What's up down under?

Moving houses and Hahndorf

shakahangloose — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 10:00:54 +0000

We had to change houses and decided to rent a car since we gathered a lot of things and got a good deal for a car. So after moving all our stuff we went to Mount Lofty and Hahndorf…the german village…which is really not too german…they even fry the white sausages! But it was a nice trip around Adelaide.

Barossa Gourmet Weekend

shakahangloose — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:00:35 +0000

Dylan, Karin’s former landlord, organised a Vine Tour with two Mini-Buses during the NAB Barossa Gourmet Weekend – apart from the delicious vine tasting the vineries usually also have a band playing and provide some food during this weekend. As expected the Vine tour became more and more fun as we were moving on from one vinery to the next and ended up in a maybe not too decent way…

East Coast – Day Thirty-Two – Cairns…time to say goodbye!

shakahangloose — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:42:46 +0000

This day we had to say goodbye to our beloved Campervan. So we had to clean it and bring it to Apollo…afterwards we checked in at the Beach House Cairns, where we again met Francesco and went to Rhino Bar again to get a nice dinner…

The next day we caught the plane back to Adelaide…the end of our East Coast Holiday…what a nice trip!

East Coast – Day Thirty-One – Cape Tribulation

shakahangloose — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:42:26 +0000

Nice walk at the beach and exciting (!) boardwalk through the rainforest. Then further to the Cape Tribulation Ice-Cream-Factory and down to Port Douglas.

East Coast – Day Thirty – Cape Tribulation

shakahangloose — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 05:42:04 +0000

Last sight to see on our holiday: the rainforest up north at Cape Tribulation. We took the barge to the rain forest area and checked in at a camping site near Cape Tribulation.

East Coast – Day Twenty-Nine – Cairns – Great Barrier Reef

shakahangloose — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 05:41:37 +0000

We went on a one-day sailing cruise out to Green Island where we got an introductionary dive – that was really amazing – big fishes and of course the beautiful corals.

Then we were brought to Green Island. Back on the boat we also saw reef sharks…nice – only the weather could have been a bit better that day…but at least we had sunshine during the dive!

In the evening we enjoyed a really god and amazing cheap dinner at the Rhino Bar!

East Coast – Day Twenty-Eight – Cairns

shakahangloose — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 05:41:14 +0000

This day we only did sunbathing…at Palm Cove near Cairns. Had a nice lunch at the beach and enjoyed the sun!

East Coast – Day Twenty-Seven – Atherton Tablelands…up to Cairns

shakahangloose — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:40:53 +0000

On the way up to Cairns we checked out some more sights in Atherton, like the Curtain Fig Tree – and took the scenic roads up to Cairns.

We spent the day shopping at a DFO (Direct Factory Outlet) and looking at Cairns – in the evening we had a really nice seafood all-you-can eat dinner at Charlie’s in the Acacia Court Hotel – go there if you ever get to Cairns!

Later we again met Francesco and James, had a look at the night-market and got a nice Chinese massage!

East Coast – Day Twenty-Six – Atherton Tablelands

shakahangloose — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:40:25 +0000

We first went down to “Paronella Park” which is an old castle with a beautiful surrounding a guy from spain build – read more here: http://www.paronellapark.com.au

We went on to see the numerous beautiful waterfalls and drove the winding scenic roads with amazing landscape around us.

We spent the night in Atherton at a camping site.

East Coast – Day Twenty-Five – Magnetic Island

shakahangloose — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:40:04 +0000

That day we left Magnetic Island and drove to Milaa Milaa in the Atherton Tablelands (Rainforest) – where we spent the night.

East Coast – Day Twenty-Four – Magnetic Island

shakahangloose — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 05:39:34 +0000

Today is someone’s birthday…unfortunately he left his German SIM-card in Adelaide and probably missed some birthday-wishes…

We started the day with a nice breakfast and did the Wildlife-walk…yes, there are some big spiders around there…and heaps of butterflies!

In the evening we first had a nice dinner at “Barefoot” on Horseshow Bay and in the evening with met up with Francesco, James and Katrin (who were also studying at Uni Adelaide) and partied at Base X – a backpacker hostel directly at the beach!

