Dear Wildflower lovers,
It is Wildflower season in WA! HURRAY! My hostfamily luckily wanted to swap some of my working hours, so I was able to attend the month-long King's Park Festival on Saturday the 13th of September. I got up early (before 8am!) to catch two buses to King's Park where I arrived at 9:30am on a fantastic sunny day. At the top of Fraser Avenue you will be greeted by a flower bed full of wildflowers in bloom.
I love my camera! It can take the most clear close-up pictures, so I went as close as possible to all these lovely and beautiful flowers.
Dear dog racing lovers,
I admit it: I have never been to a dog race before! But Australia is full of firsts for me, it's just I didn't expect this to be one of them. I surely should have seen some dog races in England but somehow it never came to my mind. Together with two other German Au pairs who live nearby I decided fairly spontaneously to have a look at the races on a Wednesday as the entry is free then. On Saturdays you have to pay to get in. I picked the two 18-year-old girls up and we made our way to Cannington, only a 15 minute drive away to the Greyhound racing grounds where we arrived at about 7:30pm.
Dear Aussie culture lovers (I know you exist!),
In preparation of my Australia trip I have of course read a lot of information about this big big country. Especially in travel guide books like the Lonely Planet but also in magazines and on the internet. Since I arrived in Australia and especially since working as an Au Pair in Perth I took the chance to join the local Manning library to borrow some books and DVDs about Australia.
This first book however I got from Eva whom I met in Adelaide.
Dear park lovers,
One of the best things that happen to me in Australia is meeting great people! And it is even better to meet these great people again! So on the morning of Friday the 8th of August I met Twiggy in the CBD of Perth. I got to know Twiggy on the Southwest Tour that I did back in April this year, shortly before Easter.
Anyway, due to the bus breakdown and the following loss in time which we tried to compensate by getting up early (AHHHH!!!) and doing lots of things in a single day the whole group grow more and more together. Despite the bus breakdown this was probably one of the best tours I have done in Australia because of the awesome people and Twiggy was one of them. After catching up on what happened in the last few months in our lives we decided to go to Kings Park with the fantastic view onto the Perth skyline.
Dear Perth lovers,
Why did I decide to go back to my host family in Perth to work there for a few more months instead of just finishing my travels? Do you have any idea of how expensive Australia is???
My West Coast Tour has cost more than I expected but I would like to do some more traveling and therefore need to earn more money. My host family is supadupa nice, I got used to the children and why look (again) for another job if I already have a good one?
Dear loyal blog readers,
SHEEZ! I couldn't believe it even when I checked the figures: over 7,000km!!! We drove over seven THOUSAND kilometers from Perth to Darwin in just 30 days... In comparison, Markus and I drove over 3,000km on the East Coast from Sydney to Cape Tribulation and back to Cairns in 18 days. And let's not forget my awesome 5 day Kangaroo Island trip (a roundtrip of about 800km). And the Tasmania Tour (about 1,500km in 6 days) and the Southwest Tour (about 2,500km in 6 days) even though I didn't drive myself.
Dear last day lovers (do they exist?),
On Day 30 of our West Coast tour Charlotte and I got up early (I HATE getting up early...) again at 7:15am. It was a warm night in the car and I didn't sleep well. We hand-washed our Johnny Cash car in the Noonamah Tourist Park before we went for a search of a car wash where we could use a hover to get the last dust out.
Dear market lovers,
On Sunday the 20th of July 2014 Charlotte and I got up early to clean out our Johnny Cash car and to give away some of our stuff to other campers as we would give back the car the next day to Wickedcamper. After some good work (you wouldn't believe how much dirt can be in such a tiny car even though we cleaned it out in between as well...) we drove into the city again where we headed for the Nightcliff Village Sunday market.
Dear city lovers,
On Day 28 of our tour, so exactly four weeks after we left Perth Charlotte and I made our way into Darwin. We first stopped at the Charles Darwin National Park at 10am.
This park is a mangrove park and I really didn't expect to see bombs and bunkers along the way and lots of boards about the wars and especially the bombing of Darwin.
Dear swimming lovers (once again),
On Day 27 of our tour Charlotte and I got ready to visit the Wangi Falls at 9am. We brought all our bathing stuff with us and were ready to jump into the water when we discovered this sign.
Dear swimming lovers (again),
On Thursday morning we made a quick escape from the mosquitos of the Merl campground down the Arnhem Highway.
After 40km we stopped at Malakuta to have breakfast but we didn't do the walk there as we wanted to visit Litchfield National Park. I drove the 250km to Litchfield and stopped first at the Termite Mounds.
Dear swimming and rock art fans,
On Wednesday morning we drove with Katherine, Shaun and Phil at 7:45am towards Maguk, a place in the Southern part of the Kakadu National Park and again only accessible via a dirt road where 4WD should be engaged. We arrived at 8:30am and then took on the hike through some monsoon forest.
Dear 4WD lovers,
Upon getting up really early we were greeted by mosquitos during our breakfast... We got ready to meet Shaun the tourguide, his sister Katherine and her husband Paul at 7am and to drive towards the Twin Falls on a 4WD track. Shaun has approached us the day before to come along with them as they had two free seats in their rented car. Despite the 60km/h limit signs Shaun drove at around 100km/h but still managed to spot this two meter long python next to the road! AHHHH!
Dear National Park lovers,
On Monday morning Charlotte and I got our passes for the Kakadu National Park. While you have to pay a small entrance fee of about 10 AUD per vehicle at nearly every national park in WA, in the Northern Territory there are only two national parks where you have to pay 25 AUD per person: the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and the Kakadu National Park.
Dear bird lovers,
On Sunday the 13th of July I drove the last 110km to Katherine where we headed for the Visitor Information Center. Luckily we were able to use their FREE Wifi for half an hour and so we connected to the world again! We had no internet for the last ten days. After some grocery shopping anf fueling up we drove to the Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park for lunch at 1pm. There we were surrounded by bats just hanging around in the trees...
Dear lake lovers,
After our rather disappointing visit to Wyndham we decided to stay overnight at Lake Argyle. After securing a spot at the only caravan park we drove to the Dam lookout for the sunset. We had a really nice view and it was surprisingly beautiful for an artificial lake. Lake Argyle is Australia's second largest dam lake.
Dear lookout lovers,
On Day 20 of our West Coast trip after our day into the Bungle Bungles Charlotte and I got ready to depart the rest stop area at 9am. I drove us 3 hours (270km) to Wyndham in the East Kimberleys.
I headed for the Five River lookout which we have been told by Carol that it is really nice. There you find the whole history of Wyndham on just two signs.
Dear strange formation lovers,
Well, getting up early is definitely not my cup of tea but if it needs to be than I will get up at 6:30am. Charlotte and I got breakfast and everything ready by 7:45am to walk around Leicester's rest stop area. We were looking for someone who has a 4WD and would possibly have some spare seats available to take us into the Bungle Bungles. After just a few minutes we approached a man who just checked the engine of his car and asked him if they are heading into the Bungle Bungles.
Dear driving lovers (again),
On Wednesday morning after our West Kimberley daytour we had another long day of driving ahead of us and set off at 8am. I drove the 250km to Fitzroy Crossing where we filled up our little car. Then Charlotte took over the steering wheel and got us to Geiki Gorge. We didn't plan this stop, so we were only able to do a short 800 meter loop walk where you don't have a view of the gorge itself. The walk was still nice.
