3rd - Home

Considering how much I have been flying on my vacation, it was just a matter of time before something would go wrong. Too bad it was on my trip home things didn’t go as planned.

I checked in at the airport at Alice Springs, and after going through security I double-checked my tickets, just to make sure that they were correct. I noticed, that boarding time in Sydney was 0730 which I couldn’t get to fit with the fact that the plane would take off at 1815. So I talked with a guy at their service counter, and after a while he found out that the plane was delayed almost 12 hours, which meant that I would have to stay the night in Sydney before continuing my trip home.

Arriving at Sydney I was taken aside together with a small group who also was planned to go with the flight to London (via Bangkok), we got our luggage and got taken to a hotel (incl. a phone call and dinner voucher). Early next morning we came back to the airport, checked in, got a breakfast voucher and finally we left for London.

The part of the trip before Bangkok was very quiet as the plane wasn’t even half full. I sat next to (with a spare seat between us, we were sitting on H and K) a Danish girl who had also been stranded in Sidney due to the delay. When reaching Bangkok I had to move to another seat (I noticed this already at Alice, but when asking the woman in the check in if it wasn’t possible for me to stay in the same seat for the entire trip as on the way down she didn’t understand what I meant, despite trying explaining in several different ways). I moved to a window seat further back, but I sat behind a very large man, and next to him a similar large woman, which meant that my knees were getting killed. (On top of that I was sitting next to the kitchen, and I suspect that the rows (seat A-C and H-K) were set a little closer together so that they could line up perfectly to form a complete row behind the kitchen together with the D-G part. Let’s just say that my knees and legs weren’t amused).

After watching the first movie (UP, long live VOD!) I went to the toilets, and guess what I saw? The Danish girl was sitting alone on the three seats… So I went over and asked if I could get to sit where I sat before, and she was nice and understanding enough to say yes. Woo! Better room for my legs and a (much) better looking neighbor!

When arriving at London it was 1940, and no more planes would be leaving for Copenhagen, so once again we were sent to a hotel. I was put on a plane at 0655 together with another Danish guy, so we didn’t have more than 6-7 hours at the hotel, including dinner, check in, and sleep. It was hard work getting up – especially knowing that the Danish girl had been put on a plane at 1200-ish.

I set up my alarm on my phone, even though I had ordered a wake-up call, just in case. The phone in the room never rang, so I have never been happier for having my mobile phone. Apparently none of those who had ordered a wake-up call this early (0330…) had received their call, so the reception was getting slightly panicky (it was an automated system). I wonder how many people have missed their plane that morning due to the missing wake-up call?

I finally arrived in Copenhagen 0945 Monday, 22 hours after my scheduled arrival.

All in all Qantas were very helpful at every step of the process of getting home (they have been so for every flight, but this was the only time they encountered unforeseen problems they had to handle). You never had any doubts of what to do next whether you were going to an unknown hotel or getting a new flight from an airport. I am very impressed of their service and am not surprised that they for several years in a row are amongst the top-3 of the world’s best airline companies. They got me 20.000 kms without a single hiccup despite huge delays, but DSB can’t get me from home to work (40 kms) without screwing up and not telling anyone what the problem is and when it’s solved.

After these 4 weeks it was a huge anticlimax to come back home. Luckily I am not getting back to work until Thursday, so I have a couple of days to get my mindset back into the usual routines.

It’ll probably take some time to unpack; it’s now Tuesday and it’s still limited how much I have taken out of my bags. I feel like that the vacation won’t be completely over until the bags have been squared away, and I don’t want the vacation to be over. It was awesome, I already miss it.

Oh, by the way. I am freezing my ass off. It’s fucking cold here!

I saw one of the new A380s in Sydney; when getting around in a bus at the airport we got closer to another one - they are huge!

Zoomed out, comparing the A380 to a jumbo jet, the Boeing 747 (to the right), trying to give a better impression of how big it is as people know how large the 747 is.

