Report No 5

We spent 4 great days in Perth with Nina and her family. The kids could have a look at an Australian school, no lessons as the term had only just started the day before.

In that time Gustav, Alex' brother, flew into Perth and joined us. He travelled with us for a month with his own vehicle and a tent. We had some other friends to visit in Perth, Peer and Amanda Horn and their family. We spent a lovely evening with them and the "boys" were very impressed with his old-timer and 4x4 race vehicles. We were hoping to watch a race in which he is participating in early March - let's see :-)

We left Perth, all stocked up, car serviced, ready for the bush again ;-) We drove down south towards Margaret River. On the way we stopped at Preston Beach, where we felt the force of the wild ocean. Very impressive! Gustav also enjoyed his first beach drive (in our vehicle). Our next stop was Busselton, where we walked along the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere, it is 1.9 km long. Then we went into the Leeuwin Naturaliste NP west of Margaret River and stayed at Conto campground for 3 nights. We did a great hike along the cliffs with stunning views. We also visited a nougat factory, a winery and a brewery in the MR area.

Then we left Gustav to continue along the coast and we drove back up to Perth (Byford) to catch up with friends, that we met on our last travels 10 years ago. We spent 2 days with the Bains.

The kids loved the outdoor spa, the quad they were allowed to use, the dogs and other pets and the parents enjoyed the good food and company. We met Gustav 3 days later at Cosy Corner, just west of Albany.

We spent a few days along the coast, enjoying the scenery, swimming, snorkelling, fishing, 4WD tracks, ..... We stayed at Parry Beach and then crossed through the wonderful Karri forests, doing the impressive tree-top walk (40m up in the tree tops) and climbing some fire lookout trees (only Luca).

The forests were a nice change after so much coastal scenery, but unfortunately they were full of March flies (horse flies)!!! They were a real nuisance and spoiled the fun at times!

We then passed through Perth a third time, this time only stopping for petrol and lunch at King's Park. Then we went up the north coast. We stopped at the Pinnacles. After 3 days driving up we arrived at Monkey Mia where we spent 5 lovely days! In Monkey Mia the main attraction is to feed wild dolphins.

They only feed 5 dolphins (always the same ones) and only a maximum of 1.5 kg of fish a day. They eat 12 kg of fish a day, so they still have to hunt for themselves. It is quite touristy, but we still enjoyed it a lot and the kids all got a chance to feed a wild dolphin each! Not something one gets to do very often!

We also enjoyed the Francois Peron NP, where we did a 4WD track to beautiful cliffs. Looking down from them we could see sharks, manta rays and a huge sea turtle. Very impressive.

Our next stop was Perenjori, a little village in the middle of no where. We were there for a race-weekend. It was the off road race, in which Peer Horn and his co-pilot Ben Horn took part. We watched the race ... and with lots of dust in the face ... we were happy as well :-)

Peer and Ben came 4th in their class which is a good result. The main target in this race was ... to finish it at all! At temperatures around 40° C this is a challenge! About 2/3 of the vehicles that started, didn't finish the race! However, it was great watching and now even more ... someone (Alex) is dreaming! Are there similar races in Europe? Who has a decent shed to rent close to Ottenbach? Someone would like to start a new hobby right away! ;-) Thank you Peer!!!

After Perenjori it was time to say good-bye to Gustav. His way led back to Perth and our one led East towards the red centre of Australia. Ahead there was the Great Central - a-some-hundred-km-gravel-road straight to the Kata tjutas and to Uluru - our last Outback track :-)

Let's put it that way: a very long, pretty well maintained road with corrugation. Even lousy 2WD vehicles could get through without problems. But we had quite some remoteness and the Outback showed itself form very different sides: Once dry and flat, once green(!) and hilly. We were told that there had been lots of rain some weeks ago.

After 2 days we were already at Uluru where we enjoyed the pool and where we did the Ayers Rock Base Walk. Which means nothing else than walking around Uluru :-) We all managed well and did the 10.6 km with only some blisters and little complaining :-)

3 nights at Yulara (the resort at Uluru) were enough and we drove on to Coober Pedy where we wanted the kids to see the Opal-mining and the under-ground-living. Underground hotels, restaurants, museums, churches and an underground campsite. - Incredible!

