February

By now it is February and the main thing for Simon and me is to find a job. We already tried a lot of different things, like at the fishing harbour in Cairns, at all the farms around Cairns and in the Atherton Tablelands and in different working hostels. But we couldn´t find anything in the last three weeks. So we kept on moving from Cairns, through the Atherton Tablelands towards Townsville. Besides calling the farmers we also stopped at every farm to ask if there are any jobs available but nothing… only signs like this:

After all we thought it must be the wrong weather at the east coast right now (wet season) and there must be far too many backpackers around there. So Simon and I decided to have a look at the Outback now and to try to find a job at the west coast.

On our way through the Tablelands we visited a couple of beautiful places. First stop was the “curtain fig tree”. A massive fig tree that built up unusual cause the tree it grew up at broke down and so this fig tree looks like a huge curtain. And all this in the middle of an amazing rainforest! J

Next was Lake Eacham. A big crater lake right in the rainforest as well and filled with crystal clear water. We had a little BBQ there and went to “Millaa Millaa” to have a look at some waterfalls. There is a circular drive where you can visit three different waterfalls just by driving 10km. The most famous one (you see on the picture below) is “Millaa Millaa Fall”. Was a bit rainy in those days but waterfalls are always impressing!

On our way from the Atherton Tablelands to Townsville we stopped by at Paronella Park. This is kind of a paradise park opened 1931 by a Spanish guy called Paronella. He came over from Spain to become a farmer here in Australia. He made that much money by farming and dealing with land that he could buy this park, which includes a waterfall and to build his own castle there.

He just started living his dream! Here you see one of the two castles he built. This park was open to the public in these days, so people could stop here for a coffee, a swim near the waterfall, to watch a movie in the cinema or to party in Paronella´s very own ball-room. What an interesting project!

There were also heaps of turtles in the river under the waterfall. You can feed them there and we even cached one. J

Here you see the light up waterfall at night. Just an awesome view and the funny thing is that this waterfall was already light up in 1931 because Paronella built a generator into the waterfall to produce power for his park. At the moment the owners of the park try to rebuild everything.

Roadtrip!!! Yes at first we had to stop in Townsville to buy all the stuff we need for the Outback, like extra fuel, some jerry cans for water and plenty of food. And then: Off into the Outback! On the picture you see me sitting around in the “Whitemountains National Park”. We had good luck with the weather – It was kind of cloudy and on the following days during our drive it rained a bit, so it didn´t get too hot.

Unbelievable but they are still farming cattle in the middle of nowhere! Nearly everything there is dry and there are very less green plants. I really wonder what they life of and besides that they look so incredible slim!

We stayed the first night during the road trip in Charters Towers, partying a bit and the second night in Richmond which is a “shithole” in the middle of nowhere! One pub there was old and dirty with a couple of people sitting around and the second pub looked good and was kind of new but Simon and I have been nearly the only costumers within three hours on a Saturday evening!

Next day after this nice sunrise in the morning we kept on moving pretty early towards a bigger town called mount Isa. We stayed there the next night and had a bit a look around. It was pretty interesting that they just built a big town in the middle of a desert because of a gold mine. All the people living in this town are working in the mine as well (besides the people working in the few shops).

Now we gave “Rosie”, our car a bit a challenge. We went to the camooweal caves witch are only 20km away from the highway but only conneted by a gravel road. After all we made it, pretty slowly and the car covered in red mud, but we made it! After all the ride to the caves was better than the actually caves but we decided it was really worth it! Here you see us sitting at one of the caves. Everything there looked so dry that we had the feeling these rocks must have been broken just by the heat. J

This day we made the longest distance: From Mount Isa, to the camooweal caves right to the “Threeways Roadhouse”, which is a total of about 680km. That doesn´t sound very much but there is no way here to drive when it is dark cause of all the kangaroos , jumping in front of your car… we have seen so many roadkills, like every 50m a kangaroo or even a cattle. So we can only drive during the day and we are only driving approx. 90km/h because of the road conditions in some places and our fuel costs. J

Above you see a “Road-Train”. These thing are typical for the Outback, they are very fast, like 130km/h and they drive with four trailers. It´s pretty scary to get overtaken by one of them!