East Coast – Day Twenty-Three – Magnetic Island

shakahangloose — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 05:39:09 +0000

Today three of our friends (Ricardo, Stefano and Andre) from Adelaide arrived on Magnetic Island we met up and also again enjoyed the sunset at Horseshoe Bay. (Yes…some more sunset-pictures).

East Coast – Day Twenty-Two – Magnetic Island

shakahangloose — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 05:38:38 +0000

At our camping site was also a “wildlife-park” which we visited that day – petting some nice Australian animals!

The rest of the day we explored the island and found the most beautiful beach on the island: Radical Bay!

East Coast – Day Twenty-One – Magnetic Island

shakahangloose — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:38:11 +0000

We explored the island, had lunch at the beach, I cracked a coconut (with a car-jack and a sharpe edge of a cement block!!!) and enjoyed the sunset at Horseshoe Bay with a glass of wine!

What a nice day!

East Coast – Day Twenty – On the way to Magnetic Island

shakahangloose — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:37:44 +0000

We spent the day in Townsville and caught the ferry to Magnetic Island in the evening and checked in at Bungalow Bay!

East Coast – Day Nineteen – Sailing the Whitsundays…Day Three!

shakahangloose — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:37:15 +0000

Some snorkelling for the tough ones in the morning…and then sailing back to the marina saying goodbye to sexy broomstick!

That day we went on to Townsville to check in at a caravan park.

East Coast – Day Eighteen – Sailing the Whitsundays…Day Two!

shakahangloose — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:36:52 +0000

Again some amazing snorkelling and afterwards we went to the most beautiful beach I’ve seen so far: Whitehaven Beach. The sand there is 98% Silica – only the NASA was allowed to get sand from the beach to build telescopes! There we saw a reef shark and some stingrays…you had to be careful to not step on one!

We went on doing some proper sailing and set lie at anchor in a nice bay to have dinner and spent the night there.

East Coast – Day Seventeen – Sailing the Whitsundays…Day One!

shakahangloose — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:36:26 +0000

Welcome aboard “Sexy Broomstick” – a fast 76 feet racing yacht! Our first stop was in a bay to do some snorkelling – which was really amazing for me, since it was me first time doing proper snorkelling and I mean we are in the Whitsundays…it was beautiful!

Afterwards we had lunch and went on to a nice bay where we spent the night and guess what we saw on the way: some more whales!

East Coat – Day Sixteen – Airlie Beach…get ready for sexy Broomstick!

shakahangloose — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 05:36:01 +0000

After arrival in Airlie Beach we checked in for the sailing trip the next day on “Sexy Broomstick”, the rest of the day we spent sunbathing at the beach and in the evening met up with Rebecca again, who was going to be on the same boat as we. Had a nice dinner together with the fresh prawns and afterwards hit the “city”.

East Coast – Day Fifteen – On the way to Airlie Beach – Agnes Water

shakahangloose — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:35:38 +0000

Since it is a far way and we were told to not drive the track between Rockhampton and MacKay during the night we had a stop in Agnes Water and went further on today…after again buying some fresh prawns from a local fisherman – this day we were on the road all the time – but it was a nice cruise!

In the evening we reached MacKay and slept there, before going to Airlie Beach the day after.

East Coast – Day Fourteen – Rainbow Beach…hand-feeding Dolphins

shakahangloose — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:35:00 +0000

We slept another night on the parking space of the backpackers and went on a Dolphin-Cruise the next morning…actually it just was a ferry which brought us to the place where they feed dolphins…but it was nice anyway.

After that we got on the road to get closer to Airlie Beach…

East Coast – Day Thirteen – Fraser Island Day Three!

shakahangloose — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:34:28 +0000

We went to Lake Wabby – probably the only place in the world where you are in a rain-forest, see the ocean and have a freshwater-lake right next to you!

Afterwards we catched the barge back to the main land – nice trip, only the weather sucked sometimes and sleeping in a tent on the sand, sounds nice but it always hurts somewhere after a while…

East Coast – Day Twelve – Fraser Island Day Two!

shakahangloose — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:33:47 +0000

Since we had to wait for the tide to get off the beach we had a look at the wreck of the S.S. Maheno and afterwards we went to Lake McKenzie – nice blue water!

