New South Wales (South)

Posted on 2. January 2016 by Markus

After Sydney, we went southwards along the coast seeking swimming- and snorkeling places. Unfortunately, the camping on the Beecroft Peninsula was closed due to the absence of the staff (probably, they were making their holidays before the Christmad crowds) and we draw aside to the neaeby Currarong Caravan Park. For the delight of the children, it had a water playground and even he could weather could not stop them from splashing around. After practising in the camping-pool how to snorkel, we found an ideal bay in Narooma. Even the kids dippend their heads under water and started searching for fish, cancers, jellyfish and mussels. We stayed for 3 Nights before heading on to Merimbula. On the way, we passed Bega, the place where the famous cheddar comes from (not to compare with a piece of good Gruyere-Cheese…).
In Merimbula, we enjoyed two lazy days on a big campsite with lots of childrens’ attractions before going to the mountains. This week-end (20.12.), the school holidays started which means the Australians were invading the towns and campsites at the coast. We went through the northern section of the Kosciuszko National park to the Yarangobilly caves ans campend at Long Plain Hut. On 20.12., we visited the Jillabeneen-Cave. Our guide was originally from Fribourg (Switzerland) and explained to our children exciting facts about the Cave World (thanks to Monica Yeoung). After visitier the caves, she took a Souvenir Photo with our Fribourg Nummer plate and we coole down in the natural pool on that hot day before exploring South Glory car on our own. Somebody (Daniela) still had hot and tried to visit they North Glory Cave. She was stopped by a gate and climed again South Glory Cave to return to the parking.

That evening, we found a wonderful camping-spot at at the Blue Waterhole. The next morning, we hiked through Nicole Gorge where we visited another 3 caves on our own with headlights. Murray-Cave was the most impressive one: 200m corridors with great dipstone formations. On this hike, we finally saw our first snakes: a copperhead snake and a Young Waadtern Brown snake.

The next night was very could at 4 degrees and the next mornin, there was thick fog at three Mile Dam where we had spent the night – we needed a Fire to warm up in the morning.

We went on to the Southern section of the park via Khancoban to the Geehi-River-campsite where we were looking vainly for platypus. Possibly the noise of the Fire Brigade helicopters (due to bush fires in the region) had chased them away. The next day, our Target was the Summit of Mount Kosciuszko (2228 m above sea level), Australias’ highest mountain. The ascent started with a ride on the chairlift over 500 altitude meters and afterwards, there were Steel meshes till just below the summit which was reached on real soil, but a large hiking path. After hiking in Switzerland, we were afraid that the hiking time was too short for our children (each way 6.5 km and 300 altitude meters), but on this highway the two attacked the summit ans back and other hikers admired them.

Mama decided instead of going down with the chairlift to walk down the Dead Horse Fap Track without any technical support, papa and the children opted for the sitting version on the lift. When they got to the car, Daniela called to tell them that it will take longer because she had Met an injured hiker. Now we tried together to organize the evaluation of this lady (Anthea). Nobody could guess at this time that two interesting days with this family were following. Markus drove to the chairlift station where he met Marc (Antheas husband) and their children Oliver and Alexander. He recognized Markus immediatly due to the “funny language” in which he was talking to his children. The Crew from the chairlift could not help, so Markus and Marc decided to bring Anthea themselves. Marc could hire ski poles from a sports store and with the SAM splint of Danielas miraculous pharmacy the evacuation started. After a short instruction of the splint from Daniela, Markus went up the mountain. He met Anthea and Anita on a bank und adjusted the splint according to the medical instructions. Anita is anothergood soul who helfend to bring down Anthea with positif support. Marc followed 1/4 h later and met them when they were limping down the path. Anthea managed the way down with the support of supporting masculine shoulders. Anthea is playing cello and gamba and know some people maligne baroque music in common with Markus. The weather deteriorated and half way down, it started raining buckets and their clothes were soaked within minutes. We accepted the offer of Marc and Anthea with pleasure in this weather. We spent Christmas even in their holiday chalet in Thredbo, the children loved going on the bob slide with the older boys, jump on the trampolines and play hide and seek in the house. Thredbo received for the summerly Chistmas Carols on Christmas eve an alpine horn concert. We “helped” the family with their traditional “turkey à la Yates”. Thanks to Marc, Anthea and family for the hostel!
On Christmas eve, our children wer allowed to Open their first Christmas presents together with Oliver and Alexander – their eyes were shining with joy.

