Reinicializar a pesquisa
Half around the world and back
  • Susanne and Machiel
  • Susanne and Machiel

Half around the world and back

Susanne & Machiel attempt to travel for a bit. Leia mais
+1
SeguirResumoResumoCalendárioCalendárioFotosFotosCompartilharCompartilharLista de metas
Os mais novos primeiro
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante
    2
    2

    Going to church

    16 de fevereiro de 2020, Fiji ⋅ 🌬 30 °C

    Today was Sunday so we went to church. A boat took us to a beach near Nacula village, the largest on the island. Because it was Sunday, our boat was apparently not allowed to go to the beach at the village itself. Which was nice as it meant that after a small walk through the forest, we also walked through part of the village. Most houses were in poor condition, but everyone seemed to be happy. The church was quite big for how small the village was. And it was one out of three churches in this village. The service itself was a sweaty version of the church services we know except that we didn't understand much because of the language. We had secretly hoped the happy spirit of the Fijian volk would show through a bit more, but as it turns out that's more the case at one of the other two churches in the village.

    In the afternoon we went snorkeling once again. At one point we saw two rays on the ocean floor. Very cool. And again we saw plenty of colorful fish. It just seems like every time we spot some more cool fishes. We are still in the process of learning their names. So far we identified the Bluebanded Surgeonfish, Moorish Idol, several kinds of Butterflyfish, Bicolor Parrotfish and Bullethead Parrotfish. Susanne also spotted a lion fish, which we later found out can be venomous. Only when touching it though.

    Before dinner the staff performed some Fijian songs in a choir. Dinner was a la carte, and after that it was movie night. The people voted for Ford vs Ferrari, which Machiel was very happy about. It was an interesting experience to watch it on a canvas sheet hung up between palm trees, with the waves crashing right behind it. Susanne wasn't too interested and instead enjoyed the company of an Israelian couple who are on a similar trip as us.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    Making a beach basket

    17 de fevereiro de 2020, Fiji ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    The day started with our favorite breakfast - crepes with maple sirup. Yummy! After some digesting time it was time to try out our handcraft skills. We joined the free activity of basket weaving. We all got part of a coconut tree leaf, some very brief explanation - 'take every second one' - and there we went. We figured out the weaving part, but it was still a miracle on how to transform this flat part into a basket. Turns out it 'just' takes some braiding and a knife and there you go. Ready is your new beach basket. It wasn't all that simple though but with some help we got there. It was quite a lot of fun.

    With our new baskets we then made out way to two shaded sunbeds and went for some snorkeling again. We just don't get tired of it. This time we spotted some weird plants that looked like underwater versions of the land based meat eating plants. Sometimes it moved a bit as if it was breathing. We also spotted some interesting fish that looked like a mix of fish and jellyfish or so. We stayed in the water for quite long so when getting out we were really tired and ready for a nap. The night also gave us a great sunset sky.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    Back to Nadi

    18 de fevereiro de 2020, Fiji ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    An early alarm at 5:00 because we wanted to try and see the sunrise on the other side of the island. So we set of in the dark with our headlamp on. We heard it would take 40 minutes, but it only took us 20 minutes. There were a few other people on top of the hill, and the clouds had already turned red in places. Unfortunately there were also a lot of clouds on the horizon, so we weren't experiencing a true sunrise, but by now we're used to that. It was nonetheless nice enough to have a look at the island besides the resort, and also the islands around us.

    We'd leave Nacula Island today, but not before some more snorkeling in the nice reef in front of the resort. We spotted a couple of new fishes again: triggerfish and a kind of anemonefish. Also what we believe to be porcupine fish, but we're not really sure. And with that our relaxing time on the beautiful Yasawa Islands had come to an end.

    The boat picked us up around 1, and with our ordered lunch wraps to go we had to settle to spend the rest of the afternoon on the water until we'd reach Nadi. We were a bit worried about getting seasick, but it turned out alright. To pass the time we read books, and talked to people that we had met earlier at the island resorts. In Nadi the fancy bus took us back to the hostel area. There we spent a long time queueing to check in, but this time we were also smart to in the meantime buy water for the rest of our stay here. Our hostel room wasn't as good as the one we had last week, but it was alright.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante
    3
    2

    Preparing for Australia

    19 de fevereiro de 2020, Fiji ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We stayed in bed long this morning. Our stomachs were not too happy for already a while. So we decided to take it slow with food now that we actually could decide the eating times ourselves and had to pay for it by choice of meal rather than for a daily package. After a late breakfast and Susanne being addicted to a book, it was time to face reality. In less than 24 hours we were gonna be in Melbourne and apart from the first 4 nights, we had nothing booked and no real plan on what to do and how. Panic set in, especially when we realised that no matter how we looked at it, it was gonna be more expensive than our daily budget.

