Just some stuff I want to share with you
Australia 2009
Well I have taken some time of to see a lot of the smallest continent, which seems rather big to me.
A new episode
May 15th
I have been traveling in Australia for just over 10 weeks now. Tomorrow (Saturday 16 May) I will start a new episode: visiting my relatives that live here. Some of them I already met, since they came to The Netherlands. Others I only have heard of.
You may have noticed that I have posted a lot of new items over the last few hours. I have covered all days of my holiday so far. As a result some of the posts may not appear on the first page. Just go to the bottom and click on “Older Entries”. The frequency of new posts will go down a bit for now. But when I have something interesting and access to the Internet, you will read about it here.
Back to Melbourne
May 15th
After all that nature it’s time to get back to the concrete skyscrapers. Thursday 14 May I will start driving to Melbourne, but again this is too far to do in one day. Well, it’s too far for me to do in one day. When you talk to the average local, he will drive from Adelaide to Melbourne in one day. But I am on holiday and want to enjoy it…
The first track will bring me to Ballarat. In 1851 they found gold here and that made this place famous. I took no pictures today. There was just nothing that was good enough to hold on to.
The track of today:
Friday 15 May I drove on to Melbourne. But not before I toured the town of Ballarat. The weather is absolutely miserable. It’s wet, windy and cold. Not a good day to be out there. There’s a nice lake in this town (Lake Wendouree) and there are quite a few rowing clubs along it as well. But have a look at the pictures. There’s something missing here.
After that it was time to get to Melbourne. I have to get the car back, do my washing and prepare for the next phase in my holiday. More on that later.
The track of today:
Walking in the park
May 15th
I am staying at a very nice B&B in Pomonal and my hosts suggested that I should go for a walk up to the Pinnacle. From there you should have a great view over the whole region. But before I start climbing up there I went to the Boroka lookout; it’s the only lookout I couldn’t visit anymore yesterday since I ran out of daylight. The weather is a bit funny today, so the views from the lookout aren’t great. But it’s clear that the weather is improving for now, so up to the car park where I start my walk up to the Pinnacle.
It’s a nice walk up there and once you get to the Pinnacle lookout, you are rewarded with a great view. Well, you don’t have to go up there yourself; you can look at my pictures here.
When I got down to the car park again, the weather was getting worse. It started to rain and therefore I went back to Halls Gap for lunch. After lunch it looked a bit better. I intended to go for another nice walk, but by the time I got to the start of it, it was raining again. And although I have a nice raincoat, it’s just no fun to go up these tracks when it’s wet. Therefore a change of plans; I just cruised around and every now and then stopped to look at the scenery.
It’s been a nice day in the park. It’s a shame that I have to leave this place again tomorrow, since there are a lot more nice walking tracks up here.
The track of today:
Wednesday 13 May 2009
On my way to the Grampians National Park
May 15th
It’s Monday 11 May and I am on my way to the Grampians National Park. And since it’s a long way away from Adelaide I will have to make a stop in the middle which is going to be Bordertown. There’s nothing in Bordertown and the route to it is also not very inspiring.
Before heading out to Bordertown, I first drove to Glenelg the oldest European settlement on mainland South Australia. It’s got a beautiful beach and a short break here is good to wake me up. After that I drove up to mount Lofty again. The weather is much better today compared to a few days ago when I was up there. So with a bit of luck the pictures will also be better 
After that I drove to Bordertown. And as I said before it’s a long way away and the route isn’t that interesting but I did take some pictures along the way. You can find them here.
The track of today:
Tuesday 12 May I am traveling on to the Grampians. Tonight I will end up in Pomonal, but before that I will still have to drive a long way. And on my way I will cross the northern part of the Grampians. I stopped at several lookouts; just have a look at these pictures.
The track of today:
Adelaide and Kangaroo Island
May 15th
According to my schedule I will stay a day in Adelaide (Thursday) then go to Kangaroo Island for a few days (that’s Friday and Saturday) and return to Adelaide for one more day (Sunday).
Thursday: I had no plan for today, so my first stop was the local Visitor Information Centre for some input. They came up with enough suggestions for at least a week, but I couldn’t fit that into my schedule. The weather isn’t too bad, so I just walked around. I didn’t take any pictures today (hey, that’s a first!). There’s so much to see here, but I couldn’t get it “on film”. If you want more: just Google for it, or better: come and see for yourself.
Friday: Today I will go on a bus tour to Kangaroo Island. The day started early: the bus picked me up at the hotel at 6:10. It was still dark outside! After a 2 hour drive we got to the ferry that would take us to the island. And on the other side, there was yet another bus waiting for us to show us around. Our schedule for today:
- Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Oil Distillery; as the name already suggest, this is a place where they extract oil from Eucalyptus leaves and turn it into all sorts of products.
- Lunch at Vivonne Bay Bistro; well we got lunch, but calling this a bistro is stretching the definition…
- Australian Birds of Prey presentation; fabulous! You must have a look at the picture album of today.
- Seal Bay; This is the home of the Australian Sealion and here we walked amongst them. Again: have a look at the pictures.
- Parndana Wildlife Park; this place has all the animals that exist in Australia… We went through it in record time, but it was nice.
- Island Pure Sheep Dairy; here they produce a range of yoghurts and cheeses made from sheep milk. Don’t ask me why this was on the program; I still can’t think of any other reason than to support the local economy.
In between we did a whole lot of driving, so by the time I got to my guesthouse, I was very tired. The track of today:
Saturday: The second day on Kangaroo Island. And again with a busy schedule:
- Clifford’s Honey Farm; well, Kangaroo Island is the only place in the world where a pure strain of Ligurian bee exist. So that must be the reason to stop here; not just to support the local economy…
- Kelly Hill Caves; as the name already suggests: a nice cave in a hill.
- Lunch at Beckwiths Farm. Hmmm, the “bistro” of yesterday is becoming more appealing now.
- Flinders Chase National Park; we flew through the park to get to next scenic points.
- Remarkable Rocks; now this is nice. Have a look at them in the album of today.
- Admirals Arch; again a very nice scenic point. This area is the breeding ground of a colony of New Zealand Fur Seals.
- Pelican Feeding; there’s this bloke in Kingscote that feeds the pelicans every day. It’s an extremely amusing show! A must see when you are ever there.
After all that fun, it was time to leave Kangaroo Island again and head back to my hotel in Adelaide. This time not by bus but by air. The track of today:
Sunday: Back in Adelaide. The people at the Visitor Information Centre suggested that visiting Port Adelaide on a Sunday would be very nice. Well, they know the place therefore I hopped on the bus and after 40 minutes I was there. It’s a rather small port but with a lot of history and with Dolphin cruises. Hey, that’s something I haven’t done yet while being here… Let’s go and see some Dolphins. They live in the port river and when I got on board of the boat that would bring me to them, I met a lady that volunteered for the WDCS. She spends a lot of time on this boat and on shore to take pictures of the dolphins. And she’s able to identify and name all of them, just by seeing a glimpse of them. And that’s what you get on this tour: every now and then one pops above the water and swims along the boat for a few seconds. And that’s it… Well it was good fun to be away from the city again. And the stories of this lady watching the dolphins made the tour very pleasant. The pictures of today can be found in this album.
After the dolphins I just walked around here. Looking at all those nice old buildings. Some of them need some attention otherwise they will not be here for much longer. Then I headed back to the city. It was dark by the time I got there, so after a nice meal it was time to get some sleep. Tomorrow I will pick up a car again and head east. The track of today: