Australia

So, after a grand total of almost 36 hours of travelling with various transport vehicles (train 1h, bus 3.5h, plane 6.5h, plane 13.5h, taxi 1h), I have finally arrived in Sydney, Australia. It took me two hours to make me feel like myself again and I still feel veeery tired. Still, decided to power through until tonight and get a good night’s sleep, then. I decided to explore the city.

The taxi driver had recommended to me to get a pie at Harry’s Cafe de Wheels on Cowper Wharf Road, so I went down there. I didn’t get a pie, but looked at all the photos of famous people who went to eat something there. Chris Hemsworth, Pamela Anderson, Geoffrey Rush… Then I walked another few paces and, I kid you not, Geoffrey Rush walks past me! The real Geoffrey Rush, wearing pants and a shirt. So surreal! I was so flabbergasted, I just stood stock still. Since he was walking in the same direction as I was, I started following him, but finally, I was too timid to talk to him (plus, as a Swiss person, you somehow have this deeply rooted accord that you maintain other people’s privacy). But still, this encounter haunted me all day as I walked through town.

Other than that: I really like Sydney. The city centre is very nice with all the harbour area stores and restaurants. And skyscrapers will always be something amazing to me.

I get vibes of California here. Especially San Francisco. But the trees are different. Some of them smell very sweet and heavy. And the birds! Even though most species seem to be as common as pigeons, there are so many different kinds of birds here, cockatoos, silver-backed crows, red-beaked seagulls and so much more! And a lot of them sound deep and melodious. I need to look them all up.

Sydney is very international, too. There are many people from Asia and India and you hear all different kinds of English and other languages on the street.

I saw in the newspaper that there would be a Star Wars Fan Event at the Opera House, but the person at the Opera House office said that there were no more tickets, but that I should still go tomorrow and see if there were tickets left from people that could not make it.

Went for a walk in Surrey Hills and saw the best X-Mas tree ever! :D

Also, the houses there are really pretty.

So I went back to the city center again to have my computer looked at the Microsoft store. They were able to fix my problem. Also, yes, there is a Microsoft store in Sydney.

Then I went to the Opera House in the hopes that there still would be some tickets left for that Star Wars Fan Event I talked about earlier. I asked at the entrance and the person there said no, the event was booked out. That was that then, I thought, but suddenly a guy standing right beside me started talking to me and said that he actually had ordered four tickets, but they were only three people, and he asked me whether I wanted the remaining ticket. Well, what did you think I said?

Guys, it was awesome! There was merchandise, a Storm Trooper DJ, interviews, and I got a small C-3PO Lego figurine for free.

I also saw Russel Crowe with his family and he was lightsaber fighting with his son (The guy who got me the ticket told me I should ask Russel Crowe for a picture. I followed him around for a bit, but didn’t dare come close. He was with his family, after all… after a while I felt like I was stalking him and started to feel really, really bad and so I just let it go).

The main event, by far, was the arrival and interview of Harrison Ford.

I got a really good spot at the red carpet they set up and when he came for TV interviews and autographs, I was so close to him I could have touched him. There were too many people in the way, though and I somehow I didn’t want to call out to him like so many others did. He was nice enough to look at my camera for a short moment though, when I took a picture. I can’t really tell if he’s smiling or looks a bit angry, though. Hopefully not the later.

After that, he gave the interview.

Good grief… usually I don’t excited that quickly… but so many celebrities in so short a time! And Star Wars! And Harrison Ford! Wow!

After the Star Wars event was over, I went back to the city center to meet up with my mother’s cousin Matthias. We had a few drinks and a very pleasant and interesting talk.

I took the Blue Mountains Tour today. Even though they are not really mountains, but a plateau overgrown with eucalyptus trees and pockets of rainforest here and there. The plants mostly smelled heavy and aromatic and made for a lovely backdrop. The only downside to it is, you are away from the coast, and in Australia the further away from the coast you are, the most flies you get, and for some reason, those flies really like to land on your face.

We saw a tiger snake as well, and yes, they are venomous.

I took off to Bondi Beach today and walked from Bondi to Coogee. I saw crabs and lush waterscapes, and lots of good-looking people. There was a cute little eco-friendly products market as well.

Also, this rocky beach was my own personal platformer. :)

By the end of the day, I walked down to the Harbour Bridge, climbed it, and took some nightfall photos.

Oh, something else. My hostel room is downright horrible. I share it with two English girls. Apart from not giving a shit when other people are asleep and turning on the lights, talking, and turning on music when they come in, no matter the time, the room is a downright mess. All of that would have been reasonably OK, but what really took the cake, was that I woke up to one of the girls having sex with some guy she brought in one night. In the same room as I was. From that moment on I decided not to take a shared dorm room any more whenever I am in a city. 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night is just not healthy.

Random stuff:

• Pedestrian traffic lights squeak and the click really fast when they become green.
• For the local supermarkets: Coles is similar to Migros, Woolworths is Coop and Target is Denner.
• The fries here can be served with a sauce called aioli (mayonnaise and garlic), which is delicious!

Matthias has offered to take me to a family party today, so I met the rest of the extended family. I have to admit that I felt a bit like an imposter there, since you could say that most of those people are not really related to me, but I was still very happy and thankful to be there. Everyone was great and really friendly (and also a bit crazy, which I loved!) and they gave me a lot of travel tips!

I travelled on to Ulladulla, a very sleepy little town south of Sydney on the Eastern coast. Compared to the bad hostel experience I had and the somewhat hectic city-life that governs Sydney, this is a welcome change. The hostel I stayed in was almost empty, safe for a guy named Clint, who likes fishing and temporarily worked at the golf course as a bar tender to get some money for his travels, and for Tama, a really nice, laid-back guy originally from the island of Tonga (I think?), who was on his way to Cairns.

I took the time to take beach walks and explore the town and its surroundings as well as to do my laundry and get rid of some excess weight.

My next stop is Narooma, a bit richer than Ulladulla, the town sports magnificent beaches and a small, calm inlet. The water here is really clear and sometimes a vibrant green that does not really come out in the photos. Here, I saw pelicans and cormorants as well as a plethora of other birds. Also, stingrays are scavenging for food when the fishing boats come in with their latest haul and the fishers clean the fish. Some of the people at the hostel saw dolphins, but I wasn’t that lucky.

For the first time ever since I came here, my lack of a car became painfully obvious. First of all, there is a blatant lack of side-walks. Then, drives that take you a few minutes at best, turn into 20 minute or hour-long walks, most often in pretty warm weather. Even though I applied sun screen often and generously, I could not quite avoid getting sun-burnt a little, plus, in spite of my best efforts, my feet were blistering. Luckily, Aussies are really nice people. It’s easy to get into a conversation and most will offer to give you a ride back into town.

I met some really nice people at the hostel in Narooma. One of them was Glen. A bloke from Sydney, who had been travelling around for the last 12 years. Walking, hitching and part-time working. Even though I liked him, and discussing with him his often New Age and philosophical views on things, there was still a sadness about him. He had been travelling for so long that he does not seem to know how to do anything else, but at the same time he told me that he didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to do it.

Also in Narooma I’d shared my room with two German girls, who heartily recommended me a hostel in Foster, close to Wilsons Promontory National Park. So I rearranged my booking in Melbourne to spend a few nights in Foster YHA.

I’m doing the Eden-Melbourne route today. As with many other bus rides, this one here is mostly forest of different kinds, and meadows. In spite of everything being lush and green, the trees here look like they are parched. Most often their bark is dry and shedding. Also, in some areas there are these patches of wild epiphytic growth that cover every bush and stem up to the top. Quite an amazing sight. I expected to see a lot more roadkill, but all I saw so far was the carcass of a dead kangaroo by the roadside.

Also, did I mention: busses are for old people. While there are travellers my age as well, mostly elderly people, who presumably don’t drive or don’t own a car any more, are much more common.

Australia’s trains (yes, there is a train from Bairnsdale to Melbourne) are, as expected, fuel driven. They are very comfortable and spacious though. I really like them.

I met a woman on the train who told me that she had once owned a mobile home and had travelled through Sydney for four and a half years, two of them with her dog. She, too, had a lot of good travelling tips for me. She especially liked Hobart.

The landscape here is very rural here. Pastures for mostly cows, pigs and sheep, broken up by the odd small town. I even saw a bunch of emus, hemmed in.

We stopped in Cann River and coming out of the climatised bus, the heat hit me like a brick wall. It must have been well over 40°C and I felt like my skin was burning up, and it didn’t matter whether you were in the shade or not. The wind was even hotter than the still air.

Fun fact: if you ever forget what town you’re in, just look around you. Something is certain to be called “Town name” store, or “Town name” market. The same goes for certain streets in cities btw. “Street name” restaurant, “Street name” café… it comes in handy, in case you get lost.

Something you need to know about Australian summer rain is: more often than not it’s RAIN!! It’s this kind of oceanic, non-stop, pouring affair, akin to Monsoons and tropical storms, that attempts to drown rats and small children, given half a chance.

Luckily it didn’t rain in Melbourne. We came into Melbourne at sunset, the skyscrapers shining like hammered copper and polished opal. And when I walked to the hostel, the streets of the central business district (or CBD) were so lively! Packed with people and resounding with music. So different from Sydney. I loved it!

I walked around in Melbourne today and was quite surprised that a lot of the streets actually have bike lanes, and that there were a lot of cyclists about, using them. Also, I learned that public transport in the CBD is free, in the so called “Free Tram Zone”. For everything else, Melbourne has the tap on, tap off MyKi card.

I also have to say, in the parts of Australia I’ve been to so far, public toilets are most often in excellent condition and drinking water can be found in a lot of places, mostly well enough spaced that, with a good water bottle, you never really run out.

Photos are from the Docklands and the South Wharf and around Flinders Street.

I also found a really good comic book store.

Random stuff:

• McDonalds is called Macca’s for short
• Burger King is called Hungry Jack’s here

I went to Wilsons Promontory (or the Prom) National Park today and will go again tomorrow. I also booked that really great hostel that was suggested to me by those girls I met a few days back, the Foster YHA. The owners are awesome. Since there are no busses to the Prom, they hook up people with no cars to people with cars or offer to bring you themselves for a fee of 25$ if there is no one available. So, me and a German guy named Stefan who is travelling Australia by bike got together with a Dutch couple who drove us to the National Park and back and Stefan and I went hiking there.