    We researched anyways and got a global idea of what we wanted to see in the coming 7 weeks. Currently that means 3 weeks for the route Melbourne - Great Ocean Road - Adelaide - Ayers Rock - Alice Springs, then a magic transfer to Broome or Perth and then another 3 weeks for the route Perth - Broome or Broome - Perth. We haven't decided yet nor booked anything. So we'll see in the next days what we end up with. We had a late small dinner at the hostel restaurant, packed our big backpacks again and got ready for our early flight tomorrow.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante
    1

    Melbourne

    20 de fevereiro de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Last night we noticed signs hanging around the hostel buildings with a warning for people that needed to go to the airport in the early morning. The president of Israel was flying in for a visit and that meant the roads to the airport would be closed between 5 and 7. Our flight was at 8 though so it didn't matter too much, but we did arrive quite early by taxi just to be sure. We had breakfast at an airport café and then waited for the flight. Then we discovered that while Fiji welcomes you with songs and flowers, on the way out they quite literally leave you high and dry. Right before getting onto the plane they stole everyone's water bottles, which was quite mean for a 6 hour flight. Unfortunately our 'window seat' couldn't put the smile back on our face either. But at 12:30 local time we landed in Melbourne, and after 9 days in high humidity and airco's we were able to breathe in relatively normal air, so that made us happy.

    The Melbourne Airport SkyBus brought us to St. Kilda, where we were picked up by Geoff, our AirBnB host for the next 4 nights. He's a friendly guy who also immediately made sure we'd get a transportation pass. Once at his home, we got a tour of the house and got to know that he really doesn't mind sharing everything including his guitars, books and food. Despite being very tired from the journey, our stomachs were begging for some proper food so we walked to the nearest supermarket through the rather nice Chapel shopping street. It wasn't hard to fall asleep after that.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    The Australian puzzle

    21 de fevereiro de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Before going on our world trip we left a goodbye present for our nephew Morris: a puzzle of the world. Australia is one piece of his puzzle, but for us today Australia seemed like a puzzle of a thousand pieces. The locations on our wishlist seemed impossible to combine within budget and time. We were starting to be OK with going a bit over budget knowing that except for Fiji we had stayed below the whole time. But the next problem wasn't far. We learned that single vehicle accidents were simply not insured with any van rental company that had an open office in Alice Springs or Broome before April. So that meant our original plan of three weeks Melbourne-Alice Springs and then three weeks Broome- Perth was simply not possible because Alice Springs and Broome had closed offices. Next we considered making it one big road trip Melbourne- Alice Springs- Broome- Perth. Then we learned that sealed streets between Alice Springs and Broome could very well be flooded until the end of March (explaining why most van rental offices there are closed until then). So if we didn't want to repeat our Fjordland experience from New Zealand, this wasn't really the way to go either. We ended up researching 8 different route scenarios with estimated kilometres and costs. In the end we had one favourite option: 1 week van rental to travel the area around Melbourne, a flight to Perth, 3 weeks van rental to do a round trip north of Perth and then a final flight to either Adelaide or Alice Springs to rent another van traveling the way to the Ayers Rock, Olgas and King's Canyon. We weren't entirely sure about the exact dates yet. So we decided to let it sink in a bit and have a nice evening walk to clear our minds after hours of tough research.Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    Guitar lesson

    22 de fevereiro de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    In the morning we were finally able to book the first part of our Australian leg. Our favourite scenario from the previous day still sounded good to us. So we rented a van for a week in the Melbourne region and booked a flight to Perth on March 2nd. This relaxed us a bit and made us able to visit Melbourne without worrying about the next days.

    We took the tram to the centre and there had a look around. We walked over the Federation Square, saw some street art in the streets around and then crossed the Yarra River, which splits the city in two. The view on the high modern skyscrapers with smaller older buildings in between was quite nice. Walking alongside the river we started seeing more and more rowing teams on the water. There were also loads of people running and cycling. We had lunch watching the rowers. Then we made our way back to the centre and took a tram to the Queen Victoria Market. After walking a bit around there and buying some fruit, we once more went to the river. Now the rowing practice had stopped and the actual competition had started. We walked further towards the Botanical Garden. It was huge and so green it was hard to believe we were still in a 5 million inhabitant city. Not surprisingly there were also lots of people running and cycling. After a short break on the very soft grass, we continued our way home. We didn't yet see enough sport today, so it came in handy that we passed by cricket practice 😊. The day definitely gave us the impression that Melbourne loves sport.

    When we came back to the appartement, Susanne got a free guitar lesson from our host Geoff on 3 of his 4 electric guitars. Then it was time for dinner, finance calculations and bed.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    Walking the lap

    23 de fevereiro de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Today was the big day! Visiting Albert Park, traditionally the hosting venue of the first Formula 1 race of the season. Machiel was so excited he was already awake at 5. Or who knows, maybe he really had slept enough after 7 hours like he claimed 😏 Susanne wasn't aware of that, so we actually only left the apartment at 10. A short tram ride brought us close to the park, after which 5.3km of walking were waiting for us. The preparations for the race in just 3 weeks were fully going on. That was nice as it meant that it was largely closed for normal traffic so we could walk just on the track itself. We entered the circuit just before turn 13 in the 3rd sector. It was interesting to see the poor state much of the asphalt and kerbs were in. Not sure if that's still getting some maintenance in the next 3 weeks. The gravel traps weren't ready yet either, but the gravel was already delivered. We tried to sneak into the pit entrance, but were unfortunately stopped by some security people.

