52 weeks in Melbourne

Klammheimlich und leise hat es sich vorbeigeschlichen. Am letzten Donnerstag waren wir genau 1 Jahr in Melbourne. Unglaublich! Wirklich unglaublich, wie die Zeit vergeht. Mittlerweile ist der Sommer gen Nordhalbkugel gezogen und wir haben mal wieder die Heizung an. Wir wissen mittlerweile, wo es Schwarzbrot gibt, welche Weingüter leckeren, süßen Wein machen, und wo es das beste Essen gibt (daheim!).

Aber seht selbst: http://tinyurl.com/52weeksinMelbourne

Mitten im Nirgendwo

Stell dir vor, da wo du zuhause bist, wohnt sonst niemand. Zumindest nicht auf den nächsten knapp 3.000 Kilometer rund um die Stadt in der du wohnst. Dafür hast du kristallblaues Wasser vor der Haustür und strahlend weißen Strand mit Dünen, knallrote Erde, riesige Bäume und tolle Tiere. Und un-un-unendlich viel Platz. Dann wohnst du in Perth - der isoliertesten Großstadt der Welt.

Und genau da waren wir jetzt gerade mal ein paar Tage und haben uns ein bisschen umgeguckt. Das war unsere Tour:

1. Melbourne - Perth: Tigerairways ist echt billig und jetzt weiß ich auch warum. Die haben Gartenstühle im Flieger und man muss selbst aufs Rollfeld laufen. Aber wir sind heile angekommen und auch fast pünktlich geflogen. Essen gab's natürlich keines - gut für die Figur. Und wie immer: Australier in Shorts, T-Shirt und Unterhosenschuhen. Frieren kennen die nicht. Wir trugen Fleece und Schal.
2. Sightseeing in Perth: Christmas Day (also der 25.12.) ist hier in diesem Land alles zu. Wirklich alles. Sogar die Lebensmittelläden, die sonst immer rund um die Uhr auf haben. Auch Restaurants. Alles zu. McDonalds hat offen - Gott sei Dank. Leider schlecht für die Figur. Das Perth City YHA macht ein prima Frühstück und dann tapern wir den ganzen Tag durch Perth und Kings Park. Wirklich viel zu sehen gibt es eigentlich nicht. Wie gesagt: Sogar Cafés haben zu. Statt Turkey gibt es Hummer, Muschel und Co. im einzigen offenen Restaurant, das wir finden konnten. Und nein, Austern schmecken einfach nicht. Gar nicht.
3. Sonnenbaden auf Rottnest Island: Diese Insel hat eine traurige Vergangenheit als Sträflingskolonie für Aboriginies (Lesematerial eins, zwei, drei) und wurde erst vor gar nicht allzu langer Zeit - ironischerweise - zum Ferienparadies erklärt. Die schicken Motorboote mit dröhnender Tanzmusik bilden einen etwas merkwürdigen Kontrast zur Schönheit der Natur, aber der gemeine Australier wird eben nicht glücklich wenn kein Motor dran, Bier drin und Steak drauf ist. Die gemeine Sonja und Tina dagegen werden glücklich, wenn sie sich im Dezember bei 36 Grad im Schatten in türkiesblauem Wasser kühlen können. Der gemeine Philipp, wenn er Quokkas füttern kann und der gemeine Alex wenn er mit großen Fischen schwimmen kann. Alle glücklich!
4. Bildung im Aquarium: Das Aquarium of Western Australia ist ganz schön gemacht, zeigt aber nichts Neues. Drumherum gibt es allerdings kilometerlange Sandsträne, die zum Surfen und in der Sonne brutzeln einladen. Und ja, nach 2 Tagen hat man genug von 40 Grad im Schatten. Erstaunlich aber wahr. Gott sei Dank hatte unser Ungetüm von Auto eine tolle Klimaanlage. Und nen DVD-Bildschirm für die Rückbank. Da musste man sich wenigstens nicht die schöne Umgebung ansehen.
5. Dünen in Lancelin: Nördlich von Perth gibt es noch viel mehr Sand. So viel, dass die Dünen daraus gemacht haben und mit abartigen Off-Road-Monstern die 40%+ Gefälle rauf- und runterdonnern. Und da ja Dezember ist, waren wir auch Boarden. Philipp sogar so erfolgreich, dass er sich jetzt mit einer neuen Platzwundennarbe auf der Stirn schmücken kann. Der Dickkopf wollte dahin, wo Sand war und der war härter ... Die Lancelin Lodge hat tollste Hängematten, in denen es sich prima schlafen lässt, bis der Lärm der nachtaktiven Tierchens einen wecken. Und wehe ich finde den, der - sicher aus lieb gemeinter Rücksicht - meine Brille weggeräumt hatte ...