Apart from the smell of Eucalyptus trees and the ever present flies, the landscape there is indescribably breathtaking. It was very windy and hot, but we had a bit of a drizzle, too, which cooled things down for a moment. Stefan and I went bushwalking along the Tidal River delta, towards some lookouts and then trekked down to Squeaky Beach (so named because the sand squeaks under the soles of your shoes when you walk on it). I just need to let the photos speak for themselves.

Got a little hammered with those two Melbourne Ozzy guys back at the hostel. They thought it was a good idea to get a bottle of whiskey. I thought it was a good idea to join them. Their names are Eric and Mark and they are Messianian Jews. We had a great talk, some whiskey (and beer, more beer) and very delicious fruit. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We also had a lot of those stupid bugs in the kitchen, every time we opened the door and they would just bump into thing and then randomly die.

Oh, and did I mention that mangos are super tasty in Australia. If I didn’t: well, they are! Much better than at home!

Man, do I have a hangover, but it was worth it.
Second day at Wilsons Prom today. Sue, a friend of the hostel’s family, drove Stefan and me down for 30$ per person, which was a bit steep, but we took the offer. We saw an Echidna on the road first thing today as well and we stopped and let it pass. I couldn’t take a photo of it, but they are so cute! And so slow!

We did a small walk to the South today, and saw a wallaby hop right out on our path not three meters from us, which was awesome. Then we sat by the river until the flies became too annoying.

In the afternoon we hitched a ride back with a German girl. She told us some horror stories about the condition some of the work-and-travel people had to face when working as a fruit picker or sorter. Especially the sorters had it tough. They usually had burned hands because of all the chemicals that were used on the fruit and she relayed to us that some had to work for 15 hours a day with only one break and not even for the minimum wage. The worst she had heard was that once there was a sudden drop in the amount of workers, because a lot of them quit, and so the remaining folks had to work a 19 hour shift and didn’t sleep for 27. Also, those stations are in the middle of nowhere, no houses for miles.

When we came back to Foster, they had a pre-Christmas Street Party, which was a lot of fun. Hot Dogs were free, but you could give a donation if you wanted. They had a folk singer, air castles and a raffle. Screaming children, chatting adults, the youth spraying each other with coloured paint and even the local fire brigade had a BBQ stand. Also, Stefan and I noticed that no one sold alcohol on the street, which was interesting.

It’s Christmas Eve and I don’t really feel like it. Taking the bus back to Melbourne today. You know, some bus stops really are in the middle of nowhere here. Just by the roadside, with miles to the next house. I guess people just get picked up.

After making myself comfortable here, I checked out the local library, which is pretty gorgeous.

Then walked through the shopping district and checked out some malls. I spent sunset on the Eureka Skydeck.

I realized that my computer is just way too heavy and old. At one point it cut into my shoulder so badly that my blood vessels burst there, so that kinda got me thinking. I decided to profit from the Boxing Day Sales to buy a cheap, small, stupid little one. I pretty much spent the morning walking around town, from one electronics store to the next (Harvey Norman, JB HiFi, Dick Smith etc.) and found a 10″ machine for a really good price ($331!)  that suited my needs. That made me really happy.

Then I walked through Fitzroy and it’s parks and later checked out South Yarra’s and Prahran’s stores (the cinema there is really nice) and finally went jogging in Albert Park along the lake where I saw black swans for the first time.

In the evening, I had dinner with Carmela, a friend I met back when I had traveled in Morocco. We went to a restaurant called “The Noble Experiment” in Collinhills. The food was good and reasonably priced. I had a brown ale from Bendigo, which I can really recommend. We talked about a lot of things, but something that really stuck to me was that Carmela told me that the Chinese were taking over the CBD, a place that used to be distinctly Greek at some point. I could certainly confirm that. When you walked down Swanston, there was one Chinese Restaurant after the other. Other places, though, like Carlton being Italian, still remained the same.

St. Kilda and Luna Park were the plan today. I didn’t go on any rides, though, because I felt a little sick. It must have been something I had eaten and I hoped it wasn’t from the restaurant I went to the other night. No. Better blame the Chinese food from last lunch… anyway, that sucessfully stopped me from going on any rides. But the park was still interesting to see.

Then I walked along the beach to pier.

After that, I went to the free part of the National Gallery of Victoria or NGV.

I was tempted to go to the Andy Warhol and Ai Wei Wei exhibition, but it was a Sunday and there were soooo many people. You had to wait 45 minutes in a queue just to enter and the exhibition was packed. So, I did what I usually do: go and see paintings of the 17th to 20th century.

I came into this room, with a lot of paintings on one wall, and suddenly, my heart stopped as I saw a painting that had been in the back of my head for a long time, haunting me. La Cigale by Jules LeFebvre. I was so surprised to see that painting there, that my heart was actually racing when I walked towards it. This painting, I first saw it as a book cover and it just speaks to me. I can’t explain it. After this, I’ll definitely get a print of it somewhere.

I also saw a really touching movie installation by Taiwanese artist Jawshing Arthur Liou who had undertaken a journey do a meditation walk around mount Kailash in Tibet after his daughter had died and had filmed parts of his journey, setting it to meditation bells and deep humming music.

After that, I walked through the Crown Entertainment Complex and had a horrible meal at KFC. I will never have KFC again.

Also, did you know that they built a building around a building in Melbourne Central Station mall? Yeah. That looks pretty cool!

I gave my old computer to a computer store today. Didn’t get anything for it, since I had removed the hard drive and since it’s old and has a Swiss keyboard. This made me a little sad. Then, I just walked around the CBD for a while and did my good deed of the day and helped a blind man to get to Flinders Street Station by walking down Swanston Street, and everyone who knows Melbourne knows what that means: no matter what time of the day, people, people, people. Everywhere.

Then, it was soon time to get to the airport for my plane to Hobart, Tasmania. This is actually one of the first times that I took an overseas flight and didn’t have to show my passport. I did get controlled about 4 times from the gate to the plane, though. As if you could get lost within the 100m between the walkway and the tarmac!

In Hobart I had my most expensive room yet. In a hotel about 10km out of town. Why? Because Hobart was completely booked out this time of the year. The Sydney to Hobart sailing race was scheduled to end in the city tonight, it was close to New Year’s Eve and Taste of Tasmania was happening too. So yeah, bad timing on my part. I can completely understand why that tour I’m doing still had spaces free for the next day…

At least the room was beautiful, and Joel, the guy from the hotel, got me from the airport with his car for a small fee, which was real nice of him. Especially, since a taxi would have cost me double or more.

I had to get up at six today, because I had to be in the center of Hobart at half past seven. When I got out of my hotel room and walked over the courtyard, there were chickens and they just walked up to me, wanting to get fed, which was rather cute.

Breakfast was excellent and good Joel would give me a lift into town, for free this time, since he had a full time job there besides the hotel runs (talk about dedication!). So, from today onward I am doing a tour around Tasmania. We do a lot of driving, so I had time to meet all the nice people on the bus. There was Ronit, an Indian computational biologist, Cindy, a French girl whose main reaction word for everything is “lovely”, Sébastien, a nice French guy, a few Japanese, two hilarious Chinese sisters Key and Harro, and a German couple, Thomas and Gisela, of which Thomas, was equally hilarious in an up-to-no-good kind of way (our guide, Leith, called him a “shit-stirrer” :D, but in my mind I would call him “sharky” because of his very toothy smile). My hiking partner for most of the time was a nice guy from Sydney called Robert. There were also two very nice Australian woman, one from Sydney called Bianca and another from Perth, called Jenny, as well as a Scotish girl from the Perth in Scotland called Eilidh. The group was pretty good!

First stop was a rain forest walk to Russel Falls in Mount Field National Park. We saw a Pademelon (a tiny Tassie wallaby species) there, too.

Our guide told us that there was quite a bit of logging in the 20th century. Most of the trees have been reforested, but the local ones got mostly replaced by pines or mainland Eucalyptus species, and the local wildlife often can’t cope with that. A lot of the rivers got dammed for hydroelectric power plants as well, but when Franklin river was to have the same fate in the 70s, people started protesting and finally, it was left alone.

During the day, we did some more walks and got to see some more waterfalls. We also drove through the very interesting, dry, and almost moor-like landscape of the Western National Parks with orange knot grass and interesting, white-barked trees.

Our next stop was Queenstown, an old mining town up in the mountains with an ex-mining train that you can take to Strahan.

For the night, we stayed in Strahan, at a nice little hostel, helmed by a guy nicknamed Cue and his labradoodle Mojo.

Today we had a cruise in Macquarie Bay that lead us through Hell’s Gate and to the Roaring 40s (that’s what the winds outside Macquarie Bay are called) and then back up to as far as the Gordon River. Strahan’s biggest income apart from tourism is crayfish and Huon salmon aquaculture, so, on our way back to the bay, we passed some basins where the aquaculturists were feeding fish.

Another source of income until 1982 was the logging of Huon pine. Since the pine is now almost extinct, logging is banned today and only trees that died of natural causes are allowed to be used and only by certain companies. Huon pine can get several 100 years old and their wood is very strong. When it falls in the forest is disintegrates very slowly, if at all, even though plants may grow on their stumps. Other trees that were logged are myrtle and sassafras.

An interesting thing to note is that the water is brown in the bay as well as all of the surrounding rivers. The reason for that is teatrees and their natural colorants, tannin, that is being washed out from the forests to the sea.

One stop of our tour was Sarah Island. We had a small tour around the old convict colony there that had a reputation for being especially rough.

In the evening I went to see a play called “The Ship that Never Was.” It was about a successful escape from Sarah Island and it was great fun since the two actors made the audience participate in it in all different sorts of ways.

We moved out from Strahan up north and passed through some older mining towns not as lucky as Queenstown. Most of them are almost abandoned today, but not so in the late 1800s and in 1960s. Gold, silver, and tin were mined extensively in this area, similar to mainland towns like Warrrandyte, Ballarat, and Bendigo.