    Walking onto the start/finish straight there was a supercar meetup of some sorts, with some of them also driving on parts of the straight being loud and looking expensive. We continued into sector 1, where the usual road cuts out a part of the circuit, which in everyday life functions as a parking lot. In sector 2 we spoke to some painters who were painting parts of the Pirelli logo on the wall, turns out they had to do hundreds of them. We continued but it was getting tough as it was very sunny and around 25 degrees. Before completing our lap we had a nap under the shadow of a tree along the back straight, right next to the golf course. After that we only had the challenging turn 11-12 complex to go, which didn't look as impressive because they straighten it a bit for the normal road traffic. Laptime: around 2,5 hours, including a nap.

    Most of the afternoon we spend in the apartment before heading out to St. Kilda for the evening. We walked along the beach boulevard and had dinner at a nice vegan restaurant.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    On the road again

    24 de fevereiro de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    We left Geoff's place to do the one thing he told us would be a waste of time: travelling along the Great Ocean Road. To be honest, by now our expectations were also not that high anymore, but we still wanted to have a look at this part of Australia. With all our belongings on our back we made it to the tram. After a switch of trams in the city center, we reached the van rental place in Airport West after about 1,5 hours. Melbourne is big.

    Having jealously looked at all the people with vans in New Zealand, we were excited to finally get our own. We got the paper work done and then got an introduction into our rental van: how to check cooling water and oil levels, how the sink works, etc. Only when driving away we slowly realised that we didn't really believe this van was from the claimed year 2010. It doesn't even have electronic windows or airbags and looks surprisingly similar to the 20 year old van Susanne owned in New Zealand 10 years ago. We also really had to get used to the manual transmission, especially given that the shifter is on the left and had seen better days. But after awhile we got used to it.

    After some stops for grocery shopping, lunch, and a few navigation mishaps, we made it to Geelong. A couple of nice retired volunteers gave us some booklets and tips about the region. We decided on a free campsite near Lorne. On the way we stopped at Bells Beach to look at surfers catching some quite big waves. Then in Lorne we first had a stop for buying ice. This supermarket in particular had an 'ice room' where you could pick up your bag of ice. ❄️

    The campsite was pretty great for a free one. In a quiet forest they had plenty of camping spaces, and toilets too. The forest also had some mystic atmosphere with the clouds hanging in the trees. It was time to prepare our van bed for the first time and find out how to cook with the stuff we got. We got one of these suitcase-like gascookers. They seem more wind resistant than our hiking stove, so that was great. We found storage space for our backpacks, found decent pillows and a bed sheet. Together with our sleeping bags that made the bed. The mattress itself wasn't that amazing as it was quite thin. Also, the curtains looked like they had a bit of mold everywhere. So that wasn't that great either. Nonetheless we fell asleep early.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    Koalas!

    25 de fevereiro de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    We woke up early and had breakfast in our rental van after figuring out how to transform the bed into a sitting area. Afterwards we drove to the town of Lorne to fill up our water tank. It was here when we realised that the filling system leaked but we weren't yet aware on how bad it was. So we drove up to a nice viewpoint of the coastline and further down the road had a small walk to a waterfall. The waterfall wasn't that big but the setting was pretty nice with the rocks surrounding it. In Kennet River we wanted to go and see some koalas. But here is when we realised that the water leak was apparently so big that the whole carpet in the back of the car was soaked. We decided to be annoyed enough now by leaks and mold and called the Travellers Autobarn to complain. They were trying to be nice and helpful but we got the feeling they were mainly worried about the leak rather than actually understanding that it was making us uncomfortable living in a moldy van. We sent some evidence, let's see what their final reaction will be.

    We started our koala walk and we indeed spotted two of them. They were mainly hanging in the tree doing what they are doing 20 hours a day: sleep. They're apparently the dumbest mammals in existence, and wouldn't recognise their only food as food unless they can eat it directly from the tree: poisonous leaves that they then spend most of their energy on to digest. But they're fluffy and cute. Once in a while they were moving an arm or leg as if to stretch before sleeping further.

    After a pretty late lunch we continued our way on the Great Ocean Road. Eventually we arrived in Apollo Bay and since we realized that there were 'no camping or overnight parking' signs everywhere along the way, we decided to go for a cheapish but official camping in the town. Originally we wanted to wash here as well but it was already a bit late and they predicted rain in the morning. So no chance to dry our clothes on time.

    We had a pretty great wraps dinner while a big group of retired Australians enjoyed their trip away from Melbourne. They were very nice and talkative and we benefited two great chocolate cake pieces from them for dessert.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    Trip restart

    26 de fevereiro de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    We woke up to rain hitting our van. We took showers, and had breakfast in the common kitchen area, which wasn't full of pensioners this time. At 10:30 we had to leave the campsite, so that's what we did but all we then did was park immediately next to the street. We hadn't slept too well and we were increasingly unhappy with the van and worried about our health. With the windows closed in the night, we could just smell the mold. We also did some further inspection on the vehicle and found mold also on the ceiling and in the mattress. So we concluded quite quickly that we didn't want to continue in it. We called customer service and asked for our options. They proposed we could buy anti mold spray and new mattresses and declare all the costs for it. But we figured that would mean we'd spend a lot of time and effort and still not be comfortable in this van as the chronical issue would still remain. The better option seemed to be returning our vehicle to Melbourne to exchange it for a new one. We negotiated that we'd be compensated for 2 rental days and the fuel costs.

