The Hotel

The view from my balcony in direction of the famous Formula one Racetrack Albert Park .

Location

Melbourne

Getting around is quite easy. The public transport is well developed. Unlike to sydney a ticket is valid for every transport service limited by time. I bought a weekly pass for about $30.
Every tramstop has a number. My hotel is next to stop 23 in St. Kilda. Flinders Street Station has number 5. You have just to remember your number and you will find your destination.

Flinders Street Station


Another way is to take a shared bike. There many stations in the city and you can return your bike on any of these. The first 30 min are free. But then it's getting quite expensive up to $10 for 30 min.

http://www.melbournebikeshare.com.au

Day 10 : Kings Canyon to Alice Springs

We could sleep longer until 4:30am, Wow!

This morning was planned to do a walk at Kings Canyon. The bigger one would last just over 3h. People, who would like to take a helicopter had to do the smaller one.



After lunch we drove to Alice and had a delicious dinner in an Australian restaurant.


My flight back to Melbourne was at 9am next morning.

Day 9 : Uluru to Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon

You know when i had go get up. We slept outside, in a sleeping bag and a swag, under the stars. It sounds fantastic but i was exhausted. Anyway it was a very good sleep!

We did the basewalk after the breakfast. It's a walk around Uluru and takes about 3h. Ok it was a bit boring and quite hard due to the temparature. I would not recomend to do that, although there are some interesting spots.
It's still possible to climb uluru, despite the fact that Uluru is sacred to the Aboriginal people of the area and they request visitors not to do. And it is anyway closed to the public when high winds or temparature are recorded at the top.


We drove to Kings Canyon in the afternoon, where we spent the night under the stars again.

Day 8 : Coober Pedy to Uluru

And 4am again. I'm going slowly used to it! (not really)
hmm, almost 800km from Coober Pedy to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.


After a long day on the road we arrived finally at Uluru.
But this hill is is truly amazing, also because everything else is flat.

Day 7 : Quorn to Coober Pedy

We had to get up at 4am again.


The goal today: 500km and not in a sports car, in a bus! No matter, the streets anyway limitet to 100km/h.
Our first stop was Womra. It's the Area 51 of Australia. It was once a town for rocket tests. Now there is a open air exhibition of rockets and airplanes.


Our next stop was a saltlake. Unbelievable it's white almost to the horizon.


Then we stopped in the middle of Australia still at nowhere.


And then civilisation again: Coober Pedy, it is known as the "Opal Capital of the World" which produce 80 % of the Opals in the world.
Specially: almost everything is underground. They use the mine machines not just for mines, but also for shops, houses, hotels, ...



It's simple: Outside it could be almost 50 degrees or more. Underground its always about 22 degrees. They drill small holes up to the ground, in addition to the entrance, to ensure the air circulation. My room was about 20m under the ground.

Day 6 : Flinders Ranges and Wilpena Pound

Ahhh, we could sleep until 8am. That was good.
After the breakfast we drove to the Flinders Ranges National Park and walked through the Wilpena Pound.


After lunch we did another walk to Yourambulla Caves with Aboriginal rock paintings. The drawings are not regarded as art, but they tell a story or decribe Aboriginal rules.

Day 5 : Adelaide to Quorn

I had to get up at 5am. The bus was a little late and left at 6:20. We drove through the Clare Valley to Quorn and had lunch there.


In the afternoon we hiked 4.2km to the summit of Dutchman’s Stern with stunning views of Quorn.


Later we had a BBQ dinner with Kangaroo meat. Mmmm, that was delicious.

Day 4 : Adelaide

A free day in Adelaide. Just relaxing.
I slept long, walked along the shopping mile and had a muffin and a cappuccino. In the evening I met some friends who had booked the same trip.

Day 3 : Halls Gap to Adelaide

We had to get up at 5:30. It was still dark outside. I realised, how far we are in the wildlife, as we left at 6:30. Groups of kangaroo's had checked out the town and where everywhere. Even a deer crossed the road in front of our bus and went into the next garden.


We arrived at the Mackenzie Falls. There are quite steep stairs to go down to the bottom. The waterfall was really impressive.


Then we did a hike in Northern Grampians. The view was just phenomenal. It took's around 1.5h to go up.

Day 2 : Twelve Apostles to Grampians National Park

We slept in Port Campbell. It's a very small village. There is only one shop which sells everything.

At 8am next morning we drove to the London Bridge Lookout. We were about to leave, as a young kangaroo came along and hopped, between the people, down to the lookout. It was probably one that is raised by humans.



Then we stopped at Dunkeld near the Mount Sturgeon and had a visit at the Aboriginal Center. I took part at a Didgeridoo workshop but it was just a demo in the end. So i still can't play.
At the evening we arrived in Halls Gaps where we spent the night.

Day 1 : Melbourne to Great Ocean Road

The great ocean road has very beautiful views on the 12 apostels even there are just 8 left. It's a structure made of limestone. It looks just amazing. I took a helicopter to have a better view. It was my first heliflight. Wow that was coooool.

10 Day Melbourne to Alice Springs Safari

The Safari was just awesome!

After the car hire weekends around Sydney, I thought I know now how big Australia is, but that was nothing.
Imagine, 800 km in one Day and just few petrol stations and even fewer villages and a street almost completely straight. And that was just one of the days. We drove about 3000km just from Adelaide to Alice.
Often we had to get up at 4am to drive to a sunrise lookout. And the days were packed with events. So I had only time to update the blog during the drives but there were no net.

I will publish a post for every day, so stay tuned!

diving at the Great Barrier Reef

I dived at the Great Barrier Reef last Monday and Tuesday. Wow that was unbelievable!

I booked 2 one day trips, one on the Ocean Freedom and one on the Poseidon.
Despite the fact, I have the Padi Openwater and are allowed to dive to 18 Meters, I ordered a introductory dive, because i didn't dive the last 4 years.

My first dive in the morning was just great and the diveteacher sent me to the certified divers group for the afternoon.

The Ocean Freedom leaves from the Reef Fleet Terminal in Cairns whereas the Poseidon from Port Douglas, which means a 1h drive by bus.
The Poseidon is also a bit more luxurious than the Ocean Freedom but both ships are quite big and can carry many divers and the whole equipment. The support is similar on both boats.

To dive the Great Barrier Reef was amazing and everybody should do that, even if there is no certificate and if you really afraid of diving, do snorkeling.

Daintree Rainforest North Queensland

I flew to Cairns last Thursday and visited the Daintree Rainforest from Friday to Saturday overnight. I slept in the Ferntree Rainforest Lodge. It is that far away that you have no gsm connection. But the trip and the stay was just great and I had luck. It's wet season and it rains almost every day. But it was dry on both days. Although what means dry, the humidity is that high, that you get completely wet from sweating, without any movement.