6. Lebende Steine und welche in der Wüste: Nach Cervantes geht es jetzt schneller. Denn dankeswerter Weise hat der Staat Western Australia den Indian Ocean Drive rechtzeitig für unseren Urlaub fertig gestellt.
   Was ist uralt, aus Stein und lebt (irgendwie)? Richtig, ein Stromatolith - lebende Fossilien. Allen anderen wäre da im Nirgenwo sicher auch langweilig, aber wenn man eh schon ein Fossil ist ... Den Rest des Abends verbringen wir tanzender Weise zwischen Steinen, die dumm aus der Erde gucken. Bisschen wie Stonehenge nur grösser und in gelb.
7. Schnell weiter, Nationalpark (tick), Cave (tick), Cabin (tick), unendliche Weiten (tick): Wir lernen, man muss nur laut genug danach schreien, dann sieht man es auch. Nein, nicht die Zukunft, ein Emu. Leider war niemand schnell genug mit der Kamera. Also haben wir geguckt - so mit eigenen Augen und so. Die hatten sich da schon wieder von den scheußlichsten Wandbildern unserer Perfektkabine erholt. Abenteuer heißt heute Räder in der Luft und Schotter voraus. Und dann zurück in die Zivilisation.
8. Bunbury is langweilig. Und das mantra Hotel eine Preis-Leistungs-Dissonanz. Aber die Betten bequem und das Essen um die Ecke lecker. Schlafen, spazieren, Kino. Kein Feuerwerk. Brennt ja alles so leicht (schließlich sind wir nicht in Queensland). Irgendwie geht Silvester so ganz klammheimlich an uns vorbei. Wir waren wohl noch mit Gang 5 oder 6 beschäftigt. Aber der Strand ... Kategorie: Frechheit. Und Vergnügungssteuer. Beides.
9. Venedig liegt in Florida in Western Australia oder Hier bleibe ich: Mandurah ist ein schönes Fleckchen. Bissi Kleingeld braucht man halt. Aber mit weniger als 300qm Dachterrasse wird es natürlich schwierig, gemütlich Platz zu finden. Dafür haben wir vollstes Verständnis und deswegen gibt es eben diese sogar für unter 2 Mio. Schnäppchen!
10. Auch unter 2 Mio.... Staubmilben. Das YHA in Fremantle is am besten der Kategorie "Loch" zuzuordnen und wird seiner wundervollen Umgebung in keinster Weise gerecht. Markt, Leckeressen, Sonnenbaden. Schnell weg!
11. Im Westen geht die Sonne unter: Und ein schöner Urlaub geht zu Ende. Wir lernen, dass Busfahrer hier mehr verdienen als Consultants und dass sie (deswegen) Sonderrouten für ahnungslose Touristen fahren. Museen sind "cool", weil "kalt" und "uncool" weil der seltene Megamouth Hai zu Zeit in Asbestquarantäne ist. Schön diese Zeitrafferstudie Australischer Arbeitsstruktur, "Ich arbeite, also stehe ich mal rum".

Braun sind wir. Entspannt haben wir. Alle haben mal beim Ligretto verloren. Banrock ist immer noch der beste Rosé. Und Sonnencreme nervt unendlich.

Happy New Year aus Perth!

PS: Bilder? Nö, wir doch nicht ... Naja, vielleicht doch.

Keine weiße Weihnacht'

für uns dieses Jahr. Im Moment ist es 19:13 Uhr und es hat 17 Grad (Actually a bisserl cold für Hochsommer aber vielleicht will Melbourne uns vorsichtig an dieses Klima gewöhnen). Die Sonne scheint hier in Elwood, es ist kaum eine Wolke am Himmel und das Jahr neigt sich dem Ende zu. Es war ein bewegungsreiches, wunderschönes und aufregendes Jahr. Es ist das zweite Mal in Folge, dass unsere Familien daheim ohne uns Weihnachten feiern müssen, denn letztes Jahr waren wir zu dieser Zeit in Neuseeland und kurz darauf in Fiji (Amazon Dank muss(te) trotzdem keiner weinen ;-) ). Auch dieses Jahr geht es bald in einen Flieger, denn wir werden "Boxing Day" und "New Year" mit Sonja und Alex in und um Perth verbringen (so Tigerairways denn will ...).

