Ronald en Hester in Australië en Azië

We're in Queensland!

We’ve made it till Queensland! But first I’ll write about the last things we did en saw in the Northern Territory.

Jumping Crocodiles
After I put the last post online, we went on the Jumping Crocodile Tour. Together with about 10 other people we jumped on a small boat on the Adelaide River. We just cruised along until we saw a croc (a salty, the one’s that kill people), ooooh a croc you would think. We did, cause it was the first time we saw one in the wild. But the tour wouldn’t be called ‘Jumping’ crocodile tour unless the crocs would jump. Ok, it’s not totally ethically right and everything, we know but it was fun. What they do, is put some meat on a rope on a stick and keep this in the water. When a croc wants to go for it, they quickly pull the stick up and that is what makes the crocodile jump, he goes after the meat. They repeated this with three crocodiles we came across. Awesome to see and pretty scary too, cause the crocs are right next to the little boat. On the boat was also a boy (maybe 2 years old) and he clapped his little hands and called out: ‘Schnappi!!!!’ when he saw a croc…(for the people who don’t know Schnappi, this is a cute cartoon-crocodile, seen on tv). That was pretty funny

Litchfield NP
Some locals call Litchfield ‘mini Kakadu’, and they’re right. Litchfield is a small national park, but it’s beautiful. Maybe we liked Litchfield even better than we did Kakadu. We stayed on a bushcamp next to a huge waterfall. Again, this one was closed for swimming…We took a full day to explore Litchfield, with all it’s waterfalls (four!!). The last fall we paid a visit to was great, cause we could swim there!!! Wow, that was an amazing experience, to feel the strong current in the water, swim right through it and to stand under/behind all the water that was coming down. And the water was of a lovely temperature. We stayed there for 2 hours or something, that’s the great thing of doing this all on ourselves. We saw groups with tourguides coming, have a swim for 20 minutes and leave straight away, because their bus was waiting…

Mataranka Bitter Springs
The Douglas Hot Springs we wanted to go to so badly, were still closed Instead we drove to Mataranka to see if we could get lucky there…we could! The Bitter Springs were accessible (no more floodings) and that was very special. The water in a termal springs like that is so blue and warm, and you just swim right through the bushes, the trees and the weeds (of course there is some sort of ‘canal’ where you can swim).

On our way to Queensland
We’ve spent three wonderful weeks in the Northern Territory before we started heading to Queensland. Because we both don’t like to drive the same road twice, we took an alternative route for about 500 klm on our way east. Now, we thought we had seen the outback, but what we saw here was very different! The Stuart Highway between Adelaide and Darwin is a good wide sealed highway and there’s a fuel station about every 200 klm. There’s nothing along the way (no houses or anything) but there’s traffic pretty frequently. This Carpentaria Highway we took was as narrow as a oneway countryside road (seriously, even more narrow than the Westerlandweg where my parents live) except it wasn’t oneway, we came across two cars in 500 klm, and it’s called a HIGHWAY. Pretty funny if you ask me… Anyway, somewhere along the way we spent the night at a rest area (sleeping in the car) and when I woke up I saw an amazing outback-sunrise…Too bad for Ronald he was still sleeping .
Saturday we past the Queensland border, the sixth state we’re in. We are now in Mount Isa, Queenslands main outback-city. We’re just gonna relax here for the easter-weekend (everything is closed anyway) and than we’re gonna drive up to the east coast.

Happy Easter everyone, goodluck searching for eggs in the backyard

Love,

Ronald & Hester

The sweaty north

Let’s see, where were we…

Katherine
Close to Katherine you can find the Cutta Cutta Caves. Cutta is aboriginal language and means ‘star’. Cutta Cutta means ‘many stars’, due to the shiny crystal in the limestone walls of the caves, which look like there are stars all over the caves. The caves were great; stalagmites, stalagtites, 29 degrees and 93% humidity. Really impressive and a very informative tour (again, I know).
As I wrote last time, the road to Katherine Gorge wasn’t flooded anymore, so we went there. Unfortunateley we were so smart as not to book ahead for a boat tour. We ended up doing a walking track, which gave us a nice view over just a small part of the gorge but it was just too hot to walk. The humidity here in the north is killing us, it is really unpleasant. Not to speak about the mosquito’s, my whole body is covered in bites, there must be like 30 bites now

After the gorge we went to the Edith Falls, but (it seems to be the story of Ronald and Hester in the northern part of Australia), we couldn’t swim there as the water was up too high and there was a change we could be eaten by a crocodile. Too bad, cause it was a gorgeous place.

