Australia ( Aussiland Down under 5. Continent)
It is just a short jump from NZ to Australia. We arrived after a 4 hour flight in Sydney. Sydney has a lot to offer: Harbour Bridge, Sky tower, Opera House.We took the chance and went for a Romeo and Juliet Ballet. We were incredible lucky with our car Jonathan. A friend of Ivo came to Sydney from Perth, the end of his trip. He had to left Jonathan behind and we took it with pleasure ( 4 litre, 6 Cylinder).
We want to see the empty Australia, so we drove fast along the crowded East Coast. We are not used to the speed and needed a break in Airlie Beach. It was easy to relax on a Catamaran Boat trip. Our first dive gave us the possibility to see the amazing underwater world. We felt like fish in an Aquarium. The next break came in Cairns. We meet Philip on a Camp Ground. He is Australian and a passionate fisherman (like every Australian). The region around Cairns is famous for waterfalls, rainforest, crocodiles and diving..Unfortunately there was a lot of rain despite of the dry season. We took every chance without rain and pooped out of the car and saw a goanna (1m length), many holes in the sand from small crabs (we found that out after half an hour), "water- walking fish". There is life everywhere like: frogs in the toilets, geckos on the walls and too many flies. We try to keep our fitness and went for a walk. We had to climb up trough rocks, trunks and dorms. But the view on the top was worth it. The way down was much easier. The only problem was an unseen spider net on Manuelas way.After the scream was over we looked at the spider on the rest of the net. Next to a rock labyrinth we could feet wallabies (small kangaroos). There are really sweet and our first "Kangaroo-like-species" we saw. Uranda Nationalpark has the largest Lava tubes in the world (160 km). The lave flow through the tunnels and stayed much longer liquid than on earth. Some parts of the tunnels are still intact and accessible. In the same park we saw the first time real kangaroos. It is always great to see if they bounce around. Unfortunately we could not spot crocodiles around Cairns. So we tried again in Normanton. We were not lucky to see them either but we were lucky to have a mosquito net! It protected against the flies and mosquitos. Manuela went for a bicycleride and Ivo was responsible for the pick up service. The heat made it necessary after 70km. The rest area along the river was quite sandy. Ivo thought "keep going" and after the sand part the next was too much. Jonathan was stuck. After digging, pushing and using tree brunches Jonathan was on the road again. We relaxed and watched another great sunset followed by the stars. We visited the John Flynn museum in Cloncurry. This guy was responsible of the development of the Flying Doctors Services. He wanted to improve the life quality in the Outback. After a great effort and many people the flying doctors were the result. Mt. Isa was an interesting place for us because of the mine. Like everything here the mine is huge. They produce copper, zink, lead, silver and gold. The town only exists because of the mine. While we drove to the next town to the west we heard a strange noise and vibration. Our tyre was gone. We found the necessary tools and managed to take the flat tyre off. We could not fix the new tyre because the car lifter felt over. Pang! We finally could fix it with help from other people. It was heavy work (too much work for holiday!). We got luckily a new tyre in the next village. On the Tableland Highway was a never ending grass horizon. The termite mounds were fascinating. They look like small towers. The nasty flies were a big problem. Fortunately they went to bed before us! The stars are awesome because there is no other light around and the air is clear. The Elsey National Park had crystal clear springs to offer. Swimming was great, but the warm water was not really refreshing but at least cleaning! It is always dusty. There were many visitors on the camping: wallabies, spiders, frogs, water turtles.We just made a short stop in Katherine to buy food and drove to the next rest area. The Kakadu National Park was the next attraction. We enjoyed the layered sandstone and other rock formations. On a walk we spoted a baby- croc- head. Instead of crocs we saw kangaroos (wild pigs), goannas and birds. We wanted to watch the sunrise and therefore we stood up at 5 am. We drove 5km and the road was closed until 8.30. Bad luck so we just enjoyed the sunset like many other tourists. We endjoyed staying here, but mozzies made us go. Darwin is good for shopping and bought much than we can afford! We recovered from the mozzie bites after a few days.

Take care Manuela & Ivo