Australia! 2003
Leider ist der folgende Text nur auf Englisch. Ich hatte ihn 2003 in Englisch geschrieben und (noch) keine Lust das ganze moch mal auf Deutsch zu schreiben...But now, let's start:
In 2003 I was travelling through Australia. This trip was split in two parts. The first part brought me from Melbourne to Alice Springs. Then, the second part, I started in Cairns heading for Sydney.
Prologue:
I hired for the first part a camper, a bush camper to be exactly. Basically I could have done this with just a normal 2 WD camper as all major roads are paved. But some reasons made me hiring a buschcamper. First, I just wanted to have 4WD, as I do have a normal camper myself. Then, even I could get to all my destinations by sealed roads, it is far more exiting to travel on unseald roads. And the rental companies don't want you to do this with a 2WD. So, I checked the internet an found Boomerang Campers. The rates were quite good, not to say they were the cheapest I could finde. First I was a bit skeptical booking a camper over the internet from a "no name" company, but then I said to myself:"No risk no fun" and booked. After about 5000km from Melbourne to Alice Spings I could say that it was the right decision. It was not a new car as you may get it from the major rental companies, but it was in good condition as far as I can say this (i.e. had new wheels) and brought me all the way up to Alice Spings. Here are some pictures of the first part. The destinations are in chronological order.
Despite some rain showers and temperatures around 15 °C on the Great Ocean Road , the weather was super. Much better than the weather in Germany used to be at this time of year. As I arrived at Melbourne Airport on Sunday night it was something around 28 °C. We had something around 0°C in Germany at this time! I have been three days in Melbourne before I got my camper, and all days were sunny and hot. There were a few rain showers while driving the Great Ocean Road, but after this short periode of showers the weather turned into weather that I link to Australia, blue sky, sunny and temperatures around 30 or 35°C (hopefully it is not to cold when I am back home again...) Unfortunately, there was something that I never thought of planning this trip.Flies!
As closer I came to the outback, as much flies were there. They were attacking you where and when ever it was possible, the eyes, the ears and nose. Everywhere. Everybody waved his hands, arms, legs or whatever fighting the flies. It may have looked funny, but it wasn't. The only thing that helped was a net over the head. Only before sunrise and after sunset there were no flies. And, strange, in bulidngs, even in open buildings like showers or kitchens on the campgrounds were no flies, never!
An other fact that astonished me was that on most places you have mobilphone coverafe. OK, in remote areas like Flinders Ranges, there was no mobil available, but at Ayers Rock Resort (Yulara, the town built to accommodate all the tourists visiting Uluru) or at Coober Pedy (about 500km n orth of Adelaide) you could use your mobile phone. Even access to the internet was often possible, somtimes by a coin operated PCs with dial up modem (i.e. Wilpena at Flinders Ranges Nationalpark)or, of course by internet cafes as in Adlelaide or Melbourne. So, you could let friedns and relatives know where you are and that you are alright. Of course, everywhere they had normal telephones, even in the remotest corner.
Read More