Kakadu National Park
Kakadu was very uuh WET. Due to the heavy rainfalls they had the last few weeks, a lot of the sites (attractions) were closed as the roads were impassible, a bit disappointing. Nevertheless, we’ve seen some great things in Kakadu. Nourlangie Rock, for example, a huge rock with amazing colours: yellow, brown, orange, grey, black. And smalls streams of water everywhere. But the best part of this rock were the many aboriginal art sites.
On our second day in Kakadu we went on a boatcruise on Yellow Water (this time we booked ahead ). We got te have a good look at how enormous the area is and how much everything is flooded. The funniest thing of this cruise was the part where we actually went on the carpark with the boat. Flooded, ofcourse. But no crocodiles, the water is up too high for them they cannot maintain their body temperature in deep water.

On our way to Adelaide River (a township between Katherine and Darwin) we wanted to go to the Douglas Hot Springs, which should be really good. So we went of the highway, drove 35 kilometres and at the turn off for the springs…a sign…CLOSED. Damn, couldn’t they have put that sign up a little but earlier???!!!!! We’re gonna try it again on our way back.
In Adelaide River we ended up on a very wet and muddy campsite, where I managed to get the car stuck in the mud. Fortunateley the owner of the campsite had a 4WD and pulled us out

Darwin
Darwin is a nice city, but a lot smaller than I expected, there’s only a bit more than 71 000 people living here. In WWII Darwin got bombed very heavily, so there are basicly no old buildings left. And if there would have been, cycloon Tracy came to visit Darwin in 1974 and destroyed everything anyway. So everything in Darwin is relatively new.

Saturday we walked through Darwin, we passed several WWII memorial sites, a Chinese temple (being close to Asia, Darwin is very multicultural) and the parliament house. We got a good view of the city by just walking around. In the afternoon we went to Aquascene where wild fishes come to be fed every day at high tide. That was fun!! There were a lot of fish, very close to us, you could even handfeed them.
Since we spent some weeks travelling in the bush and eating cheap simple meals (like 2 minute noodles) we decided to do out for dinner and after that we went to the cinemas, celebrating being back in civilisation That was a lovely night.

Sunday we went to the WWII oil storage tunnels, built in WWII to prevent the oil storage tanks above ground to be seen from the air by the Japanese, by replacing them for underground storage. Wow, these things are huge!! 171 metres long.
At the wharf we saw an exhibition about the pearling industry in Australia, which is quite big. I learned a lot of new things there The rest of that day we spent in the botanic gardens, relaxing, reading…

Monday was our musea-day. First we saw the Aviation Heritage Centre, with (amongst a lot of others) the B52 bomber, what an amazingly large bombing plane!! We got to have a look inside the thing, even I got excited about that After that we went to the Art Gallery & Museum of the Northern Territory, where we spent a lot of time, there were exhibitions about aboriginal art, WWII, sea- and wildlife, cycloon Tracy, Crocodile Sweetheart and a high school student-art-thing. Great.

So, today we leave Darwin. This afternoon we’re gonna go on a ‘jumping crocodile tour’, where we are finally gonna see some real life crocodiles! And we’re gonna go to Litchfield NP, try the Douglas Hot Springs again and then the Mataranka Thermal Pools. See if the road conditions are better by now. We’ll have to drive all the way back to Tennant Creek, from where we will be able to drive to the east coast.

Ronald tried and tried to put pictures online, but this internet cafe only allows us to put a small amount online. So it’s not much, but there are some new photos to see for you guys (in the album ‘the red centre’).

A big kiss for everyone!!!!

Ronald and Hester

The Red Centre

You’d better grab a cup of coffee and a comfy seat, cause it’s been two weeks since our last post and we haven’t been doing nothing….

Coober Pedy
Coober Pedy is the strangest town I’ve ever seen…It’s ugly and dusty. Once it was a place where people were hoping to find lots of opal (and money), but today there are only 400 miners left (comparing to 4000 somewhat years ago) and about 400000 holes in the ground where they’ve been searching for opals. It really looks like the moon. Not that I’ve ever been on the moon, but I have seen some pictures…
We spent one whole day in CP and that was enough! We went to two underground churches, which was quite impressive. We also went into the Old Timers Opal Mine, an old mine, digged out by hand in the early opal-mining-days. Outfitted with helmets on our heads we crowled through the mine and had some great fun, nice to see!! After that we took a tour into a real ‘working’ opal mine. A guy who’s been a miner for 28 years and went broke four times was our tourguide, and that made the tour very informative and interesting. He said: ‘Miners have the best brains you can imagine….they’re brand new, never been used!!!! Well, I agree on that one. It’s a strange way to live your life, it’s a bit like gambling, you never know if you’re gonna find that big opal that’s gonna make you a rich man.
We tried it for ourselves, but strangely we didn’t find any opal.

Uluru/Ayers Rock
After driving 730 km from Coober Pedy (with nothing else to see than dead kangaroo’s, rotten dead cow’s and the bones of what once was a camel on the side of the road), we got to Ayers Rock. We could see the big monolite from far far away. We arrived there by the end of the day so we went straight to the ‘sunset carpark’. Uluru is very touristic (unfortunately), you even have to pay 25 dollars just to get into the NP. At the carpark we made our meal, cooking right in front of Uluru (yeah, we must be living the real backpackers-life by now) and waited for the sun to set and send it’s magic glow over the big rock. But we were not very lucky, as it was bloody clouded. So we sat there, basicly watching it getting dark, nothing more than that.
The next morning we tried the sunset, getting up at six (very unusual for us) we were filled with excitement to see the best sunset ever. BUT….. There where the clouds again. Truly disappointed we started the base walk, 9.4 km around the base of Uluru. This was very impressive, cause at every ‘corner’ the rock has a different appearence. And the thing really is red, pretty amazing. In the afternoon we bought a real aboriginal art painting ( ) !! I really like the aborginal art, it’s very beautiful. Late in the afternoon Ronald decided he wanted to go for a run…around Uluru! Now he’s really proud he ran around Uluru, very cute
The next day we also went to the Olga’s (Uluru’s little sisters, far less famous than Uluru), but it was raining… so we just did a short walk there and then drove to Kings Canyon.

Kings Canyon
Kings Canyon was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The next day we got there, we went for the ‘rim walk’, a 5.5 km walk that is supposed to take 3-4 hours with a very steep 100 mtr climb up the rock at the start. On top of Kings Canyon the view was great and the walk was good, cause it was not as commercial as Uluru, you actually had to climb and sort of find your own way. When we were about halfway, it started to rain. We thought ah oh, shit, we (ofcourse) didn’t bring any jumpers or raincoats. But than in no time, waterfalls started to exist everywhere. This was absolutely amazing. We didn’t care we were getting soaked, we were walking through te base of multiple falls!!!! It was one of the best experiences so far, I can’t really explain it in words, it was just so beautiful.

That afternoon we headed to Alice Springs. It was raining and raining and raining. It just didn’t stop. Now, you think the desert is dry….it’s not!!!!!!!!!!! We came to quite a lot of floodings…..a lot of water on the road….pretty exciting, but we made it well, even with our car.

Alice Springs
In Alice we went to G’day Mate Tourist Park (just funny to mention). Alice was very different than what we expected, it was so green!! We just expected it to be dusty and ugly, but it was so green! In Alice we visited the base of The Royal Flying Doctor Service. This was very interesting to see. Coming from such a small country as the Netherlands, I’ve never really realised that in a country like Australia a lot of people in remote areas wouldn’t really be able to survive without the RFDS in case of an accident or sudden illness. Great to see and great that this exists.
We also saw the Old Ghan Train Museum, that one was a bit dusty and old but it was nice anyway to read about the history of the famous Australian train.
Besides that we’ve just strolled around in Alice, we went inside a few art gallery’s (they’ve got a lot of art gallery’s here, mostly aboriginal art).
And the things we heard about aborginals in Alice Springs is true, they are everywhere on the streets. Not taking care of themselves, no shoes, dirty clothes. It’s sad but very true.

Macdonnell Ranges
The Macdonnell Ranges are very close to Alice and according to a lot of people, very beautiful. So, we went to the Mac’s. We only did the West part and it really was good. We went camping on a bushcamp at Ellery Creek Big Hole, a permanent water hole. Perfect to go for a swim in the morning…(but we didn’t really like the amazing amount of bugs at night, yuk!). Beautiful Gorges and views in the West Mac’s and not too touristic. I can go on and on about the good views, but I won’t .

