• LauraHelene
  • LauraHelene

Road trip in Australia '19

April - September 2019 Read more
  • Alligator Gorge

    June 26, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    After a long, cold morning and a lunch break in the parking lot in Alligator Gorge, we did a short circuit walk next to/in the water down that beautiful red cliffed gorge with a blue sky above us, getting familiar with a new camera.
    In a nearby small town with a permanently closed cafe, a store having $10 minimum on credit cards, and no pub, we parked for the night, and watched a movie in the sleeping bag.
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  • The Outback

    June 27, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Going for a detour we went north, driving into the outback, surrounded by dry, orange paddocks and Flinders Ranges in the horizon.
    By lucky chance a short stop in a town led us to an old railway station, and later we found a warm, sunny place for the afternoon and stayed for the night.Read more

  • Flinders Ranges

    June 28, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Watching the sun colouring the mountains and a kangaroo jumping around the car, we had a slow, warm morning. Later, wrapped in sunscreen and wearing light clothes only, we did a walk through this orange-red desert to see Arkaroo Rock with aboriginal art, found a echidna on the way, and had a beautiful view of the mountains on the way down.
    A rare, warm shower in the afternoon finished the day off just perfectly.
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  • Muddy roads

    June 29, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    The summer was exchanged for hail and storm, so we skipped another hike in Flinders Ranges and went back south. We revisited a nice café on the way for coffee and good lunch, and ended up way souther than planned, but passed by a city and finally a supermarked to rebuild our storages.
    In the attempt of finding a hidden place for the night we almost got stuck in this orange, soft mud they have all over here, and later we definitely got stuck. As we couldn't turn the car we stayed for the night and rearranged the bed to sleep with the head up. Hopefully that'll be fixable in daylight.
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  • An extended IKEA test

    June 30, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    A few hours of digging and pushing and putting rocks under the tires (and having orange, muddy sand all over) got the car back on the road. All done in a good mood, after a good brekkie.
    We left the city as soon as possible and went south to an empty, mud free spot by the water, having the sound of the waves setting the mood for a slow afternoon.Read more

  • Searching for a job

    July 3, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    The past few days has been all about driving, escaping a cold wind, enjoying good brekkies and finding beautiful places to hide the car by an early afternoon - with various amounts of vegetation to hide behind - and in between applying for jobs, finding a library for Nico to do an online interview, and doing a bit of necessary laundry.Read more

  • Happiness

    July 4, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Twice today I had a beautiful view of ocean and someone amazing doing the cooking while I was useful on the computer!
    Making up for missing the Little Sahara in Kangaroo island we found sand dunes in the national park south of Port Lincoln. With the wind working against us we did a few lookouts before emptying our food storage for lunch.
    After a stressful shopping for surviving the Nullabor and search for drinking water we made our way back to the beach we started the day.
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  • Heading towards Perth

    July 5, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    Starting with avo toast for brekkie, bit of working and being practical, and refilling the water one more time, we headed west. Finally. We've gotten well into a routine of slow mornings, waiting for the sun to become warm, short distances and then parking by the ocean for afternoon coffee and no more driving. Enjoying camping and making plans as we go.Read more

  • Coffin Bay

    July 6, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    An off-road drive to the biggest sand dunes in the national park around here ended up a bit too off-road, but the van did just perfect. We had to go back though, and found some other over sized beaches. Even with the autumn-like weather and heavy clouds this place is beautiful.
    To top up a good day we finally found an indoor, however very cold, shower - saving us for another one of those freezing attempts to wash off the soap with a bottle of our valuable drinking water.
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  • Cliffs in the south

    July 8, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    A couple of days driving, stopping for long meal breaks with a view, and seeing caves and different cliffs on the way. Music is back, we're taling our time, and prioritizing the afternoon coffee and a proper parking spot before sunset. Whenever too windy, we go till we find a bit of shelter, but we are going along the coastline and the only vegetation around here are small thorny bushes that can survive the rough weather so a proper shelter is a rare thing.Read more

  • A summer day

    July 9, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    When the sun is hitting it's a warm drive reminding us keep our eyes up for water, and today that search was not as easy, but a "visitor" look around a caravan park eventually helped us out.
    Enyoing this beautiful summer day we climbed more sand dunes chasing lakes and ocean. A cliff by the end of an unsealed road with not a single breeze made the stop for tonight, allowing us to comfortably semi-shower before the evening wind brought in the high tide and slowed down our cooking because the stove is dying and need extra help in the wind.Read more

  • The last town in SA

    July 10, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    About half way between Sydney and Perth, if one go the straight way, we stopped in Ceduna to fuel up. Then continued a bit, looking for shelter by a tree with no mosquitoes, which we slowly realized may be impossible. But we did eventually stop, worked a bit and tried out teamviewer in my search for a picture, though unsuccessfully, and snacked in the front seats for dinner to escape the weather.Read more

  • The Nullarbor day one

    July 11, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We left society for good today, that society being a couple of small towns from the past few days but at least we had service on the phone there. Here is nothing, not even a curve on the road, and behind every hill, all we see is more straight rosd. Just before stopping for the sunset, we past a sign saying "eastern end of treeless plain" and then it went flat all around us.Read more

