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Published: November 27th 2013
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Hi to all you wonderful people from back home,
Finally we found a moment to sit down and start our blog so all of you back home can follow our adventure down under.
After an exhausting 42 hour journey, we finally arrived in Australia. Since we unexpectedly had to stop over in Brisbane on our way to Cairns, we got the opportunity to fly along the coastline of northeast Australia, which convinced both of us, that this was the right destination for our long adventure. It was an amazing sight with hundreds of kilometers of beaches and we could even see the Great Barrier Reef from the aircraft. Upon arrival we checked into our first little hostel, rested a bit before going out for a free dinner. Most hostels here in Cairns have a free meal-ticket (all for the same bar) along in the room prices, so it is pretty easy to meet other backpackers. We checked out the city and then started our intense car search. We found out very fast that there is a hard competition and so many different rules to consider, and it was not as easy as we had hoped.
Luckily,
due to higher priced accommodations, we could stay a couple of nights at a local Couchsurfers place. It was a bit further out, so we had to walk maybe 45minutes to reach the city, but that way we got our leg muscles trained.
The first day the woman took us a long for a swim in a local creek, where it was very beautiful, and no worries it was Croc-free ;-) Apparently one doesn’t only have to be worried about all the jellyfish in the ocean but also of salt- and freshwater crocodiles. And that is only the beginning of the list of worries about different kind of animals who can all kill you here Down Under. But no worries, we are both still alive ;-)
Of course during all our activities we also started looking into our car-buying project. After having done quite some research for a couple of days we finally found a car we both liked and already arranged everything with the sellers (two local Australians) but unfortunately they jumped off the very evening before we planned the transfer, which was really rude and annoying since we counted really a lot on that. Therefore
we ended up staying several more nights in a hostel in order to continue our car search. Despite this was disappointing, we did meet some really nice people in the hostel. They were very helpful and great to hang around. We went to more of these free dinner nights with different evening themes like “World Championship in gold fish racing” or “free beer and pizza night” all just something for our taste ;-)
After having searched and test driven quite some cars, the luck finally turned for us. We made a deal with some local people about their Nissan X-trail 4 wheel drive called Neville J we were overjoyed and excited to finally get our trip started. Since the car has never been used by backpackers before the only problem now was to get it ready for the long road trip. Therefore we originally planned in about 1 day but due to some disagreements, lack of tools and knowledge J ended up spending over 3 days and are still working on it :-D It just takes time to find the best offers for all the equipment we need and four hours in the hardware store did not help on
our time scheduling – but that’s one of the great things about being on this trip – we can do whatever we want when we want it, so we are kind of enjoying it.
The car is now filled to the top and we already put a roof basket on top in order to create more space. It still might be a little tight to sleep in the car, but we are very excited never the less.
Since it took a longer time to finish our car project, we decided to stay in Cairns for another few days, including a diving course for Christian and a snorkeling trip for Louise. This meant we had to find a place to sleep in the car, and since this is not allowed on public streets, it needed a bit more think-through. We drove to a quiet street where we stayed half of the night, till it got too hot and we needed to drive around for the AC. We ended up on a beach nearby and slept there on the parking lot. We then got up for sunrise, and this was one of the most beautiful things we’d seen so far.
We have also been to the botanical garden here in Cairns, which was also quite nice. One could hike into the actual rainforest, though unfortunately we had to turn around because of rain. The weather has been rather nice, however the last days it has been raining quite a bit. It is above 40 degrees in daytime and sometimes in the night it is still nearly 30 degrees, so rather warm and humid.
On the first day of Christian’s diving course, he had to study online for 7hours and the second day he spent in the pool applying the theory from the previous day, which for Louise meant pure relaxation. It was a good thing that we had waited with the course because then 3 other Germans from our previous hostel could join. They did the same course as Christian, and could therefore be water-buddies. Sunday and Monday we could finally head out to sea, where Louise could also join in order to snorkel the days away. We now understand why most people say that it is one of the most amazing places on earth. It was wonderful to just lay in the water and look down on the
coral gardens and all the very colorful fish. Louise was chasing turtles all day long, whilst Christian had to attend his diving lessons. Luckily we also did have some time for snorkeling together, and overall it was a great experience. It is impossible to describe just how beautiful it is, but our pictures should help creating an impression.
After finishing the diving course, Christian is now a certified diver and we hope to be able to use that on our further travels around Australia.
Tuesday we finally started our road trip, and went north. We drove on the Cook Highway along the scenery coast line which gave us some amazing views over miles and miles of never ending-beaches. We ended up in Port Douglas, a little town, where we once again slept somewhere less legal. We spent the evening cooking on the beach (pasta with sauce ofcoz ;-) ) and once again this morning we got up for an amazing sunrise. This is something we both could get used to. We had a good filling breakfast with oat and freshly squeezed mango juice, a perfect start into the day. We will later today try to go to the
local Yacht club and hope to sail along for the afternoon.
The plan for the upcoming days is to visit Daintree Rainforest (the oldest rainforest in the world), waterfalls, gorges and hopefully many more beautiful beaches. We will also go croc-spotting.
Hope everybody is doing well back home, we would be more than happy to get some updates from all of you as well from time to time! Take good care and enjoy the cold weather ;-)
Cheers out,
Christian and Louise
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Moffe Ellen
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Wauw
Hi we have just seen all your beautiful/interesting Pictures. It's nice to follow you on your fantastic trip Down under. Many of the scenaries we sure have seen when we visited Australia. It's a lovely country to visit and we wish you further many experiences. It is very fine to be able to follow you. Love from Moffe & Ellen