On our way to Katherine
When we left Alice Springs, we just had to stop at the (normally dry) river. There were so many people standing on the side of the road, police, we got curious. What we saw was pretty amazing. Water, a lot of water came running down the river very fast. Within minutes the road crossing the river was flooded. A policemen said they expected 2 metres of water that day. Hm, we thought: we are going in the direction where al that water is coming from…
But it turned out to be allright. At Tennant Creek there was a flooding, not to deep but there was water on the road for a good 10-15 metres. We nearly ended up next to the road as we where driving through the water, but we made it across safely.
We drove further and the landscape really started to change, everything became much more green and tropical. And the most significant thing here in the Northern Territory is the termite mounds, they’re just everywhere! Sometimes they can get up to 2 metres high!
On our way to Katherine we wanted to go to the Mataranka Thermal Springs, but guess what…the road to get there was absolutely flooded. It turns out that, like everywhere in the world, the seasons are changing. We thought that by now the wet season up here would have ended, but it has not. So everything is wet, humid and sticky. You can take a shower here and then you might as well jump right back in. If you know what I mean

Katherine
In Katherine they’ve had a lot of rain as well. Yesterday we wanted to go to the Katherine Gorge, but, well, I think you can guess: the road is flooded. So instead we went to the Jurassic Cycad Gardens, where they apparenly have very rare plants. They owner was very enthusiastic and told us everything about the plants and how they have real sperm (uuuh, yeah, it’s true) but unfortunately (for him or for me) my brain doesn’t really register information about plants. But the garden was beautiful

After another hot and sticky night (the weather… ) we were planning to go to Kakadu National Park today, to wrestle with some crocodiles. But we found out that the road to Katherine Gorge isn’t flooded anymore. It’s a strange world….So we’re gonna go there first and then probably later this afternoon we’ll head up to Kakadu.

We’re still happy campers and enjoying ourselves bigtime

We hope you’re all doing good, is spring coming through nicely in Holland?

Love to you all!!!

Ronald & Hester

New pictures online

Just to let you know we’ve put the pictures of the Flinders Ranges and Coffin Bay online.

Right now we’re in Coober Pedy. Yesterday we drove 540 km from Port Augusta to here. Coober Pedy is the opal-mining capital of the world, everywhere you look people have digged holes in search of opals. Looks very strange…Today we’re gonna find out everything about it.

A lot to tell about one week

Here we are again…

At the moment we’re in the library in Port Lincoln, I’ll write about our week since we left Adelaide.

From Adelaide we drove to Port Augusta (very very boring drive) where we spent one night, not much going on there. From there we went into Flinders Ranges National Park. The scenery here was very different from what we’ve seen so far. So much wide open space, unbelievable. We did a walking track on Arkaroo Rock and to the Youramballa Caves, were we saw (for the first time!) some real aboriginal art on the rocks. The walk was nice (not too much climbing…) and the view was great. The campsite where we were staying was crowded with kangaroo’s and colourfull parrots (and unfortunately mosquito’s) and of course there were enough barbie’s

The second day in the Flinders Ranges we decided to do a self guided driving tour through the Bunyeroo- and Brachina Gorge. This was fantastic, a real spectacular drive. It was a narrow winding dirt road with great views that went on for 36 km. With our 2 wheel drive it was pretty ok (a bit bumpy every now and then, but fine). We were having fun until the road started to get really rocky. All of the sudden I heard ‘pats’ and then ‘ppsssssssssssssss’, ah oh, flat tire….In the middle of nowhere in the burning hot sun…But fortunately Ronald had checked our spare tire before we left Adelaide and fifteen minutes later we were ready to move on. That was about enough excitement for that day

The next day we had a long drive ahead of us, 500 km to Port Lincoln and Coffin Bay. We were invited bij Erica and Greg (Erica is Mrs. T’s daughter, where we spent christmas) to come and stay in their beachshack for a few days. We didn’t expect anything, but OH MY GOD we arrived in paradise. Their house is in Coffin Bay, right on the beach. The house is amazing, big and luxurious. The view over the bay from the living room and the terrace were stunning, absolutely beautiful. Greg met us there and he left the next day, so we’ve had the place for 4 days to ourselves (imagine this, normally they charge $ 300,- a night for this paradise). And it was great.

On Saturday we went into Coffin Bay National Park, very beautiful (of course ). We found a large beach there with white sand and blue blue water. And the good thing is, besides 2 people 1 kilometre away from us, we had the beach to ourselves. The water was pretty cold, but that was part of the fun

On Sunday we did the Oyster Walk along the beachside of Coffin Bay, the rest of the day we’ve just been lazy-asses….some reading, watching a movie, relaxing…and ofcourse a barbie at night.

