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Going home

March - December 2019
An epic journey from Australia to Germany by car Read more
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  • Going home
    Day 2

    The first few 100 ks

    March 12, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    My take on the first few days: The Troopy is going well so far. Even fully packed he took some light off-roading like a champ. Only the coleman stove is giving me a headache. It’s lovely not to need a gas cylinder but if I cannot heat up food without restarting the flame every 2 min it’s no good either. I guess we’re still getting to know each other.

    We’re getting into a good rhythm in terms of “van life”. It’s a bit harder than expected to find free camp spots that are worth staying but Jo navigated us to some awesome locations already. We shared a very nice free campsite yesterday at Bulahdelah with about 25 other RVs.

    We also already met some very interesting people. Andrew for instance, who lives in his UTE (he even has a spring mattress in the back 😆). I had a very nice chat with him over coffee. He had just finished a 500km walk (in thongs!) to raise awareness for child abuse by the church.

    All in all a perfect start to our journey which led us today to friends in Sydney we are staying with for the night. Time for some barbecue!

    Cheers,
    Tom    Read more

  • Going home
    Day 3

    In the middle of nowhere

    March 13, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Day 3 on the road. Suprisingly enough we fitted every thing we need (and more) into Hans on Monday and started our journey. Every day a little adventure, not knowing where we will go and where we will sleep until we get out a map after dinner and plan the next day. But even then, there is all the freedom to simply follow a hunch and change plans on the go. Exciting!
    Right now, we're a bit east of Bellingen on a free park carpark that we share with at least 6 other vans. It's not the most beautiful spot, but it's a safe one and will do for tonight. The first night we basically camped on the beach in Evan's Head and last night we staid at Belinda and Scott's cabin park in Mullaway. While we're planning to limit paid parking to a minimum, we decided it was worth it (and it was). Earlier, we had met a women who lives in her van and she pointed out that "illegal" overnighter are being chased by police regularly at the moment and we just weren't ready to leave the beach.
    The weather has been beautiful, we've been in the ocean every day so far. Making the most of it before it gets too cold (yes, we heard, this happens even in Australia).
    And while we could tell so many more stories already, I'll let the pictures do the rest for now.
    (Short fun fact at the end: Bellingen ("Bello") is considered to be the local Byron Bay. Lots of live music, a brewery, slightly alternative, and super popular with tourists.)    Read more

  • Going home
    Day 4

    Koala hospital Port Macquarie

    March 14, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    None of us is a big fan of zoos. But since there are not nearly as many koalas in the wild as there used to be, you have to be very lucky to see one otherwise.
    However, we found a great solution to introduce Vivi to these marsupials nevertheless. Port Macquarie is home to a wonderful small koala hospital where dedicated volunteers take care of injured or orphaned koalas and try to relocate them to their "homezones" where possible. Only if the injuries are so severe that the animal wouldn't survive in the wild, the koala is kept and cared for there. At our time of visit, there were eight cute little furballs that permanently live at the hospital, due to illness (mostly clamydia affecting the eyes and turning them blind), car accidents (causing brain damage) or bush fires (leaving one koala with badly burned claws). A few were being kept from the public, getting them ready to be returned to the wild.
    Did you know that the koala is almost the same as it was 2million years ago? And that it is an aboriginal name meaning "little water" ( a koala only needs to drink once the leaves have dropped 65% of their water content). Or that it sleeps 18-20hrs a day in order to digest the heavily toxic eucalyptus leaves it eats? Mothers inoculate their babies gut to help them survive on these leaves. Quite a remarkable animal! If you live on Australia's east coast (yes, the koalas don't live all throughout Australia), please help saving them by planting suitable trees, making sure your dogs don't hurt them and drive carefully. I'm sure with joint efforts they will be saved and future generations will still be as amazed as we were.    Read more

  • Going home
    Day 7

    Wyanbene Caves

    March 17, 2019 in Australia ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    It’s crazy what you can find when looking for a spot to camp for the night. It looked like a nice little free campsite in the forest at first but then we found out there’s caves just a few 100 meters away from the campsite. The Wyanbene Caves turned out to be quite the adventure! Knee deep water, leeches, spiders, ... the whole package!
    It was a rather weird feeling though to just go down into a pitch black cave in the middle of nowhere. Awesome nonetheless!    Read more

