeth. Ah well, we at least had the chance too see something of the environment. Both in a movie-mood we decided to take Jessica to the theatre on saturday. Not one but 2 movies! (Spanglish and Meet the Fockers) After that we made it a movie marathon at home, both girls convinced that I really had a lack in my movie-education. So off to the video rental and grabbing Lord Of The Rings 1 and 2 (3 was on their movie channel) and Shrek 2. Talking about cheap prices here, we got those 3 movies for a week (Shrek for 3 days) for just $6,-. How about that!? We got through the weekend with lots of movies, 7 in less than 36 hours as "George of the Jungle 2" was also on TV. I think I did some catchup now and as there are a couple of movies about to come out here we will visit the cinema at least every month but probably more often. Survived the weekend, the next days where filled with shopping, some more shopping and some cultural stuff yesterday. First headed off to an aboriginal centre which started off with a didge demonstration. That was faboulous, the guy really knew how to play his didge, takes a LOT of practise for us to achieve that and we didn't really practice the last 2 weeks. Ah well, we have a couple of months to go. The rest of the exhibition was a bit dissapointing though exept from the shop. Nicky ran into the shop, browsed through the paintings and fell totally in love with a painting. No way that she was leaving the shop without that painting and I must admit that I got the vibe to. After a moment of reality we decided to buy it... $220,- was left of the original $360,- and at the counter it got even better as she could take it home for $200,- Ok, not really cheap but I think the painting is really worth it and both beeing art-lovers sometimes you know you simply should do it. I almost did with my $1600,- painting but that REALLY was above my budget so I decided to buy a postcard, hopefully beeing able too reproduce that on A3 format. We don't have a picture of Nicky's painting though and right now it's already on it's way to Holland. Post-office across the street and too scared too damage it we decided to ship it over right away. Insured and with a tracking ID it's now somewhere on Adelaide Aiport, waiting to make it's 18.000Km trip home. Our next stop was the main Art Gallery in Adelaide with both old paintings and very modern contemporary art. The old section was interesting but I still go for the modern art thingies. Too much too see there, fell in love with lots of those paintings, photographs and other things, taking home just a $16,- souvenir made by Richard Tipping. A doorsign saying "Sorry, we're OPEN" on one side and "Come in, we're CLOSED" on the other. Yes I love those kind of mind-fucking things. Check www.artpoem.com for some more examples. And actually that's where my story ends. Not entirely, as Michael's stove blew up (really, while making dinner on tuesday we suddenly heard a big BANG from the kitchen, blewing the door of the oven open, rearranging the pots and melting the curtain to the wall, luckily no-one was inside the kitchen) we got to Red Rooster yesterday to have a fastfood-day here. And off course as my name is Murf they ran out of chicken... (For those not knowing Red Rooster, it's a bit like Kentucky Fried Chicken but then with the possibility to buy quarter and half chickens.) And that is really where it ends... Right now I'm going to the mechanic, leaving Nicky at home as we'd forget to ask Michael for some keys and we can't get in without them. Should be a walking distance back though I haven't got a clue where the mechanic exactly is. We'll see. (And when I'm back I start reading and answering my email.)
BTW for those questioning why we keep our lovelife a bit to ourselves, no worries, we're doing fine together. With the occasional fight here and there but most of all lots of love and hugs we're having a great time together. It's not always easy, living 24/7 in extraordinary situations with a person who you barely knew before you where separated for 3,5 months but we're working on it. Main reason not to mention it here too much is because SWS is not meant to keep wining and drooling about us, it's about our TRIP down under, not about our relationship.
BTWII
Though we have heaps of fun around here life is not always easy here and we DO miss you all at home. That's why we're sending out postcards and emails to get a more personal message out. We both have an addressbook filled with adresses but if you have the feeling your address is not in there please drop us a note. You might recieve a postcard from the southern hemisphere on one day...
BTWIII
We try to update more recent pictures today. As this computer has a USB connection we should be able to connect Nicky's digi straight to the computer to get new pictures online. Just hold on...
Miss ya all!
Murf
Or just put it the other way, Murf is plain lazy and very behind with his diary. And because I updated my diary yesterday it is a bit fresher in my mind. Last time I left you guys in Devonport. That is not to far away from where we are now.
