Around the World

Last week we spent in the Australian Alps. Because on Fri, 3 April the weather was very cloudy we did not go to Mount Buller as had been our plan. Instread we went to the tourist information and asked for alternatives. The lady suggested a walk in a valley nearby which we liked. So we drove to the car par at Sheepyard Flat and walked from there after looking around for the beginning of the walk. Signposting of nature trails is not very good in most places we visited in Australia. There is also a camping ground Sheepyard Flat but at this time of the year it was almost entirely empty. We walked the short way to along a creek and some abandoned gold mines. Apparently, none of the companies searching for gold here until the early 1900s never found enough to make the undertaking viable. This is an interestingly different aspect of the goldrush than we had seen at Ballarat and some other places. Gold made these towns rich, the mines here were abandoned after a few years. At the end of the way we came to Fry’s Flat, named after a Mr. Fry who lived in a hut here until somtime in the 1970s. The hut is still there as a shelter for walkers being maintained by the rangers of the National Park. We did need a shelter at that stage as it had started to rain. But that didn’t last long so we started our walk back. On the way back to the Motel we bought some fresh food and spent the rest of that rainy day in the room.

On the next morning (Sat, 4 Apr) the sun shining from a clear blue sky woke us up and we decided to use this opportunity to climb Mt Buller. To be exact, there is not much a climb as the road leads almost all the way to the top of the 1805 metre mountain. Only the last 100 metres or so need to be made on foot. Nevertheless, from the top we had a wonderful view only disturbed by the many chairlifts that in winter carry the skiers to the mountain top. In fact, we were surprised to see a sizable resort town right underneath the summit. But I guess this is what Australian ski tourists demand. We did the 3 kilometre circuit, enjoyed the views and were happy that we hadn’t come in winter as there would have been thousands of other tourists. Not yet tired of walking we stopped again a bit further down and did a walk to a small waterfall where we also had our picknick lunch. Then we headed to our next destination Beechworth where we had booked a (compared to our other accomodations) rather expensive holiday unit which turned out to be excellent. We had our own lounge, bedroom, bath with spa, kitchen and large terrace with a view over the valley. It almost felt like having our own home again and we stayed there for four nights. We bought pasta and wine in the local supermarket and enjoyed the late afternoon and evening in the appartment. To properly make use of the internet connection and Sunday paper that were included in the rate we stayed “home” all day on Sunday, 5 April.

On Monday, 6 April we visited the historic centre of Beechworth which during the days of the goldrush and sometime afterwards was the main town in the area. Many of the old public buildings, including the telegraph station, court house, powder magazine have been restored and used for exhibitions. From the telegraph station it is even possible to still send a telegram. After visiting the exhibition and also the Burke Museum (named after Robert O’Hara Burke, the explorer who held a public office in Beechworth in the 1850s) we went to the bakery, bought some pies and had them for lunch sitting in the sun at the nearby lake. In the afternoon we visited the historic cemetery with its Chinese section for the many Chinese who came to the area during the gold rush. Interestingly, the cemetery has not always been at its present site and when it was moved there sometime in the second half of the 19th century, the bodys of those who had been buried at the church, the site of the old, much smaller cemetery, were dug up and buried again in the new cemetery. Later we visited the powder magazine before heading back to our appartment for a leisurely evening.

On the next day (Tue, 7 Apr) we made the short trip to Yackandandah, a town a bit smaller than Beechworth but also dating back to the times of the gold rush. Here, we visited the museum including an original cottage where once a family with eight children lived and which has been redecorated the way it would have looked in the late 1800s. It is quite amazing on how small an area 10 people have lived. Our holiday unit for 2 people was as big as the cottage, not to mention the contemporary luxeries. After a short lunch break we took a walk at a nearby creek which had been diverted by gold diggers in the 1850s to create a water race to operate mining machinery. Unfortunately, the signposting was very bad so in order not to get lost we returned rather quickly. We spent the rest of the afteroon on the terrace reading, drinking coffee and enjoying the autumn sunshine.