Next stop was Adelaide where we stayed some days with Gereon and Anneliese once more. Wondering when they get sick of having us :-) But they didn't.

After a good time with good friends in Adelaide we went on to the Coorong NP where we stayed for 4 nights (different campsites). Here we enjoyed watching pelicans, sand-dune-driving, beach-driving, hiking and very strong & big waves at the sea.

Before we forget: We are back to cold temperatures! Natasha read something like +2 °C at night outside. Brrrrrr!

Looking ahead, we get a big fright! Melbourne - the end of our trip in Australia - is only a daytrip away!!! But there is still a lot to do and we also want to slow down again. Meaning having more time at a place, more time for being, for school, for reports, for the movie "Australia's calling", for looking back to our journeys and for looking forward to what's coming towards us! (Not everything that's waiting for us will be fun. But it's part of the 'project'. So we will take it as it comes :-) In about 2 week we want to be back in Melbourne.

Are there worries in our lives? YES there are! We are not on a holiday. (Please never call this a holiday! It's travelling!!! It's a different life-style! For us it's more 'living' and working only for ourselves! We - the parents - have less time then ever because there is so much 'work' to do.) We are all together (on top of each other) 24/7 in a car and a camper-trailer! We travelled probably over 30'000 km and we had many little adventures and we did many things TOGETHER! Not everything was gold, great and beautiful, but we had a fair share of good times and looking back ... we can say ... we did it, together with all our kids! These birthdays we won't forget and this trip will be an important part of all our lives.
So was it worth it? YES, for us it was worth it! We are convinced that we are fortunate to be able to do something like this at all! As an ordinary family we can travel very remote areas in decent comfort and in rather high security with a petrol station every 400 km and with the reassurance of the Royal Flying Doctor Service wherever we go. Was this possible some decades ago? And ... we didn't inherit a bank or a money-printer - unfortunately - but it was possible for us to do what we did.

However, there are Plus and Minus in our 'project' and the Plus' supersede. This is why we have a :-) in our faces ;-)

Our thoughts are already cruising around the worry about selling our vehicles, our journey back and about our re-start back home in Ottenbach.

We are very happy to be able to count on the help of our friends who took care of the broken water pipe in our home in Ottenbach or about the leaking toilet setting our house under water. But also friends who made sure that our post and bills were all in order. Or friends who worked hard on a nice flyer. Or our friends who "adopted" Luca's fish for half a year. Or friends who helped us with the purchase of our vehicles. And and and ...
We thank you all very much!
Without all the help of you guys, we wouldn't have had peace in mind!

Luckily up to now everything went perfectly well! No health-issues, no accidents, no breakdowns, no major problems :-) Never the less we always estimated the potential risk and acted accordingly. (--> How far out in nowhere are we going? How much water do we need in worst case? How much food? How many people are possibly travelling the same track? How difficult is the track with a trailer? ...) We always carried enough water and food with us and we never took unnecessary risks.
On 'higher-risk-tracks' we told Oli where we are and what exactly our plan was and by when he should organize help. But we also carried our SPOT-Connect (similar to an EPIRB) on us. Also on all the hikes. In case of an emergency this device should send a help-message via satellite including our GPS-position. But we also carried some tools and recovery-gear in the vehicles. One could have more stuff such as a winch or sand-bars, but there is a line about what makes sense and what 'makes less sense and costs too much';-)
Most of our gear we needed / used at least once including our jack, our jumper-leads, our snap-stretch, air compressor, Volt-meter, spanners, screw-drivers, glue, grease-pump and and and. (After all, it's also not too bad to have a handy-man at hand ;-)
We deflated the tyres MANY times and made it to some rather remote and beautiful areas of Australia.

This way of travelling means for us 'going to bed around sunset' and 'getting up when daylight'. The reason for this is also that most of the times there were insects that came into our camper-trailer going for any little bit of light.
But it also meant (mainly to Alex) having no idea about the date, about what day of the week it was or what time it was. It's nice to be back at the basics! (Not so nice if you would like to buy something for supper on a Sunday evening at 18.00h ;-)

Mt. Gambier, 24th of March 2014.

Here a few more photos :-)

Going for a drive with Peer.