Dankbar sind wir für das Glück in dieser kurzen Zeit hier eine Heimat gefunden zu haben. Philipp stellt nächstes Jahr die ganze Logistik für Australien auf den Kopf und Tina hat es geschafft, ein Projekt zu bekommen, das ein wenig weniger Reisen beinhaltet (so lautet zumindest die Stellenbeschreibung). Langweilig wird uns also nicht. Dafür sorgen auch unsere Nachbarn und Freunde mit denen wir schon allerlei Pläne für nächstes Jahr haben. Dieses Land ist schließlich riesig und 20 Urlaubstage sind sooooo wenig. Das beigefügte Fotoalbum gibt ein paar Einblicke in das kürzliche Treiben der Elche down-under.

33 weeks in Melbourne

Ankündigungen gab es ja schon viele, aber Anfang Dezember war er tatsächlich da - unser erster Besuch aus Deutschland. Obowhl, ob man das beim weltreisenden Markus so noch sagen kann ... und der zweite ist auch schon angemeldet. Barbara/Oma Taunus/Philipp's Mum wird uns im Februar/März besuchen kommen und die Golfplätze sowie Tasmanien testen. Im Herbst vielleicht noch einmal umziehen (ich hätte schwören können, unsere Wohnung hatte nen Balkon, als wir sie angeschaut haben), im Winter wollen wir uns dann Darwin ansehen und irgendwie müssen wir dazwischen auch noch arbeiten. Und natürlich wollen wir noch ganz viel Besuch bekommen ...

Wir wünschen unseren geneigten Lesern, dass die staade Zeit bereits begonnen hat und das Leben sich im Moment um Lebkuchen, Glühwein und Vorlesegeschichten am Feuer dreht. Dass ihr alle mit lieben Menschen zusammen sein könnt und dass die guten Vorsätze sich von ganz alleine umsetzen. Prost und Guten Appetit.

Mutig sein, das Leben ist viel zu kurz, um zu zögern!
Alles Gute und nen guten Rutsch.

traces-in-the-sand is back ...

Hello, g'day, cheers and 'gude ... we are back!

It has been 4 months now (18 weeks) that we left winter Frankfurt to arrive in winter Melbourne. Everyday life has settled by now. The pictures tell the stories of our first 120+ days here.

3 weeks in melbourne

http://tinyurl.com/3weeksinMelbourne

6 weeks in melbourne

9 weeks in melbourne

18 weeks in melbourne

The best of far away

... is sometimes home. 6 weeks Australia lie behind us. Enough time to get a glimpse of a (very big) country. This is what we liked - and what we realized is (sometimes a lot) better at home.

The best-of-the-best:

1. Free flying cockatoos over wide landscapes - these birds are simply not designed for cages. Everybody who puts them in a cage should be put there him/herself.
2. Sunrise at Whitsunday Islands after a night out at sea.
3. Stars. Everywhere. And so different!
   
4. Electric BBQs at most rest areas and  public parks - have your fresh, self-made lunch on the beach or in the middle of a just wonderful National Park. Cheap, easy, tasty.
5. To cuddle Koalas, Kangaroos and Wallabies
   
6. Service orientation of officals - ever tried to ask for restaurant tips in a German police station? Well, Good-luck!
7. Sushi rolls. Simple, easy, huge and tasty.
8. Sleeping in a tent while Wombats and Koalas have their fun outside (earplugs appreciated as they can make a hell of a noise).
9. Orange M&Ms and crumpets with Nutella (although the Woolworth Chocolate Spread actually tastes more like Nutella than Nutella itself over here)
   
10. The beaches, the weather and the sun. But this is why we came here, right?!
    

 Where home was missed

1. Leberwurst, Kalbsfleischwurst & thin bacon slices that actually can be wrapped around a date (the fruit, not your next-door-neighbour- although, each to his own!)
2. Public transportation systems - try to find out which bus brings you where in Sydney (no iPhone at hand!), when it is supposed to leave and where the bus you are currently riding will stop ...
3. Road kills being removed before they skeletonize
4. Being able to sleep in your own bed, in your own appartement with your own kitchen and stuff. Very much sometimes (especially when the place you stay at has pets called cockroaches or spiders in all scary sizes).
5. Shoe variety. I still cannot belive I survived the past 10 weeks with only 4 pairs of shoes. Only 8 to go ...

