Friday, January 30, 2004

I knew the center of Australia was hot, and yes... it is HOOOOOT!!! Came to Alice Springs on Australia Day 26th of Jan and met Kamila, Daniela and Erica. Went to the center but not many people there, looked like ghost town and shops closed very early because of the holiday. The day after me and Kamila (Holland) went on a tour with WayOutBack, 4WD and spent 3 days exploring Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (Olgas) and Kings Canyon. It was a fantastic tour and a great group. I walked around Uluru (veryveryvery hot 2 1\2 hours) and am so happy because I almost gave up because of the heat. Our guide Owen drove around and picked up those who did not want to walk more but it was only because of darling Naomi that I kept going :) THANK YOU !!! We slept in swags under (big sleeping bags with a matrase) under the stars after haveing seen Uluru in a brilliant sunset. The day after we woke up extremely early (4:15) to go and see Kata Tjuta and Uluru in sunrise. Fantastic, and then we walked in the Wind of Valleys in Kata Tjuta (3 1\2 hours. The last day we also woke up extremely early to see the sunrise in Kings Canyon. The walk in Kings Canyon (3 hours) was fantastic. I will put loads of pictures on my other page when I have develope the films in Adelaide. When we came back to Alice Springs we met all up for dinner and went dancing later on. Very funny place with cameras on the dancefloor. Going to Coober Pedy tomorrow... more next, running out of time...

Saturday, January 24, 2004

Arrived thirsday to Adelaide after 10 hour busdrive from Melbourne. Am staying at the Blue Galah (remember Nicole and Michiel!!!), it has not changed a bit since I was here last time. A very nice hostel and as soon as I came I met up with bunch of great people. Went yesterday down south with Mark and Selene, he has a house there and we had a fantastic day. Laying on the beach for a while but not too long because it was very windy and we got sand everywhere... We went back to Adelaide after few beers on the local pub and had a very crazy night, dancing and winning loads of money in pokeys with only 1 dollar !!! Lucky Selene bought the drinks after that :o) Today I went to Glenelg, still windy but beach was not bad.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Lovely days in Victoria, the weather is hot and nice and I am leaving to Adelaide tomorrow by bus. My cold is almost gone but somehow I managed to scratch my eye few days ago which was not very good, but it is getting a bit better now... lucky me. I went to Queenscliff on Sunday with Fred and Judy and we came back to Melbourne yesterday. On Monday I went into Geelong and to Deakin University where I will be studying. I met up with the people I will be working with and they seem to be great. Two of the girls, Kylie and Ellen, have found a house which I will share with them and we can move in on the 7th of February :o) jibiii... We will have a garden and a guest room...
So, I am going to Adelaide tomorrow and will be there for few days soaking the sun, I feel like a glowing worm at the moment.

Saturday, January 17, 2004

Caught a cold in Hong Kong... so the flight to Melbourne was not a very pleasant one. And I am still sneezing and coughing and ... but hopefully it will pass quickly. Fred and Judy were so nice to pick me up in the airport and I will be staying with them for few days. I still dont realize that I am actually back in Australia.

Thursday, January 15, 2004

Hong Kong airport again... couple of more hours and I will be on my way to Melbourne. Not much to say at the moment, nothing exciting happening except we had to wait for 40 min for takeoff in London. I had a windowseat and saw airplanes take off every 2 minutes untill it was our turn, then I saw that at least 10 more were waiting. Pretty cool to see this, I guess I have been unlucky with seats in the past.

London was fantastic, Debbie and her fabulous sisters took very good care of me. We went clubbing the first night (monday) and were quite tired the day after... Tuesday Anne Marie came from Ireland and it was great meeting up with her too. For those who dont know who I am talking about, Debbie and Anne Marie were my travel buddies in my last Australia trip. Well thats it for a while :o)

Saturday, January 10, 2004

Monday 12th of January (in TWO DAYS !!!) I will be flying to London to meet up with old friends. Will be staying with Debbie so we can catch up and refresh our memories of the fantastic times we had together in Australia last year. Hopefully Anne Marie can make it too. Friday 16th I will arrive to Melbourne and my very fair skin will get some sun at last :o) I am planning to take a 2 weeks tour to the center of Australia, start by going to Adelaide for few days and perhaps fly to Alice Springs to see Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon. Hopefully I will meet someone there who can give me a ride back to Adelaide/Melbourne. I really want to see Coober Pedy on my way back.

After this trip I will start my project in Geelong (1 hour from Melbourne) which you will all hear about very soon. I will be working with a rare marsupial called Swamp Antechinus (Antechinus minimus). Looks a bit like a big mouse but is related to kangaroos...