The big plan for today was to do a hike near Cradle Mountain, from Dove Lake over Lake Lilla to Wombat Pool to a lookout and back down. We were told that sometimes you could see Wombats on this track, but we were not so lucky, since it was too hot for them today. The hike was still very rewarding though, there were some great sights and landscapes.

The bird you see on the picture is not a crow, by the way, but a black currawong.

To close off the day, we drove through the town of Sheffield (town of murals) and Railton (town of toparies) and a few more silly little country towns, to a chocolate factory. There we had to take leave of Ronit, since his tour was ending in Devenport.

For the night, we stayed at Launceston, second largest city of Tasmania. Cindy, the French girl, and I walked along the nice waterfront and then went to find the others at St. John’s Pub on St. John Street for New Year’s Eve celebrations.

On the way something scary happened to us. Someone threw waterballoons at us from out of nowhere on one of the darker streets we passed through. We were not hit, but they came down beside us pretty strongly and I have no doubt they would have hurt, had they hit us. St. John’s was a nice and comfortable little pub though, and a beer washed this scare away pretty quickly.

First thing in the morning, we had a small hike along a gorge.

Then, we went to St. Helen’s for some grocery shopping and then went down the east coast of Tasmania. This is an area of oyster and scallop aquaculture as well as abalone, tuna and shark high sea fishing.

Our next stop was the Bay of Fires where we did a small hike along the beach. The bay is called like that because of the fires that the settlers saw when they first arrived there. Those fires were not homey stoves, but the controlled burnings of underwood by the aboriginals. Still, the settlers though they were facing an army!

One thing I noticed: similar to Scotland, there are a lot of military rememberance sites in most towns out here. This is the case basically for the same reason the exist in Scotland: the English used the Australians as cannon fodder in World Wars I and II.

In the evening we stayed at Bichino and did our penguin tour there. That was very cute! Since we couldn’t take pictures there, I’m showing some from the website.

On our way further south, we passed Moulting Bay, where about 90% of the swan population of Tasmania nest. Then we turned into Freycinet National Park. In the 1820-1860s there was whaling in that area, but today it mainly lives off tourism. You may notice that some of the names are distinctly French here. That’s because the French settled in Tasmania, too. But like with so many colonies, they finally lost to the English.

In Freycinet, we went for a walk to Whineglass Bay lookout and then walked down to one of the two beaches. Walking along it, we saw dolphins in the bay! Yay! Dolphins! About three or four of them at least.

We went to Swansea for lunch and after a nice little relaxing time in the park I went to the local bakery there and had a Lammington (a sponge cake with cream, Lammo, for short). I’d had one before, but this one was better by far.

Some random things: There is much more roadkill in Tassie than on the mainland.One radio station a lot of people listen to is Triple J. It’s

Next on the list was Bonorong Rehabilitation Centre, and this was awesome! Bonorong is a centre for animals that got injured, mostly by vehicles. Most are so damaged that they stay there until the end of their life, when they have brain damage or other hard damage for example. Others may get released into the wild again if they don’t get too accostumed to humans. Wombats are a good example of this.

We got a tour where a guide showed us a baby wombat, a Tasmanian devil, and a koala (who are not native to Tasmania). We could touch both the wombat and koala. We had also gotten a bag of “roo food” we could feed the kangaroos with. That great fun!

A few things about Tasmanian devils: since 1996, 90% of the Tasmanian devil population got decimated by a transmissible cancer. It affects the mouth and gets transmitted by biting, and since the Tasmanian devils bite each other during fights, transmission rate is high! Up to this date, no cure has been found, but a small, cancer-free population could be established on Maria island. The devils are scavengers and can smell a corpse from miles away. When they find a dead body, they gorge themselves until they are stuffed, since they don’t know when and where their next meal will be. They fall asleep on the carcass, to protect it from other animals. The devil’s teeth are strong, like hyenas they eat the entire carcass, including the bones.

In the evening, we went back into Hobart. The next few days would be day trips from Hobart out to other places.

We were in luck that day. The food festival “Taste of Tasmania” was in town and we went and had a lot of different foods. I had a reasonably good porterhouse steak with lettuce and apple salad and something called a “Corn Star”, corn with aioli, cheese and spices. We also had some fantastic crêpes with berries and ice cream. What looked good though was the flammkuchen, Thomas and Gisela brought. It was covered with salmon. All in all it was a very nice evening with everyone. For most of our group it would be the last evening together, since some only had a 5 day tour.

We traveled to Richmond, where the oldest bridge in Australia was built. Apart from that, not much else is there though.

Then, we stopped at a small Lavender farm, which was really uninteresting.

And finally, Port Arthur. Port Arthur used to be an old penal colony / lunatic asylum and later a village. One of the few penal colonies that’s still very well preserved — as old colonies would often just be destroyed to remove the stain of being descendant from criminals from Australian history. It was a penal colony from 1833 to 1877. England, after the colony of America had become independent, had to find a new country to send off their criminals to, and with the discovery of Australia and Tasmania, they used this land for just that. Usually crimes that would land you in a penal colony were incredibly small, such as stealing a sheep, for example. Port Arthur, though, used to be a prison for repeat offenders.

The premises are huge and we didn’t have enough time, but I did see the house of the commandant and a few other houses as well as parts of the local museum. We also got to do a cruise, but apart from seeing Port Arthur from a different point of view, it was not really worth it.

After Port Arthur, we drove along the coast and checked out some of the landscapes and lookouts along the coast of the Tasman peninsula. We saw Devil’s Kitchen, another blowhole and the Pirates Bay lookout.

In the evening, Mizuki, a Japanese girl that lived in Adelaide, and I went to Taste of Tasmania again. She wanted to go for Salmon and I really wanted to go for the Flammkuchen with Salmon Thomas had had the other day. I had to wait in line for a really long time, but finally, I got two slices. But just when I went back to our table, a seagull shat on it!

Today we went to see Mount Wellington, or kunanyi, as the aboriginals call it. Compared to a lot of Swiss mountains, the peak is easily reachable via a road. This is especially weird, since at the lookout it read how hard it used to be for people a few hundred years ago climb it. Unfortunately it was foggy when we were up there, so there was no view to speak of. The fog, however only added to the sense of mysticality. Also, it was completely silent there.

As we descended again, we did get some better views of all the southern islands and peninsulas on a small walk. Aparently most of the Tasmanian landscape had been formed by glaciers, leaving a rocky mass behind called scree. Some of the more jagged moutains, like Cradle Mountain were made of an almost vertically strated, vulcanic rock called dolorite.

In the afternoon we went to MONA, a modern art museum whose sole purpose is apparently to offend people. Sex, violence, meat, body and fecal art were the main theme here. Having been brought up by the weirdness of current media, all that didn’t phase me much. I found the building almost more interesting than the exhibits. Most of it was underground and in some places the raw rock had been left as the walls. They had an interesting iPod guide called the O, that showed you information about artworks if you were close to them.

In the evening we (Sébastien, Cindy, Mizuki, Thomas, Gisela and Pol) had dinner at the Shamrock, a small pub/restaurant with delicious food at a very good price. If any of you are ever at Hobart, I can only recommend it.

Bruny Island was the programme for today and we got there by a small ferry.

Apart from the aboriginals, the island was first set foot on by English, but the French explorer Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni d'Entrecasteaux first circumnavigated it and established that it was an island.

On our way to beat most traffic to the lighthouse all the way in the south of the island, we passed over an isthmus that held a memento to the presumably last surviving aboriginal woman of the island, Truganini. A sad statement. Today, no aboriginals are left in Tasmania. A deadly concoction of forced labour, desease, concentration camps, or just woman being abducted by white people, and their heritage being bred or reeducated out of them, sucessfully eradicated all previously local cultures. Still, the aboriginal presence is felt in the names of the villages and plaques detailing their fate.

A well maintained dirt road led us to Cape Bruny lighthouse, active 1838-1998. We saw a lot of berry farms on the way.

Our guide also showed us a secret (or maybe not so secret) spot where we could see a white wallaby.

After lunch we first had a cheese tasting, that I really enjoyed, and then we went to an oyster farm, that I didn’t enjoy that much.

This was my first day off from the tour I took in Tasmania. After a late start I went to the Tasmanian Museum of Art and History, which has a very beautiful Antarctic exhibition and a sad exhibition about the now extinct Tasmanian tiger.

Then, I had a very nice stroll from the waterfront, through Salamanca and Battery Point.

Hobart is really small and the highest building is still the casino, built sometime in the 80s.

The intersting thing about Hobart is, all stores close at 6. After that, all the streets are utterly dead. I have seen this happen to other, smaller towns, but there, you didn’t have that many people on the streets to begin with, since everybody uses their car. But in Hobart, the contrast from the hustle and bustle of midday to the evening silence was especially striking.

I tried to find a sweater today as a replacement for the one I had forgotten at the Cradle Mountain tourist information center. For some reason, however, all the normal clothes shops in Hobart were of the opinion, that it was summer and that you don’t sell sweaters in summer — in spite of the fact that it was about 15°C outside and practically everyone was wearing one. Ah, well. Maybe I would have more luck in Melbourne.

In the evening I took the plain back to Melbourne. Herds of kangaroos were grazing beside the roadside as the bus drove from Tullamarine airport to Melbourne Southern Cross. So, that was cool!

I saw Star Wars today. I thought it was alright, but it has some problems. For me it was mostly that the editing was too fast, and the action overweighed the character moments. But overall I thought it was ok.

Oh, and I got a really cheap sweater at H&M.

To mix it up a little I got an AirBnB flat for my second stay in Melbourne. It was cheap, too, but I shared it with the person who rented it out. She was almost never home though, since she had to work a lot.

I went to Queen Victoria Market today. A true old market. The fruit market especially is dominated by people advertising their wares in loud voice. Something you never get anymore where I’m from. Then I walked around area North of the CBD for a bit.

Something about cities: Australian cities are generally not very big. Sydney is probably the biggest with its 4 million inhabitants. Melbourne is even smaller. They usually consist of a CBD and and a bit of central area around it and then just a great load of suburban areas, some wealthier, some poorer. The town in the address is usually the name of the suburb, even though it is still within city limits. This is true for mostly Sydney and Melbourne, smaller cities, like Hobart or Adelaide sport a somewhat diminished necklace of suburban sprawl and a very small centre.

The Great Ocean Road tour started today. Sadly our group for this one was not half as fun as the one in Tasmania. Mostly, people just kept to themselves. After a very early pickup at Flinders Street, we drove through to Geelong and then stopped at Torquay and the “Point Break” famous Bells Beach with its wonderfully coarse dark yellow sand.

There was a lot of driving and a lot to see on this day. Our next stop was the lighthouse from the TV series “Around the Twist” (I have never heard of that one, but hey, sure, why not?) and we passed the house Mel Gibson’s character lived in in the first Mad Max movie.

I learned about bush fires, mammagamma trees and koalas’ locust-like eating habits, segoe trees, Baron von Mueller’s planting of black berries, Madame Melba, that young marsupials in their pouches are called Joeys, and that “tucker” is food and “bush tucker” is bush food by extension. Also, white berries are edible. Yeah… our guide Pete, even though a nice guy, talked way, way too much and it was pretty exhausting, by the end of the day.

The Great Ocean Road itself is awesome. We stopped at various touristy towns there as well as Otway Lighthouse and Shipwreck Coast. We were also really lucky that the road was open. Not three days before, bushfires had ravaged the coast, as you can see from the burned leaves on the trees.

We also had the chance to see some Koalas in the wild.

In the evening we went to Island Archway, Razorback and Loch Ard Gorge.

Then we had a beautiful sunset at the 12 Apostles. With fish and chips and a double rainbow. I mean, what more can you ask for?

What I can really recommend though, over Lorne, Anglesea, and Apollo Bay is Port Campbell! It is very small, relaxed and quiet and has an small protected beach, ideal for swimming. The hostel is also one of the best I have seen so far. If anyone who reads this likes to do the Great Ocean Road as a self-drive, stop and stay in Port Campbell for a few days, to relax.

I decided to tune out our guide with music. I just couldn’t process that much information.

In the morning, we walked along the cliffs close to the 12 Apostles, which was spectacular.

We also went to the London Bridge as well as the Bay of Martyrs.

We left the Great Ocean Road and had lunch at Tower Hill, an old volcano, where emus and Australian magpies crowded the picknickers like pidgeons.

Then, we had a small walk in the Grampian mountains. It was then that I realized it started to get immune to seeing wallabies. Don’t get me wrong, they are cute and still fascinating, but when you see several a day, then you just don’t take your camera out every time you see one. That being said, this mum and her Joey were pretty cute.

We stayed at the Asses Ears Wilderness Lodge this night, which is a bit in the middle of nowhere. And that meant we had an absolutely beautiful night sky with millions of stars and no moon!

More Grampians today. First, we went to the Balconies lookout and then had a really pretty valley walk past the McKenzy waterfalls to ZumStein’s (yeah, that’s Swiss).

After that we had lunch at Horsham. And then I was transferred to Adelaide by bus.

After the hectic hustle of Sydney and Melbourne, Adelaide feels very calm and sheltered, but temperatures seem higher, the air more suppressing. But it’s not dead, as Hobart is, either, but full of hidden alleyways and cultural gems, the latter far more numerous than you would think. It’s a small city, with its 1.5 Million people peppered along the coast. It’s ok, as far as cities go, but not really impressive.

All in all, Adelaide also has a lot less Asians and a lot more laid back Australians. I walked through the city and went to the Botanical Garden and Central Market.

At the hostel, I met Chris, a friendly night shift guy. We talked about cars, transportation and a lot more for over an hour, well into the night.

At an evening BBQ I also met Greg, an aviation pilot, who was an all around nice guy, with a genuine will to share his culture with me. He had some conservative notions about women’s roles in society however. Still liked him though.

My room mates were almost all Germans this time. There are a lot of Germans everywhere. Over half of the tourists I meet are German.

A little something about backpacking: Backpacking to me is dominated by the perpetual question of: do I really need this? To which, most of the time, the answer is: no. It’s the art of living with a very small amount of things and reduce your consumerist tendencies to a minimum. And I love it! In this past few weeks I have come to the realization that stopping to get attached to things is the best way to go. I have started with around 18kg of stuff and am now down to around 13 to 14kg. Still on the heavy side, but it feels adequate for 7 to 9 months of traveling.

On another note: it is interesting to note that a lot of mostly female Australians will call me either “darling”, “love” or “doll”. Some people may find that a bit weird, but I started to find it endearing.

About aboriginals: up until now I didn’t see a lot of them. In Adelaide, you can see them more often than in Sydney or Melbourne. The few I had seen so far in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide were poor and sometimes inebriated. It’s kind of sad to see. I’m still not sure what the relationship between the Australian descendants of European settlers and the aboriginals is. I heard there were efforts to help them, but a lot of aboriginals do not want to be part of white society, hence do not accept help. So efforts somewhat changed to help them regain their land and build their own social structure. But an ideal situation for the aboriginals is still a long way off.

I slept in today and then got a free bike to ride it to Port Adelaide. During that bike ride I had an epiphany that went something like this: Ok, I need to go North. That can’t be too difficult. I don’t want to take out my GPS all the time, so I’ll just use the sun. Should be easy… wait a minute, I’m sure I’m going North. So why are the shadows pointing the wrong way. Oh. Right. The sun is in the North here on midday. Duh.

Port Adelaide is cute, but apart from the harbor fish market and a few older buildings and a beach there is not much there.

Oh yeah, did I mention that crossing the street takes sooo loooong sometimes. No green light for aaaages. You can feel that especially well when you’re on a bike and need to play pedestrian to turn right.

Something interesting at the hostel I’m staying at is: there are a lot of deaf people there. There is some sort of sporting event for deaf people going on in town at the moment. So, half of the time, when you try to talk to someone, you need to make sure they can actually hear you, which is interesting.

I ferried over to Kangaroo Island today. I met a really nice German woman on the ferry to the island. Her name is Marion, and she also likes to travel, so we had a lot to talk about. The hostel we stayed at was in Penneshaw, which is tiny. Luckily it still has an IGA, so I could go and buy dinner. Apparently Penneshaw’s bay is called Encounter Bay. It’s the bay englishman Matthew Flinders and frenchman Nicolas Baudin met, when the two of them set out for their respective countries to circumnavigate and cartograph the Australian coast.

I was on another tour around the island today. We first drove to Seal Bay where you can see (surprise, surprise) seals.

After lunch we did a small walks where we could see wild animals like koalas, kangaroos and we saw an echidna.

The scenic spots we went to were Flinders Chase National Park, Remarkable Rocks, Cape du Couedic Lighthouse and Admirals Arch.

The tour was not the greatest thing, but I guess you can’t win them all.

Marion and I got along so well, we decided to do a hike together. It was pretty hot, so we decided to do a shorter two and a half hour (one way) walk to Dudley Winery, a small establishment west of Penneshaw with a great view, and back. We had a pizza and I had a good beer there. Marion a nice glass of wine. We enjoyed this little excursion quite a bit! But I’d wager we were probably the only two people that day who were crazy enough to do this on foot.

I had to get up early today to do the swimming with dolphins. We went out from Glenelg. The swim was set up in a way that the boat was trailing two ropes behind it and everyone had to stay within these ropes. That sounds a bit disappointing, but in the end, I thought it was better this way. Dolphins are wild animals after all and should not be touched.

After the swim, I walked along the beach of Glenelg and around Glenelg for a while.

In the evening Marion and I went to see “The Revenant”. If I had one word to describe this film it would be “visceral”. I’m not sure if it’s everyone’s cup of tea.

I started with a 10 day camping trip from Adelaide to Perth today. And, oh boy, had I been looking forward to it, because it has been a while since I last went camping.

After the pickup at the hostel, we first drove to Claire to pick up some supplies. Then we were off to a small toilet in the middle of nowhere to have lunch. There literally was nothing else there. Just a small toilet and faucet with drinking water.

Our drive took us through Quorn (yes, the town Quorn is named after) to Flinders Ranges, a set of hills (or mountains) north of Adelaide where we did a hike down to Alligator Gorge.

It was a hot day and we were urged to drink a lot of water and eat a lot of salt, too, since without salt, the body is unable to process the water. On the hike we learned a few things about the trees. For example, the grass tree. By taking it’s height, so the stem and leaves, you can tell it’s age. 1 meter equals 100 years. The aboriginals also used its sap for glue. We learned about the Cyprus pine and its poisonous nature and that from some of the trees that shed bark you can get a form of sunscreen when you rub the sticky fluid off the white stem that appears under the bark. For that the bark has to be freshly shed though.

On our drive to our next location, we saw some wild emus. Since they are very stupid but curious animals, our guide said that they would be attracted by the following. You just have to lay on the ground in the grass and start to do a cycling motion with your legs. Then, the birds will come to see what is going on. As stupid as this sounds, it actually works!

After that we did a hike around and up to mount Sutherland. The view was spectacular, but there were a LOT of ants on our trail, and they got stuck on my socks, trying to bite me. Luckily they’re not venomous and their bite didn’t hurt much.

When we drove to our campsite we saw some yellow-footed rock wallabies which apparently are really rare.

In the evening, we just stayed on a flat plain with some drop toilets close by. No showers tonight. After dinner we rolled out our swags and slept under the sky. Unfortunately it started raining at 3 in the morning and we discovered that swags are not waterproof. So, our guide just threw tarps over us. Still, some people got soaked so bad that they slept on the bus. Me, I found the rain very refreshing as it ran into my swag as I moved. For some reason, though, when I woke up during the night, I was positively parched. So dried out in fact, that I could barely speak. So I had to get up and get some water. I will have to sleep with my water bottle close by from now on.

I still have to get used to the lower sanitary conditions here. Everything is dirty (dishes, kettles, the bus) and there is not much water to wash things with.

