A weekend in Mudgee

I've spent my complete Friday morning to find an accomodation in Mudgee as most hotels were already booked out. I'm not kidding: Mudgee, the little town in the middle of nowhere, apparently was filled with Sydneysiders.

After many disappointing phone calls I decided to make a list with the final three hotels which I want to call before finally giving up hope. The first one I've talked to (from that final list) was a nice lady at the "@77". It seemed to be almost too easy when she told me that there is space for us, and as if there is something wrong hahaha. In fact, it sounded as if we would be her only guests...

Hesitating to make the final decision if we should really go to Mudgee this or better another weekend (to another hotel), Faris convincingly started to pack his stuff.

And really, it turned out to be the best decision to go this weekend! We really were the only guests in this B&B. However, what we didn't know, was the fact that our accomodation was a whole house with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a big kitchen and dining area as well as a very comfy living area.... which really didn't miss a thing and which we all had for ourselves!! :o)

Of course there was no need for so many rooms for just the 2 of us, but only making breakfast in a spacious kitchen, rather than a tiny one, makes the difference. With all the delicious food we received from our hosts Helen and Bill, we created a wonderful and rich breakfast before heading to the vineries of Mudgee (we already saw three of them the day before on the Sydney side of Mudgee). There were 5 on our list - recommended by Helen - each known for a certain type of wine.

All in all the wine tasting was a wonderful experience with lots of different tastes and things to learn about. Including one learning effect: If you do not go with a guided wine tour, you may most likely end up in the vineries yourself, being the only guest. This way, the owners do not only see your lack of knowledge (and probably laugh off their asses when seeing you tasting the wine and pretending to know something about it), but also make you feel really bad if you come, taste and do not buy anything -obviously-... this would never happen in a big group.

After the 4th vineyard this morning we couldn't see any wine bottles anymore, were fed up with tasting and feeling guitly of not buying anything anymore (we've already bought lots and lots of bottles of red wine, port, sweet white wine, ice wine, olives, etc...) or spitting the wine into the spitting-bowls respectively.

So we headed back to Sydney, taking the longer, but much more scenic drive via the Blue Mountains. In the very famous apple region on top of the mountains we finally purchased some apples (some 6kg) and 2 apple pies as a last purchase on this trip for our spoilt bellies :o)

It was a wonderful weekend!

Back in SYDNEY!!!!

Again, the 2-day journey was absolutely worth it - I am finally back in the most beautiful city on this planet!

Australia really is the country of my dreams and even European summer, sunny weather, 30+ degrees and all our wonderful lakes could not stop me from going south, flying to almost exactly the other side of the world - and into winter...

I am especially thankful for the reunion with some of my friends down under - hoping to see the others very soon!

Faris gave me a new home in Dee Why, or better: in paradise! Seeing cockatoos, parrots, pelicanes, a beautiful beach and surfers now every day (and whales ocasionally) really makes you feel like having the longest holiday you could think of.

...and it almost made me forget about the fact that I am actually here to work and write on my thesis :o)

I -for sure- will come back to Austria; but I can already tell you that this was not the last time I went to Australia - definitely not!!

Find out more about my adventures in the picture area; I will try to always keep you posted!

Goodbye

Hey,

It's been a long time and honestly spoken I tried to postpone this day to an unhealthy extend... I am talking about saying goodbye to the absolutely amazing times I experienced in the most beautiful country in the world!
And it also means to say thank you to all the great people I met and my lovely aussie or aussie-to-be friends down under.

Even though I came back to Austria quite a long time ago, I miss Australia every single day - and I didn't live a single one without thinking about all the amazing experiences I gained and all my great friends down under.

I swear, I will try my very best and do everything in my power to come back next june to have a reunion with all of you!

Please don't ask me why I am posting this final Aussie-2007-post now, maybe my heart is telling me to say good bye to keep it open for new experiences, maybe it is just sick of all the pain it is causing me, maybe it will be even more painful afterwards or maybe it is happening without any reason - I don't know.

Either case, I will never forget the best times in my life!!

Believe me, I can't wait to go back and see you all!

Das ich DAS erleben durfte!!
Zitat: Günther Harich (ruhe in Frieden)

ROADTRIP

Hi again!

This is us: Faris, me and Andi on our great roadtrip!!

The day Andi and me came home from Darwin we immediately picked up our new home, a huge campervan!!

After loading in all our stuff we took Kat with us to go to the Blue Mountains! As she lives there she was our personal tourguide for one day :-) and she did a great job!! Thank you a lot Kat - it was just great!!

Unfortunately she couldn't join us for the whole trip (23days), so we had to continue on our own. We headed southern through Royal National Park in the south of Sydney, 7 Mile Beach (Faris favourite, even though the weather wasn´t perfect), Jervis Bay and then a bit inland to Canberra, Australia's capital! Well, now I can say I saw the capital, but I really think that 5hours are enough for this city (to be precise for the Parliament House and the Museum which are both really really cool - but that's it).

From Canberra following the coast more to the south and going all the way down to Melbourne, passing by Batemans Bay, Pambula Beach and the Prom (Promontory National Park) - the most beautiful NP I've ever seen!!!! - just to name a few.

After visiting Melbourne (which is a really nice city - if there weren´t be so many annoying flies) we headed to the very exciting Great Ocean Road and all the way up north again to Adelaide. All in all we drove almost 4.000km.

Just the perfect route if you ask me, and exactly what I wanted to see!!

The only thing I quite miss seeing is Kangaroo Island (which caught flames 1 day before we wanted to go there - only 12% were open for tourists anymore and only from the non-spectacular site of the island). Well, I see it as a new reason for visiting Australia again :-) VERY VERY SOON!!!!