Yesterday (Wed, 8 Apr) after breakfast we packed our bags, left the comfortable appartment and first went to the laundry in town where we washed and dried some of our clothes while having a coffee in the café of the historic hotel Transwell across the street. With clean underwear in our bags we then started towards the Snowy Mountains. Driving there was quite pleasant because of the many beautiful views despite the winding road. At this time of the year there no snow yet, although the name of the mountains suggests they get quite a bit of it. After stopping several times on the way we arrived at approx. 6pm in Cooma which gained importance when the Snowy Mountain Scheme was built during the 1950s and 60s. Now it seems to mainly be a tourist spot. After enjoying the luxurious appartment in Beechworth it took us some effort to adjust to the standard of the hostel room we had booked in Cooma. The room did have a kitchenette but again the stove was from the 1950s just like the one we had in Hobart and was hardly usable.

This morning (Thu, 9 Apr) we went to Jindabyne where the large tourist information centre for the Snowy Mountains is located. There, we got a map and a daypass and set off on the road towards Mt. Kosciuszko National Park. Our first stop was near Sawpit Creek where we walked a 6km circuit throught the forest, first along a creek to a waterfall and then over a small hill. On the way back we had an encounter with a kanguroo in the forest which seems to have been feeding near our path and that looked at us for a minute or so before hurriedly hopping away into the underwood. That was sufficient time for us to make a few pictures. Back at the car park while we had our picknick lunch another kangaroo approached us obviously hoping we’d share our food. But having in mind the many signs that one should leave wildlife wild, we didn’t. Then we drove to Charlotte Pass which is as far as one is allowed to go into the park by car stopping a few times on the way to make pictures of the beautiful landscape. It was already too late to walk the full 20 kilometre circuit to the summit of Mt. Kosciuszko (2228 metres), so after looking at the old gum trees from the boardwalk we headed to Blue Lake coming back the same way. Nevertheless, we got to enjoy the picturesque landscape. On our way back to Cooma we saw many cars coming the other way, obviously people who were going to spend Easter in the Snowy Mountains.

Die letzte Woche haben wir in den Australischen Alpen verbracht. Da wir letzten Freitag (03/04) allerdings morgens von tiefhaengenden Wolken begruesst wurden, haben wir unsere erste Bergtour zum Mount Buller fuer diesen Tag abgeblasen. Statt dessen haben wir uns in der Touristeninformation ueber Alternativen erkundigt und sind zum Sheepyard Flat gefahren. Torsten war etwas beunruhigt als wir von der Hauptstrasse auf eine Schotterpiste abbogen, die uns zum 17 Kilometer entfernten Parkplatz bringen sollte, aber die Strasse stellte sich als verhaeltnismaessig gut heraus. Das einzige, was uns Sorge bereitete, waren die Einheimischen, die uns hin und wieder wie die Verrueckten auf der engen kurvigen Strasse entgegenrasten. Jedesmal beteten wir, dass kein Stein unsere Windschutzscheibe trifft. Sheepyard Flat ist ein Campingplatz, der aber zu dieser Jahreszeit nahezu ausgestorben ist. Wir parkten also das Auto und fanden nach einigem Suchen auch den Anfang des Wanderweges. Wanderwegausschilderung gehoert nicht zu den Staerken der Australier. Aber zum Glueck war dieser Wanderweg recht leicht im Unterholz des Waldes zu finden. Der Weg fuehrte uns an einer verlassenen Goldmine vorbei. Im Gegensatz zu dem, was wir in Ballarat gesehen hatten, war dies eine Investruine. Keine Firma, die die Goldmine uebernommen hatte (und es gab einige) hat je so viel Gold gefunden, dass sich das Investment gelohnt haette. Daher wurde die Mine Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts der Natur ueberlassen. Interessant, auch die andere Seite des Goldrausches zu sehen. Am Ende des Weges kamen wir auf eine Lichtung, auf der eine alte Holzhuette stand. Das war Frys Huette, benannt nach Herrn Fry, der mehrere solcher Huetten in den Bergen gebaut hatte und mehr oder weniger als Einsiedler dort lebte. Die Huette wird instandgehalten, so dass Wanderer hier im Notfall einen Unterschlupf haben. Den hatten wir zu dem Zeitpunkt auch noetig, denn es fing an zu regnen. Zum Glueck liess der Regen bald nach und nach einer kurzen Mittagspause liefen wir zurueck zum Auto. Auf dem Rueckweg haben wir frische Lebensmittel eingekauft und haben es uns in unserem Zimmer gemuetlich gemacht.