    By now it was 11:45 and we needed to make it back to Melbourne before 16:00. So we drove away immediately and after a few driver swap stops and a short lunch break, we arrived at 15:30. Halfway back we received a mail from Travellers Autobarn confirming the compensation. It took us a bit by surprise as they only wanted to refund the daily rental rate but not the daily insurance rate (which costs just as much). They also only wanted to compensate whatever was missing in the fuel tank but not what we had fueled the day before. Nonetheless, when we arrived, they were very sorry, agreed with the moldy state of the vehicle and swapped it for a newer slightly bigger van. So that was very nice. This time we had airbags, a central locking system, electric mirror adjustments, etc. Most importantly, it wasn't full of mold. We moved all our stuff and drove off again. This time a lot happier, we quickly realised that this had been the right call.

    We had decided to go to the Grampions now as we didn't know if our time was gonna be enough to see those and the Great Ocean Road again. 2 hours later we arrived in Beaufort where we decided to spend the night. They call themselves an 'RV friendly town', there were no signs disallowing us, so we parked next to a small park and public toilet building. We cooked some pasta and ate it outside on our camping chairs. When it got dark we went into our van. It has a very long bed (probably about 2.3m) and felt very comfortable and this time we weren't disgusted by touching the surroundings.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    Camping safari

    27 de fevereiro de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    After a good night's rest in Beaufort we continued our way west towards the Grampions. On the way we did some cheap grocery shopping at the Aldi in Ararat, and not too long after we arrived in Halls Gap. Here we had the choice between a free camping further south, or stay near Halls Gap. The positive reviews for a camping near the town convinced us enough to stay. We ended up on a fantastic spot on the edge of the campsite with nice nature next to it. We spotted some cockatoos and other birds while doing some much needed laundry.

    There's many hiking options in the Grampions, and for today we set out to do a small hike to the so called 'balconies'. The views on the way were already nice, with some cool rock formations. Getting to the balconies viewpoint, it was ruined a bit by other tourists climbing over fences illegally and spoiling the view for the rest, but it was still nice.

    Coming back from the hike, we checked how our laundry was doing. There wasn't much sun but the wind was trying its best. Then when walking to our camper spot we suddenly saw a new kind of animal crossing the road... kangaroos! 😊. Initially we were a bit careful from a distance, but we soon realized these guys were pretty tame and used to the attention. They spent the rest of the day feeding and looking around on the campsite. While we were enjoying watching them, a fellow camper let us know there were some deer and emu's at the other side of the campsite. We couldn't get as close to them as to the kangaroos, but it was still cool. At our camper there were loads of sulphur-crested cockatoos flying around, and later we also saw some long-billed corella cockatoos right next to our camper.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    The Pinnacle

    28 de fevereiro de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    In the morning the Internet was working on the camping (it didn't the previous day). So we made use of that for our blog and some van research as we hadn't booked anything despite the flight to Perth yet. We also took a shower in a heated and modern sanitary block. So that was very nice.

    Our plan for the day: hiking in the Grampions. The hike was a loop of about 8km, with a 450 meter height difference. After 1km we had a lunch break at the Venus baths. They weren't as impressive as Cleopatra's pools in the Abel Tasman National Park but nonetheless not a bad lunch spot. The rest of the walk went through some narrow gorges, a section called the 'Grand Canyon' and by some narrow caves. Ultimately we reached the viewpoint, called 'the pinnacle' which basically a view of the entire Halls Gap valley. We could spot the town and our campsite of last night. It was very cool. A music festival just about started when we were on top of the cliff, and from there we could listen to it at a respectable volume.

    Being back at the car park, we decided it was really time to book a van in Perth. We called Britz, the supplier we favoured, just to hear that they were sold out for our dates. That was quite a shock as it made us realize that all these agencies apparently just look like they have vans from all suppliers available but in reality they only display them and once you book still need to check with the supplier if that's actually possible. It was also getting late and with all the kangoroos we didn't want to drive in the dark. We decided we had to go but because we don't have Internet in the forest, we needed to continue to the next town with a free campsite. About 60 km further we arrived in Dunkeld, ordered 2 pizzas and made a request for the same type of van we have now at Traveller's Autobarn via a German agency. Fingers crossed that this is actually available and we can do our road trip as intended. We parked at a stop next to the highway to eat the pizza and spend the night.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    When emu's attack

    29 de fevereiro de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Our campsite was probably the least glamorous so far. There wasn't even a toilet. The only nice thing about it could be that it's a viewpoint on a mountain, however it was completely foggy so it was invisible until we almost left. We quickly made our way out of there and drove towards what we had left behind some days ago: the Great Ocean Road.

    On the way we stopped at the Tower Hill Lake. We read that it was a great spot for seeing wildlife and that turned out to be true. We went on a small walk around some wetlands and indeed spotted some sleepy koalas hanging in the trees. Very cute to see again. We also saw some emus walking around and one kangaroo. Back at the car park we decided to have lunch on one of the nice picnic benches. One of the emus also liked it there and seemed quite interested in our beetroot dip and wraps. It's slightly discomforting if an emu gets so close that it looks like it's gonna pick on you or your food. Luckily he didn't attempt too much and quickly found more interesting targets.

    Our next stop was the Cheese World. We had a quick look around their free museum on all sorts of old stuff like the first washing machines and a very old toaster. Then it was time to get one of their fresh milkshakes, which were really nice, especially the coffee flavoured one Susanne picked.

    The last stop of the day was called Childers Cove. We had finally made it to the Great Ocean Road again and saw some very beautiful coastline with a very nice beach and cool cliffs and limestone formations.

    Our chosen free campsite of the night was surrounding a cricket field, and when we arrived there was in fact a game going on. As we still didn't understand much of it we watched a YouTube video about the rules. We had a lentils curry for dinner in the sun before crawling into our sleeping bags again.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante
    1

    Jacuzzi for giants

    1 de março de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    The goal of the day was to visit the western coast of the Great Ocean Road and return again to the same campsite for the night. After a bit of a lzay morning we headed towards the rough coastline. The waves were very high and it was great to stand at plenty of viewpoints just watching them crash against the limestone cliffs. We saw some very impressive splashes that must have been tens of meters high. In some of these inlets or coves the ocean looked like a jacuzzi for giants.

    After some viewpoints we stopped in a Port Campbell for lunch. We parked with a perfect view of the local swimming beach. Personally we found it way too cold to go in ourselves. But it was a lot of fun watching others in the waves with air tyres and surfboards. Eventually we got really sleepy and decided to take advantage of having a bed in our trunk: we went for a power nap.

    Part two of the day consisted of more viewpoints of cliffs and waves. We actually also made it to the famous 12 apostel everyone talks about when bringing up the Great Ocean Road. It was expectantly very crowded and in our opinion not as nice as what we had seen at other viewpoints along the road. There aren't really 12 apostles anymore, it's more like 5 or 9. Not that this matters anyway.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    To the West Coast

    2 de março de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    No time for a lazy morning today as, for the 2nd time in 5 days, we had to drive back to Melbourne to hand in our van. And this time we didn't want the stress of last time, so we left at 8:30. We took a few breaks along the way to pack our backpacks and have lunch with coffee and tea. When we did reach Melbourne we didn't have much time left either however to fuel the van, clean it, and go to the supermarket. Then we had secretly hoped someone at our van rental Travellers Autobarn would be so kind to drop us off at the airport, as we had read in some of the reviews on this location. But that wasn't possible. Maybe we hadn't filled in their survey positively enough. We got an evil Uber to bring us to the airport instead.

    Checking in our luggage at Melbourne Airport was great. It was all self service, very easy and without any queue. We had enough time left to carefully select our dinner option, just how we like it. We went for Vietnamese on site with a Subway footlong to go.

    The flight went well, and this time we had a window! Which fit the moment as there was a nice sunset going on and when the clouds cleared we could see a bit of the coastline. Arrival went quickly, inland flights are such a breeze compared to international ones. A bus took us to the city center. From there we still had to walk 2km to our hostel though, which wasn't great while being so sleepy. While local time was only 21:00, our bodies were still operating in Melbourne time, meaning it was midnight. We checked in and got some good news: we got upgraded from a dorm to a twin room. When we were shown the room it was full of stuff... the employee mumbled "what the fuck". 😂 So we got another room. All good. Just a bit cold for sleeping as all rooms are connected to this central airco system you can't control.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    New Zealand taps

    3 de março de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Due to a bit of a jetlag we were awake early on. But that didn't mean we'd do a lot today. First we had to wait until 8:30 for a rather late but free breakfast. Machiel tried a toast with the Australian version of marmite: vegemite. Not as nice as its counterpart from New Zealand, so we're going to give that one a miss. Afterwards we were researching stuff. The idea was to do a road trip to the north, but we were honestly taken a back a bit when we saw the weather forecast. Turns out even in March the temperatures can get quite high in the outback up north. Even in Perth we noticed we had to get used to the heat again after very pleasant weather back in the Melbourne area. We went for a walk to the visitor center of Western Australia to ask for some advice. This gave us reassurance and also some helpful information about the roads. We also bought a 4 week pass for national parks in Western Australia, stocked up on cash, looked a bit more into things we wanted to do along our road trip and prepared a van checklist and grocery shopping list for tomorrow. Then we were basically readily prepared for our big trip.
    The rest of the day we spend resting and reading about Super Tuesday and Corona.

    By the way, this will seem random but we realised we never properly complained about New Zealand water taps which only would be fair after having complained so much about South American showers. The thing about New Zealand taps is that they far too often just don't make any sense. Imagine for example a big sink and then in two opposite corner you have two tiny taps, one with hot and one with cold water. Not only can you not mix them to any other temperature, you also can't really put your hands under either of them because they are so close to the edge of the sink that there is no space. They were sadly very common, but there are also taps where you only get water as long as you hold the button pressed down meaning you can only wash one hand at a time, using that same hand, somehow? But the most brilliant tap is the one that combines the feature of having to press to get any water with don't press too hard because then you get a free shower with it. OK, rant over. We're not there anymore.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    On the road in Western Australia

    4 de março de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    A day earlier we made a solid checklist to avoid the issues we had in Melbourne. So were feeling prepared when we walked into the Travellers Autobarn of Perth. We realized quickly that the van they offered us again had some mould starting on one curtain, so we asked them to replace it and they did. For the rest it didn't seem like there was much wrong with it. It helped that by now we had some van experience, specifically with this model as well.