After lining up for the ferry and waiting a long long time.. But long live the Harley Davidson club that travelled with the same boat and I could drewl at in the meantime.. Because I have a secret love for motors, especially Harleys.. After boarding we got our stuff and wrote some cards. And got both homesick instead of seasick. After hugging each other we went to bed. Which didn't really worked out for the both of us. So the next morning we were both exhausted. And we wanted to discover Melbourne for a day so we could shop and arrange some stuf. It was raining all day very very hard. After calling my mom for an hour outside in the rain next to a busy street for an hour. We got some souveniers. And went to info center for some stores. We went to the Victorian NRMA for reclaiming our towing costs. (Corinna to Burnie) Which didn't work out because we have to claim them back at the NSW departement. So have to call them and arrange that with them. We surched for some stuff for Murf which didn't work out either. So got back to our car and found out that my bag was soaked instead of waterproof. So tryed to dry that in the back of the car. Which worked out fairly good. Meanwhile we drove to Travellers Auto Barn in Melbourne to reclaim fixing costs. Which didn't work out and we have to fight that out by email with the manager... So that will be continued. After getting very sick of Melbourne we decided to start that day already on the Great Ocean Road. Very touristic.
We spend the night in a forest nearby Lorne. Completely drained and exhausted. Next day we drove after a lunch with seaview to Apollo bay. We spend a fair bit of our day there. Also because we found out that Murfs' photobag was full of water of the Melbourne day. So trying to get that dry was another quest of that day. And all is saved except for one photo. From Apollo bay we went to a lighthouse which was too expensive for us. So we went to a little bit before the twelve apostels. And did break our rule; never pay for a camping spot. We did that night (princetown) and had a gourgious hot shower! Was very very nice after a couple of weeks no shower.
The next morning contained a lot of walking and different views of the twelve apostels. And a lot of same kind of rocks but different shapes. After getting tiered (or tyred?) we drove on to Warnabool. Where we had a nice high surprise. The info center where we drove to had a nice car with a numberless plate and ozzy flag. Next to that there were standing 2 'bodyguards' outside. We just walked in and asked for info. After that we asked the lovely lady what was going on. Was some kind of high party including the gouverner of Victoria... So we just ran in to his high party in baggy pants and t-shirts. Funny contrast.
We didn't spend there to long drewling the windows. We drove straight of for the Grampians. And because we were very exhausted we just parked it on the first campingspot to find. Which contained some travelling pensioners. Which was very funny to have a chat with at the campfire. That day was also a very big wildlife day. Murf and I saw our first wild Kangaroo crossing. Till then we only enjoyed wallabies. A kangaroo is a little bit bigger; 1.5 meter. So that was a bit of a scare. That night around the campfire we got surrounded by brushtail possums. Round about the size of a big cat. But very funny animals to see.
Our second day we spend in Halls Gap to see the town a bit. Which costed round about half an hour. (that small) O no, not lying a bit longer because Murf booked a climbing day for Sunday. Then we went 2km back to a cultural centre. Where we spended the rest of the day for shopping, info and food. Ending up coming back with; wildcamping is legal (jippie!), clapsticks (aboriginal music instrument), walking maps and a didgeridoo!! We decided to get a cheap one so we at least could practice so if we were buying a real one we at least were able to play it. After that we random drove around and found a gourgious wild camping spot.
The next day we went to see some waterfalls. And climbed up the Pinnacle. Which took me so long that when we came back we could go straight back to find a campingspot again. Lazy as we were we camped at the same spot. (our first time to spend more than one night on one place...) The next day, after a short night, we got up early for Murfs' climbing day. That was with one guide and him. Murf was already very excited since he booked it. After a long drive and a hard walk up. (which took because of me a lot longer, because I am very bad in climbing) But finally up Murf went up a grade 10 climb. And I was there to support and take pictures. It was a bit hard but he came up on his own power. The second climb was a grade 12. Halfway Murf just collapsed. He couldn't go any further. His guide was already up and I was down. We couldn't do much more than just talk him up. Which we did with some problems. And some pulling up from the guide. After getting him up and down. He was f*cking proude at himself. As he should be. And thankgod he came up otherwise he would have never wanted to climb again. Than we walked down again. And offcourse because of exhaustion Murf needed some breaks. And I because of clumsyness, rolled a little bit down the mountain. (I misplaced my foot) But all was well, justed a bit scratched. After getting back in Halls Gap. We ate somewhere random. And got the car and got back to 'our' campingspot. Where I spoiled Murf and we just went to sleep.
