Adelaide

Finally I am able to put on shorts, I have been freezing for long enough. I am now over 1500 km away from Adelaide in the red center in the Northern Territory city Alice Springs. But I am going to quickly, I will start first with my getting drunk on good wine experience.

The Barossa Valley:

As Australia is an important wine producing country I had to see of course the wineyards of those nice wines that we drink. So I joined a wine tasting tour to the Barossa Valley, close to Adelaide to get a close look, and also try a little tiny bit of wine. (Ok I admit, I mainly went for the wine tasting, and not so much for the scenery). It was a really nice trip and the group was good fun. Before we had our first sip of wine, we stopped for breakfast and getting some base at the world largest rocking horse. It seems that the Australian like big things, even in the absurdest form. It's a big country.

Our first wine tasting stop was at Jakob's Creek winery. As expected, the founder was German and taught the "English" how to produce wine. We got a brief overview over the history, a look around the visitor's center, completely build to blend in with the environment and out of recycled materials. The the anticipated part started. We tried different wines, starting with white ones, over rose and then the red ones getting explained how to smell and really tast wine to discover the different aromas.

In the next winery it was more about getting drunk, but of course with style. Here are some pictures of my wintasting adventure.

The group was really great and we had a lot of fun. Although it looks as if I was already a bit tipsy on the picture, it is NOT the case, that was only my third glass.

Great Ocean Road

G'day again. I am really sorry for the time span within my entries but it is not that easy to keep up an activity such as writing when you are sooo relaxed.

I am currently in Adelaide but how I got here and my adventures on the way you will find hereunder:

Short stay in Melbourne:

Arriving from Hobart, I went directly to the hostal booked for the next 2 nights. I realized very quickly that due to the high volume of noise coming from the bar there would't be much sleep for the next nights. Unfortunately that was the case, as the windows here are not very well isolated and the people drinking in the bar and the inner court did not really try to keep the volume down. Thats life at a backpackers.

The next morning I did some shopping at the Victoria market and then had the best breakfast ever in Carlton park: Sitting on the grass, watching the clouds pass by and eating fresh walnut bread and Tasmanian Brie with a georgious Cafe latte. What is there more to life than this. After this delightful breakfast, the clouds got thicker that is why I decided to make it a museums day. I entered the Melbourne museum at around 11:20 and did not leave until after 4.30. It is a really amazing place with so much to see and experience. The best was to start with a guided tour with volunteer tourguide Harry (about 80 years old but still does bush walking, they are quite tough over here). I learned a lot about the state of Victoria during this tour, and was also in the company of a nice local family. The Melbourne museum is a kind of interactive, modern museum, with different sections such as animals (local animals, bugs, marine life), body and soul (explaining for example how dreams work), Aboriginal life (art and culture) etc.

Then I tried to avoid another sleepless night through drinking some beer, but I reckon it wasn't enough.

The Great Ocean Road:

Early the next morning, I started my trip with Wildlife tours along the Great Ocean road that streches for 350 km from Geelong towards Adelaide. We were 11 on board including Kurt the tour guide. The trip was really amazing, starting with the astonishing coastline scenery and finishing with all the nice people in the group. Our first stop was the Bells Beach (where Patrick Swazy committed suicide in the surfer movie Point Break). A lot of surf competitions are celebrated there, when we arrived there was also something going on.

And then I finally saw my first wildlife Koala. First we spottet some high up in the tree and of course I made a lot of pictures seing in them only a dark dot in the distance, but then we were lucky and one of the Koalas was sitting on a really low branch. Only after being poked to much by some spectators he got fed up and moved up. Here is the picture of the cute, but very lazy animal.

In the afternoon we finally arrived to see the 12 Apostles, stone formation in the sea. Although the name is very poetic, there never really were 12 rocks but only 10 and of those 3 have already collabsed into the sea. Anyhow, still very amazing, especially from the sky out of the window of a helicopter. Yes, I had my first ever heliflight and it was fantastic.

Next we went to see the London Bridge, were one of the arks collabsed in 1990 while a couple was on the bridge, rumours say they were having an affair and due to this incident got caught in flagranti, but it is not confirmed.

Our last sight seeing stop was only some km away from the bridge and the 12 apostles but with less known because the tour buses normally don't stop there. It is a nice beach with rocks similar to the 12 apostles in the sea. Unfortunately I forgot the name.