Camping in the evening and another nice meal from our swedish chef…

East Coast – Day Eleven – Fraser Island Day One!

shakahangloose — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:32:59 +0000

We got a briefing by a real (!) Australian guy called Murph how to use the 4WD etc. and guess who was the one driving first…I drove the old Toyota LandCruiser to the barge, further to the beach and up to “Happy Valley” to almost only “town” on Fraser Island.

We were a group of eleven people in the car (lots of germans, a Swedish chef (useful!) and some swiss). The trip works as follows: you get a 4WD, tents and food, the rest is up to you!

The first day we went up to “Indian Point” to do some whale watching (this time we saw whales!!!) – the rest of the day we just spent cruising at the beach!

In the evening we set up our “camp” (three Dingo-Jeeps!) and our Swedish chef started to prepare a delicious meal…maybe one of the best steaks I’ve ever eaten! Thanks Sebastian!

East Coast – Day Ten – Up to Rainbow Beach

shakahangloose — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:31:52 +0000

Boreen Point was a bit abroad the main streets…so on the shortest way to Rainbow Beach we ended up on some unsealed roads in the middle of nowhere…but had nice landscape around us and finally got to where we wants.

After arrival in Rainbow Beach we checked in the Dingo’s Backpackers and got the briefing for the next three days: cruising around on Fraser Island with a 4WD!

East Coast – Day Nine – Boreen Point…once more!

shakahangloose — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 05:31:06 +0000

Since this place is really nice we stayed there another day just enjoying the quite atmosphere…

East Coast – Day Eight – Noosa

shakahangloose — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:30:39 +0000

Noosa is a “famous” surfer village with a great beach and a quite fancy shopping mall. Unfortunately it was a bit windy…so no sunbathing!

In the evening we spotted a Possum at Boreen Point – all the animals were really trusting…hitting a duck with a pan to get a nice dinner would have been really easy.

East Coast – Day Seven – Noosa – Boreen Point

shakahangloose — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:30:10 +0000

Today we got on the way up to Noosa. We checked in at a nice abroad Camping Site in Boreen Point at the Lake Cootharaba, and first relaxed a bit there.

East Coast – Day Six – Brisbane

shakahangloose — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:29:39 +0000

We had a short look at Brisbane and met a friend of mine (Christian) in Brisbane and had lunch together. Afterwards we went to IKEA and to a DFO (Direct Factory Outlet) to go shopping.

Coming back from the DFO we had some problems starting the car – nothing moved. Since even the clock didn’t work I thought the must be something wrong with the connection to the battery or some other cable…so we called the RACQ (kind of the Queensland ADAC-pendant) which came, figured out that the battery was completely (!) flat and said now he has to figure out what’s wrong…which was obvious, since the headlight was on..damn! But luckily we didn’t have to pay anything for the RACQ…or at least Apollo didn’t charge us!

So, we again checked in at the caravan park and slept another night in Brisbane.

East Coast – Day Five – Surfer’s Paradise again

shakahangloose — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:29:14 +0000

East Coast – Day Five – Surfer’s Paradise again

We first checked out the huge beach and then had a delicious lunch: we went to the marina and bought fresh prawns directly from the trawlers…watch for yourself!

Later we went on a Whale Watching-Cruise…unfortunately without Whales! Yes, the morning-tour saw Migaloo, one of the world’s famous whales (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpback_Whale#Migaloo) and we didn’t see a single one…anyway it was a nice cruise!

Then we went on to Brisbane and checked in at a caravan park at night.

East Coast – Day Four – Surfer’s Paradise

shakahangloose — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:28:24 +0000

The next day we headed to Surfer’s Paradise (again) after first having a little problem with the car…I used a inverter to get energy from the car for my notebook and flattened it – but since I knew that this will likely be the case we parked the campervan so that we can easily push-start it – fun, somehow. This day we just had a look at the city.

East Coast – Day Three – Byron Bay again

shakahangloose — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:26:52 +0000

The day after we went to Byron Bay again, to have a beautiful walk at the beach and up to the lighthouse. In the evening we watched the sunset at the beach and slept again on the Yelgun Rest Area.