The next day Murf still walked like an old man. But to keep his muscles going we did some small walks. (after saying goodbye to Halls Gap and the camping spot) And my muscles as well because they had a big day, the day before. But we did well. And slept in the wild somewhere again.
Today we going to have a driving day. But first finding a big town and develope pictures, doing groceriess and doing this internet thingy what we do every week.
So this was the internet. Now picking up the pictures and then go to Safeway. (Woolies/Woolworth in other area's of Ozzy) We are by the way this morning in Horsham... (after asking around in this computer shop where we actually were.. :-s)
Lots of love
Nicky
Ps I think Murf has uploaded some new pictures again at the gallery.
Okay where did Murf ended last time... Ah with my digital camera failing. Well, that luckely solved itself after some sweaty hours and a second shop who was able to put them on disk. (sorry guys, forgot to take the disks this time so no new pictures) After we done al that stuff in Hobart we wanted to run as soon as possible from there. Not because it wasn't nice, but it was so crowded after al those days in nature.
So we drove off to our next free camping spot. Which was next to a big lake in the middle of nowhere. Like first big town was about 70Km away. But never the less we spended our night next to a German van (they shipped it over) with a German family. And a car full of Dutchies. Who ignored us very (not) friendly. The German man was a hobby machanic and checked our car up. Which was still leaking. He told us that it looked bad. And could break down any minute. But then again it could drive for another couple of days as well.
So the next day we chearfully went on and saw the Gordon dam. Drove an awfull lot because we had a long way to go. Only popped in in an animal shelter and hospital. Saw a lot of native animals. Ended up sleeping next to a powerstation. And had a toilet building with electricity! So that was very good for my mobile phone and rechargeble batteries. The next day we drove through the biggest national park. And did some nice walks in the rain. Drove through Queenstown and Zeehan. And found a sign that said no petrol for the next 167 Km. So glad we just tanked.
After a couple of Km's (50) We had to take a pond over the river. Which was fairly expensive. But even beter was that our car broke completely down in those few 100meters. So bad that we had to get a tow. But how do you phone in a area so remote that the next town is 2 hours driving. Next to that the town you are standing in has exactly one street and 2 inhabitants. Ow and a satelite phone. Which costed us a lot of money. But we had a tow... the next day. We were towed for 2.5 hours before we had a town with parts. Don't ask us what that tow costed. And we slept on the parking lot of the garage. To get it fixed the next day. Which costed again more money. Hopefully we can get it (most of it) back on the mainland, but that has to wait to Melbourne. This whole situation ment that our ferry back had to be postponed again. The phoneline was fairly busy because of a big storm that had a lot of fun in Melbourne/Sydney/Devonport. But after some sweaty hands we got through. And postponed to Monday.
After fixing the car we wanted to get some testdrinving. So at our 6 months anniversary we had to hang around to wait for our car but after that we simply drove a bit and had a good 5 course dinner at a chinese. And trying to find our free camping was not done because they just put down 'no camping' signs. So we just hid our van behind some bushes for the night. (that is pretty hard with a white van) But all good. The next day we went for a long long driving day. And including the long dirtroad we broke down up. 150 km winding dirtroad in the rain. Should be a good stress test for the car. Ended up as a stress test for Murf as well. Because on the last 200 meter of the dirtroad he lost control over the car. And smashed his but in a rock. :-S Unfortunately no duck tape to fix it. (long live the iron backstep who saved a lot) But a little bit of wonderwork with our swiss army knife did wonders. And the but of our van may not be that pretty anymore. It looks good enough. After an aftershock hug we just drove on. And had a fun laugh. That night we wanted to sleep in an National Park. But when we drove in we discovered that this was different than all the parks we already had seen. It was so touristic and crowded! (thanx to all the 1300 cyclists that visited that day) So we fast drove off and found ourselfs a new last spot in Tazzy in the middle of nowhere.
This morning we drove off to Devonport for our boat. Which leaves in about 5 hours. But we just dribble around in a city day. That should be it for this week.
Just gonna answer some more emails and you hear more next week.
Lots of love
Nicky
Ps The last 5 days were awfully chilly. Not to mention bloody cold!!! And a lot of rain as well.. But then again, it's something else than all that sun... ;-)