For dinner we had kanguru and we also spotted them around the hostal in Halls Gap, Grampions national park. The same happened again, made a lot of pictures of Kangurus in the dark, but the next day I could see them at daylight and up close. They are not the cleverest of animals as they don't really run away, but let you get very close.

Grampions:

The next morning we drove up to the Grampions to get the beautiful view over the mountains and the park including the "jaws of death" . Some even climed up, but I would never do this :-)

We finally woke up when putting our feet into the ice cold water at the McKenzie falls. Fortunately it was still to cold to go swimming, if not, probably Kurt would have proposed to do so to get the real wildlife experience. After Lunch I had to leave the group as I went on to Adelaide and they returned to Melbourne.

Tasmania part II

Strahan:

After the excitement of my outdoor experience I took the bus to Strahan, a nice little town at the western coast of Tasmania. Fortunately the bus driver took me up to the hostal, where I had to ring out the park keeper to get me a room. By the way, all of the busdrivers I had were very nice people bringing you up to the door if you wish to, the Madrid bus driver should learn from them, they even close the door in front of your nose if you arrive a bit late. Strahan is right at the edge of the rainforest, that is why it rains about 300 of the 365 days a year. Good that I am already used to getting wet. The first day I spend with washing my stinky disgusting shoes, trousers and so on. The next day I went on a river cruise along the Gordon river, which is also part of a protected area. We landed at Sarah island, which was the first of the prisoner's settlements. Only view of the buildings were still recognizable but thanks to the detailed descriptions of our nice (just for girls: very yummy ranger guide) I could quite imagine how life was for those poor Victorian devils that were shipped for steeling some bread to Australia. On board I met a very nice family from Adelaide who invited me for dinner the same night. I really had a wonderful evening, getting more information about where to go nex, reading bed time stories to 3 year old Sarah, and especially eating a nice lamb burger. The next morning, while the weather was still nice, I went for a walk around the harbour. In the evening it was time to enjoy some culture, the play "the ship that never was" told the story about the prisoners who stole a ship in order to escape. They made it up to Chile but unfortunately later on 4 of the ten were again captured. The great thing about the play was, that although it was only starred by 2 actors (one was the nice tour guide) they included the audience. Even I had a part, I played the Scottish shipbuilder Mr. Hoyt who surrendered when the ship was taken by the prisoners.

Port Arthur:

The next day was travelling day, heading back to Hobart. Having already seen the first prisoner's settlement in Australia, I had to see of course as well the next and most important one, Tasmanias number 1 tourism site Port Arthur. I went on a day trip with a bus and mostly elderly people, well I am older now as well, so I really can't say anyting. The penitentiary site of Port Arthur is romantically set on a peninsula and has a nice natural, and as I've been told, one of the deepest, natural harbours. Now it has easy access roads but in 1833 the only way to get there was by boat. Although the tale of Port Arthur is sad and full of torture and misery nowadays it looks a bit like being in the English country side. I will not bore you with details about it, just as much as the model for Port Arthur was discipline and punishment, religous and moral instruction, classification and separation, training and education. By 1840 over 2000 convicts, soldiers and civil staff, lived at the site producing ships, furniture, clothing and so on. It closed down as a prison in 1877 as the last convict shipment arrived in 1853.

Hobart:

This evening I will be flying back to Melbourne. This morning I walked to the "Royal Botanical Garden" had a nice fish and chips lunch and will now pack up and leave. More to come soon.

Tasmania

Hi folks, I'm back from the wilderness.
I've just arrived this afternoon by bus from Strahan but I will tell you everything step by step not to forget anything.

1. Hobart:
From Melbourne I flew to Hobart, which is the capital of the territory of Tasmania. It has about 200.000 inhabitants and the airport is very small. The bus took nearly to the doorstep of my Hostal. As it was still early in the morning I left my things there and went directly for a good healthy breakfast (eggs, ham, croissant and cafe latte). Then fully recovered I wandered around a bit to make myself familiar to this new city. It didn't take me that long, as this city is quite small. After a small siesta I followed the instructions of a brochure obtained in the information center and walked around the "old" town battery point of Hobart. I finished my day with a nice fish and chips dinner.
The next day I decided to prepare a bit for the Overlandtrack and did some training climbing Mount Wellington startiting in Fern Tree. This is a village half up the mountain I reached with the bus. From there it was first walking nearly half way around and then always up in zig zag. It was a great experience although half way through it started to rain and getting higher the rain even transformed into snow. First lesson learned, don't wear jeans on a hinking tour. Unfortunately when I reached the top it was snowing so heavily that I couldn't enjoy the so praised view, that's why I can only show you pictures from half up.

2. The Overlandtrack:
After having bought all the necessary provisions I finally made my way to Lake St. Clair where the Overlandtrack starts. This is a 85 km bushwalking track that runs from Lake St. Clair to Cradle Mountain or vice versa through a protected wildlife park. Already during the journey it was raining and got colder the higher we climbed. When I got of the bus I noticed the chilly air (around 5 C). In the visitors center I was introduced to the Ranger who informed me that there was quite a lot of snow on the track and that he absolutely not recommended me to walk it with the equipment I had (no waterproof shoes, no snowtrousers, no snoeshoes etc.) if I wouldn't want to suffer from hyperthermia. In the end he convinced me as I really don't want to die yet. So I got a plan B: I stayed for 1 night in the cabins of the Lake St. Clair's resort and did a 3 hours tour at the lake shore this first day. During this shorter hike I saw my first real Tasmanian animals: 1 Tasmanian devil (only from behind, looked like a black cat) and a Pademelon (I mistook it for a small Kangaroo as it actually looks a bit like a mixture between a kangaroo and a mouse). That was really exciting.
The next morning I started with some rain and a lot of excitement and a back pack of about 13 kg into the adventure. The first took me 6 hours through the rainforest along the lakeshore. I really cannot describe how breathtaking the landscape was. I made tons of pictures which are only partly showing the beauty of this spot. The track was quite challanging, I had to hop, hangle, balance and crawl over water pods or mud as I didn't want to arrive with wet feet already the first night, in the end, after the backpack felt heavier with every step and my feet didn't want to lift that high anymore I finally stepped into a big mud pool up to my knee. Well, shit happens. I finally arrived wet, exhausted but very happy at the first shelter, the Narcissus hut. Having carried my tent all this way I decided to sleep in my tent. During the whole time walking as well as at the shelter, I was completely alone and did not meet a human soul. Just me, the nature and the wild animals. That was quite some night, cold and with some very strange and unknown noises all around me. I didn't really sleep much but the next morning was worth all the tossing and turning, as when opening the zip of the tent a bright sunshine greeted me. It was just a perfect morning that's why I decided to make another tour. After packing up, I heaped again the backpack to my shoulders and walked off towards the next stop, the Pine valley hut, which was a good 3 hours walk away. This time the track took me through bushland with a phantastic view on the snowy mountains. Later I walked through pine forest with shined in differed shapes of green. I took my lunch in the Pine valley hut and returned upon my steps to the Narcissus hut. This time I wasn't alone and shared the hut with 7 others who where starting their trip. This time I decided to sleep inside, which was better as the night was very stormy. If I say hut, you have to imagine a very basic hut and then take all the comfort away. There where only wooden boards where you could put your mat on, an oven that didn't really heat up well and a toilet some 300 meters away which was basically a hole in the ground with a small hut over it.
Anyhow the next morning it started to rain, and it didn't really finish until late in the afternoon. Fortunately just before leaving the shelter, I got company and we decided to do the track together sharing the tea and our chocalate. Thanks to Morgan's company I managed the 6 hours walk in pouring rain. I think I never was wetter in my life. The shower I took after this day, was one of the best in my life.
So what more can I say about this Overland track Experience:
It was probably one of the biggest adventures I had in my life so far, very challenging for body and also soul (being completely on your own) and I am very proud to have done it, altough I didn't do the whole thing. Well next time then.
Conclusion:
Great experience, extreme challenge, 2 hurting knees, 2 blue toenails, 5-6 blisters, animals seen on the way: a lot.