On Monday we went to Mikkira, a large secluded part of Lincoln National Park, where you can spot lots of wildlife. After only a little while, we saw koala’s in the trees. If we would have wanted to, we could have touched them, they were low in the trees and we could easily approach them. Koala’s are so cute!! There were also sheep (yeah I know, nothing special), kangaroo’s, emu’s, parrot’s…in the evening we went to Deb and David, friends of Erica and Greg, who invited us to come over for dinner. That was a great night, this people are about as Australian as you can imagine. Deb’s parents were there as well and while we were talking about that we just have a 2 WD they were imidiately arranging things to take us out on a 4 WD-tour into Lincoln NP.

So, on Monday we knocked on Brian and Raelena’s (Deb’s parents) door at ten o’clock. After Brain showed us his amazing Coca Cola collection (a whole room full of everything you can think of, made by Coca Cola) we were off to Lincoln NP. Ooooh and what a great day this was!!!!! We started out on the sandhills, drove over rocks, had stunning views, took narrow paths over the sandhills, and of course got stuck in the sand. At one point, we got really stuck. Ron, me and Realena got out of the car and removed the sand in front of the tires. But then all of the sudden, the car started to slide downhill, in a really weird angle. For a moment, we all thought the car was gonna tumble over. But fortunately it didn’t and Brian managed to get us moving again.
After a while it was time for me and Ronald to go sandboarding. Wwooehoooeoe that really is great fun!!!!!! Climbing up the sandhill is though work, but once you’re sliding down on a high speed, wow!! Great.
For lunch Brian picked a nice seaview-spot, popped 4 chairs and a table out of the car and there we were, having lunch in the middle of paradise.
In the afternoon we tried a few beaches to spot dolphins, but it wasn’t our lucky dolphin-day. We did see kangaroo’s, emu’s and even a iguana (which was apparently very unusual to see there). It was a lovely day…and very special. If you think about it, all of this started the day before Christmas in the library where we met Mrs. T. (Jenny), then we met Erica and Greg, we met their friends Deb and David, we met Deb’s parents Brian and Raelena and thanks to all these people, we’ve had some great days here in Port Lincoln/Coffin Bay. And they don’t even know us!! We love the Ozzies

Right now we are waiting for a mechanic who is putting a new tire on our wheel…in an hour or so we’ll be heading back to Port Augusta (300 km), from where we’re gonna go into the outback tomorrow. So, the real Oz-Experience starts tomorrow.

You’ll read about it soon!

Ronald and Hester

On the road again….

Starting from today we’ll be writing some things in English on our weblog, so our friends in Adelaide (and all the other people we’ve met here in Australia) can see what we’re up to as well.

Time has come…we’re leaving today!

We’ve been looking forward to this moment for quite a few weeks now, cause we were sick of working, but now we’re actually leaving it feels a bit strange as well. Looking back, we’ve had a really good time here, we’ve met nice people and enjoyed living in Arthur Street with Sam. Hester’s had a great time at Buskers (and learned lots of new things ) and Ronald felt so much at home at Toudtou and Crystal’s place. We’re all leaving that behind now…we don’t now where we’ll be sleeping tonight or where we’ll be next week, but that’s all part of our time here in Australia (and we’re loving it ).

Lots of good and new things will be waiting for us along the road…we’ve been able to save up money to travel for a good couple of months, so here we go…

We’ve had a great farewell-party last Saturday (lots of tequila, people puking inside the pub) and celebrated Ronald’s 28th birthday on Sunday. On Monday Hester worked on the Rockford Winery in the Barossa Valley with Brett, Sam and Kimberley to serve a three-course lunch to 200 (!!!!) people. It was a great day but now her arms are falling off cause of all the really heavy plates she’s been carrying

At the moment we’re putting all the last stuff in the car (yes, it fits again) and we’ve put some of the pictures we took the last few weeks online.

From now on you won’t be seeing us online all the time anymore…but there will be more exciting stories than the last few months!

We’re gonna miss the people and our lives in Adelaide!

Bug hugs for everyone!!