Devils Marbles! We stopped there on our way down south from Threeways to Alice Springs. That was incredible, we just climbed up a couple of rocks and it was possible to see for hundreds of kilometers.

This is the most famous part of the devils marbles, you always see on postcards and stuff. Pretty funny how these rocks look like somebody threw them there! J

Our friend the “Sturart-Highway”! We have been driving on that one for about 540km down south now to get to Alice Springs, where we are at the moment. Awesome blue sky and all this red soil.

Yesterday we climbed up one of the mountains around Alice. Took us about an hour to get up there and it was pretty steep, but really worth the work. Such nice views! We have been walking around there with a guy from Israel. The first person we met from there!

And yes I have got a new haircut – selfmade J It´s a little short but it was just too hot with these long hair I had before..

Below you see the sky on our way down from the mountain. I have never seen such a nice sky like here in the desert! I´d say it can´t be bluer, clearer and the sunsets can´t be better. J

The next days we are going to leave Alice Springs and head on to the Uluru and Kings Canyon. I am really looking forward to go there!

So we started our Trip from Alice Springs to Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon. Another 1200km to go, but by now we are pretty much used to the highway and the car is still doing its job!

We just arrived at Ayres Rock on the evening, the right time to wait for the sunset, to see the rock changing its colours. Incredible view and even better with some nice burgers right in front of it for dinner!

We had to leave the park during the night, camping in a small village bedside it. We couldn’t believe how new all the buildings were there. Just new hotels, resorts and even phone reception! Next morning we got up at 5 o´clock, to see the sunrise there as well. During the night the temperature there dropped to 18°C, not too cold but when we woke up we were freezing! 18°C can be really hard if you are used to 35°C!

The same day we also climbed Uluru. There is a big discussion about doing this or not, but after all there is also a path up the rock, so it is kind of mend to be climbed.. But it was a great experience to do the climb! It felt like being on another planet up there! Just unbelievable that all this is only one rock!!

This was the way up/down there. Very steep and it was hot, no shadow at all but it was really worth it J

Kangaroos everywhere, all over this continent! Not only in nice green areas like the coasts, no you can also find them right in the centre, right in the desert.

After the climb we also did the whole round around Uluru. 10km and we got a bit in too hot weather, the temperature raised above 40°C, good that we had plenty of water and no sunburn after all!

The next morning we went to Kata Tjuta, another group of rocks in this national park. Both, Kata Tjuta and Uluru are sacred for the aboriginal people, so you are not allowed to take pictures in some areas and you are not supposed to walk around besides the paths. I think the story all around these places is pretty interesting, on the one hand what these places mean to the aborigines and on the other hand how people took this land, gave it back to them later on and finally rented it back.

Kata Tjuta was awesome! So many green in the middle of nowhere, so much water in this place! It seemed like a paradise for all the wildlife because of all the water that gets captured between the rocks.

We did this walk in the morning and kept straight on moving, so we used the hot midday sun to drive to our next destination: Kings Canyon.

We got there right in time, to do another walk there in the evening, to see the rocks glow in the sunset. Really impressive how red these rocks really are! What a nice trip to the heart of Australia! J

After a couple of more days in Alice Springs, looking for some work we hit the road again up to Darwin. Another 1500km to go.. it seems like this highway will never end. On our way up there we have been very lucky. Just a couple of days before we made our way all the roads were flooded because of the strong rain up in Darwin. But all the roads were free for us, except a few national parks we wanted to visit. Hopefully the water will be gone a bit more when we move on to the WestCoast the next days, so we can visit some nice places in the national parks.

Here you see a “Longhorn”. It was standing right beside the road on our way to Katherine. They are a like a symbol for the Northern Territory!

We also stopped at NT oldest pub in Daily Water. Established in 1930 it is not very old but still NT´s oldest! We rested there for a drink and got told that there are only 11 people living in this town. I really can´t imagine living there!

By now we made it up to Darwin, enjoying the city and still looking for some work. We are still lucky with the weather – no rain, since we arrived here and that in the wet season!