Melbourne part II

I forgot to mention that after having lived the cultural highlights of Melbourne at the museum and the town hall I went to see some kind of other show being enjoyed a lot by the Australians, the Casino. Having been to the Baden Baden casino and also the one in Madrid, where formal clothes are a condition to enter, in the Melbourne Crown Center this is not the case. They even let me enter in my casual backpacker outfit, so you can imagine that the standar was not very high. The best of it was that I got asked for my id for age proof. How I enjoyed this, hasn't happened to me since I got 18. The casino itself is huge, a lot of gambling machines and also black jack, poker and roulette tables and it was packed by gamblers, mainly Asians. I just wondered around a bit but all the noise and the flashing lights was just to much, I wasn't event tempted to play, so I left soon again.

On the following day I walked down to St. Kilda beach to have a nice breakfast with a great view.

I wandered around the area, along the beach and the promenade a bit and then returned to the city with the tram. As I will be going to Tasmania tomorrow I've bought myself a tent, which supposedly is very easy to erect, even for camp dummies like me, but I will let you know if it is really Katja proof after my first try. With the backpack full of useful camping material, I walked over the Queen Victoria market where nearly everything is sold from meat over fruit and vegetable to clothing and other useful or rather useless stuff. Back at the hostal, I've had a free BBQ that they offer here once a week for people staying at the Ritz for Backpackers.

This morning it was raining but as it cleared up soon after having finished breakfast, I rent a bike and did a bike tour of around 3 hours along the Yarra River. It is really amazing how well the city is prepared for bikes, the track was all the way very well done and also well signalized so it was even for me impossible to get lost. I had a nice (and very cheap) lunch at a former Abbey. Cheap because you could give what you thought it was worth, and being "schwaebisch" I only gave 5 $ for the lunch and a tea. (as an excuse, I didn't have more coins). After returning with the bike to the city center I went to the Aquarium and had a look around there. Nice sharks, hope to see some face to face in the ocean up north.....

Well early tomorrow morning I will be taking a flight to Hobart Tasmania to do the Overland Track, so probably there won't be any update until the end of next week. If you don't hear from me by then, get worried and call somebody, I might be lost in the bush.

Melbourne

Yesterday I've arrived in Melbourne. Thanks to my ability to sleep in moving vehicles, learned during all those business trips, I made the best out of my 9 hours trip in the bus and slept nearly throughout the whole journey. After a harty breakfast I went to the CBD (Central Business District) of Melbourne just in time to catch the homecoming parade for the Olympic heroes of Australia. I should have watched a bit more the games so I would have recognised some of them, but anyway, it was a good show. Getting once used to free entertainment, I watched a street performer at Federation square, who actually did a great job and was very entertaining. In the end he was able to gather rather a big crowd. Then I spend the rest of the day walking around and admiring the mixture between older (late 19th century) and modern buildings.

Today the sky was a bit cloudy and also the wind quite strong, therefore I took the opportunity to visit the inside of some buildings. My first stop was the Town Hall where they give free visits of more than an hour. The group was very heterogenious made up by 2 older ladies from smaller towns outside Melbourne, some military students from East Timor and Malaos and me, the clever German girl (I say clever, as I was prepared and could answer some questions that Ken the tour guide asked, as f.ex. how many people live in greater melbourne - the answer is 3,7 Million and I knew it thanks to the Lonely Planet.)

After the Town hall tour, I went to enjoy another free visit to the Ian Potter Centre NGV Australia to see Australian art, contemporary, from the last 2 centuries and Aborigenal art, being the last named the part which I've enjoyed the most as a non conoceur of art. After having satisfied the needs of the mind, I noticed that my stomach was also calling for attention and so I've filled it up in Chinatown with some noodel soup, much better than the chinese food we have in Madrid. Before I leave you again for today I have another trivia I would like to share with you. Did you know that Burger King is called "Hungry Jack's" in Australia. Sounds much nicer, doesn't it?

Whale watching and Montague Island

I've just returned from my whale watching trip, and yes, we it was successful. We could admire 4 tp five of those beautiful hunchback whales that were swimming some kilometres of the coast. It is very exceting to see their fountain from far away and then watch them emerge from the water. Unfortunately my little camara isn't made for good wildlife pictures so the best I could do is this one.On Montague Island, which is a natural reserve and only accessible with a guided tour, I've also seen seals and at least the nests of some penguins.

Before I leave you again I wanted to share some trivia with you that could be put under the category of "things that one does not need to know" but maybe it could come handy to you. Did you know that you can ride a bike on the Australian highways (or at least parts of them)?