    We spent a few hours shopping at a shopping center to stock up for awhile. We realized we could have easily bought cheaper camping chairs than what we now paid for at the rental company, so we keep learning. We also noticed that corona has lead to a shortage of certain products like toilet paper, pasta and hand sanitizer.

    It was ridiculously busy for a Wednesday afternoon and we couldn't figure out why. We also had some serious traffic driving out of Perth heading north, which is something we've not seen anywhere else in Australia or New Zealand. We realized we hadn't eaten lunch yet and drove into a fancy Perth suburb. Once we got on the Indian Ocean Road the road got empty quite quickly. After an hour or so we reached our highway rest area for the night. It was quite nice especially since even though there were plenty of other campers, we found the perfect spot a bit further from the road in the shade of some big trees.

    Due to the way the timezone works in Western Australia, the sun sets and rises early. So while it was going down we were having dinner and when we cleaned up it was almost dark. It was clear that we had to stay in this rhythm for awhile to make the most out of our days here. When we went to bed it was still pretty warm but during the night it cooled down and thanks to a window with mosquito net that this particular van has, we even had some fresh air in the night.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante
    1

    The Nambung Pinnacles

    5 de março de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    To avoid the worst of the heat we headed north early to visit Nambung National Park. Less than a week after visiting the Pinnacle viewpoint in the Grampions, now we were going to do a walk through the so called Pinnacles Dessert. We arrived at 8:30 and were apart from 2 or 3 other cars the only ones there in the beginning.

    There were 2 options on how to see the Pinnacles. Either drive a 4km loop or walk a 1.5km loop. Since the road was unsealed and our rental car insurance doesn't allow that, we went for option 2. We didn't really feel that was a restriction though as we could walk around everywhere and take lots of pictures. It was pretty surreal how in this particular part of bushland there were thousands of limestone peaks peaking through the sandy floor. There was also a cute pair of galahs.

    We walked around there for a bit more than an hour before fleeing from the flies into the visitor centre which actually just opened at 9:30. They had some nice information about the partially Dutch history of the area and local flora and fauna. We spend another hour or so here before going back to our van were we relaxed and cooked lunch. We figured it's best to spend the hours between 11:00 and 15:00 not doing much, except for preponing the cooking of the evening meal so we can avoid eating and cleaning up in the dark.

    We drove further to explore Green Head's shopping centre for some tea towels, and a local beach for more relaxing. Our campsite of the night was another free rest area next to the highway. But let's put that right, highway here means one lane in each direction and almost no cars, especially not at night. Plus the rest stop had beach access! And some nice rocks to climb on for better phone reception but of course also a nice view for sunset.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante
    1

    Bush flies

    6 de março de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    It's hard to complain about waking up with a beach view. After breakfast we drove further north. With Geraldton we arrived in the biggest town between Perth and Port Hedland. It has 15000 inhabitants and several supermarkets. We stocked up on mainly fresh food and bought an additional fly screen for our front car windows. Just in case.

    After another hour of driving we arrived at the Hutt Lagoon, also called Pink Lake. The lake looked pretty dry with some areas having no water at all. So that was maybe slightly disappointing. However, instead we could see what looked like a salty crust in a light pink color. So that was also cool. From far the part of the lake with water didn't look that pink but going closer to its shore, that changed and we could indeed imagine that with a drone it would look very pink from above. Polarised sunglasses also have that effect though :)

    It was 14:00 now which meant it was apparently a good time to see the lake as it is the pinkest when the sun is standing high. However that also meant it was very warm and we were pretty hungry for lunch. So we continued to Gregory, a village 1 km further right at the sea. Here we had lunch with a pretty view. Then we went to the - this time not free - campsite of the day: Linga Longa Farm Stay.

    By now we felt like we had already gotten used to the amount of flies, and more importantly, the types of flies. You see, in Australia they have these bastards called bush flies. They're very different than the house flies in Europe, which are more interested in trash or food than in you. When they do buzz around you or land on you, it seems random. In Australia however these bush flies are definitely interested in you, and fly around your head as if they're orbiting a planet, before they inevitably land and do some further exploration on foot. Their favorite touristic hotspots are your ears, nostrils, and eyes.

    When we got out of the van on the Linga Longa Farm Stay, we quickly noticed this place was a bit worse in that regard to the previous days. So many flies. The caretaker was giving us a tour of the campground, asking us lots of questions in the process. In the meantime we were walking around waving our arms around and answering her with our lips closed. I guess she is used to seeing that by now.

    Thankfully we did know in advance that we'd find many of them here in Western Australia, so in Perth we bought some fly nets that we can put over our heads. Looks dumb, but it's effective. Inside the van it's also OK, even with all the doors open.

    We enjoyed a lazy afternoon, Susanne had a walk to the local beach which looked a bit too wild and lonely to swim but had interesting red sand features, and explored a heritage site building on the camp ground when trying to watch the sunset which again was happening behind clouds.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante
    1

    Aussie salute

    7 de março de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    As almost every morning, we woke up with the sunrise. It just makes sense to try and use the cooler part of the day for activities. Today that meant exploring the coast line around Kalbarri. We went to one of the parkings and had a walk along the cliffs. We noticed once more that we were the only car on a pretty big car park. By now we are doubting that that is because we are so early. Maybe the West Coast is just not busy generally, it is not main season or corona keeps all tourists away. We don't know but we like it.