Well, so much for the big continent with its red heart. We have moved on and were shocked to learn that it has less than 15 degrees here in Christchurch, New Zealand. Currently 8 degrees. We also opened a new picture album - stay tuned!

Missed the session?

Don't worry - this is what you could have seen:

Wanna say hello?

We are currently staying at the recently opened brandnew Sydney Harbour YHA. Great place directly located next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge basically "on top" of The Rocks at Circular Quay. Apart from a few "hatching problems" - like being evacuated twice yesterday due to a (false) fire alarm - this place is awesome and comes with a fabulous kitchen, a huge roof-top terrace and (Thank God!) in-room bathrooms. Wireless still is not for free but they need room for improvement, don't they ;-) ?

It also has a live webcam on the roof-top terrace which can be controlled via internet.

So this is the game: We will be in front of the webcam tomorrow Friday, Nov 27, 8:30 am Sydney time - which is 22:30 Germany time (or 4:30 pm New York time) on Nov 26. We will stay close to the BBQ which can be seen when the camera is turned downwards a little.

If you want to see us "live" you just have to log into the YHA webcam page and take control of the camera to move it downwards a little. It would be great if you take a picture of yourself with your camera screen and send it to us so we can also see you ;-)

People's stories

During our Sailing trip to the Whitsunday Islands one of our little projects grew quite a bit. Sharing the boat with 25 other people provides a lot of sources for stories, sayings, travel advice, life advice and foreign characters written into my red travel diary. (Though it doesn't quite look like it, I am very excited about this!)

By now I have collected thoughts and well-wishes in Chinese, Hindi, Farsi, Korean, Dutch, Swedish, French,  Australian, Maori, German, Swiss German, Bavarian, and, of course, English. The topics range from travel advice to folk music to life advice to surgical insights as well as direct orders from "commander fun". Thank you to everyone who contributed - it is so inspiring to read from you. As promised I will read out all your pieces of wisdom on New Years Eve somewhere on a Fiji beach. For those who did contribute a song, I will sing it, whatsoever (perhaps I should give Philipp Oropax for x-mas ;-P ). All those who also want their words to be read in Fiji on New Years either book your flight now or post something into the comments.

When I was a little school girl we had these books that were supposed to hold poems or little drawings from your class-mates - mine was blue with flowers. If you were very brave (or an absolute geek-nerd) you would also ask your mean English-teacher to fill one of the pages. She did ... with the poem below, which left me wondering what she wanted to tell me for weeks. I was scared!

There was a young lady from Riga,
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.

They returned from the ride
  With the lady inside
And the smile on the face of the tiger.

Another poem proved itself right so many times already:

The crossroads of life don't come with any directions.
(Translated from the German "An den Kreuzungen des Lebens stehen keine Wegweiser")

Especially these days it puts a little smile on my face, considering who wrote it into my poem book about 25 years ago. Thanks, Mum ;-)


Our own (travel) story currently takes a rest in Sydney. We enjoy a few days with no big plans before we leave the country heading to New Zealand. Our Whitsunday pictures are online now. Check out the album to see all pictures from this beautiful place on earth. 3 days on sea also brought our "Natural Tan" project a few steps ahead. Martina proved that 30+ sunscreen actually works - IF you are capable of applying it properly ... And Philipp decided to go for the "Natural T-Shirt" version. Glenf and Sören of course are way ahead in terms of coloring. So far, so wonderful ;-)

Whitsunday Islands

are just beautiful. Don't forget to sail them, dive them, hike them, fly over, snorkel them when you are around (snorkeling and swimming unfortunately always requires a stingersuit):

This is our fantastic trip with some pics - more to come soon.

Sailing the S.V Whitehaven

Map your trip with EveryTrail

Why not do it differently (or different)?