I quickly want to explain all the people on the tour, just so that if I mention someone that you know who I’m referring to. So, first off, there is Scotty, our tour guide and fearless leader, a guy with an incredible knowledge of Australia who just basically spends his life living outdoors. He literally has no home. There are two hilarious German ladies called Gudrun and Dagmar. Dagmar had been living in Sydney for the last 27 years and Gudrun is her friend here on a visit, so they just travel around together. There were two Swiss: Marianne, a teacher from Bern, and Claudia, who is the main entertainment of our tour, since her English is, let’s say, grammatically interesting and wraught with aphorisms — and she just does not care. She’s pretty awesome. Then we have a German girl called Tina, two French Girls, Estelle and Emma, and a Brit from Jersey called Jack. They were all the same age, more or less, and ended up being a bit apart from our group. There is an Iranian girl called Mariam, who lives in Adelaide and is a bit of a party girl and also very entertaining. Then there is Annsofie, who ended up being Scotty’s sous-chef and bantering partner. There was Eric from the Netherlands and Johannes, a German guy who I ended up spending a lot of time with, because I found we had a lot in common. Finally, there is Sun, a Chinese guy who is almost 70 and spends half of the year travelling, ever since he stopped working.

We stopped at Port Augusta today to go and get some stuff at Woolworths, called “Woolies” here, and BigW, a store with huuge aisles that make you feel kinda lost. We drove to Comwell after that. The plan was to go for a swim, but we had had a huge amount of seaweed come in and cover up all the beaches. So no swimming there. So we drove all across the Eyre Peninsula and had lunch and a swim there.

After some deliberation we did an ocean sculpture drive, with some interesting sculptures.

In the evening we came in to Camp Coodlie where we had some nice bush showers and a great BBQ dinner!

We also hat small swag huts to sleep in, which was good, because it rained again this night.

We drove to Baird Bay. Some people would swim with the dolphins there, but I’d already done it in Adelaide, and it was too expensive for me here, so I passed up on it. I just relaxed on the beach and drew, while some of the others of the group went to see a seal colony.

I also talked to the lady at the local restaurant for a while, and she told me that at the moment there is no electricity for the pumps and that they had run out of water right now, so I had to walk to a drop toilet for 10 minutes. Apparently people here get most of their water either through rain water or by boring for it and pumping it up. In some places it hasn’t rained since July, so water is scarce. I guess South Australia isn’t called the dryest territory for nothing. At the camp grounds there are notices everywhere to make sure that people don’t use too much water.

When the others came back from the dolphin swim and talked about how amazing it was and how the dolphins come up to you and that you could almost touch them, I was really sorry I didn’t do it. :(

Next, we went to Ceduna for supplies and then we drove to our campground. This time, it was really luxurious. We had showers (even though we were limited to 3 minutes, because of the lack of water) and a kitchen!

There was no rain this night! Woo!

We had to get up at 5 today (yeah, not much sleep there), because this was our longest drive yet: across the Nullarbor. Our first stop was close to the Dingo fence where we could lay under a sort of cattle grid and let a truck roll over us up above it. That was fun.

Then, we stopped at one of the famous signs with three animals on it. We also had a gander to the Bunda cliffs. This was a theoretical coffee stop, but the coffee machine of these facilities was broken, so, no coffee there.

The Nullarbor is pretty interesting. Just a straight road through miles and miles of brush land. Nothing else. Just flat plane, bushes and street.

After lunch we passed the border control on our way to Western Australia (or WA for short), so we had to get rid of all the fruit and vegetables for this lunch. This was also a theoretical coffee stop, and guess what: the coffee machine was broken again, so, no coffee again.

There is really not all that much in the Nullarbor, but our guide Scotty tried to make the journey as interesting as possible. So, apart from all the stops at the roadhouses (one of which finally had a working coffee machine), and an old telegraph station, we also stopped at a few more road signs.

In the evening we pulled into another camp ground with drop toilets only. We had a nice camp fire, too, since there was no complete fire ban today. In the night it rained a little again, so I had to find a tarp to lie under.

We moved on to Esperance today, past the roadhouses of Balladonia and Norseman.

You know, being honest, during the first two days I felt pretty miserable on this tour. Not having done any camping in so long, dealing with sub-normal (for me, at least) hygiene, I longed for this tour to be over as soon as possible. Then, having missed out on the dolphin tour, I just wanted to sit in a corner and cry. I have come around since then. The people are really great, and I’ve gotten used to the dirt and actually like sleeping in swags.

After a stop in Esperance, to stock up on food, we drove off to Cape Le Grand National Park. Something I find fascinating is that we use ice and eskis to cool our fruit and other coolable condiments. No inbuilt fridges here. That means we need a steady supply of fresh ice and some of those ice blocks are pretty big!

We went to Lucky Bay for a swim first and there were wild kangaroos on the beach that came really close, too. We also went to a few lookouts in the area.

We slept at the Cape Le Grand camping tonight and pitched a few tents there. We slept in tents for the first time.

There was a bit of rain in the morning, but nothing our tents and swags couldn’t handle.

First thing we did was a hike to the top of Frenchman’s peak, which gave us a great view of the surrounding area.

Then we went down to Hellfire Bay. Johannes was swimming in the ocean, and we were just standing on the rocks. And then we suddenly saw them: a pod of five or so dolphins in the cove. First, they just swam around, then, all of a sudden, they came right towards Johannes! The poor guy told us that at first he thought that the fin above the water was a shark barreling towards him, and he got the scare of his life, before he realized what he was actually seeing. Me, I didn’t have a bathing suit or googles with me, but I didn’t care. I had only one thing on my mind: get into the water. So, I just stripped to my underwears and bra and got in. It was so awesome! So I got to swim with dolphins after all. The only thing missing was my googles, so I couldn’t really see anything when diving, but that was ok. It was dolphins! And I was swimming close to them! How amazing is that!

After lunch we had a coastal walk from Thistle Cove to Hellfire Bay. It was a great, but I just thought about whether the dolphins were still there at the end. We went swimming again, but there were no more dolphins in spite of us trying to lure them in by banging two rocks together.

Scotty was supposed to pick us up at four, but for some reason he was late. We later found out that there had been a credit card mishap and he had to sort it out in town. So after about an hour of waiting, we decided to walk back to the camp. It would’ve been a 10km walk, and most of us were happy to do it, since standing around in the wind had left us cold. Still, we were just as happy when Scott passed us with his bus and picked us up.

In the evening we had charades and sat on the beach drinking and talking. I liked it. Johannes and I as well as Scotty decided to sleep on the beach. It was amazing!

What a great day!

We went to Esperance and then to a beach close by for a swim. Then we took a drive along the coast for some scenic views as well as a sight of Pink Lake, where you can sometimes see flamingos eat the algae that turn them pink.

On the drive I noticed that the birds here are a lot more coloured than they were before. You could see green cockatoos as well as gray ones with bright red bellies.

For lunch, we had a short break at Stokes Inlet National Park because some people wanted to go for a swim.

Camping tonight was near the Stirling Ranges and we had a great Australia Day barbie tonight! Some people even wore face paint.

We got up early to do a spectacular hike in the Stirling Ranges to a mountain top that was called The Fortress.

We stopped at Albany for a short while to look around, but there was not much there. Just a few shopping streets, a net of suburbs, a beach. We quickly went on to a winery (which didn’t interest me in the slightest, but was a nice break to work on my drawing).

After another beach and another swim, we went to a forest close by where we could do a nice walk through the trees. You could also do an optional treetop walk, but Scotty said it wasn’t really worth the price, so most of us didn’t do it.

This time around we had a nice camp ground with kangaroos, emus and cockatiels and we had a great dinner, too. I had the pleasurable task assigned to prepare desert: strawberries dipped in chocolate.

The campground even had a small pub, that probably made a weeks revenue just with our group alone.

One of the things I noticed were the interesting road signs. Some tell you not to fight fatigue, others are notices by the police to remind you of certain rules concerning alcohol and again others seem to be put up by the national parks telling you to keep “the scene clean”. All in all, road signs here are pretty chatty.

Another interesting thing is the colloquialism “See you.” People seem to say that all the time, even though itis very unlikely that I will ever see them again.

Our first stop was the crystal tree. A tree that was used to spot bushfires before the system was replaced by airplanes. You could climb it, but there were no rails, just metal rods, rammed into the bark to step on or hold on to. Me, with my vertigo, I left that tree well alone.

At lunch, we stayed at Hamelin Bay where you could see stingrays. They came really close and people fed them.

After lunch, we went to a chocolate factory near Margarete River and then had some beers at a nice little brewery. By popular demand, we finally got to laze around on the beach near Margarete River.

After another great dinner, we spent some time stargazing, while the party half of the group drank and partied.

I didn’t put my swag close to the trees because of the dropbears (or rather because of people who might pee against it).

Last minute swag picture.

We had an tour of the Ngilgi cave today and were told some aboriginal lore of the region. The lore of the cave was that it was once posessed by an evil spirit, and Ngilgi, a good spririt, freed the cave from it. As we had climbed down into the cave, our guide played the didgeridoo for us. It reverberated around the cave, spreading calm. It was a very interesting experience.

We learned that in the culture here, women were the gatherers and used digging sticks to dig up plants from the soil and men were the hunters, using a range of weapons, like spears, boomerangs and wooden shields to hunt. Our guide showed us the use of these weapons and how the aboriginals made fire. Our guide also explained to us that ever since the aboriginal people no longer take care of the land and burn down undergrowth regularily, there are much more bushfires.

We had lunch at Meelup beach after that and then we drove to Perth. After such a long time together, we couldn’t just say goodbye, so said we’d meet up again tomorrow for some beer in a brewery in Fremantle.

I went to Fremantle with Tina and Estelle and checked in the Prison YHA there, which is basically the old women’s prison of Fremantle. The first thing I did after having checked in was wash my clothes and pretty much everything else. What a good feeling that was!

I slept in. It was rainy today, as a cyclone North of Exmouth had brought in quite a bit of rain.