Last Saturday (28 Mar) we left Hobarth and went north to the Freycinet National Park, which encompasses a wonderful lagoon and rugged coast on the eastside of Tasmania. We walked about an hour to the lookout over Wineglass Bay, which was beautiful, but unfortunately a bit overcrowded. Even the kangaroos got so used to the tourists that they wait at the parking areas in the hope to get fed. Also the lighthouse at Cape Tourville is quite crowded, but as the area is more spacious it doesn’t feel like it. And there are wonderful views of the rugged coast. Nevertheless, the best walk to Sleepy Bay, because hardly anybody seems to spend the time to go there; even though the path is less cultivated and it feels more natural. We spent a long time taking pictures of the red stones in the turquoise water. But when the sun started to move down we finally had to drive on to Devenport to reach it before dark. This time we had booked a nice B&B near to the ferryport. We had dinner in a nearby Indian restaurant and went to bed early.

The next day (29 Mar) we spent on the ferry back to Melbourne. We had again secured a spot next to the sockets for our laptop. Part of our journey we were joined by Marks mum and her partner, who had spent 3 weeks on Tasmania. As we went into the Melbourne Harbour they showed us, where Mark and Annette lived and where we would spend the next few nights. While standing on the outside platform of the ferry we could here the last rounds of the Formula 1 race, an unbelievable noise. On that evening we joined Annette and Mark for their Formula 1 party, which they held at their roof terrace overlooking the race course. Unfortunately, we arrived too late to see any action. We actually were quite happy to arrive at all, because we stood at the wrong building and it took some telephone conversations to clear that up. But finally we stood at the roof terrace with a beer in our hands enjoying the stunning view of Melbourne at night.

On the next morning we could sleep in while Annette and Mark had to get up to work. We had a leisurly breakfast in the kitchen that offers wonderful views of the harbour. Afterwards we took the tram into the city centre, where we first went to the Immigration Museum. They have a really interesting exhibition about how Australia was basically formed. Afterwards we walked a bit through the city centre, had a snack somewhere in the business area and later a coffee at Starbucks. Finally we ended up in the Art Centre, where we booked theatre tickets for the same night for “The year of the magical thinking”, a play directed by Cate Blanchett, which we enjoyed very much. After the play we went to Chinatown for dinner.

On Tuesday (31 Mar) we walked down to St. Kilda Pier, where we spent quite some time taking picture, eating ice cream and watching the sea. In the afternoon we went again into the town centre. After an early dinner at Southgate we went up the Eureka tower, where we watched the sunset over Melbourne. On our way home to Annette and Mark we stopped for wine in Southgate again and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere at the Yarra river. Yesterday (1 Apr) we prepared everything for our journey along the east coast before we went to the National Galerie, where they have interesting classic and modern exhibitions. In the evening we went out with Annette and Mark to a Nepalese restaurant in Chapel Street. The food was so rich that afterwards we had to stroll a bit through Chapel Street before going back home.

Today (2 Apr) we didn’t have a very long drive, but we stopped at several places to take pictures before reaching Mansfield in the late afternoon. Torsten was not in a very good mood today. I promised him nice views at Lake Eildon, but most of the lakeside seems to be priavetly owned and we had to drive around a lot before getting a glimpse. The signposts are very poor, which made the search even more difficult. But here in Mansfield we have a very nice cabin and a common kitchen next door. So Torsten is cooking dinner while I update our diary. Tomorrow we want to go up to Mount Buller.