On Christmas day, we drove to Perisher valley and hiked to porcupine rock with a short scrambling to the rocky summit. On the way back, a copperhead snake was suddenly in Front of us (there was no time for a photo). We spent the next night at the “Island Bend” campsite directly at the river and decorated the Christmas Gum tree. The children received their remaining Christmas presents and before going to sleep, we saw our first wombat.

On Boxing day, we continued to the Snowy River National Park to Victoria till Mc Killops Bridge – there was a dingo on the way. To give Nora and Fiona the possibility to try out their Christmas presents, we had to up our tent beside the car because of the rain. The next morning, the bypassing Ranger adviced us about the Erindundra National Park where we walked through the rainforest and spent the night at “Frosty Hollow” Campsite (which honoured its name with a night close to zero). On the way there, an echidna crossed the overgrown track and several trees tried to block our way.

New South Wales (Nord) – Sydney

Posted on 17. December 2015 by Markus

After Fionas birthday party we staid another day in Ballina befire heading on along the coast into Yuragir National Park (close to Australias banans cspital – Coffs Harbour). We tried a 4×4-Route through rain forest and dry forest into Nymboi-Binderay National Park. This track demanded a lot of our Crocomobile, but it did well even on the steepest passages.

Unfortunately, at the campsite „Platypus-Flats“ we did not see any of these animals because the camground was crowded and the animals very shy. The next days, we hikes in the Dorrigo- and New England National Park, with an overnight staying at Thungutti . The Trail in the New England National Park was pretty steep and rocky and the hike with the children took some time.

Also the road towards the coast was narrow and winding and we reached the Chosen campsite Chose to Port Macquarie only 30 min after the Rezeption closed and we did not get in. So we consoled the two mermaids (they had already discovered the aquatic playground with a waterslide at the reception) to the next day and spent the night at the showground in Kendall. But the next day, we arrived at the campsite Bonny Hills just after 11am and noteingewiesen could stop the two of getingelt into the water.
The beach was not patrolled and we were toll about sharks who attached humans recently, so we only walked along the beach and collected shells. From November 23. to 25., we Carosserie the Barrington Tops. On the way to the park, Nora and Fiona could try riding a horse on the Farm where we spent the night (Cobark Caravan Park).

The Barrington Tops are a huge, Almosen untouched nature reserve. The Information concerning hikes was disappointing (imprecise Maps on the Information boards, no suitable hikes) – so we only did a Part of one of the several-day trees ans spent the night at Dilgry River.

We hoped, the sharks would have legt the coast in the meantime, but that was not the Case. Fortunately, we could offer our girls the promised swim in the artificial ocean pool at Forster-Tuncurry and the Floatings crocodile war tested in the sea for the first time.
We continued through the Booti Booti National Park and the Myall Lakes National Park to Hawks Nest. After a few days on simple campsites (the only luxury were drop toilets), we offered ourselves again a luxury camping for two nights at Port Stephens (Salamander Bay) – with a 10 % discount due to our BIG4-membership.

We wanted to Visit the Blue Mountains absolutely before the beginning of the school holiday. Therefore, on the 28.11., we drove via Patonga through the Mountains to Newnes in Wollemi National Park. In Former Times, oil ans coal were mines around Newnes and were transported to the cities by railway. Only the old railway line and some ruins are remaining, today, the “village” only consists of a hotel Transformers into a museum and a free bush campsite. The next morning, Fiona and Nora had to vomit their beakfast, so we stayed one more day in Newnes. Already during the day, their stomaches calmed and and only Fiona remained with some diarrhea. We decided to walk to the Glowworm-Tunnel the next day because we were interested in the little creatures. After a shirt steep section at the beginning, we hikes leisurely along the old railway to the Glowworm-Tunnel. With headlights, we entered the Old Tunnel and after a few Meters, we saw the first little lights along the Walls. For the cildren, but also for us,t was interesting to see again ans again new glowworms.