For lunch I met the people from the tour in town for burgers and then we pretty much spent the whole afternoon and evening in the Little Creatures brewery, where we were joined by Scotty and two other tourguides named Adam and Sean as well. I learned that IPA was Indian pale ale and that the tap is usually cheaper. Also, water is free of charge and served without comment.

Sean was from this area, so he told me a lot about the history and what to do. He gave me some great tips for the next few days.

I decided to explore Fremantle, or Freo. I went to the free part of the prison first. Then to the market, which is one of the prettiest markets I’ve seen.

It was very windy and not too warm, so I decided to go to the Round House (the first building built in Western Australia) and then seek shelter in the Marine Museum’s Shipwreck gallery, a great museum displaying all kinds of good recovered from shipwrecks that sank by running ashore at the ever present Ningaloo reef. They even had parts of the hull of the Batavia on display, which was very impressive

If I could choose a few adjectives for Fremantle it would be pitoresque and cute. A lot of the old buildings are still here and even the prison had been active until the 1980s. It feels like old Australian history is still very much alive here.

In the late afternoon I went to the Little Creatures Next Door pub and listened to the jazz concert there while drinking some Chai.

All in all, it was a very relaxing day.

In the evening I moved my stuff to the Perth City YHA.

I explored Perth today, which is really easy to do in one day, since it’s very small. The CBD and central area are even smaller than Adelaide. Compared to sterile, constructed Adelaide though, Perth is a lot less artificial. The city seems actually to have grown half organically, but isn’t above a measure of pomp in certain places (such as the main shopping district around the omnipresent Myer, which bursts with modern historism). I have to say, I like Perth. People are laid back. They know that they are not part of the rat race between Sydney and Melbourne, they do not pretend to be a me-too city, like Adelaide. The know they are at the end of the world and they are fine with it.

I found Perth to be full of wonderful gems. For example: I found a great store in Highgate full of books, merchandise, tea accessories, and urban kitsch. And to top it all off, they played The Cure when I was there. It felt like this bookstore was made for me. Then I happened upon an art store I really liked. It was not far North of the train station and sold modern art such as you can see on Behance and DeviantArt.

Finally, I went to King Park which is probably one of the best parks I’ve been to. Mostly because it is also a botanical garden with a wide variety of walks and not the dreary, geometrical English garden affair you usually find. It was also a nice compromise between accessibility, be it by car or wheelchair, and nature. I loved it!

In the evening I went to the Esplanade and the Bell Tower and just walked along it.

Claudia, Marianne and I took the ferry to Rottnest Island, or Rotto, today. We had a ferry and bike rental package. It was a day full of snorkelling and bathing at nice beaches where you could see a ton of fish. We also saw a lot of Quokkas and some thick black lizards on the way.

We went to a lighthouse and by the end we passed a really stinky pink lake where the water was creating white froth on the shore. The road was quite hilly and we did the longest path around the island, so that was approximately 30km of cycling.

I can tell you this much about Rottnest Island: every single beach and shoreline is beautiful there. I could have stopped every few hundred meters and taken a picture.

To end a great day, we had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in Fremantle. We also had a great little banter with a train policeman on our ride back.

Are meat pies like burgers? Is there no possible human way to eat them in a dignified way? I guess not. This is my forth or sixth takeaway meat pie and I still didn’t manage to eat it without loosing a part of it to the ground.

Anyway, I walked around Perth for a bit in the morning to hunt for breakfast, since I still had some time to kill before my flight to Exmouth. Did you know that just about any city I’ve been to, except for Melbourne, does not have a H&M. I see that as a benefit.

By now it became clear that I chose the worst possible time to go to Exmouth. People told me it was hot, blisteringly so, and that it was just not tourist season. Even all the diving shops were closed in February. Well, then. I had this flight, so I was going to make the most of it. I decided to rent a Wicked camper for four days and just go snorkeling. We’ll see how that goes.

I had to wait for the bus to take me to the airport at a completely unmarked station on my own, which is kinda scary.

Getting out of the plane at tiny Learmonth airport was an interesting experience. The air was heavy and humid, heady with perfumed smells. In the first few seconds, I thought I had trouble breathing, but the moment passed. The sky was overcast, which was good, because otherwise it would probably have been even hotter than the already over 30 degrees. I quickly found out, that everything was more expensive here. While the airport transfer in Perth had cost only $15, it was $35 here. The food in the store costs more, too.

Exmouth is empty and nothing seems to be going on. It was kinda calm and peaceful though. I shared my room with a Swiss girl and we were the only ones in a six bedroom dorm.

I found someone to accompany me on my journey to the West coast beaches. It was too late for us to do car sharing, since neither of us could cancel the car we booked, but we’ll just drive to the Wester bays together, in separate cars. Her name is Josie and she’s from the Netherlands. She sounds like a really nice person, too.

I have to say that I’m still a bit nervous about driving here. But I’ll start slow, see how it goes.

I got the car in the morning. It was a Wicked Camper with quite the character, but also some cool perks like cutlery, pans and a camping stove. Driving in Australia is not as bad as I had expected. Especially out here, where the scariest thing that can happen to you is a crossroads with no one else on it. Sure, there are emu crossings and other wildlife that you need to be mindful of, but the human factor of the traffic equation is greatly reduced. After getting supplies, mostly food and a lot of water, Josie and I drove up to Cape Range National Park.

Driving out here… well, you haven’t experienced the desolation of the Australian outback until you have driven through at least a portion of it in your own car. On your own. Being in a tour bus or a Greyhound just does not compare. The landscape is slightly hilly here, but it looks the same after every hilltop. Just miles and miles of relentless, unmitigated bushland and termite mounds with nothing for the eye to hold on to. Driving through it is tiring, and after a while the parched mind longs for more differentiated visual stimulation. A tree, maybe, or a house. I was glad, when the road finally curved around a lighthouse and then, later, reached the ocean and the visitor’s center.

We went snorkeling at Lakeside and just south of Kurrajong. It was pretty amazing! There are so many coral out there and the piscine life is incredibly diverse. I saw small fry that swarmed the ocean in the thousands, half a meter long, big-eyed fish and a flounder that changed colour, depending on the surface it was on. Corals came in all different kinds of colors, from delicate pink to large, brain-shaped blue. I loved it!

Also, the land wildlife here is incredible. Even in Exmouth itself, you could see emus just walking about, but out in the bushland, there were a lot of kangaroos. We saw one relaxing in the shadow of a table when we went picnicking, two others we scared away from a small overhanging rock when we walked to the beach. Close to sundown, kangaroos lined the street on both sides with about one every 20m (no wonder people recommended not to drive at night). At night, on the campground, we had mice running around and on my way to the dunny, crabs scurried away from the circle of my flashlight.

We hiked down Yardie Gorge today. It was a very short hike, but with the over 40 degree heat and all the flies (soooo many flies) we didn’t think it was wise to do more.

Then, we went snorkeling in Turquoise Bay, where we saw a sea turtle.

Since the famous Oyster Stacks was closed until Saturday, we drove back to Exmouth to restock on fuel, food and other small things and then drove down to Coral Bay where we reached the campground just in time. Josie an I shared a lot which meant that only one car could be on the campground at any given time. We decided it would be my car, since I slept in it and Josie pitched her tent beside it.

Josie cooked a magnificent curry for dinner.

Just after dinner, at around 9pm, as we were packing stuff back into our car, something amazing happened. A big meteorite streaked across the sky. It was bright blue and so bright that it looked liked a the flash of a firework rocket. There were two bright flashes in the beginning and almost at the end I saw pieces of it breaking off in another smaller flash. The event was only a few seconds long, but after it, I could trace the path of it quite easily by using the constellations in the sky.

I couldn’t take a picture of it, since the event lasted only about 2 seconds, but it sort of looked like this:

Josie and I had booked ourselves in for the manta ray tour, but since it was low season, the tour fell short of one person and didn’t take place. So we settled for the snorkeling tour instead. It was pretty amazing as well. We saw reef sharks and huge corals (several meters in diameter) as well as sea turtles and a plethora of fish, shells, sea urchins, colour changing flounders and all manner of other things.

Unfortunately, since I don’t own a GoPro or any other waterproof camera, I can’t show you any pictures. Here are some pictures from the Internet for you to give you a feeling of what it was like:

All of this has rekindled my love of freediving. I realized that I never feel so alive as when I am below the surface of the ocean. It’s a feeling of freedom and peace that is very hard to convey.

I said my goodbyes to Josie in the morning. She was heading South, me back to Exmouth and then back to Adelaide. We had had a lovely few days.

I found out something important regarding food habits. When in hot weather, do not eat excess amounts of sugar. That does not make you feel too well. Salty stuff is the way to go.

I flew back to Adelaide (which you do by flying over Perth). I realized I missed the hustle and bustle of the city.

Oh, wow! I went and saw “Welcome to Nightvale” at Her Majesty’s Theatre. It was pretty amazing! The guys even came out afterwards to sign stuff and I bought a t-shirt just for that. I shamelessly admit that I’m an incredible fan of this podcast. Here are some impressions of the show - which do not do this show justice at all.

I did some more walking through Adelaide. I went to the Northern Parks again, because they are really beautiful. Then I headed to the library and the art museum.

Also: Adelaide Fringe, a huge music and performance festival, is slowly ramping up. I attended the Aboriginal sunset opening ceremony for Fringe in the evening.

I walked through one of the main areas where the Fringe Festival was taking place and took advantage of all the free things happening there.

In the evening there was the Fringe Parade. It was pretty glorious, very vibrant and colourful!

I realized that all over Australia, people in wheelchairs are a lot more prominently visible than where I’m from. I got the feeling that Australia is very proud to provide wheelchair access to pretty much everywhere and, it seems to me, this country is certainly more forward thinking than Switzerland in this regard. Even small outback towns like Exmouth have access ramps.

Also: The thing about mozzies is, you can’t really feel it when they bite you. Not like our mozzies. You only realize that they bit you when it’s too late and the bump is showing. Also, mozzie bites itch for days on end.

I decided to go to Henley beach by bus today to do my two favourite things: swimming in the sea and drawing.

When I had enough of Henley I took the bus to Glenelg again, just because I like this beach so much.

In the evening I took the night bus to Coober Pedy.