Unfortunately I cannot post everything of our trip - that would take me ages and I am sure no one is interested in reading a whole book of a trip from Sydney to Adelaide.

But I can absolutely say: It is extremely worth vivisting this part of Australia and going all the way by caravan was just the best decision we could make!

I am so glad I had such lovely partners to travel with!! Thank you soo much for travelling with me Andi and Faris! I had the best time in my life with you both!

Always take care!!

Yours,

Stephanie

KAKADU NATIONAL PARK

Heyy!

Here we are in Kakadu National Park!!!

If you´re sick of all the desert you can find in Australia, go up north and find one of the greenest places ever! Kakadu NP has quite a few options: IF YOU CAN (due to the almost unbearable heat) go up the hills, watch some birds, walk into the eucalyptus forest, watch amazing sunsets and new species of animals, do a river cruise, relax and enjoy the beautiful (almost) untouched nature and the silence! Additionally, you can learn a lot about aboriginal culture, their way of life and try to understand their world a bit better by visiting the best cultural centre I've ever seen in the middle of the park.

Some hiking tracks (we could only explore the shortest ones, because after 1 hour you almost die of thirst, heat and sweat) lead you directly to several thousand year old aboriginal arts - a very impressive experience, especially when you try to understand aboriginal anxient stories written on little information blocks.

I already mentioned the hut we booked for the one night we spent in the park - it was sooo nice!!! If it wouldn´t be so extremely hot during the day I could live there! Best thing about it: You could look through it when you were inside and e.g. watch animals before falling asleep. Also, you can look into the hut when it is dark outside and you have the lights on inside - but there was only one family besides us in the entire park, and the ranger - so, no worries mate ;-)

I have to say: Even though we had a lot of plans, stops and quite a tight schedule, everything worked out, nothing happened and it could not have been a better trip!!

Thank you Andi for being such a good travel mate - I had a lot of fun during this beautiful trip!!

I am already looking forward to post the story of my roadtrip with Andi and Faris! It was such a cool trip too!

Hope to see you all soon!
Stephanie

DARWIN

Hi all!

After heading back from the Pinnacles to Perth and catching our next flight up north in the early morning we reached DARWIN!!!

Darwin is really really green and it looks like a green oasis even on every site of the freeway! And except of the temperature (it was BOILING HOT) and the humidity (it rained every few hours), Darwin gave a really nice first impression.

I mean, we knew that Darwin is not the most beautiful city in the world - and it really doesn´t offer much - but it has a certain charme and flair.

Checking the Lonely Planet and talking to locals in the airplane we found out that fish feeding (and petting) is a nice experience - so we immediately (after exploring the little city centre a bit) went there to pet fish - for the first time in my life!! I mean: living fish - no dead ones of course!

The thing is: with high tide, certain types of fish come to a little bay in Darwin. And you, grabbing some toast bread, can feed them (they have no teeth and just suck in the bread) and meanwhile pet them. As you can imagine, fish are not used to be pet - but especially the old ones know that nothing happens to them and in my opinion: they are just too greedy!! If they want to get fed, they also have to get toughed!! :-D

It was a very nice experience!!

Also very nice was having dinner at the harbour! After a little shock (because it was not what we expected) Andi and me enjoyed wonderful Thai food :-)

Even though we had to get up very early the next day because the way to Kakadu NP is quite far (around 300km in one direction) and we only had 2 days there, we just couldn´t fall asleep in our "suite" and we had to drink quite a lot of Ouzo to "drink the room pretty" hahahahahahaha [I hope you all know that I am just kidding]. Check out the fotos for our 5*****suite in Darwin! I swear: 1 bed and 1 cupboard was in the room - nothing else!! Not even a board to put your stuff on in the bathroom - well, the floor is good enough as well, true!

Well, I know that is what you would expect in a very cheap hostel, but for only 7$ more, we had our own hut in the middle of a small jungle in the NP!!!! Unbelievable!!! See the Darwin hostel in the darwin-pic-folder and the hut in the Kakadu NP-folder!

Enjoy the day! Hope to see you soon!

Stephy

PS.: On the pic it´s me with a baby-croc in Crocodylus Park in Darwin. I didn´t post much fotos of it because I was really shocked how small the cages were for animals like ocelots and tigers!! Even the crocs were lying on each other due to the small size of the cages - I will send a shocking pic to the Lonely Planet I guess and I hope not many people go there anymore to support this torturing of animals!!

PINNACLES

Hi again!

As already mentioned in the "PERTH"-blog, 2 days after visiting Perth Andi and me went to the so called Pinnacles, 260km northern of Perth.

The formation of these impressive stones is still unknown as far as I know, but neverthesess just impressive!!

Andi and me wanted to explore Perth as long as possible, so we started driving very very late - almost too late.... but to be honest right in time!! We went up north and reached the Pinnacles exactly 10mins before the sun set - perfect timing I would say ;-)

And to be honest: This was the MOST BEAUTIFUL SUNSET IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!

- And I already saw a LOT of them!! But this one was really special, with a dark golden sun that disappeared behing the very very white beach and the sunrays lighting the Pinnacles in a very special way before the sky turned dark rosé, red and purple... then light blue and a bit grey before it all disappeared in a dark blue and in the end black sky. Meanwhile a full moon "played" with the clouds and appeared every once in a while after a dark pink cloud - it was just amazing!

To repeat this experience with another light Andi and me got up very very early (I guess it was 5:15) to watch the sunrise! And I again have to say: It was soooo amazing!! The light reflected on the Pinnacles is just special and unfortunately there are no words for discribing it.

Check out the fotos - even though they never reflect how it really was, they give a small impression. The foto posted here in the blog is my absolute favorite!!

Enjoy watching!

Stephanie