The next stopover in the Blue Mountains were the Jenolan Caves: a Karstadt with beautiful limestone caves. On the 02.12., we visited one of the caves (Diamant Cave). The mini-Speleologists loved discovering the impressive underground world. We went on to the Kanangra National Park und walked at Kanangra-Wall to the Kanangra-Falls. On the way down, our children are always fast, but on the way up, they are lacking motivation and to bring them up, we have to persuade them and Fiona even needs “riding opportunities”.

The most famous Region in the Blue Mountains we kept for the end: The Ridges around Katoomba and Wentworth, where we spent there days and did nice walks. It is always amazing: you start the hike in crowdy of touristes and shortly afterwards, you can enjoy the nature in the valley for a few hours. Towards the end of the hike when coming up to the top, there are again lots of tourists who only walk a few steps.

Our hikes: 1. Three Sisters, Giant Stairway, Katoomba-Falls (Furber-Steps); 2. National Pass, Wentworth-Falls

We spent the week from 06.12. to 13.12. in Sydney. We visites the hotspots of the city:
Operahouse and Harbourbridge, one day Bondi-Beach (for the 2 mermaids), Australia-Museum, Maritime Museum, Sealife (Aquarium) etc. One highlight for all of us was the musicals „The three little Pigs” in the opera house, mainly because the story was the first class theme in Noras preschool. Nora and Fiona asked us already days before whether they could put on dresses and their new opal-kangaroo-earrings. There should be more opportunities for pretty dresses, they have never been dresses up that quickly…

During the night Santa Claus was here!

Santa Claus also stopped at the crocomobile for the children and since then, our crocomobile is illuminated with colourful a colourful light-chain…

Zurück zur Küste

Posted on 22. November 2015 by Markus

After the southern Flinders Ranges we also wanted to see the northern ones. By sunshine we drove to Aarkaroola and set up our tent next to the Aarkaroola Creek. The caretaker of the campsite warned us about possible thunderstorms and a rising water, so we moved up to the caravan park. Luckilythere was no flooding, but we made our first experiences with Australian thunderstorms. The car was rocking but we staid dry in the tent on top (even if we had to refix one of the bars). We trief to explore the surroundings the next day, but frequent showers stopped the enthusiasm. So we tried to refix the leaking gas stove together with the caretaker, but the spare parts were lacking. So we used the petrol stove still we reached the camping store at the coast.

When drove the only open road to Copley in order to escape the rain towards Port Augusta in the south on 4.11., we lost our front number plate when crossing a creek. We were stopped in Leigh Creek because the water level of the Windy Creek was still too high – so we had lunch and went shopping.

Two hours later, we could do the crossing, but there were several flooded zones on rhe way to Hawker where we spent the night. Because the weather forecast changed and the tracks reopened, we decided finally to go north and so the Strezelecki-track. Fortunately, it was already sufficiently dry and there were only few muddy spots to negotiate, but we imagined how it was in the rain…Half way to New South Wales, we spent the night at “Montecollina Bore” (warm waterhole).

At Cameroon Corner, we tried the famous burger and went then into the Sturt National Park. We never saw that many kangaroos, even on the little bushwalk it was bouncing everywhere between the trees.

The sidetrip to the Currawinya National Park was not possible due to flooding and closure if the road, we had to spend the night in Hungerford. On the 09.11., we drove to Lighening Ridge which is famous for opal mining and black opals. We visited a mine which did not get famous because of the opal findings but because of the sculpture-making skills of the owner ans the carvings (animals, famous persons,…)he made in the hard sandstone layer above the opal-containing clay layer.

A good place to relax for the mine workers (and for us) were the Artesian Pools. We continued our trip to Goondiwindi (beautiful Vampground in a Nature Reserve directly at the river) into the Girraween National Park. We tried to climb „the pyramid” but we had to turn back Because the Rocks before the summit were that steep that we would have needed climbing harnesses and a rope for the children.

Of this hike. We mainly remember the noisy crickets. The second hike in that day on „Bald Rock“ in the correspondant park was sucessful thank to the climbing equipment and our little capricorns were even admired by a ranger.
On the 14.11., we arrived in the “Prawn capital” Ballina on the beautiful Headlands Holiday Park an (Pool, Spa, playgrounds, camp kitchen with oven) – just in time to celebrate Fionas 4. birthday with cake and presents.