Ronald & Hester

Newsflash

Jaja we hebben weer wat te vertellen

Ronald is sinds vorige week gestopt met het verkopen van energie, uiteindelijk leverde het niet echt genoeg geld op. Niet omdat Ron een slechte verkoper is, maar vooral omdat mensen die een contract tekenen dit nog binnen 10 dagen kunnen cancellen en dan krijgt Ronald dus niet betaald voor die sale :S
Samen met nog een paar jongens die er ook mee gestopt zijn werkt hij nu op een wijngaard in de Barossa valley. En jaja vroege vogel als hij is, moet hij nu elke dag om 4 uur zijn bedje uit….Terwijl ik meestal op z’n vroegst om een uur of 11 begin heb ik bestwel medelijden met hem
Hij moet zo belachelijk vroeg op omdat het bestwel een stukje reizen is naar de wijngaard en i.v.m. de lekkere 36 graden die we hier al weken aanhoudend hebben. Hij komt nu elke dag helemaal smerig en uitgeput thuis. Wel met wat extra spierbundels want hij moet emmers met 10 kg aan druiven in een aanhangwagen achter een tractor smijten.

En terwijl hij hard aan het buffelen is in de warme zon, ben ik ook maar wat extra werk gaan doen Behalve bij Buskers werk ik nu ook zo’n 3 shifts per week bij Restaurant Air. Stukken minder gezellig dan bij Buskers (beetje chiquer, vervelende klanten ), maar ach….het levert weer wat extra geld op.

Inmiddels hebben we ook besloten dat we niet richting Perth en de westkust gaan, maar dat we vanaf hier via Alice Springs en Uluru (Ayers Rock) omhoog naar Darwin gaan. Dus over een week of 3 verschijnen hier mooie foto’s van de welbekende grote rode rots!

‘t Is een echte newsflash dit, want: als we op 16 juli in Sidney op het vliegtuig stappen, vliegen we weliswaar naar Taipei (zoals eerder geschreven), maaaaaar….daarna vliegen we direct door naar Bangkok. Dit hebben we kunnen regelen met Kilroy in Sidney en we zijn er erg blij mee, want we wilden helemaal niet nog een keer naar Taipei! En wat helemaal leuk is, is dat Jorien (vriendin van mij) waarschijnlijk ongeveer tegelijk met ons in Bangkok aankomt. We gaan dan voor een nog niet nader bepaalde periode met z’n drietjes reizen. Leuk, leuk, leuk

We zijn nu echt de laatste dagen dat we nog ‘moeten’ werken aan het aftellen, 6 maart verlaten we Adelaide. Ondertussen ook nog wel even aan het genieten van de luxe van het grote bed, de tv, de keuken…Straks ruilen we dat weer om voor tentje met luchtbed, boek bij kaarslicht/zaklamp en gaspitje….Wat natuurlijk ook zo z’n charmes heeft.

Op de valreep hebben we a.s. zondag nog lekker een dagje vrij samen, dat is onderhand een maand geleden. Eindelijk tijd om de Adelaide Hills in te gaan

Tot zover de newsflash!

Veel liefs aan jullie allemaal!!

Nog 4 weken!

Na wat wikken en wegen hebben we besloten wanneer we Adelaide gaan verlaten: maandag 5 maart. Het weekend ervoor kunnen we dan mooi nog even een afscheids-/verjaardagsparty (Ron is 4 maart jarig) houden met onze collega’s en dan is het weer tijd om lekker te gaan reizen!! Hebben we allebei heel erg veel zin in.

Heel waarschijnlijk gaan we vanaf hier richting Port Lincoln (zo’n 600 km). Via goodold Mrs. T. ‘kennen’ we daar iemand die een vliegtuig bezit en die ons graag een joy-flight wil geven. Boven de kust waar het stikt van de Great White Sharks Hopen dat dit doorgaat…

Het is hier al een paar dagen bloedheet, om maar eens wat te noemen: gister was het 40.5 graden. Erg fijn om dan te moeten werken…
‘s Avonds hebben we lekker een picnic gedaan in het Botanic Park met wat collega’s + vriendinnen van Ronald. Gezellig en vast een voorproefje van Laos’ eten van Todu, Ronalds collega uit Laos. Dan weten we vast wat we straks kunnen verwachten als we zelf naar Laos gaan

Verder gaat ‘t hier z’n gangetje, we voelen ons inmiddels aardig ingeburgerd in Australie. De ‘ Hi mate, how are you going’ en ‘no worries’ komen er vloeiend uit! Dat is het leuke van een langere tijd op een plek blijven, je ervaart het land dan toch anders dan wanneer je steeds maar onderweg bent en we komen op deze manier veel meer in contact met de Ozzies.

Tot slot om jullie even jaloers te maken: ik heb vandaag vrij en ga zo even lekker naar het strand

Kus

Ronald & Hester

Barossa-valley!