In Devenport we had booked again a YHA Hostel, which turned out to be the most trashed place we have ever seen. Our room seemed quite ok and we went out to a pizzeria for dinner, but on the next morning we had our breakfast in the common area, which was not only dirty and smelly, also nearly all the furniture was worn down and broken. That was the point that we decided we’ve had enough of hostels.

On Sunday (22 Mar) we drove along the northern coast to Stanley. We stopped many times to take pictures of the beautyful scenery. We had a coffee in a quirky café in Penguin, a small town, where all the waste bins come in the form of a penguin. We stopped in Burnie, where we visited a local paper maker and marvelled at the paper sculptures, and where we tasted a variety of local cheese at a cheese maker. In Wynyard we finally bought a tripod, which should come in handy considering our growing interest in photography. We tested it already a few hours later, when we drove up to the lighthouse of Table Cape. We reached Stanley in the evening, where we had booked a room in a local pub, which turned out to be a very good restaurant. We booked a table for the same evening and had a delicious dinner on the deck watching the sunset.

On the next day (23 Mar) we initially planned to go to Strahan, but could find any accomodation. Therefore, we decided to go straight to Hobarth, which turned out to be a very long drive, because the roads through the mountains are quite narrow and difficult to drive. We got nearly lost in Queenstown, where we had to refill our car and had a coffee in the historic train station. Because there are no signs we had no idea how to continue our drive (we only found the city centre by chance after asking several people). Thankfully, a woman in a car showed us personally the way out of town. In Hobarth we had booked a little appartment with sitting room and small kitchen, which was our home for our remaining days in Tasmania.

Our first day in Hobarth (24 Mar) we spent entirely in town. First we bought groceries and other necessities (our socks started to wear thin and we had to replace them), then we took the bus into the town centre, where we spent some time exploring the harbour, Salamanca and the shopping mall. Hobarth is a lovely town with lots of art shops. Torsten bought a new pair of outdoor shoes (because he didn’t like smell of the old one’s any more) and then we got stuck in a second hand book shop. Afterwards we had a coffee in one of the cafes in the pedestrian mall.

On the next day (25 Mar) we went to Port Arthur. There, on a peninsula, many of the convicts had been deported, because it was easy to control. They built a huge prison and a small town developed, where the families of the people in charge could live. Most of the buildings in Port Arthur have been partly or wholly distroyed. But it is still impressive to see how the convicts lived there and to follow some of their stories. We joined a small tour, where we could hear more of the history and did a harbour cruise, which gave us an excellent view of the old ruins.

Yesterday (26 Mar) we went to the national park at Lake St. Clair. Unfortunately, it was raining, but we still did the 1.5 hour walk along the lake and had to warm ourselves up at the fire place afterwards. Today (27 Mar) we spend all day in our appartment, doing the laundry, writing diary and browsing the internet.

Tuesday (17 Mar) and Wednesday (18 Mar) we spent mostly driving the more than 1500 km back towards Melbourne. We stopped overnight in Adelaide again. But before we went back to Melbourne we stopped for one night in Ballarat an old town from the gold era. There we stayed in a historic guest house in Sovereign Hill, which we wanted to explore on the next day (19 Mar). Sovereign Hill is the recreation of 19th century Ballarat, basically a museum village. There is the creek, where everybody can try to wash some gold, two gold mines, and typical shops and services from that time. We saw the Chinese camp and visited the carriagemaker. The people working in the museums are dressed in 19th century fashion and we took the opportunity to dress-up ourselves and get a picture made in the local photoshop. It was interesting to see how gold mining changed between 1850s and 1870s. in the 1850s gold could still be found on the surface, but later they had to dig into the ground. By the 1870s industrialisation has started to dominate more and more of the process. First we thought we would only spend a couple of hours there, but we ended up spending the whole day. In the evening we went back to Melbourne, where Kathy and Terry welcomed us again.