Yes, this ice cream is totally a thing and is an Aussie classic.

I wanted to show you this piece of cool design that pretty much reflects Australian society as well as it possibly can. Let’s see if you can figure out what I mean. :)

Australian public toilets have so many doors! The most I’ve counted until you reach the room with the actual toilets in them are three and usually they have two. To me, that seems to be an unnecessary amount of obstacles to put in ones way when you got to go. Also: paper towels in a lot of those public toilets are really flimsy. I wonder why.

I’ve been told that a lot of times when vehicles break down or are in areas that are hard to reach, they are just left there. It costs too much to haul them to the next place where they can be scrapped. They often just rust to nothingness.

I arrived in Coober Pedy at 5 in the morning, so the fist thing I did was check into the hostel, the reception of which was actually open for people who come in on the night bus, and then go straight to bed and sleep. I did not get a lot of sleep on that night bus, you see.

My hostel room, or rather, weird doorless(!) bunker-like room, was 6.5m underground, so I couldn’t tell the time of day. It was dark every time I woke up. So, I slept until about about 12 or so.

Building things underground is something that is typical for Coober Pedy. About two thirds of the city is built either under ground or into a hill. That’s because underground you don’t need AC. Even though it may be a breathtaking 40-50 degrees outside, inside the cave it will always be around 23. I’ve told the aboriginal people think building things that way is pretty weird, since, to them, only dead people are underground.

Coober Pedy is another one of those odd towns. It was, and still to a certain degree is, an opal mining town and about 90% of all shops are opal jewellry stores. Most of the town’s surrounding landscape has been formed by mining. All in all it’s a very surreal empty place, with almost no people on the streets (probably because of the heat). All the houses I passed seemed quiet and the mines empty and abandoned. It appeared a little desolate to me.

I found a space ship though, which gave me Mos Eisley vibes (it was part of the set for the movie Pitch Black and, after the movie was done, they just kept there, I guess).

I went to see an old mine, too, which was weird in a way only Coober Pedy can be. Just see the pictures below.

In the late afternoon, I also went to feed some kangaroos at a wildlife rehabilitation center in town.

There are also a lot more aboriginals around than in Adelaide. I mostly kept out of their way. Most of them seemed poor and they just sat around at the side of the street during the day. They also had the habit of talking very loudly to one another, to the point where they were almost yelling. I assumed that was just the way they talked.

I don’t know if it was because of them, but the host of my hostel was really paranoid. Everything had a combination lock on it and the rooms that didn’t, like the kitchen and the TV room had large signs absolving the hostel owner of any responsibility in case anything got stolen. He told me that the TV remote had gotten stolen 3 times and that we should hide it if we were done watching TV.

I did another walk through Coober Pedy, but then decided to just take the time and relax.

Did you know that those white cockatoos are secretly zombies? It’s actually pretty scary. When it’s warm they sit in the tree and emmit this low-key, bloodcurdling moaning croak. And they look at you pass with those wide open black eyes… wanting your flesh, if they could just have a taste… just one… little… nibble… no, but really, those cockatoos give me the creeps.

You know you’re in the Australian Outback when:

• there are two water temperatures: hot and warm.
• it takes less than a minute after a shower before you are drenched in sweat again.
• wait… shower? What shower?
• the first thing you eat in the morning is a fly.
• you count down the hours to sunset.
• you convince yourself that fly nets are a fashion statement.
• you believe that the inventor of AC should get the Nobel Peace Prize.
• you check your toilets for frogs and other creatures.

More Aussie words:

• tinny (beer, can of beer)
• thongs (flipflops)
• doona (bed cover)
• winge (complain)
• it is dear (expensive)
• liquid paper (Tipex)
• ockre (guy who talks and behaves stereotypically ozzy etc.)
• sook (person who winges)
• esky (cooling box)
• bogan (a socially square person)
• billabong (cut off river, waterhole)
• swag (sleepingbag cover, almost like a tent)
• servo (service station, similar to petrol station)
• capsicum (peperoni)
• uie (U-Turn)
• sheila (woman)
• bloke (man)
• barbie (barbeque)
• Brissie (Brisbane)
• brolly (umbrella)
• Aussies often say “beautiful” when something worked well, they also use the term “you legend” if someone did something well or if someone can do something well.
• I don’t know if I said that before, but a bit of banter will get you a long way with people. People love it here and will be really nice to you. I even once got a discount because I struck up a friendly conversation, but I wouldn’t banter just because of that.
• And: no worries. If in doubt always say “no worries”. It’s the verbal cure for any conversational illness.

I took the bus from Coober Pedy to Alice, again at 5 in the morning. The journey itself is woefully uneventful, but it is kind of impressive to see Alice springs come up out of the desert all of a sudden. Just a small bastion against the bushland monotony. I had to use the time today to check in and do some planning, so I only walked around Alice for a small bit.

Also: is it just me, or do all dishwashing towels not really dry dishes very well? It seems they just distribute water more evenly.

So, usually, when you go on a trip in the Red Centre, you start early. Very early. The bus left at 5:30am today, so I had to get up at 4:30am. The reason for this is, if you want to get from Alice Springs to Uluru, you need to drive about 500km South-West and that just takes time. Plus, we had to get some people in various places along the way as well.

So, after almost a 6 hour drive and lunch, we arrived at Uluru in the early afternoon. The first thing we got told was, that certain sites around the mountain were sacred to the local Aboriginal people and that a lot of areas should not be photographed out of respect. Also, the walk to the top of the mountain was closed down, since it was too hot.

We went to the visitor’s center and learned a lot about the mythologies of Uluru. The stories of the indigenous people we read about there represent different rock formations. The visit added a lot of depth to the walk we did after and made this stunning mountain not just another rock. We were told that most aboriginal stories, apart from being cautionary tales, were actually describing the land, creating a map, people used to navigate the land with, before the white fellows had come. You called these maps story lines. Those stories also gave one aboriginal tribe member access to other nation’s lands if they followed particular story lines.

We were told about punishments for aboriginals that transgressed the law. Some received a spear in the leg. With others, the local shaman would rub their eyes with the sap from a certain kind of grass, so they would become blind for days.

These days, one of the most severe diseases plaguing aboriginal people is diabetes. Millenia of conforming to a lifestyle where food is scarce, did not bode well for a carb-based diet introduced by the white fellows. A lot of aboriginals are overweight.

Walking around Uluru is impressive. It changes shape with every step you take, and every time you look up, you seem to see something new. There are water lines, forming dark streaks along the mountain because fungi grow there. Those are in stark contrast to the white mottled surfaces of bird guano. Oh, and of course there are flies and of course it was hot (over 40 degrees). What were you thinking.

We also, of course, saw Uluru at sunset, and what a glorious sunset that was. Something I found interesting though, was that apart from the camera-toting tourists, such as myself, there was also a band of aboriginal people seated at the sunset spot. They all just sat there, contemplating the rock with stoic reverence. In them, more than in anything, you could feel the holiness of this place. Joy and elation was shown on a lot of those faces as the sun bathed the rock in it’s red glow. I, and all the other tourists, felt so out of place to me right then.

Tonight, we slept in swags again. Unfortunately there were a lot of ants and mozzies on the campground.

I found out that Australians seem to be more tenacious drivers than Europeans. Especially when you are in the red center, people often drive for 6 to 10 hours without many breaks to get somewhere.

Kata Tjuta was on the menu today. We got up at “stupid o'clock” as our guide put it, which is at around 4:30am. Just because we wanted to get there early before it got too hot. It was going to get above 40 degrees today after all.

Kata Tjuta, or the Olgas as it had been previously called, is a sacred place for aboriginal men. Young aboriginals learned the art of hunting there. The were places where they could sharpen their spears and mine ochre of different colours, something that was and still is used to paint the skin in ceremonial dances. It was a great and impressive hike, much more alpine looking than the trek around Uluru. I like both sites equally, for different reasons. We ended our hike at around 10am, because otherwise it would have become too hot.

On our road to King’s Canyon, we passed Mt. Fool-uru, which by some tourists is often mistaken for Uluru, but is actually called Mt. Conner, standing on private land. We also learned about Willi willies, small and not very dangerous tornadoes in the desert.

I realized that a lot of bathrooms in the Outback don’t have mirrors. I may have said that before. I wonder why, tough. Do bathrooms there not want to let you know how dishevelled you look when you spend time in the outback?

Another early rise today for Kings Canyon. We did the rim walk. First we walked over “Heartbreak Hill” and then to a waterhole, which was aptly named “The Garden of Eden”. Finally, we walked along the rim of the “City of Stone”, a series of stony domes, towards the edge of the canyon. Again, we finished our hike around 10am, before the sun was up high enough to fry us. Again, the hike was pretty impressive.

We soon moved on to had lunch at a Roadhouse, but freak gusts of wind and a ton of flies made eating very difficult.

In the afternoon we went to the camel farm, where some of us rode camels. Not me though. I had done that in Morocco before and didn’t feel like it.

Like a lot of other things, camels are a plague in Australia. They were imported in the 19th century by the English, along with Afghan traders to have some animals that do well in the desert. When they had outlived their usefulness, the white people threatened to kill them, so the Afghan traders that had brought them here let them loose. They have been multiplying ever since.

I walked around in Alice for a bit. Luckily the town is very small, so you get a good overview rather easily. I did some shopping and then went to the botanical garden. It was pretty hot today; between 40 and 46 degrees, but it was better than in Exmouth, because it was a lot drier.

At the botanical garden I learned that Australia once indeed had an inland sea, when it was colder, but that it had dried out. The land then was colonized by the hardier plants from the shorelines. Australia has no resident cacti and no plants that are especially adapted to the desert climate, since this sea had only dried out rather recently, in geological and evolutionary terms. Plants include spinifex, a hardy grass, and the eucalipt trees river red gum, iron wood, as well as ghost gum, which mostly occur near waterholes. More recently and invasive South African grass species has taken over.

In the evening I went to see the sun set on Anzac Hill and then went back to the hostel, where they had a movie night. We watched, very appropriately, Australia by Baz Luhrman.

