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.