The plane I flew in Sydney - Bangkok - London. On the side it says "We're with you all the way Qantas Socceroos".

30th - Thus ends the world...

Photos are added to the end of today's post, including the ones that should have been added yesterday. Also, I took a lot of photos of Uluru, so I have just chosen a couple that look good - I have not had the patience to find the best photos. That'll be done when I get hold of a faster computer than this.

Not much to say about today – I did a lot of driving, so it's limited how much else I had time for.

I went to see Uluru during sun rise; the sun rose at 0558, and the national park opens up at 0500, so there was a decent queue at the entrance as I arrived at a couple of minutes past. Saw the sun rise, saw the rock change color, and then I went back to sleep.

After checking out from the apartment, I took some extra day photos of the rock, and then began the long drive to King’s Canyon. It took longer than expected, I didn’t arrive before 1500, and I needed to be in Alice Springs before 2000, as that is when the reception at the resort closes. So unfortunately I didn’t get to walk at the canyon, I quickly took some photos, drove back a little and got a quick lunch and refueling. Drove directly back to Alice from there – only stopped to use the toilet and take a couple of photos on the way. Arrival time? 1940. So I made it, but not without a little stress towards the end.

Since I picked up the car Wednesday (2½ days ago), I have driven more than 1600 kms.

I had dinner at a fantastic place in Alice today; Overlanders Steakhouse. Very simple décor, very rustic, but it fit nicely with the main theme of being a Australian type cowboy restaurant, with appropriate country music in coming out the speakers. I chose their “Drovers Blowout”, which consisted of a chicken & asparagus soup, a tasting platter with a little bit of crocodile, roo, emu and camel, a rump steak and finished off with an apple pie. The most interesting was the tasting platter;

The crocodile; it was served as a normal patty shell (tartelet for you Danes), but instead of chicken in the fill-goo, they had used croc. First impression was that it tasted like chicken, but then an edge of fish came in from the side. Quite interesting. The texture was similar; it looked like chicken and it had the color, but it was more fishlike in the way it fell apart.

The roo; as experienced before, it’s a very dark meat like a normal venison. The darkness comes as a surprise at first, but it’s very good when you get past the initial surprise.

The emu; this reminded me of once long ago I had another bird as dinner – the meat is very dark, and has a very strong taste, almost borderline liver taste, but not as intense.

The camel; probably the most boring piece of meat. Not that it wasn’t good, it just seemed quite normal compared to the other more special experiences. It was just like a very dark steak.

Sitting here again, under the palms, enjoying the temperature, under green lights. Nice.

Leaving tomorrow midday. Damnit. As I predicted I would have liked to have more time here in the red center. When I get home it won’t be the jetlag that kills me, it’ll be getting used to the Danish weather again.

Kata Tjuta. It was difficult getting a photo of the entire thing as it is so big and you therefore need to be at a certain distance to get everything in one shot - and in this heat the distance results in a certain amount of blurryness and paling of colors. They are just as red as Uluru.

Uluru at sun set.

Uluru at sun set - but the photo has been slightly manipulated (or optimized, depending on your preference); made a little darker, intensified the colors and lightened the shadows.

Sun rise.

Another sun rise.

Uluru in day time - app. 1030-1100 today.

How much more Australian does it get than this?!

My nice small terrace, with green light at palms. It is almost midnight and I am sitting outside at still sweating. Life is good!

29th - Uluru and Kata Tjuta

A small note; blogspot is fucking up - I am getting errors when trying to upload images, so you'll have to wait until later to get them. I'm to lazy to go through my text at remove references to the now non-existing photos.

With my trip getting closer to the end, I am now also getting close to having done what I wanted before I’m leaving Australia.

Today I drove from Alice to Uluru – a 4 hour drive, which made me appreciate the car’s air condition. It isn’t cold down here; on the contrary (the reception at the place I am staying at tonight has recorded a temperature of 37°C at 1500 today). So I’m sitting in the car being chilled with comfortable 20°C, and every time I get out of the car I get a slap in the face by the heat. That’s hot!

