Yesterday Offroad, today snow and a week ago Kangaroos - what day is today and where are we?

Good question! I have no clue (most of the time)!

Based on the Halloween decorations that party must be close and considering that people all along the coast buy gadzillions of kilos of food a long weekend seems to come along. So, let's see ...

• We are driving on the wrong side of the road - must be Australia (too sunny for England, too sorted for India, too peaceful for South Africa).
• This is confirmed by the road signs which range from "Kangaroos", "Wombats", "Wallabies", "Trucks", "Ducks" and "Aged" ... you name it ... crossing
• Halloween = Oct 31, 2009 coming up (Make sure you don't open the door for Freddy!)
  
• Long Weekend = Melbourne Cup - the race that stops a nation; 3200m, 3 year and older - also coming up (Oh God, I didn't bring my hat!)
  
• We have snow and bright sunshine as well as surfer's on the beach - must be winter ;-)

Ok, for those who like to get a short understanding where we went so far, this is the list:

1. Adelaide - Nice couchsurfing
2. Down south to Kangaroo Island - don't miss Maslin Beach
3. 2 days on Kangaroo Island - Offroad, animals, rocks, Coastline - you can easily do 4 days to a week
   
4. Via Fleur Peninsula & Victor Harbor into the Grampians - Road-side BBQs are great stuff!
   
5. 2 days at the Grampians - you can do easily a full week there - bring your 4WD ;-)
6. Down to Great Ocean Road - Bimbi Campground is an amazing place, close to there is also an interesting Tree-top walk
   
7. Along Great Ocean Road to Melbourne - look out of the windows, an that is not just because of the many, many, many curves
8. 2 days in Melbourne - Great couchsurfing, fun city with good weather and very good food
   
9. Along the coast via Lake Entrance to Buchan - that is the center of the world ... with caves, no honestly: plan to stay there longer - it is "true holiday" at Buchan Lodge
   
10. Through the snowy mountains or Australian Alps to Jyndabinde - yep, snow, fun skiing area and very steep roads as well as just the perfect accomodation for Glenf & Soeren
    
11. Back to the coast at Narooma - make sure you watch out for whales, seals, penguins and birds on Montague Island and meet YHA Momo
    
12. Thats a little bit more than 2,000 kilometers so far. More the 3,000 still to go. 3 weeks left.

And that is about the only time and place which we should not forget.
Hope all is well with you and the weather plays nicely. Have a good day!

Home - far away from Home

We are approaching our 5th week on the road - it has been 5 amazing weeks with so many overwhelming impressions that sometimes I feel it is already very hard to keep track of time and place (what day is today? why do the stores close now? which city are we in at the moment? The pictures - see links on right - help to keep track and so does the continuously running GPS). The feeling to start into a new adventure every day is a very good (and very present) feeling every morning.

And there have indeed been some adventures: a tree bursting into fire just out of nothing (Otway Park), off-road tracks everywhere (Kangaroo Islands & Grampians), my shower-spider encounter (No, Heike, this picture is nothing for you!), taking a cab in Beijing (after they actually stopped to pick up some obvious strangers), eating Sijuan food and trusting the "Range" display of our car while being far away from any tank station whatsoever, ah, forgot driving on left lane ...

Also a big (and daily) adventure is to come "Home" every night. Because "Home" mostly is a different place and a different type of place every day. So far we have enjoyed Couchsurfing (Claudia in Shanghai, Christine in Adelaide and Rob in Melbourne), Hotel, Hostels and Campgrounds.

Couchsurfing (by now you! also! should! be! registered!) has been - as always - the true "Home" experience. Thanks to all of our hosts! The couchsurfing stays are for sure our opportunities to re-charge energy. This blog is written from a very stylish living room in south-east Melbourne (Dani, you would love it!) where we enjoy 3 comfortable days/nights with our great host Rob.

With regards to hotels we have tried the Ibis at Sydney Airport (clean but very, very, very small room, hideous expensive WLAN) and the Grosvenor Hotel in Victor Habor (shared bathrooms, very old house, no Internet).

Campgrounds with using either cabins or sleeping in the car (actually quite comfortable) we have visited: the Campground at the Koala Walk on Kangaroo Island (no link, but easy late night check-in "pick a site and pay tomorrow" and great facilities), the Emu Holiday Park at the Grampians (great location, a little bit off-track, but very nice facilities and a lot of space to enjoy your time; pics start here) and the Bimbi Campground at Otway Park close to the Great Ocean Road (absolute fabulous place, but a little grumpy management).

Hostel guests we were only on Kangaroo Island (very nice location, directly across from the ferry, easy late night check-in) so far, but there will be more for sure.

What also makes you feel "at home" on long travels is doing stuff, which you would normally do at home: like occasionally visiting McDonalds (only for the free WLAN of course ;-) ), going shopping instead of visiting another museum, sleep in (I still consider 11 am early mornings) and having a massage & manicure (I absolutely can recommend Dragonfly). We unfortunately missed the Sydney Habor Bridge Picnic Event: German - English. Too bad. But we have electric BBQ along the road, in combination with fresh fruit & vegetables just a perfect treat while killing kilometers (no kangaroos so far, thank god!).

Stay tuned & check out the new pics.