Eindelijk is het er van gekomen, we zijn afgelopen woensdag naar de Barossa-valley geweest!! Omdat we beiden werken, en we daardoor eigenlijk geen dag samen vrij hebben, had ik een vrije dag genomen. Die was het meer dan waard! Om kwart over negen zijn we opgestaan om ons snel even te gaan douchen en in de auto te gooien, die toen al behoorlijk had staan bakken in de zon. Maar niks kon ons goede humeur verpesten, we hadden ons hier enorm op verheugd.

Toen we na ongeveer een half uurtje rijden in Gawler aankwamen gingen we opzoeken hoe we verder de Valley in moesten, we wilden immers (voor de verandering) eens een keer niet doelloos rondscheuren, maar ook eens echt genieten van het gene de omgeving (en natuurlijk de wijnboeren) te bieden hadden. Na snel overleg kwamen we tot onze eerste bestemming:

The Whispering Wall. In eerste instantie denk je, wooh, wat een indrukwekkende betonnen muur, en wat een water zit erachter opgesloten. Ze hebben die Wall daar namelijk geplaatst om de omgeving van drinkwater te kunnen voorzien. Heel indrukwekkend om te zien, maar waar komt de naam The Whispering Wall dan vandaan?! Daar kwamen we dus achter toen we bovenaan stonden: je kon de mensen aan de overkant op 140 meter afstand letterlijk horen fluisteren. De acoustiek is dusdanig (door de kromming zoals op de foto’s te zien is) dat het geluid als door een luidspreker klinkt. Nadat we ons vermaakt hadden met het luisteren en het bekijken van de omgeving (de dam zelf is 39 meter hoog, wat dus al een bezienswaardigheid opzich is) zijn we verder gereden.

Eigenlijk hadden we nog niet echt een plan gemaakt waar we heen gingen (in de richting van Lyndoch, daar zijn wel wat wineries) maar toen we aan de weg een bordje naar een lavendel-farm zagen keken we elkaar aan…. en sloegen af Nou dat was een goede keus!

De lavendel-farm lag midden tussen de wijnvelden, een beetje tegen een heuvel op. Na het betalen van 2 dollar (naar onze mening achteraf een fooi, gezien de gratis koffie en thee) mochten we een wandeling maken door de lavendel-tuin en we moesten maar vooral alle tijd nemen. Dat hebben we dan ook gedaan (kijk bijvoorbeeld maar naar alle foto’s die we gemaakt hebben, er staat een selectie in het Life in Adelaide album) en toen we klaar waren met rondwandelen was het tijd voor lunch.

Gelukkig hadden de heren en dames van de lavendel-farm daar rekening mee gehouden en we konden daar dan ook een kaasplankje (Hes eet tegenwoordig kaas en dat was maar goed ook daar) bestellen waar we met ons tweetjes voldoende aan hadden om een behoorlijk verzadigd gevoel te hebben achteraf! Zou natuurlijk ook kunnen komen door het glas rode wijn dat we allebei op hadden, maar voor ons was de dag al geslaagd!

De lavendel-farm was voor ons vooral zo speciaal omdat het zo’n rustig en vredig plekje was. Dat klinkt misschien oudbollig en saai, maar het was een hele fijne ervaring om gewoon zonder stress en haast eens lekker uitgebreid te kunnen lunchen en wandelen.

Vanaf daar zijn we door gegaan naar Menglers Hill, waarvandaan we een mooi uitzicht hadden over de Barossa-Valley. We hadden al een heel voldaan gevoel over ons, maar na dat uitzicht werd dit alleen maar beter (zweef zweef ). Na een paar leuke foto’s gemaakt te hebben (zie onder) gingen we verder naar Nuriootpa, waar we een heerlijke Cabernet Sauvignon van de Elderton Winery hebben geproefd. Een rode wijn uit 2004, Specially selected for The Australian Premium Wine Collection, aldus de dame van Elderton .

De rest van de dag hebben we doorgebracht met het door de Barossa-valley rijden, plekjes bekijken en het maken van mooie foto’s, waarvan we, voor de verandering, een aantal hieronder laten zien. Voor de rest kunnen jullie kijken in het Life in Adelaide-album.

Veel liefs van mij en Hester!

En we gaan nog niet naar huis, nog lange niet….