We are on the road for almost 8 weeks now. 6,000kms are behind us and with camping & Youth Hostels there are a lot of people we met and will meet along our way. For the past few days up here in Queensland it is - surprisingly - a lot (a very lot *meaningfullintonantion*) of German speaking people. Maybe because it is winter up there?! ;-)

All of these people have their own story, their own travelling schedule, goal and approach and it is fascinating to listen to them and get to know a little bit of their life. We had that already when we started this blog. Taking off a few months of work to travel is nothing radical anymore these days. There are many people around us who do this. But lately we came across a few approaches that actually made me thinking:

There is the German couple which is travelling through Australia for a whole year (nothing exciting), while he is working remotly a 40h-job (ok, requires some organization skills and a Telstra contract) and their 6-year old daughter is learning English by playing with local kids (try to replace that by pre-school). Also we met a Dutch couple who sold their existance at home, took their 2 kids out of school and travel Australia and New Zealand for half a year. The kids surprise them every day with ideas and travel wishes they would have never imagined (Who thought that a 9 year old would rather walk the bushes than playing at the pool? The "Are we there yet"-issue is still there, though). Also we met an Austrian mother who is travelling Australia and Asia for 6 months alone with her (I would guess) 10 year old son (I also guess he is the star when he gets back to class). Or the Swedish couple travelling Australia with 3 kids - 6, 3, and 1,5 years old - checking out all playgrounds on the east coast, preferably those with coffee places next to them.

All say the same - people mostly ask them 2 questions (I admit, I did so too): How? And why?
The "How" requires some preparation, a lot of patience, some money and courage I would say. Not much more.
The "Why" is a different story. Why not? Just because it is not what you usually would do? Just because nobody else (you know) would or did do it? Just because one doesn't travel for 6 months if you have kids at school? Just because it is not sure what will happen to your life or your job when you come back? Just because you don't know what to do with your furniture - and the gym membership that you will for sure use next month for the first time after signing up 1 year ago?

There are a lot of things we think we know how they should be. Are we sure? Have we tried to do them differently? Maybe it is a lot of fun behind that corner! So when was the last time you did something differently (or is it actually different #englishgrammar)?

Back to our travels:
To meet these people is very inspiring and obviously so exciting that we managed to loose 2 cameras in less than a week. The first one remains in peace (and pieces) on Fraser Island - Philipp is still wearing black. The other one tried swimming pool dipping yesterday but didn't turn off its electricity before (stupid thing that is *gg*...). Thank god the memory cards survived so we didn't loose all those wonder- and colorful pictures:

• Translucent Lake Birrabeen on Fraser Island
• Freshwater creek on the 4WD beach
• Nature as architekt
• Bright colored birds
  
• The first glimpse of the Great Barrier Reef
• And the deep green of the rainforest

There are more pics, don't forget to check out the albums!

The Suzuki is a she ...

Our Suzuki Sierra on Fraser Island showed quite a personality. She doesn't open her door to everyone ...

Fraser Island Clip

Here we go - 4.5 minutes of fun at Fraser Island:

The very first time ...

To do something for the very first time is always special. Remember: Riding a bike, flying, going to a club, being alone at home ... you know all these sorts of things ;-)

Growing up, there are a few good friends around that are currently on the way to experience quite significant "first times" - the first appartement together, the first baby (multiple), being married ... we hope you all do well and the adventure is just as exciting as you thought it would be. Therefore, we dedicate this blog entry to all people who currently do something for the first time in their life. How does it feel???

During our past 7 weeks of travel there have been so many "first times" already it is hard to keep track of them. But a few days ago there was for sure a highlight: Surfing Australian waves. What an awesome sport but I know now why surfers usually look like they do (in case you don't know: *yummie!*) - that sport is f*** exhausting!!! Pardon my french. There are no pictures - we were to busy fighting against current and waves - but this is what the beach kind of looked like. And - thanks to our horse riding (she) and snowboarding (he) experience - we were able to actually surf and stay on the board for over 20 sec. So proud!!!

Visiting the Australian Zoo also had a very important first time: seeing a wombat. After actually hearing them already around our tent at night, we now could see them and found out that these little teddy-bears can run as fast as 40km/h. Try to run away from that one - right, why would you ... Btw, did you know that a 200t whale can go as fast as 48km/h? You don't want to be in the boat that's crossing his way while sprinting. The "rusty motorcycle" noise we heard at night and thought it was a bird, is actually ... a Koala. A few more animal facts: Kookatoos can live for as long as 80 - 100 years, alligators even up to 130.

