Thursday 12^th April, 2012

Yesterday evening I arrived very late in Sydney and Konrad picked me up. After sleeping in I went to explore the flat. The next 7 weeks we will life in a 4 1/2 room flat in Daling Point. From the big terrace I see down to the water and I spent the morning there reading. In between I had to go to the washing machine as I run out of clean clothes. I is a strange feeling that I will have now a regular daily timetable as I was on the road for 11 weeks and lived out of the backpack. Exactly 11 weeks ago Konrad and I entered the plane. I could experience four different regions of Australia. During that time I met many interesting people and could spend more or less time with them.

I am glad that Konrad did not not hinder my way and let me travel alone. The short time with him I enjoyed even more as normal. After the short travelling time together I passed three weeks alone in Tasmania. Here I saw a lot of nature and hiked in a few National Parks.

With a landscape shock started my time in Western Australia. In Tasmania everything was so green and now everything was so dry and brown. After this experience I was happy that I got visited by Konrad and we could go to the sea.

When he flew back to Sydney I knew that Sandra should arrive soon in Perth. We only knew us from a dinner together, but we had known already then that we should have a good time together. Some of our interests were similar and so at the west coast we learnt to know each other better and better. It is a pity that the time flew so fast.

Back in Perth I met again my brother which travelled for a few weeks Australia after his work stage in New Zealand. Together we spend the last few days in south-western Australia. Even when our interests were not always the same, we had a brilliant time. I am already looking forward to see him again in two weeks in Sydney for a few days.

Starting next Monday I will go to school in Bondi Junction to learn a bit English. Surely there are interesting encounters waiting, but for you, dear reader, it would get boring when I would write always from the school. I will keep you up-to-date and make a blog entry when I had an interesting experience.

Wednesday 11^th April, 2012

Our morning started wet. Dominik was taking a shower and I was in the kitchen of the camping site as the turf irrigation started. Cool, our camper was fully in the firing line of the water and the inside got a bit wet. So we preferred to pack and leave. We had our breakfast in the park of Northam. Then we went to the tourist information and asked where the allegedly longest suspension bridge of Australia is. We saw it already when arriving. On the suspension bridge we started our walk along the Avon River. Here is a colony of white swans. This is normal for Europeans, but not for Australians as here the swans are usually black. The white swans were brought by European settlers and are now an attraction here. After lunch Dominik drove me back to the airport of Perth. Dominik will continue travelling the west while I am flying to Sydney to see again Konrad. Five weeks of separation is definitively too long.

Sunday 1^st April, 2012

The hostels are very full as there should be about 20'000 backpackers coming from the east coast to the west coast. When we had booked Sandra had not known if she would not like to travel a bit southwards. So I then just had booked for Dominik and me and so we had to change again rooms. Sandra met a former workmate as we lodged our luggage in the storage room. As soon as we left the hostel it started raining. After breakfast it got better and we went up the hill to Kings Park. We walked in the park and I saw black and red cockatoos. Then we went to the DNA Tower and climbed it to enjoy the view. The afternoon we were again riding bus and then we could get to our room. In the evening we walked through Northbridge and found a cinema screen with many cushions to watch the film. We watched the animation film Planet 51. As a few drops of rain fell from the sky we took our cushion and moved below a big umbrella. After the film we went to eat at Outback Jacks and enjoyed the last evening together with Sandra.

Saturday 31^st March, 2012

After a relaxing night Sandra and I were really refreshed. Dominik also slept better even as he was in a room with 8 beds. In the morning we visited two different markets in Freo. Both had mainly souvenirs and junk to offer. Towards noon we drove back to Perth and in a park we laid in the sun as it was to early to get to the accommodation. In the afternoon we went shopping and enjoyed the street artists in the pedestrian area. The rest of the day we were riding with the city bus. There are three lines which are free. Two of them we took to see Perth.

Wednesday 28^th March, 2012

Already early in the morning we swept the camper to remove as much of the remaining sand as possible. Then we started out to explore the Swan Valley. I was here three and a half weeks ago and told Sandra about it. Now she wants to experience it by herself. So we started in Midland and went first to the Nougat House. I missed that one last time. An Italian family prepares nougat with different ingredients like nuts, blue berries, cranberries, chocolate, etc. We bought a bit of nougat and granted ourselves a real hot chocolate. Then we went to the honey shop, but there was not much offered. I did not want to buy honey as I did not have space in the backpack. But we observed the highland cattle. Along the road there are many cafes, wineries and some art shops. Next stop was the Lavender House. They make and sell oils, jam, body lotion, cakes and teas with lavender. I tried the lavender tea and it was not bad. Sandra refused as she does not like the smell of lavender. After this refreshment we went to the Chocolate House. Here they sell self-made chocolate. A few pralines won gold at a exhibition in Perth. We tried the chocolate and have to say that it is not bad. Then we continued on the road and stopped at a small park to visit it. A few flowers looked strange, but we are a bit early for the wild flowers. As the sun was strong, we stopped at the Honey House. We visited the shop and took a break. We enjoyed ice cream and honey ginger water. It is just very delicious what they produce here with honey. After a small detour to the to the Swan River we went to the car wash. Here I cleaned the camper at the outside and Sandra organised with the kind help of an employee the required water and strawberry soap. As I was a bit slow the kind man helped me a bit and then the camper was very shiny. With the clean car we drove to the petrol station, but we first did not find the diesel and thus produced a bit of traffic jam. But there was one already before. Also here there were nice Australians explaining us where to find the diesel. To thank we let them drive first. Now, as this was completed, we drove to the hostel to leave our luggage there. Dominik (my brother) stand already behind me when we arrived at the reception. He was quite lucky today and found also a free bed here. Similar as 4 weeks before Perth is nearly booked up. We drove the camper to the rental company to bring it back. We soon realized that the lady was from Germany so we could have our chat in German. She explained that we already got one and a half day of rent back as we had trouble with the first car. This was not enough for us as they promised on the phone that they will pay the taxi, the accommodation and the clamping set. Then we expected that more days get refunded as we stood still for three nights. The lady advocated at the headquarter. Now we got 4 days of the rent, three nights of accommodation, the taxi, the new tire and the clamping set refunded. With this offer we were happy. Back in Perth we met Dominik and planned the next two days when we want to visit Fremantle and Rottnest Island.