Friday (20 Mar) we spent most of the time organising and catching up. Torsten washed the car and I updated our website. In the evening we went into the city centre to meet Annette and Mark again, this time in a Malaysian restaurant, which triggered old memories from our earlier trip there. We couldn’t stay out too long, because today (21 Mar) our ferry to Tasmania started at 9am and we had to be there for boarding shortly before 8am. Everything went smoothly. The ferry is huge, but that was to be expected for a 9 hour journey. We found a nice place on the top level with access to electricity, so that we can use the time to write diary and sort out pictures, while listening to life music.

Driving through the Outback is one of the experiences that probably is unique in one’s lifetime and it is difficult to put it into words. The straight road through the more or less flat area with sparse vegetation makes the driver easily tired – not tired in the form of exhausted more tired in the form of feeling kind of hypnotisized. I guess driving through the Outback gets quite near to meditation. The only thing that wakes the senses once in while is wild animals crossing the road – some of them unsuccessfully as can be seen in the number of dead animals at the side of the road. On our drive from Marla to Yulara last Thursday (12 Mar) we had some scary incidents and we are happy that nothing serious happened, especially as we could see that some of the road kill involved larger kangoroos. On this day we had only encounters with suicial birds, who feasted on the cadavers of that morning’s kills and in their greed ignored approaching cars. Mostly birds are fast enough to escape, but when it comes to parrots, evolution has obviously not provided them with a speed sufficient to adapt to modern traffic. In our case we drove through a swarm of parrots and two of them hit our wind shield. Even though Torsten slowed down when he saw the birds, we still drove nearly 90 km/h and the bang on the wind shield was so loud, I doubt that the birds survived.

We arrived in Yulara, the settlement near Ayers Rock, in the early afternoon, unfortunately at the same time as a German tour bus, which meant a long waiting time at reception. Yulara is nothing more than a big resort to provided travellers to Ayers Rock with all the needs they might have. Being run by just a single company there is no cheap option. It seemed because we booked via the internet and for 3 nights we got it as cheap as we possibly could, which was still well beyond our budget. But what’s the point of going to Australia and not seeing Ayers Rock? So we swallowed it. At least we had a big air-conditioned hotel room with our own bathroom. Because of the heat spent the afternoon in the room unpacking and reading. We left shortly before 6 pm to the National Park to see the sunset. We had plenty of time as the sunset was not before 7pm, but we wanted to take our time to see the full range of colours from red-orange in the late afternoon sun to brighter gold-orange during the sunset and dark red when the shadows of the night rise. Since we had started to travel we had often found the time to watch sunsets, which is one of the most precious moments of the day. It is such luxury to have the time to watch a sunset. And we can never get enough of that luxury that nature provides without charge – if we were only not always in such a hurry to do thousands of other things instead. At Ayers Rock and the other rock formations in the national parks in the Outback the day normally centers on sunrise and sunset, partly because it gets too hot during the day, but mostly because that is when the change of light brings out the most fascinating colour play. Our last 4 days mainly consisted of sunrises and sunsets – an indication of how beautiful it is.