Uluru – Lake Eyre – Flinders Ranges

Posted on 1. November 2015 by Markus

We spent some time in Alice Springs in the swimming pool of the campsite to teach the kids in swimming (Fiona paddles proudly in her swimvest in the pool, but she has not enough propulsion). We cleaned up the fridge and the storage boxes and we met Wolfgang and Jacqueline (a German couple who are touring around Australia since a moment, and we met them some days later again at Ayers Rock). Markus received his birthday gift: an Awning with a flynet (see photos) for the Crocomobile. He had to mount it himself – at 40°C in the sun next to the shop where we bought it. We stocked up on food in the supermarket, visited the desert park and learned there a lot about the plants and animals in desert areas.

Afterwards we headed on to Ayers Rock/Uluru – 443 km of boring tarred tourist route. The following day we slept in and crawled a bit along the rock in the heat of the day and went to the visitors centre. On the second day we struggled out of our sleeping bags at 5am, closed the rooftop tent (disadvantage of this kind of tent) and arrived just in time for sunrise at the viewing point where we were queueing with the masses of tourists to have the best view. After some souvenir photos we were heading directly to the Olgas (Katja Tjuta) to do some hiking before it got too hot at noon. Anyhow Nora and Fiona reached the second Lookout – on the backside of the lookout (Daniela did the whole circuit) were only lots of flies and it was even hotter.

The days after we continued towards the Oodnadatta Track. We spent the first night at Kulgera Camping (with resembled more a parking or construction site than a campsite). There were a lots of guests who filled their tanks on us and leaved their sucking points (Mossies). On a gravel road, we drove to Finke (Old Ghan Track) with a stop-over for an ice-cream and some information concerning the next kilometers at Mount Dare before continuing to Dalhousie. This campsite is often used as a start- or endpoint of a Simpson-desert trip. There is an artesian Spring flowing into a 39°C-warm lake (unfortunately like the temperature of the air…) – almost too warm for a swim during day-time. Amazingly the ducks could stand the hot water the whole day long.

On bad roads, the trip went to the Pink Roadhouse in Oodnadatta where we spent the night after eating their famous Burgers and visiting the painted desert situated west of that town. The Oodnadatta Track follows the old Railwayline towards the south and the next day we drove until Coward Springs (where one of the springs is collected and is led into an artificial pool). We visited source of the springs the day after, but swimming was prohibited.

On this campsite, we noticed the first flat tyre – not surprising after these bad roads! After a cold drink and helpful informations at the hotel in Marree we spent the next night at Muloorina on the way to the Lake Eyre – a huge almost always dry lake, which we visited in the morning. We continued our journey in southwards, let the flat tyre repair in Copley, did some shopping in Leigh Creek and stopped finally at Parachilna to eat in the restaurant the famous feral plate with Emu, Kangaroo and Camel.

After a night on a nice free campsite in the Parachilna-Gorge we entered the Flinders Ranges National Park from the north via Blinman. The Campground at Wilpena is a good deed – finally hot showers, good drinking water, cooler temperatures and almost no flies! About the tourists with flynets on their heads we were only laughing after our suffering in the desert.

We shooed our kids the next day by foot up the Mount Ohlssen Bagge – and they were quite motivated especially at the the rocky sections where they had to climb.

Alice Springs – Mac Donnell Ranges

Posted on 23. October 2015 by Markus

In Alice Springs we stocked up on food and saw the “usual attractions”. In the Reptile Centre, we could hold the animals in our hands (snakes, lizzards, perenties) and learned some interesting facts about their behaviour.

At the “Flying Doctors” you learn about the history of the organisation as well as about the actual situation of the medical support in the outback. In the “School of the air” our children received a private tour in German. They explained them which lessons they would have to absolve (on the Computer) at their stage of education and at the end, they received colouring books.
We continued to the West Mac Donnells Ranges, a park with nice and simple campsites (Ellery Creek, Ormiston and Redbank Gorge), each one close to a Natural Waterhole. Early in the morning we went on short hikes and cooled down in the water afterwards. Unfortunately, at Redbanks Gorge in addition to the omnipresent and annoying sandflies, we were surprised by a swarm of bees while cooking. Our children panicked and dinner the same evening and beakfast the next morning (they came back!)was impossible.
Fortunately, flies and bees go sleeping during the night!