Speaking of animal facts: While hiking around Ebor Falls on the Waterfall way, we had another "first time" encounter. All kangaroos we met so far were quite cute animals, very relaxed. But there are others, this one being about 1,90 - 2,00m tall with a chest and arms I don't want to fight with. Up for a little boxing, anyone? The Red Kangaroo can even grow up to 2,40m according to a display in the Australia Zoo.

Our when-we-got-it-it-was-brand-new car (= 16kms) shows 5,000kms now. For those who want to keep track I try and continue my list I started recently:

1. Narooma was beautiful, don't miss the beaches!
2. We decided to finally buy a tent and spend a day on the beach @ Batemans Bay (beautiful!) and tested the tent on the weirdest campground ever. Close to a highway, no facilities - and still, some people drive over 100km to stay just here for 4 nights. Not to mention all those people that started to shovel in the middle of the night. Weird and soooo scary!
3. After another day on the road we arrived in the Blue Mountains and stayed at an ok-caravan park in Bleackheath. Management is very grumpy and literally everything is forbidden. Nice facilities, though.
4. The next day was "4WD day" with a lot of gravel roads in the National Parks north of Katoomba. Don't miss the Glowworm tunnel. Also the Dry Canyon is worth a visit - there is a nice Geocache hidden at the end of the canyon.
5. The next 2 nights we spend at the Flying Fox in Katoomba. A fun and relaxed hostel with very helpful staff - the facilities are a little bit too much hostel for me though ... especially the bathroom.
6. Our activities in the Blue Mountains see here.
7. We left the Blue Mountains heading north through the hinterland. Passing Scone (horse town) and the Burning Mountain. We stayed in Armidale at the Pembroke Tourist & Leisure Park - so far so good.
8. Enough north - we turn east, following the Waterfall Way to the coast. Passing Wollomombi and Ebor Falls.
9. At Grafton we stay a wonderful but rainy night at the 5* Caravan Park "The Gateway Village". It was Jacaranda Festival in town.
10. Due to the weather - rain, rain, rain, and again, rain - we did not go up to Byron Bay the next day, but stayed in Lennox Head. And extended to a 3 nights stay. The YHA in Lennox Head is a wonderful place to be - don't miss Graeme's self-made chocolate cake. Beautiful walks, great beaches, good ice-cream.
11. Finally we had to go north and went via Australia Zoo (and - also a first time: a really awful caravan park in the Glass House Mountains) to Rainbow Beach to check out the Fraser Island packages they have to offer. Not so much for indiviual travel, rather groups. Very backpacker!
12. We decided to postpone Fraser Island by 2 days and went back to Noosa. Our tent site is on the beach. Pure holiday. A must on every travel plan.

So far, so good. Only 1,300kms to go - about 10 days left. We will get there. Stay with us ;-)

If one is not enough

Everybody who travels knowns this dilemma: Should I take a big SLR with me or just the small digicam? I always go for the digicam solution which is a Powershot A590 IS. Sounds fancy but it's only about 100 EUR on amazon. Why? There are several reasons but the most important reason is that I already broke two of those cameras and it would be a shame to say that I broke my Canon 1D Mark IV just because I left it standing in the rain.

So I deal with my good old Powershot and make the best out of it. And there are three things which are helping me with this task:

• First of all the Canon Hack Development Kit or CHDK. This is a small software you can load onto your SD card which tweaks your Powershot a little bit. Longer exposures, RAW-Pictures, higher apertures, bracketing and a lot of more stuff. You will find two 50s exposures in the picasa-album >> check the stars on the brighter picture.
  