  • Going home
    Day 9

    Australia's highest mountain

    March 19, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We did it! Being the mountain lovers we are, we couldn't go past Australia's highest mountain without climbing it. Mt. Kosciuszko is part of the snowy mountains, one of Australia's few areas where you can actually ski in winter. During the other seasons it's still got plenty to offer though! Lake Jindabyne is close by, the road that leads through the national park is pretty stunning no matter the weather and Thredbo itself offers a vast net of hiking and mountain bike trails. Vivi and I opted for the chairlift and hike, Tom joined us but went down with his bike.
    As it had been raining heavily the day before and we were about to go up to 2228m (compared to the highest peaks anywhere else it's quite low, I know), we hadn't been too sure if it was actually a good idea to do the hike, and the rainy start to the day wasn't too affirmative either. But we couldn't wait for the weather to improve, hence we wore appropriate clothes and packed extra and off we went.
    We were rewarded as soon as we reached the chairlift's top station: sun rays were already shining through and turned our surroundings into a sea of glitter. And we staid dry and almost warm throughout the whole 13kms return track to the peak. Such beautiful views, such stunning landscape. Australia does have mountains after all! Aborigines say mountain peaks are "where the spirits dance" and I couldn't agree more. A very serene feeling and a reminder of how small our part in the world is. Climb a mountain to find out yourself!
    As we didn't have enough time to turn our hike into a roundtrip (there are plenty of options though), we quickly went back the way we came and waved Tom farewell at the top of the chairlift station. In spite of the still wet and muddy conditions, he had been very keen on the trails. I was quite glad to have him back in one piece when we rejoined by the car and it turns out, so was he. Seems like the trails were quite tough after all. (Comment from the cyclist: Holy moly, one would think after a few years of casual mountain biking you would qualify as intermediate. Man, was I wrong... Drops, berms, rocks and all of them too high, too wide or too big for this “beginner” rider!)

    By now, the sun had reached the valley as well and we took our chance to quickly refresh in the river, fully intending to drive out of the national park despite of the time (it was 3.30pm already).
    However, the sun was too tempting as our wet gear really needed it (not a single pair of dry shoes lefy) and we certainly did, too. Hence we decided to stay at the Geehi Plains campsite still in the National Park and oh boy... it seems like we reached paradise. A spot right next to the river, plenty of kangaroos, parrots, bunnies and: just before we went to bed we saw a wombat! What a day. Thank you to the world for guiding us so well and providing these super special and inspiring moments. Moments I never want to forget.    Read more

  • Going home
    Day 15

    Stormy night at Lake Gairdner

    March 25, 2019 in Australia ⋅ 🌧 5 °C

    Second night on Tasmania (Comments from the driver in brakets). It was a wild one!
    After having spent a beautiful day exploring around Devonport - we went to an arboretum with platypus, a winery and Sheffield, the town best known for its many murals - we drove to a wikicamp site next to a river, not far from Lake Gairdner. The whole day we had been experiencing showers, but nothing too bad. Luckily we were able to prepare (I guess the pressure cooker we used for the first time deserves a blog post of its own) and eat dinner fairly dry and went to bed around 9.30pm. And then... we were woken up several times by wind and rain that shook Hans (the car for those who don't know yet) so strongly that we thought we will tipp over (you know, not really but it was quite scary). Lightning lit up the pop top tent as bright as daylight and every time you thought it was over, another blow hit. But, we didn't tipp over and the tent staid dry.
    Waking up in the morning to - a short patch of - sunlight, we realised the real aftermath: our rail for the awning at the back of the car had been ripped off! Luckily the awning didn't blow away (unlike one of our beach shade thingies that we had to fish out of the river). During a short break in the rain Tom established that our camp neighbour carried a rivet gun (one of the few things we actually don't have with us) and was able to fix the rail. As it kept on showering, we still packed up fairly quickly and proceeded in pursuit of the sun, only to find SNOW at Cradle Mountain! Jup, that's vanlife as well.    Read more

  • Going home
    Day 18

    Derby - Australia's Wistler

    March 28, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Random conversation in a Derby bike shop:
    Tom: Can you fix my brakes?
    Guy: Maybe you should upgrade.
    Tom: The brakes?
    Guy: The bike!