On the Mereenie-Loop (bad corrugated road on aboriginal country) we drove on to Kings Canyon. We got up at 5 am in order to start the hike before 6 am to avoid the heat later on. The hike was beautiful, and thanks to the training of our children in the alps, we made the hike in the indicated 3.5 hours (despite several breaks) – and they amazed other groups.

To test our 4x4Crocomobile thoroughly, we went to the Finke National Park. There we drove in deep sand through the “Boggy Hole” (which has earned its name for a reason!). Here Markus celebrated his 42.birthday. We even had cake from the camp fire oven: instead of 42 candles, we put 42 flies on the cake (see photos!) – probably, there were several hundreds of them around us.

Afterwards we spent another night in Palm Valley (Finke National Park). There was also a crazy 4×4 track through a rocky riverbed.

Back to Alice Springs, we offered us (and mainly our children) the “luxury campsite” of the Big 4 with swimming pool, water slide, jumping pillow and laundry machines.

Through the desert

Posted on 22. October 2015 by Markus

The first stop-over with our Crocomobile was Marburg, a village 100 km West of Brisbane, where we visited Katja on her farm. Katja is a distant relative of Markus – we already visited her parents and her sister in South Africa.

From there we continued to the last city of importance – Toowoomba – further and further into the outback. It got drier, the landscape got scraggy and the country was only sparsely populated. Unfortunately, there were lots of overrun kangoroos on the road -(Fiona: oh, my my dear cute kangoroos…) – luckily, there were also a few alive ones sitting under the trees in the shade. In Charleville we left the A2 and continued on smaller, still good and tarred roads towards Quilpie (opal mines) and Windorah.
Shortly afterwards the gravel road started. The campgrounds consisted often only of one single rubbish bin (but were for free then). A surprise was Bedourie: the village with 100 inhabitants has a free swimming pool with thermal whirlpool for itself directly beside the beautiful campsite – in the middle of the desert!

Boulia was the last “city” with 600 inhabitants before the Plenty Highway, it offered a multimedia show and a well-equipped shop which also sells camping gear, do-it-yourself articles, car parts, spare wheels and concrete mixers.
In contrast to many reports we read, the Plenty Highway was pretty good gravel on the Queensland side (Donohue Highway), on the Northern Territory side it was badly corrugated.

The road was that boring that we made only a one night stop-over at Jervois Station (again a campsite with only rubbish bins and a pick-nick table). Close to Gem Tree we went fossicking for gemstone on our own (and we found a few pieces) and spent the night at Ross River Resort in the Estern Mac Donnell Ranges (Lodge and Camping with swimming pool and very expensive petrol). With a stop-over at the N’dhala Gorge National Park with a short break we travelled to Alice Springs.

The long waiting

Posted on 30. September 2015 by Markus

Now (26.9.) we are already for 3 weeks in Australia, are still sitting in our little tent and travelling by bus…Normally we should have received our car one week after arrival of the ship, that means the 18th of September.
Responsable are the officers of customs and quarantine – they feel overworked and underpaid and therefore went into strike just right now. At least, the papers have been checked and stamped, only the inspection of the car by customs and quarantine has to be done. Hopefully somebody stoops to admire our car soon – if possible without additional cleaning!

In the meantime, we got to know all attractions (all which can be imposed to children…) of Brisbane and surroundings. After the obligatory visits to the beach and Southbank (see the blog at the beginning) with our two mermaids, the “UnderWaterWorld”, playgrounds, parks and forests and hills close to the city we went to the “Australia Zoo”. The main attractions of this zoo are certainly the Australian animals (including shows with parrots, birds of prey, snakes and crocodile), but there are also animals from Asia, Africa and America.

They demonstrated the reaction of a crocodile if someone steps into water: they have vibration sensors wich enable them to feel the movements and they move fast and smart and it is hardly possible to see them from outside the water.
The good side-effect was that we learned some rules concerning the green giants:
– suppose the presence of crocodiles till proven otherwise by locals
– never swim
– do not approach to water more than 5 meters
– do not lean over water (they jump!)
– camping only more than 200m away from water

Another trip lead us to some children attractions in Surfers Paradise (School holidays in Queensland). Now we as parents are updated about the newest hits like “Bananas in pyjamas” and the “Minions”.