I learned today that Australians partake in so called “Sunday sessions”. This basically means that they go drinking and chatting on a Sunday evening.

I also learned that Australians put fluoride in their water. Maybe that’s the reason why so many Europeans don’t like the tap water here. I guess that’s also why I’ve seen so many Australians with dental fluorosis.

I had booked a tour to the West MacDonnell Ranges. Apparently, there were not enough other people, so I was transferred to another provider. Let’s just say that it was all a bit more geriatric than I had imagined. On the tour I was on, there was no-one under 65. It was still good though. I got to talk to a lot of interesting people.

Our guide was an Alice local, and he told us that most of Alice runs on diesel power. Solar panels don’t work, because of all the dust. Also, the water is very rich in calcium, so everything plumbing related, starts leaking sooner rather than later.

We first went to Stanley Canyon, then to Ellery Creek Big Hole, a water hole, we could swim in. On our way from one sight to another there were a lot of cattle stations. We took a walk in Glen Helen Gorge, Orniston Gorge and Simpson’s Gap, before we finally returned back to Alice. It was an interesting tour, but not the best I’ve been on.

It was time to leave Alice Springs behind. I had made up my mind and told myself that the best thing to do would probably be to fly to Brisbane and then work my way down to Sydney again, before I had to fly out to Auckland, so I did just that. The only flight I could find on such short notice, was one that flew over Sydney.

On the layover I almost missed my connecting flight, too, since I had forgotten about the half hour time difference between Alice and Sydney and my phone had been on flight mode, so it hadn’t changed the time by itself. Luckily enough, they called me up. In Brisbane I had to change the time again, since Queensland does not have daylight savings time. I swear to you, in summer, almost all Australian territories have different times. WA even has two different time zones, since it’s so big. It’s a mess!

Brisbane greeted me with an apocalyptic orange sunset.

Brisbane, or Brissie, has a little bit of everything. Melbourne’s late 20th century achitecture, a cramped Sydney CBD and a city beach (even though the latter is artificial). It is also tinged with that small city feeling, not unlike Perth. Brisbane is not beautiful, but not ugly either. I would call it unobtrusive. Subserviant to its task of housing and entertaining its inhabitants.

I walked through the CBD, the Botanical Garden, along the South Bank to the above mentioned man made beach. Then I went to the Queensland Museum and the Art Museum and finally made my way to Chinatown and Fortitude Valley.

In the evening I met up with Mizuki, a very nice Japanese girl I had met in Tasmania. We had dinner at a really good burger place she showed me.

I walked through Paddington today and took a look at all the interesting shops there. The hilly landscape reminded me a bit of San Francisco. It was pretty hot again though, so I soon made my way back to the CBD and to Fortitude Valley.

In the evening I had dinner with Mizuki again. This time, I met up with some friends of hers. One of them was from Malaysia, the others were from Japan. We had dinner at a Malaysian restaurant. They were all great fun!

I took the bus to Byron Bay today. It was a long bus ride and I was pretty tired when I arrived there. I did see my first flying fox today, though, which was great!

I stayed at a pretty nice hostel. They gave away free dinner vouchers and we also had a karaoke night in the evening. I felt couragous and was the first person to sing. It was great fun, especially later, when more alcohol was involved.

I did my laundry today and then walked around Byron.

I guess I understand why people like it so much here. Don’t get me wrong, the town is very touristy, but is also has this weird alternative vibe that makes it very relaxed. In spite of all the surfboard-laden traffic on the main streets. There are a lot of people with dreads about, and most often they would just hang around in the parks or on the beach, playing guitar.

The city centre is filled with bio and bulk food stores. Jewellery is sold on the streets and at night, street musicians come out to play. Bakeries have long since adapted to the party crowd that lines the streets at night. Byron is a place to hang out, go out, party, get away and shut down.

I shared my room with 8 people, all of which were very friendly and considerate, even when they came home drunk late at night. The door to our room was mostly open and led directly into the yard, so we also shared our room with the odd water dragon and turkey that just happened to wander in.

I have to say, I didn’t really find the inspiration in Byron that other people find here. I feel my romantic notions of freedom, peace and the happiness of light drug consumption have long since evaporated over the years, if they ever had been there at all. I’ve become a lot more cynical. Plus there are just too many people here. There is almost nowhere you can find peace and solitude.

I booked the Grasshopper tour to Nimbin and promptly found out why it was called that. I have heard rumours about Nimbin, of course. As far as I know the town had some history with the Green movement and became notoriously know for its strong voice for the legalization of marihuana. After a while the police adopted the opinion that they would turn a blind eye to Nimbin selling the drug. So Nimbin has become notorious as a town where you can buy weed and hence has become a favoured tourist destination, much like Amsterdam.

On our trip, our guide decided to make a detour to visit Bangalow Market first. That gave us a more innocent taste of Nimbin. There was music, massages, diviniation, yoga, all kinds of bio foods, crystals, cards and self-created stuff. It was rainy and most stall owners didn’t like that. Me, I loved it. There is nothing better than warm rain, plus there were so many birds, which added to a great atmosphere.

Nimbin is… interesting. It’s basically a town comprised of hippies and hobos and people outside of the social norms. Some things were a bit disconcerting, like swearing kids and parents not entirely behaving as role models. It’s a small town full of colours and colourful people. And hemp shops, of course. Lots of hemp shops.

On our way back, we went to see a waterfall in the rain forest.

When I got home I didn’t do much more, just hung around on the beach with a Swedish girl I had met in the hostel room and then went to bed.

I walked around Byron one last time in the morning and had a super healthy yogurt. At least that’s what the label said. Then it was soon time to take the bus to Coffs Harbour.

If Bryon is considered by most people to be a calm and relaxed place, then Coffs harbour can be classified as asleep. It reminds me more of the small towns South of Sydney, since tourism is basically non-existent. The city center of Coffs is not at the ocean, while my hostel was, which basically meant that I had to walk about half an hour to the next bigger shop. So, first of all, I had to do some grocery shopping. I took a shuttle-bus from my hostel to the next Coles. Then I checked out the city center, and for the first time in a long time, I felt that I was surrounded only by Australian locals. A welcome change.

Then, I decided to hike over to the famous old jetty and to Mutton Bird Island, a cute little spot for nesting gulls.

I was even overcome by a sudden urge to do something healthy and went jogging along a forest heritage walk, filled with animals and birds such as cockatoos and kookaburras and crickets.

I had booked another snorkeling tour tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to it.

Ok. This was possibly one of the worst experiences I’ve had. And I’m not talking about this trip either. Just one of the worst experiences I’ve had. Ever.

So, what happened? I went snorkeling today at the Solitary Island Marine Park. Everything was fine and dandy when we went out with the boat and I still remember thinking to myself “Hey, this will great!” And then the boat stopped. And the water wasn’t exactly still. And I became sea sick. And it just didn’t stop. Even when I went into the water, the rocking motion of the waves only made it worse. I don’t even recall how many times I barfed. I couldn’t keep anything down. Not even water. The fish really liked it through, and I had a few regular swarms around me at all times. But that was the only positive thing about it.

Ours was a group of divers and snorkelers and we were at two diving grounds, but even after the first one, nothing changed. All I did was hang around in the water, focusing on not throwing up and not being able to forget about being sick. And I was only in the water for two reasons. 1. I didn’t have to watch where I barfed. 2. It is way, way worse on the boat.

When the boat finally got back, I felt my blood pressure drop and slowly lost the feeling in my arms and legs and when we arrived at the harbour I was so weak that I could barely stand. Somewhere in the back on my head I knew that I was dehydrated and needed electrolytes. Back at the diving shop, however, I was so weak that I could not walk for more than ten paces at a time. There was no way I was getting to a shop on my own. Luckily the guys there were really nice to me and offered me a coke, water and cookies. I had to sit in a chair at the dive shop for about two hours though until I felt like I could make my way back to the hostel (which was only two blocks away).

Understandably I took it easy in the afternoon and after a brief exploit to the pharmacy, which, luckily enough, wasn’t too far away, I just hung around on a couch at the hostel and watched movies. My bus was gonna leave for Sydney tonight and I still felt too weak to walk to the bus station, so I took a taxi.

So, what have we learned from this? Always, always, always take a pill when you are going out to sea!

Thankfully, I could sleep on the bus.

So, hello Sydney! I’m back. After getting off the bus and checking into my hostel at Glebe Point, I walked the city for a while.

Then, I decided to go to Manly beach, because why the hell not! I had the time, my Opal card had enough cash on it, and literally EVERYBODY I had met along the way, had told me to go there when I get back to Sydney. So, I took a few buses and then the ferry over.

Manly… actually looks surprisingly like Glenelg! I don’t know if they did that on purpose or who copied whom, but the resemblance is uncanny.

As I walked along the beach, I found that I had inadvertently stumbled upon the world surfing championship.

Out of curiosity I stayed a while, but then my path took me northwards as I walked along the coast for a while. After getting back to Circular Quai I walked around in Sydney some more, but I was still a bit dizzy from yesterday, so I soon returned to my hostel.

In the morning I walked along the Glebe Point Foreshore walk to Bicentennial Park.

Then I decided to take the train to Milton’s Point and the Luna Park. The park was too expensive for me, so I didn’t go on any rides and just walked through it, getting small measures of amusement from people going on the rides. It was especially funny, watching people run out of the haunted house, screeching in horrified delight.

The weather was so good today that the mere thought of leaving Sydney tomorrow made me just a tad melancholic.

But I had decided to do something interesting tonight, as a final farewell. I had booked a Mardi Gras themed party cruise in Sydney harbour. It was pretty awesome. There is something magical about floating about between a glowing opera house, sparkling city lights and glittering stars. The food was good, light alcohol was included and the music was pretty ok as well, plus, for some childish reason I was really happy that there were balloons. I carried mine along almost all evening, until it abruptly died. I spent my evening with a girl from Azerbaijan and a guy from Tunisia (who was pretty drunk) and had a pretty good time.

Oh, yeah, I saw a pretty nice shooting star as well. Nothing like the fireball from a few weeks ago, but still awesome. For some reason I am really lucky with those.