  
• Another great help is Igor. This is my Oregon 300 GPSr which is quite handy if you try to geotag your pictures. Just record where you are going, sync the clock with your camera and later on you assign geolocations to the taken pictures by software - GPicSync. No more "Hmmm ... where have I taken this one?"
  (If you ask yourself why I call it Igor there is a good read at hand: The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet. The little T.S. calls his GPSr "Igor")
  
  
• Now it get's tricky. There are these amazing views which just don't want to be taken on a single picture. Either you are praying for a fish-eye lens to materialise in front of you or - even worse - the lighting is so dynamic that your camera can't deal with it.
  The solutions to these two are quite simple if you think a little bit ahead. Take some more pictures and later on software does the trick.
  Panorama stitching is quite common but don't go for the Canon Stitch which comes along with your PowerShot. You should use Hugin instead which gives you way better results as you can see on the "Melbourne Central" picture (It's made out of 30 pictures) and it's for free!
  The second software is called Qtpfsgui and composes a high dynamic range picture out of a series of exposure bracketing (also freeware). For this one you do need a tripod to take the pictures otherwise it doesn't work. Make sure you have nothing moving in your picture like clouds otherwise you will get a lot of noise in it. The "Remarkable Rocks" HDR was one of those. The software has a noise reduction filter but you just loose contrast along with it.
  

So this is it. This is how I do the magic just with an ordinary digicam which is already the third in my possession (The first got stolen, the second died after 11.000 pics and this one did indeed survive a night in the open rain).

... and now I gotta go outside: Bright Beaches, Waves, Sunshine, 30°C, Ice-Cream, Palm-Trees and A Wonderful Girl :o)

HDR and Panorama

Safety first!

We are in the Blue Mountains for 2 days already - stunning mountains, very green forest and steep canyons/stairs, not so much blue though. More green, brown and yellow. We are staying at the Flying Fox Hostel in a "room with a view" ;-). Very nice and fun place with a lot of people to meet and share stories with.

We learned today that the New South Wales Police offers free-of-charge PLBs to hikers in NSW, especially in the the Blue Mountain area. Guess who was thrilled to take along another gadget ;-) But although the Federal Pass along Katoomba does not really require special security gadgets it still is a great service, I think. Especially if you pass by so many FlipFlop-Tourists along the way trying to hold on to the handrails while "sliding" down 50m steep stairs. Luckily we didn't meet any of them while hiking down the Dry Canyon - incl. gravel road driving, 2 hours hike through bushland and quite some rock climbing through the canyon.

Sometimes safety is as much as hopping into your car, considering that a Red-bellied black Snake just passes by your car. Or putting on sunscreen 50 which actually works too well as the "Natural Tan" updates prove.

We came across this ad yesterday - can anyone eyplain what this means? Thank you!

Tomorrow saftey for us means making sure we don't fall asleep or kill a kangaroo/wallabie/wombat/human being while heading quite a few hundred kilometers further north. Brisbane, here we come!

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.

Bye-bye, Uluru ...

We are saying Good-bye before we even set foot on any plane. After 3 days of searching optimized travel routes, checking flight schedules and fares, memorizing kilometers on Google Maps we have made a big decision. We will not visit Australia's red heart. With "just" 6 weeks in Australia and soooooo many kilometers to get from one location to the other it would just end up in endless hours in a car or hundreds of euros/dollars on the plane.

Therefore we have noted one lesson learned: Never start travelling Australia from Sydney - that is the middle. Not the beginning. Not the end.

We decided to leave Sydney immediately, fly to Adelaide, get a car and drive to Cairns - bypassing Sydney where we fly back towards the end of our journey to continue travelling to New Zealand. This way we have more than 5 weeks for about 5,000 kilometers which should work out fine (considering I already did 12,500 kilometres in 28 days over in the US). Uluru would take away 1 week and cost an additional EUR 500 just for flying. We simply come back one day and do the other half of Australia, we figured.

the good side of a cold

We are known for often squeezing 48 hours into 24 mostly between Frankfurt, Munich, Walchsee, Zurich and sometimes even Seoul for a night - and if snow needs to be involved also adding 1500 km on the Autobahn on a single weekend. Sometimes this pace just doesn't work well - either with schedules, friends or health. This time my health put a stop to packing boxes, renovating my appartement, meeting friends, dogsit Ronja, clarify admin stuff and worry about Philipp falling off a mountain at the same time. A cold now cleared my calendar for the one thing I wanted to do for the past ... hmm, six months. Reading travel guides. I am getting more excited about our trip with every page I read. Travel tips are very, very, very welcome and much appreciated! Thank you.

There are great places to visit out there - I already found Dieter's favourite and Heike's (No, Heike, you should not click this Link!!!).

Speaking of a cold: This is the right moment for my (meanwhile second) favourite YouTube-Video - bless you!