On the first morning (13 Mar) we got up at 5:30am and went to the sunrise spot for Ayers Rock. While there are two sunset spots – one for cars and one for busses – there is only one for sunrise, which meant it was a bit overrun, which unfortunately takes away some of the magic. We had taken our mugs with tea and coffee and some honey toasts for breakfast. So when the tour buses all left for breakfast in the hotels we had the place to ourselves. We enjoyed the start of the day a bit longer and then went to the cultural centre to get some information on walking tours. There was not much more information than we already had. So we didn’t waste much time and went to one of the parking spots. From there we started the 10km walk around Ayers Rock. The walk is quite easy except for the increasing heat when day gets older. It is fascinating to walk at the foot of the rock that literally grows out of nowhere. While it looks very compact and even from far away one can see many different shapes and shades when walking on that path. After we had finished the walk 2 hours later we went back to the cultural centre and tried to get some more information. The cultural centre gave us a little insight into the Aboriginal myth of the creation of Uluru (the Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock) and some insight into Aboriginal traditions. But overall we found it rather disappointing. Even though I generally like myths and stories the Aboriginies seem to be quite secretive about theirs and only very few bits are shared with the white population. The even more disppointing fact for us was that there is no information at all about the geological explanation. I know that there are still many unsolved questions, but there must be some theories. Anyway, nobody would answer our questions here, so we drove back to the hotel to escape the heat that increased to an unbearable 39 degrees. We spent the afternoon in our airconditioned room reading and writing diary (it seems we have a very hard time to catch up on the backlog). In the evening we went out to see the Olgas. Again we started quite early to have enough time to check out different places and to get a good impression in daylight. The Olgas consist of multiple Rocks, some of them higher then Ayers Rock, which form a number of valleys. Overall, the Olgas therefore offer a greater variety of views than Ayers Rock. But the colour play during sunset is quite similar, which can hardly be topped anyway.

On the next morning (14 Mar) we went back to the Olgas to watch the sunrise. The sunrise spot for the Olgas is located that one can see not only the Olgas, but also Ayers Rock in the distance. The sun rises next to Ayers Rock, which gives a nice silhouette of Ayers Rock and shines on the Olgas from a 45 degree angle. That certainly was our favourite spot, because here we could take many different pictures. After the sunrise we went to the Valley of the Winds and walked a 7km circuit through the Olgas. That was extremely fascinating, even more than the walk around Ayers Rock. Here were also much fewer tourists, probably because many stay only one night and don’t have the time. We were very happy that we decided to stay longer, expecially as the entry ticket for the National Park is valid for 3 days. Again we spent most of the day in our hotel room, reading and relaxing, before we went back to the same spot at the Olgas to watch the sunset. After getting back to the hotel we had a beer in the open air bar, where they played some life music. But we had to get to bed early again, because there was another day that required an early rise, which is so difficult for me.

On Sunday (15 Mar) we drove 300 km from Yulara to Kings Canyon, which is even further north. We stopped on the way to see the sunrise over the Outback and also took some pictures of Mt. Connor in the morning light. We arrived at Kings Canyon at around 10am, which was too late to do the 6km circuit on the top of the canyon as it was very hot already. We decided to do the 2km walk in the shaded valley of the canyon instead, which also gave us a nice view of the canyon. By noon we went to the motel, but were told that we couldn’t check in before 3pm. We spent the time in a nearby airconditioned café reading and sorting pictures. When we finally checked in we had to realise that this accomodation was much more basic. The main problem though was that the air conditioning was not working. Therefore, the room was quite hot and sticky. We went out soon after to see the sunset over the canyon, which was again spectacular. When we got back to our cabin we left the door open until we went to bed, but the temperature in the room got only slightly more bearable. What was fascinating, was that we could see Dingos sniffing around as the motel stood in the middle of the Outback with no other settlement nearby. I was a bit afraid I would run into one on my way to the bathroom, but luckily that was not the case.

Today (16 Mar) we started our journey back to civilization. We drove nearly all day to Coober Pedy a mining town, where we had booked an underground motel room. On the way we again had some interesting encounters with animals. Thankfully, the birds stayed clear of us today, but first we saw a single horse that seemed kind of irritated, afterwards we nearly drove into a herd of camels, and later we saw some emus. Unfortunately all of these encounters were to fast to capture them on video. Coober Pedy is indeed a proper town with shops and lots of hotels. Many hotels are old miners appartments, built into the rocks to shelter them from the heat. Our appartment had one window in the sitting room and one in the bathroom, the bedroom and the kitchen lay in the back of the flat, which made me feel a bit claustrophobic. It seems I wouldn’t make a good hobbit. But otherwise the flat was nice with a little terrace in front of it. We cooked dinner and had it outside watching the sunset.