    We also went to a place called Pot Alley. On the pictures the water and beach looked very nice. Being there it was actually the impressive red rocks and Cliffs surrounding it that made us like it a lot.

    When we arrived in Kalbarri we did some grocery shopping, but when we returned to our van and wanted to load the stuff in, one of our plates slid out of the kitchen 'drawer' onto the asphalt and broke into many pieces. We already anticipated for awhile this could happen but we didn't really have a solution for it. Now we had enough and searched long enough for a carton box that fit and helped so that it won't happen again.

    Due to a lack of free campsites around Kalbarri we went for a paid one. The bonus of this is usually decent kitchen facilities. To make it easier for ourselves in the evenings, we cooked the warm meal of the day for lunch again. Wraps was on the menu for today, but we hadn't anticipated that we had to share it. Dozens of bush flies joined our lunch, and it turns out that besides our skin, they really like meat and lettuce as well. It was difficult to prepare it properly without them touching everything, and if they fly into your eye on every other bite then eating wraps isn't very relaxing either. We researched a bit about the bush flies and learned that they're the cause behind the Aussie salute gesture, where someone "waves one hand in front of their face at regular intervals in order to prevent bush flies from landing on it, or entering one's nose or mouth". We were slowly becoming masters of this gesture, but were still happy we could escape to our van afterwards where they didn't bother us much.

    We had some time left, the weather was warm and we were in a coastal town. So it was logical to ask for the local swimming beach and give it a go. It was very refreshing but we have to add that even if you know that it's supposed to be a swimming beach it is a bit of an uncomfortable feeling if there is none else in sight. After a quick dip in the refreshing water and a shower, we headed to the perfect sunset watching spot. Yes, we are not getting tired of trying. And this time we were rewarded. Apart from a tiny cloud layer, we could watch the sun disappear in the ocean. Back at the camping the sky turned pretty orange and red which had a cool effect at the river delta. So Susanne went for another small walk before we fell into bed being quite tired.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    Gorgeous gorges

    8 de março de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    The alarm went off extra early today. We even spared the time of eating breakfast and just did so while driving the 35 minute drive to the inland part of the Kalbarri National Park. We were actually lucky to be able to visit the park for several reasons. 1: the road leading to it was only sealed 2 years ago or so. 2: two weeks ago the park was closed for a week for undertaking a goat control program.

    We arrived there at 7:06. On the way we read a sign telling us the loop track we wanted to do was closed after 7:00 due to heat risk. That took us a bit by surprise although we didn't get up that early for no reason. We knew it was going to be hot. We just didn't know they would close a track that early. Anyways, we decided it was OK to start 10 minutes later than allowed. After the first 100 meters we had a stop in the shade to apply sunscreen as we skipped that before due to time reasons.

    After another few hundred meters we made it to probably the most popular attraction, Nature's Window. Incredibly red, very interestingly layered rocks formed a natural window through which one could see the gorge and river below. It was really very picturesque. Nonetheless we decided to actually undertake the 8km loop track starting right behind it. First along the ridge of the gorge, later along the river banks. There are some bushes and trees for breaks in the shadow but the actual trail is almost entirely in the sun. The views of the cliffs were truly amazing and the river was actually flooded due to recent rain. Apart from seeing trees in the water that also meant we had to climb around a narrow cliff part for a few meters which added a nice challenge to the track. While still early and also windy when on the ridge, it got very warm once we were walking in the gorge. They really are not joking when they warn people to not start this track too late. So we were happy when we were back at the car park at 11:00. In the last section Machiel was a bit too tall for a tree passing, so a short break to rest was very needed.

    We forgot to mention, the flies were again really horrible. Now they even went into the van. So an hour later we went to yet another viewpoint. Luckily that was only 650m from the car park. Nonetheless, doing this at 12:00 just didn't feel good. The views were of course great though as we could see another part of the gorge called Z-bend.

    Back at the car we were totally sweaty, annoyed by the flies and hungry. So we decided to spontaneously drive back to Kalbarri for some coastal climate and showers. The 24km detour was worth it. They had some free showers at the beach and great shadow parking with wind from the sea. Ideal for some resting. We also spotted some pelicans in the bay.

    In the late afternoon we left again. On the way to our free camping at the highway, we stopped at two other view points. They were nice but not so much compared to what we had seen this morning. The campsite was again having millions of flies. Even after sunset when they weren't flying anymore, they were still sitting all over our van and would not leave until we drove 110km/h for several minutes the following morning.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    Biology lesson

    9 de março de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We travel with a 2-berth van but an early morning inspection proved that it can easily accommodate 200 bush flies on top of that. Most of them were still a bit sleepy when we found them on the side of the van, seemingly disappointed they hadn't been able to find a way in during the night to suck on our skin. We were terrorized during breakfast to the extent that we decided to brush our teeth while driving and make a quick stop further up the road to finish up.

    Today we were going to the beach town of Denham in the Shark Bay area. It was around 300km driving from our free campsite. The area is probably mainly known because of the 'wild' dolphins at Monkey Mia which are being fed every morning. We thought that didn't sound too wildlife friendly and since we had already seen wild dolphins in natural setting in New Zealand, we decided to skip this. Nonetheless we felt it could be worth the detour to see Shell Beach, Hamelin Pool and some nice coast line.

