Great Oceans Road

On Tuesday, we started early (at least we planned to do so) with the trip from Phillip Island via Melbourne to Apollo Bay. After searching for a geocache and dropping Andis brother's geocoin, we went on to St. Kilda. This is the part of Melbourne with access to the beach. We then went on to Anglesea, where the famous Great Oceans Road starts. We were able to see kangaroos at the golf course there, sitting as close as 5 meters. We then went on to Lorne and drove on a very scenic part of the road (with a lot of curves and right next to the sea). This took us to Apollo Bay where we stayed for the night. At first we had our own house, meaning that nobody else was in the hostel that night. However, 3 guys showed up later on but it was still very comfortable.

On the next day we went on driving along the road and came to the Otways Nationalpark. We did a short rain forest walk there which was very nice. Afterwards we visited the famous lighthouse at Cape Otway, the first of its kind on Australian mainland. From there we were able to see the shipwreck coast, a place where many ships crashed into the huge walls of sandstone. On our way back to the road we saw some wild koalas sitting (or actually sleeping) on trees. The next stop was Campell Nationalpark, again very famous for its rocks in the sea called 12 Apostles. We went for a short walk on the beach and visited all other tourist sites in this park (Loch Arch, London Bridge). Shortly after dawn we started our trip back to Melbourne to catch our night-flight to Darwin in the tropical top end of Australia.

Phillip Island

On Monday morning we rented a car in order to drive to Phillip Island, just south of the Mornington peninsula, an approx. 2 hours drive from Melbourne. It was Andi's first drive on the “wrong” side (left side) of the road and he was pretty nervous. Main difficulties were roundabouts (go clockwise), highways (up to 5 lanes, enter/exit left, overtake on both sides), and right turns within Melbourne (wait on the far left instead of in the middle, then turn right). As usual we saved some money by using free maps for our navigation system and it kept sending us to tollways which we didn't want to use. So Julia had to navigate using a map with few details! ;-) The landscape on our way was scenic, pretty much like in Ireland (Julia reminds this of Rosamunde Pilcher movies), but with Eucalyptus trees. Finally, we (and a new laptop, as the old one couldn't be repaired) arrived safely in Cowes.

Cowes is one of the three towns on Phillip Island and is home of the Chill House, our hostel of choice. Although looking creepy from outside, it proved to be a lovely and well equipped (pool table, DVDs, small sand beach, complimentary breakfast) place from inside. The hostel's mum welcomed us with a letter, as she wasn't around at that time. First we visited the Koala conservation center and took close-up pictures of Koalas – mostly sleeping – from tree-top boardwalks. During a short visit at the Nobbies (rocks in front of Phillip Island) we were able to see seals and incredible waves. Finally, we went to visit the main attraction on the island: The penguin parade. We were able to see about 300 cute little penguins, just about 30cm high, walking up the hills from the beach to their burrows. This means a distance of up to 1km. Penguins wait in the sea until it is dark, then form groups of about 20 and start walking. The reason is that it's less likely for them to be caught by a bird of pray. It was freezing cold outside, but we still waited for the last penguin to get out of the water. So did the penguins which stayed at home: They were waiting in front of the burrows. When their friends arrived, they made a lot of noise. Penguins communicate with each other at land, because in the sea they don't have time for that. In the evening Andi was very tired because of the exhausting left-driving and so we fell asleep early.

Welcome Australia - Melbourne

After a day of flying from the northern to the southern hemisphere, we finally arrived in Sydney on Saturday. However, we traveled on to Melbourne some hours later already (we'll return to Sydney in September). The airline we chose for the second flight was quite cheap – the boarding passes looked like bills and it had an open-air arrival area. We moved on to the hostel using the comfortable Skyline bus and arrived there after a 23-hours journey. Still, we went looking for a computer store to fix our laptop some minutes later. We explored Melbourne and found it to be a very interesting and architecturally beautiful city. After dinner in a Korean student restaurant we went to bed, glad about finally reaching our destination.

On Sunday we started to visit the sights of Melbourne: Parliament, Fitzroy Gardens, Treasure Gardens, Exhibition Center and Museum. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant and then continued the tour to the Melbourne Gaol, Victoria markets, a bookstore, Federation Square, the Yarra river area and finally to the Crown entertainment complex (with the biggest Australian casino). In the evening, we ended up going to the IMAX theater to watch Harry Potter (partially in 3D). In short: We love Melbourne! Although it's winter over here the weather is okay, the Yarra river looks as if it's Christmas time with many little lights, and last but not least the people and the town are just nice.

Stopover in Abu Dhabi

On Thursday morning we arrived at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for a stopover. We took a cab to downtown and one of the first questions the driver asked us was "How many wives are you allowed to have in Austria?" ;-) While the cab was air-conditioned, the town is obviously not. We were able to experience that while walking along a rather short road, at least it seemed so. However, after reaching the Abu Dhabi heritage village 15 minutes later we both were completely wet and desperate for a bottle of water. At least we found a geocache there! On our way back a nice guy gave us a lift and wanted to bring us to the near-by shopping center. When he heard about our plans of visiting the 7*-Emirates Palace hotel he took us there, as you can only enter by car. Wet like hell we didnt't really fit there - but anyway, great place! We'll post photos as soon as our laptop is working again (sadly, it's already damaged).

Other sights visited include the Grand Mosque, the Marina mall, Corniche, and the Gold Souk. Woman usually don't have to wear a head scarf, but inside the mosque it was mandatory - as you can see on the picture. We were pretty impressed by the mosque, the 7*-hotel, and the nice sea - but that's it. Abu Dhabi is not our favorite place to live: foggy, stuffy, and incredibly hot ;-)

Goodbye Austria

Our trip started by traveling to Munich by train. After a short visit to Munich downtown we went on to the airport. A lot of people were waiting at the check-in desk, so we took a seat and waited for some minutes. During that time we heard several calls for a black bag to be picked up at security. When we wanted to go back to the check-in desk the area had been secured by policemen for bomb evaluation. However, it was a false alarm and we made it in time to our flight. Abu Dhabi, here we come!

Trip to Australia!

Our blog is back again in summer 2009, as we're traveling to Australia! The trip is going to start on July 29th, so keep an eye on our page after that date ;-) We're already looking forward to your comments.

Winter Extravaganza

For Reading Week I joined the Outdoor Club, actually Yuval and Dan, for a trip to Silent Lake Provincial Park. We stayed there for 4 days (3 nights), being taught all the secrets of winter camping. This included sleeping in a yurt, quinzee (kind of like an igloo, but less room inside), and for some in a wall tent. The trip also featured soap stone carving, snow shoeing, wilderness first aid, navigation, and - last and maybe even the best - dog sledding. The survival skills I've learned even include lighting a fire in the cold and chopping wood ;-) We had a great trip with a nice group and perfectly prepared leaders. As usual, I've got a lot of photos (>200) and I've selected some for you to view in my photo album.