Leg die welkomst-spandoeken nog maar even in de kast, want het duurt nog wel even voordat jullie ons weer in levenden lijven zullen zien!
Zoals de meesten van jullie wel weten, hadden Ron en ik niet echt een duidelijk plan voor onze reis door Oz en vooral geen duidelijkheid over hoeLANG we weg zouden zijn. We hebben steeds gezegd minimaal 6 en maximaal 12 maanden. Wel nu, de duidelijkheid is gekomen

Na 3,5 maand down under hebben we nog lang niet alles gezien van dit mooie land (dat vervelende gewerk ook) en nu we toch ‘aan deze kant’ van de aardbol zitten, hebben we besloten om ook naar Azie te gaan. Afgelopen week hebben we definitief onze tickets omgeboekt: na een dikke 9 maanden Australie vliegen we straks op 16 juli van Sidney naar Taipei (kunnen we daar weer even lekker in paniek rond gaan rennen ) vanaf waar we dan 2 maanden de tijd hebben om te doen wat we willen.

Ik ben momenteel helemaal in de ban van reisverhalen lezen en zoveel mogelijk goede info opdoen over reizen in Azie (toch handig, dat internet). Hoogstwaarschijnlijk gaan we naar Vietnam, Cambodja, Laos, Thailand, Maleisie en Singapore. Klinkt goed he
In ieder geval moeten we ervoor zorgen dat we op 11 september (alarmbellen, vliegen op 9-11? ja, echt waar) weer in Taipei zijn voor onze vlucht naar Amsterdam. Dus 12 september is voor jullie de dag, dat het spandoek de kast uit mag

Even voor mezelf gesproken ben ik superblij met dit plan. Ik vind het toch wel fijn dat ik nu weet wanneer ik weer ‘thuis’ zal zijn. En 2 maanden door Azie trekken…ik ben er super enthousiast over! Verhalen van anderen over 10 uur lang opgepropt zitten in een verrot busje tussen 189 andere mensen, complete groentetuinen, scooters, dozen en huisdieren om bij de volgende grensovergang te komen, geven mij het gevoel: dat wil ik ook een keer meemaken!!!! En dat gaan we nu dus doen, fantastisch

Maar tot nu toe zitten we nog in ons fijne huisje in Adelaide, waar we ook weer een paar leuke dingen hebben meegemaakt…

Op een van mijn vrije dagen wilde ik weer even lekker lui op ‘t strand gaan liggen. Ik besloot eerst nog even gedag te gaan zeggen bij Mrs. Toogood, de Te Goede mevrouw waar we kerst hebben gevierd. Dat werd iets meer dan ‘even gedag zeggen’! Voor ik het wist zat ik bij haar binnen met een koud drankje en belde ze haar dochter die vervolgens langs kwam met man en 3 kinderen. Even later lag ik met die kids in het enorme zwembad in de achtertuin en daarna bleef ik ‘natuuuuuurlijk’ ook voor de barbi (zoals ze een barbecue hier noemen). Nou, daar zei ik natuurlijk geen nee tegen haha! Twee van de kids bleven bij ‘oma’ slapen en ik heb ze bedtime story’s voorgelezen. Dat vonden ze helemaal geweldig, helemaal toen Ronald me tussendoor belde en ik ineens in het Nederlands begon te praten. Echt weer leuk, zo warm en gastvriendelijk

Afgelopen zondag zijn we naar Port Adelaide gegaan waar we een dolphin cruise hadden geboekt. Het schijnt dat de rivier die naar de zee toe leidt vol met dolfijnen zit, dus vol verwachting stapten wij op de boot. De cruise duurde zo’n 2 uur maar nadat we na een uur en 45 minuten nog steeds geen dolfijnen hadden gezien, zakte de moed ons een beetje in de schoenen en waren we enigszins teleurgesteld….Net voordat we weer aanmeerden zagen we toch nog een paar dolfijnen het water uit springen Toen we weer op de kade stonden zagen we er nog een paar, waren we toch nog een klein beetje blij

Dit zegt denk ik ook al een heleboel :

Ronald begint al een echte salesman te worden, hij weet aardig goed de Energy Australia contracten aan te smeren! En ik doe ondertussen van alles bij Buskers, de ene dag ben ik aan het bedienen, de andere dag sta ik in de bar en maak ik heeeele lekkere cappucino’s, latte’s etc. etc.

Dat was ‘m weer even voor nu.
Er is ook weer een nieuw album met een aantal foto’s erin.

Liefs Hester (en Ronald natuurlijk maar die is op dit moment aan ‘t werk).