On September 26th, we watched the “Riverfire” as closure of they Brisbane Festival (when we read about that date some weeks ago, we were hoping to already be deep in the outback…now we “had” to see it). It was a 30-minute extraordinary firework including the scenery of the city. The skyscrapers threw out the most colorful sparks and the bridges were blazing in a rain of thousands of lights.

The whale-watching tour on the 27.9. at the sunshine coast (Mooloolaba) was a highlight of these first weeks. For our children, it was the first time on a ship on the sea. Especially Nora did not like the rocking on the waves and panicked. Thanks to animations with play dough, a plastic whale and the first steps to the railing, she could also enjoy the trip and look for whales. Fiona tolerated the rocking better and calmed down faster despite the contagious crying of her sister.
Wir saw several water giants even with their “babies” (who already weigh 1-2 tons and drink 600 liters of milk per day). Once a whale jumped out and splashed back into water with a high fountain. The photos are not ours but those of the crew of the ship (www.whaleone.com.au).

We watched the recently released movie “Blinky Bill” with our children (Blinky Bill is an old story about a little Koala, Fiona had so much compassion with him that she started crying during the movie). In the “Curumbin Wildlife Sanctuary” (home of Blinky Bill) we saw again some shows and animal feedings (pelicans, eels, birds).

On the 28th our car was released from the container, inspected by customs and quarantine and considered as too dirty. After recleaning the car was finally released from quarantine on September 30th.
After paying the steep bill for cleaning, storage (we finance the officers’ strike) and lots of charges we can finally pick up the car on October 1st.
We will straight away head into the desert (planed is the plenty highway towards Alice Springs), there will soon be summer here and then it is getting too hot!

Arrival and Start in Brisbane

Posted on 13. September 2015 by M. Bertschi

After our last appartement in Switzerland was finally emptied, the walls painted (thanks to our litte pigs who have messed them up!) und the cleaning was finished in the last second, our flight legt from Frankfurt the 31.08.2015.
Among the 70kg luggage in total, there was a small tent, inflatable matresses, sleeping bags – and the forgotten sandplates (weighing alone 14 kg). Nora and Fiona were proud of drawing their own little suitcases – and we had less to carry!
The transfer in Singapore was quite relaxing thanks to a big indoor-playfround (for the children) and free internet (for us) and with the electronic visum, the formalities at the airport in Australia were quick. Only Noras backpack had to be inspected: the do galt the customs detected the smell of waffles and sausage of grand-mothers foodpack.

Because of the amount of luggage, we paid for the luxury of a taxi to the camping site. After putting up our tent, we made a short trip to the city centre before we fell asleep due to our jetlag and the 30 hrs (in total, including the train to the airport in Germany) of travelling.
The following days we spent by exploring the city and the surroundings as far as possible with public transport (fortunately, Brisbane has a good net of Busses, trains and ferry boats in the city).

One of the first trips was to the “Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary” where our princesses could watching the Koalas climbing and eating, feed kangoroos and they could pat a koala sitting on Noras lap while a photo was taken.

Another day, we Sent to the “UndsrWaterWorld” in Mooloolaba where we were admiring colourfulfish and other creatures living in the sea.

Close to the office of the shipping compagny who organized the transport of our car, we could put our feet for the first time into the ocean and children loved playing in the waves on the beach. They also loved the artificial beach at “South Bank” in the centre of Brisbane where we went several times.

We also used the waiting time for the car for some paper work and the preparation of insurances, also the papers of the car had to be translated and accepted by the Traffic departement.

Some day, we moved to antobet campsite which was nicer and more quite, the Most Importanz thing for our children : it had a playground! Because we had neither chairs nor tables and only minimal kitchen equipment, we were happy the the campgroungs had a fully equippped kitchen with chairs and tables as well as a gas stove, a microwave and a fridge!

On september 11th at 1.40pm “our” shipping entered the harbourof Brisbane (we were following it online). Two hours later, we were also in the harbour and we could really see it and observe how some containers were offloaded. Unfortunately only from far away due to the security restrictions…

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