    The driving here is by the way quite different to anything we have experienced so far. Roads are straight as far as you can see, always surrounded by red sand and bushland that never seems to end. Once in awhile there is a goat, emu, kangoroo or bird showing its face or lying dead on or besides the street. And every 100km or so there is a roadhouse coming up, often with petrol station. While that's of course commonly known about Australia, it is still a different thing to experience yourself. For now we still very much enjoy it.

    The first stop was Hamelin Pool, which is a Marine Nature Reserve where stromalites can be seen. These are rock-looking bacteria and the earliest signs of life on earth, as far as billions of years ago. It was cool to walk around there and learn a bit about them. Most were in calm, undeep water when we got there, and we could see some fish "floating in the air" swimming around the stromalites. We had another stop at a viewpoint over the sea, where it was interesting to see Australian red outback sand mixing with white beach sand.

    We arrived early at out campsite in Denham, which was needed as it was also washing day. After a late lunch we originally wanted to check out the local beach for swimming as it was warm weather and a coastal town but we both didn't feel too well and decided to take it easy. Instead we baked some improvised spinach-tomato-paprika-feta dough pieces and had a healthy tasty dinner.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    Dinosaur jumping

    10 de março de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Susanne really wanted to swim somewhere. So we thought we'd use the early morning before checkout and check out Little Lagoon which was rated very well as swimming area on Campermate. Arriving there Susanne went in with her feet. It wasn't bad but simply too shallow to think about a swim without walking hundreds of meters. Our next try was the local town beach but here it didn't look any better. The Internet actually confirmed that the sandbar is between 500 and 1000 meters wide before the sea actually gets deeper. So that simply wasn't really worth it. Disappointed we picked up our food from the camping kitchen and left Denham. Ironically the town on the peninsula west of Denham is called 'Useless Loop', but we headed back thinking that the town of Denham was neither really worth the detour. We especially don't understand why in towns like these they don't facilitate better swimming spots. It's so hot yet the local population doesn't seem to care much about using the sea to cool down, contrary to the Australian South Coast or New Zealand. We've been at loads of beaches here but haven't seen a single person in the water, which also doesn't make it inviting to go for a swim alone being a tourist.

    We had a short visit to Shell Beach on the way back to the main highway. That was actually pretty cool and lightened the mood. The beach consists of shells only. In some places the shells have piled up several meters thick. And the water was super clear. Again very very shallow but good for a feet bathing walk. While walking you are not being followed by the usual hundreds of flies but by hundreds of tiny fish. Which is so much nicer because the don't swim into your eyes.

    It was already super hot again. No point in trying any other activities. We picked a free camping along the highway but thought we'd rather arrive late to avoid the flies. So we first went to a random rest area along the road and tried to relax there for some hours, which wasn't easy due to the heat. We couldn't open the van too much or else too many flies got in but it was doable and there was some wind coming in. After a while we anyways wanted to continue. We arrived nonetheless early at the campsite and of course the flies found us again. However, back in Geraldton we had bought a 2m fly screen which we now somehow squeezed between the drivers door and viola we could open a second window now without getting them in. So at least in the van we were now save.

    After dinner we had some time left but no Internet. So we stumbled upon this nice dinosaur jumping game Google provides you with when it can't load a website. Guess what, we ended up spending the rest of the evening playing. Current highscore around 800. Then the birds get too challenging.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução
  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backViajante

    Space exploration

    11 de março de 2020, Austrália ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C

    In the morning we drove straight to the big city of Carnarvon (4500 inhabitants) to do some grocery shopping. As we plan to do snorkeling in the upcoming week we also went to a shop to buy snorkels. We figured it was worth it.

    Then we quite spontaneously decided to visit the Space and Technology Museum. Turned out to be really good. Carnarvon played a role in the lunar Apollo missions in the 60's and they had loads of information and props about it. When we first entered an employee showed us a NASA launch simulator, in which we were sitting/lying on our backs in a control capsule while listening to the radio transmission of the actual launch in real time. We had a countdown and even 'windows' that turned real fiery at lift off. Right when we were convinced we were on the way to the moon, the employee opened the door behind us. "How was it?" Little did he know we were secretly looking forward to spend some time away from Earth, away from the bush flies, the heat and humidity, and corona. We enjoyed the rest of the time there with some more learning and playing some oldschool space games.

    It was around 14:00 when we left and we still wanted to cook ourselves some lunch. We drove back to the coast in the town, found a great shaded lunch spot at the sea and made a lentils curry. We really enjoyed relaxing outside in the shade without too many flies bugging us. We actually enjoyed it so much that we left a bit later than we should have. We still wanted to drive 200km further to the next free camping but noticed quite quickly that we wouldn't manage within daylight. Unlike other rental company insurances we are allowed to drive in the dark despite the higher chance for wildlife collisions. So we were driving and already doubting to stop earlier when the sun was setting. When a kangoroo jumped on the road in front of us and we luckily managed to brake on time, the decision was made. We pulled into the earlier rest stop, it was already dark, so no flies, great spot and all we had to do is eat some slices of bread and go to bed.    Leia mais

    Ver tradução