  • Western Australia

    July 12, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    It's been 500 km of straight road, an occasional tree, and a couple of beautiful lookouts since we left the town yesterday, we're alf way through this nothingness, and we're finally just past the border to Western Australia. Diposing our vegetabels, setting the clock backwards, new signs of animals we may meet on the road, all that stuff of crossing a border.
    The day began with a brilliant place for whale watching, having quite a few whales and a calve chilling in the ocean. And then continued just as yesterday. Driving. Although this part was closer to the coastline of Great Australian Bight and it's beautiful cliff, worthy of a few stops on the way.
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  • A forced stop

    July 13, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    They are efficient with the alchohol tests in this country. We got pulled over again (!) as the first thing in WA after breakfast. A different brekkie btw, as they took our honey yesterday and we ate the last fruits before the border.
    After quite a few fuel stations, a bit of change in the landscape, a lookout, and a long drive with the sun hitting the copper green bushes, darker trees, and grey clouds in the horizon, the car forced us to stopped sooner than planned. But, at least we're finally in that spot with no wind and no mosquitoes we thought didn't exist.
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  • End of the road

    July 14, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    LUCKILY the van turned on this morning. And luckily we had no more issues with the driving. And just like that we reached a town again. With houses and traffic and people and a grocery store. And water! We had planned it pretty good, but we were running low now. Store was closed, it's Sunday, but tomorrow we'll be back on fresh vegetables.Read more

  • Back to coastline

    July 15, 2019 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    We reached our being disgusting-limit and payed for a warm shower in the tourist office in Norman.
    And then we kept driving in the desert, thought that was over, but most of the road south was surrounded by very similar vegetation as we'd seen the past days, only these were burned out from a bushfire.
    But finally we found the coastline and a proper city. Which comes with more camping restrictions, but we also found a way around that.
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  • Cape Le Grand National Park

    July 17, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    One more summer day of astonishing beaches and blue ocean, this time with small sand dunes easily mistaking for being snow. Of cause the van can do a 4wd-only road, although we did walk the last kilometre to another one of these beautiful cliffs surrounded by beach and a multiple blue coloured ocean. To the sound of only wind and quiet waves a whale swam by near the beach. And walking bare feet in the warm sand we followed kangaroo doorsteps around the dunes. It pays off leaving the official roads.Read more

  • Camping

    July 18, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Esperance is beautiful. A small city surrounded by white and blue and quite some national parks and wet lands displaying strange trees, and lots of big birds and parrots. The wild parrots were new to us.
    But we left today, continued west. Plans are set now, we have a host in Perth in a bit less than two weeks, for starting a different kind of adventure.
    The drive today was slow, though. Being too tired to drive we soon stopped to crawl back for a movie and hot chocolate in the bed.
    After a short trip a bit further we stayed in a proper camp site (a free one) for a change.
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  • Mountains

    July 20, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    It's been two days of indecisive driving back and forth in Stirling Ranges, a beautiful mountain area in the middle of otherwise flat paddocks. Avoiding wind, then heavy rain and more wind we stopped for the night and ended up doing only a few lookouts, no proper climb.
    On the way south we did get active, though, found a windy skywalk around the peak of a Castle Rock.
    Back in another city along the south coast of WA we had the luxury of choosing between free public showers before easily finding parking for the night. And before refreshing my e-mail to learn that the guy behind the break-in was found. Along with my camera (!)
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  • Albany

    July 21, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Cafe, brekkie, and escaping the weather gave us a bit of computer time. Assignment and article is done for now 💪
    Fighting a storm we found another blowhole, and later, before the car lulled us to sleep strongly encouraged by the wind, we managed to do a cold dinner and the brushing-teeth-part without anything or anyone flying away.Read more

  • A pub meal

    July 22, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    We had a quick stopover in Denmark, finally did that pubmeal we put on the bucket list before leaving Sydney. Beats any cafe sandwich we've had so far!
    On the way out of the council, in the search of a hiding apot for the night, we passed by a few gravel roads overlooking the ocean, almost looking like the Denmark I know.
    By the early afternoon we parked in a beautiful fishing spot by the river, having no sounds but a quiet river and the birds around us.
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  • The sound of nature

    July 24, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    We can count the remaining days on one hand now. It's a strange feeling to go only short distances, trying to finish the canned food, and doing a proper job and visa search at night.
    The past two mornings we've woken up to a light breeze and birds or frogs calling each other just outside the van far from traffic and society. And slowly realized how much we're gonna miss these mornings of boiling water with cold fingers, reaching for service somewhere in the front of the car to get our morning phone fix, having coffee in the blankets while making plans for the day, no need for rushing anything.
    These two days we went through another forrest of giants and stopped to see the elephant rocks, but most of our time was spend by the computer. High tide stopped us from going close to the rocks, and the forrest have an expensive tree top walk and a short path on the ground for a different audience, so we were quickly back on the narrow, curvy highway going further north.
    Another brave (or crazy) drive through some trees got us scared again for a moment, but we got off the mud too easily and had a nice and private parking for this afternoon and night.
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  • Spanish lessons

    July 25, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Nosodros fuimos a un café en una ciudad pequeña antes de comimos la última sopa por cena en una lugar hermoso (ish ...).
    And in the city (town!) we bought a novel in Spanish from a strange but very knowledgeable man having all his house covered in antique and used books. To upgrade my Spanish lessons. The town was Margeret River, a nice place with very cozy cafe's all over, a rare thing in these small towns. Surely the best coffee since we left the coffee shops in Sydney. But before all that we got yourselves out from the muddy parking by another fast and slippery drive trough mud and trees. And by night time we stopped in a quiet field of lillies and old trees with no wind and an occasional sound of a jumbing kangaroo.Read more