    But in the end the old Canyon did a great job shredding down the slopes of Blue Derby. Exploratory mountain biking at its finest. Ascending through rain forest, alongside waterfalls and speeding down via berms and ferns, small jumps and over roots and rocks.
    Derby went from a tin mining town to a mountain biker Mekka and has something for everybody. Jo and Vivi also had great fun joining me on the beginner trails and did an amazing job for first time single trail riders.
    The scariest bit was actually when that poor fellow of a snake snapped at me on the trail cause I saw it too late. It buggered off after, so I’m hoping I didn’t hurt it after all.

    All in all perfect two days with free camping,
    great facilities and purely fun mountain biking!

    Thanks Derby!    Read more

  • Going home
    1
    Day 19

    A day on the beach - Bay of Fires

    March 29, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Ok, we've been warned. We knew it would get cold on Tasmania. We expected to see snow on top of the mountains. I did not expect to be freezing even in the lower parts of the island. Hence yesterday was a welcome change. Instead of driving from Derby straight to the Bay of Fires as initially planned, we had camped at a beautiful spot in a forest, next to the George river. From there, it was a mere hour and a half drive to the Bay of Fires, allowing us to reach it fairly early in the day.
    I had read a fair bit about this stretch of coast and had heard a lot about the secluded beaches and quiet campspots, the beautiful landscape and above all the colourful rock formations dotting the beaches. One would think the Bay of Fires got its name from them, as a certain type of lichen paints the rocks bright red. But it actually got its name from the early white explorers that had sighted the many first nation inhabitants' fires, aboriginal families that were at home here. Sadly, it's not easy to find out a lot about Tasmania's original past as the state only slowly seems to reveal what happened. A lady we talked to mentioned that Tasmania needed to deal with its convict history first (not an easy task either).
    But tours guided by aboriginal descendants are becoming more common and more and more spiritual sites are being protected, which should make it easier to ackknowledge Tasmania's original inhabitants and protect their cultural heritage. Not enough to strengthen their rights and correct the wrong they've experienced but a step towards the right direction...
    Vivi and I had been very interested in learning more about this area's particular history and really wanted to find some shell middens (big hills of shells- slowly built up over time from discarded shells after meals). Turns out we were at the wrong end of the bay, so we had to marvel at the stone formations, the white sandy beaches and the clear, turquoise water instead. The colours are simply stunning!
    The sun was out and during our wander we found a stretch of beach that was calm enough to swim in. Tom had parked Hans at a perfect spot on the Cosy Corner south campground, completing our beautiful day at the beach with dinner under fairylights accompanied by the sounds of rolling waves.
    Larapuna (the bay's aboriginal name) has made its mark in our memories.    Read more

  • Going home
    Day 21

    Freycinet National Park

    March 31, 2019 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 14 °C

    There would have been so much more to do in this corner of Tasmania but time is ticking for our stay on this beautiful isle! Hence, we decided to do a dayhike only in the Freycinet National Park on the day after arriving in the region. It was already a bit too late in the day to start the hike, advertised as 5h (realistically about 3.5h).
    Finding a good spot to camp was not easy this time. Nothing satisfied our spoiled expectations and in addition I really wanted to beak some bread. The sourdough starter was direly in need of a feed and we craved a slice of good bread. Didn't make the search any easier, but I did ended up making two small loafs of bread (a bit charry but still) and we found an "ok" spot to sleep. You won't believe how many Huntsman can live happily in an old brick barbecue. They did look kind of angry though when I lit a fire under their spider asses. But don't worry, no animals were hurt while beaking the bread!

    During the walk on the next day we had really beautiful weather. Most of the walk was flat but offered the occasional stunning view over the bay. Luckily we are travelling in off season. We didn't meet many people on the trail or on the beaches for that matter which I bet is a very different situation in summer.
    The last part of the hike is a steep incline up to a view point over Wineglas Bay. After climbing 1000, yes you guessed it, steps (stairs again!! Can nobody walk on normal ground anymore?) we could enjoy an awesome view over the bay.
    A short walk downhill led us down to the car and off we were to our next adventure!

    Cheers,
    Tom    Read more

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