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Canberra: Visit old friends!

Brisbane: the circle is completed

After 50 weeks of work & travel, we are finally back in Brisbane!Sold our car to a more than friendly Aussie bloke!Met up with Pia & Vroni!Had a nice week =PNow were at the airport, to take our flight to Canberra!!Frank, Krista & Dave, we are coming ;)

Uluru, Kata Tjuta: Sunset, sunrise

Kings Canyon: hiking

THE Kings Canyon! One of highlights in the Red Center of Australia!We slept on a free rest area just in front of the ridiculously expensive Kings Canyon Resort.. lol!In the morning we hiked the Kings Canyon Rim Walk! ~6km of nice views, high cliffs & wild life.The overestimated Garden of Eden was sadly to dry to go for a swim, but is worth the short detour!During the afternoon we drove all the way down to Uluru to see the sunset ;)

WestMacDonnellRanges: NP

After stocking up in Alice Springs, checking the internet for bad news and making a nice phone call ;) , we headed straight to nearby National Park, the West MacDonell Ranges, where we set up our camp just after sunset and sat together with a bunch of australians at a big campfire to exchange heaps of awesome stories =)We spend the whole next day with visiting all the different gorges and waterholes a lot of hiking and a bit of climbing as well ;)During the evening, we drove all the way down to Kings Canyon NP, to be there for sunrise!

Kununurra: Waiting

Party time is over! =(We headed back to Katherine, made a kind of long stop at the Hot Springs and... crazy small world (!).. we met some guys from Stanthorpe =P Again^^When we arrived in Kununurra at the next day, we checked in in the cheapest Caravan Park and started waiting! Waiting for work!

Kununurra: Work

Luckily it took just one week for me to find work on a pumpkin & melon farm called Tropical Sands. Everything seemed perfect! 6 days a week, 10 hours a day, awesome money!And it got even better =) On my second day, they promoted me to the tractor driver, as they needed a new one and I was the only one with experience =PAfter a week or so it turned out to be not that perfect.. we worked just 3 a half days and the next week shouldnt be much better!In the end I worked on this farm for 4 weeks and the average days of work was 3 per week...I quit this job, as I had less money on my bank account as when I started!Clemens start wasnt much better.. he had to wait nearly 3 weeks for getting a job!But then he got a job as waiter & bartender in the ****Hotel Kimberley Grande!7 days per week! He worked many hours but got normally $21 per hour and on weekends $24/$26 per hour... nice =PHe liked the work itself, but hated the fact, that he has to go to work, when everybody else comes back from work..Well me met enough nice people at the Caravan Park, not to be alone!During all my day offs on the melon farm I met two nice australian girls Jaimee & Jessi from Perth, who worked in the local tavern and stayed in a tent just next to ours.I spend most of my time with them ;) At first because they were easy going and it was a good way to improve my english, but in the end because they were just awesome! :-*During all the evenings I met Malte, a very friendly german guy, who always came over to my campsite to relax after work!After I quit my job on the melon farm, he arranged me a new job at Kimberley Native Seeds, where we picked the seeds of Sandlewood! I think I have never done a more boring job than this one :DWe had a small bucket at our waist and walked through the fields, which seemed to be a forest from the outside and picked small, black berries from the trees...The best thing was, that you could find maybe 10 berries on an average tree... so our major task was to walk =))But we earned $21 on normal hours and they payed us overtime!So each day after 2pm our wage increased to $32 per hour =PAnd saturdays our wage was $42 per hour!! wuuuhuuu.. lol$3550 in 4 weeks! After 30% tax =PCouldnt be much better for me!So in the end both of us had enough money and we decided to leave Kununurra end of July!Actually our plan was to sell our car up here and travel the rest per lift or tours, so we changed the registration to Western Australia, to make it easier, but we werent able to find someone to buy it...Doesnt matter =)Sadly Clemens had to work the last weekend Friday, Saturday & Sunday all day, so he wasnt able to party with us, but I made double party for him =POn Friday we went to the Tavern, as usually, but werent able to drink to much, as most of us (me included) had work on Saturday.. but just half day ;)As Malte was going to leave the same day as me, we bought one box of beer each and invited all we knew! Nice, drunken day =PFor Sunday, my last evening in Kununurra I had to make something special! So I decided to cook a nice spinach-salmon-lasagne for everyone! Awesome meal for over 15 people and we still had a big left-over for our journey =)

Darwin: goodbye

These damn good-byes... Well one more time!We headed to Darwin because the airplane was waiting for Jil & Lena! At 2 am ? ^^We spend the day in a nice park and the night in an awesome bar near the harbour!And the last hour at the airport..Well, see ya & enjoy Thailand!!

Adelaide River: Salties!!

Adelaide River - ?Spectacular Jumping Crocodiles?A really nice tour and definitly worth the $35 entry! After a short photo shooting with different snakes we went on a small boat and it didnt even took a minute to see the first crocs =SThey put some meat on a stick and made the crocodiles jumping out of the water!3m, 4m, sometimes 5 meter! Amazing. And we saw some babys^^ just a few months old!Enjoy the pics!!

Litchfield NP: Relaxing

Awesome! Its really, really worth to come here! Sitting around campfires and enjoying the wildlife and the sensational stars.We were spending the days swimming in all the different waterholes and because there were so many we stayed another day =)Nice swimming and cliff jumping at the big Wangi Falls.The park at all is good for relaxing =)

Katherine: Hot Springs

Neither Keep River NP, nor Gregory NP, were worth looking at, so we headed straight to Kathrine (500km).. Best thing here: natural ?Hot Springs?. A small river with all year around 32C. Awesome ;)Well the next nice stop should have been ?Katherine Gorge? NP, but the river was closed because of croc danger.. =(So we headed on towards Kakadu NP to be there as early as possible!

Kununurra: Break!

Probably to much stress during the last days..Anyway, we decided to stay a hole day in Kununurra at a Caravan Park, to do the Laundry, take a shower and so on =)For dinner we met up with Tetsuma, a good japanese mate, that I met during work in Stanthorpe! Small world =)

Purnululu NP: World Heritage Area

To get to this National Park, you have to work your way through a 53km long 4WD-only track, with at least 5 more or less difficult river crossings, along a rocky and winding one lane track =)Purnululu NP, one of Western Australias most famous National Parks, is since 2003 World Heritage listed, for its breathtaking natural beauty. The mountains, called the Bungle Bungle Range, are formed out of sandstone and are about 360 million years old!We hiked a few hours through the Bungle Bungles and afterwords we stopped at a few lookouts to enjoy the awesome landscape!Definitely one of Australias Top Five, so far ;)