Along the way there were a couple of places with their own geographic names. But don’t think that it means that it is a town; it’s usually just a tavern/bar/small restaurant, a gas station (or two), maybe a house, a kiosk and a toilet. They were spread out with app. 100 kms in between, so it wasn’t necessary with intense planning to make it through without running out of gas.

I arrived at Uluru and took the first bunch of photos of the rock. What else? It’s more than 300 meters tall and has a circumference of more than 10 kms. Next I went to The Olgas, a bunch of stones similar to Ayer’s Rock but smaller individually. Far away they don’t look like much, but up close you realize how large they actually are.

I went back to Ayer’s Rock to take photos of it in the sunset. I took so many I have no idea if this is the best.

I am staying at Ayers Rock Resort, a place with a capacity of 5000 people. There are several hotels, apartments, a supermarket, a gas station and a shuttle bus going round the area. I think the apartment I’m staying at is intended for people staying a while in the area, as I have a complete kitchen available, dining room, living room, bedroom and large bathroom. Pretty impressive for a single night.

28th - Plain planes

Alice Springs has surprised me a little. Everything is smaller than I thought – I assumed that the flow of tourists would have made this place grow, but apparently that isn’t the case. The airport consists of just one building; a conveyor belt for luggage, a couple of check in booths, a small security area, an Info booth, a small desk where you can get help arranging accommodation, a booth for Hertz, Avis and Budget, two small cafes and a small kiosk. Of cause, it’s close to impossible to get lost and lose your bearings, but considering Alice is the hub you go to if you want to go to the center of Australia without driving, I thought there would be more activity. But I guess not.

That also means that Alice actually isn’t much different from any other small town I have travelled through within the last couple of weeks. Nothing really to see, the only reason you as a tourist come here is to go out of the town, not to stay here.

A proof of there is nothing out here; two of the first signs I saw leaving the car park at the airport were pointing towards Darwin and Adelaide, both app. 1500 km away. On the other hand, it’s the closest larger cities, and who doesn’t want to know how to get back to civilization?

Alice does have something interesting, though; the Royal Flying Doctor Service museum. Australia has the world’s largest air-based medical service, which is dearly needed in the rural areas that covers most of the country. More than 80% of the country is covered by the non-profit organizations’ almost 60 planes, primarily Beechcraft B200 King Airs and Pilatus PC-12s. (The last app. 20% is actually the northern-most area north of Alice in NT, Northern Territory). We saw their radio room at the Alice center, and a map showed where there were access to landing strips; paved and illuminated, rough and illuminated (but often only illuminated by flares, nothing permanently), and just rough (which therefore only can be used in daytime). The rough landing strips are owned by whoever owns the land it’s on, which means that it is the owner’s responsibility to keep it maintained and usable. RFDS actually relies a lot on the population’s donations, as most day-to-day costs are covered by government funding, but due to the requirement that the planes have to be renewed every 10 years they need a steady stream of money (a PL-12, being the cheaper of the two mentioned planes, costs around 6 M AUD). They started off by sending out doctors to areas where needed and transportation of sick people from the bush to a hospital. But they are now also used as a priority transport service between hospitals in major cities; if there is a patient in Brisbane that needs an acute transplantation in e.g. Sydney, RFDS will most probably be doing the transportation.

The De Havilland DH50, called "Victory", the first plane ever used by RFDS
The King Air

The PC12

Woops – that dragged out a little longer than originally intended.

I also got to see some real Australian camels; apparently the Australian camel is the only camel in the world that only has one hump. These were in a paddock, though, so I still haven’t seen any feral ones yet.

G'day mate!

I got a kangaroo today! (but damn, it was hell cleaning the front of the car afterwards! *hurr-hurr*). I had it for dinner at a nice restaurant in Alice. It was actually quite good, but much darker than I had expected. I have always thought of roo meat as white. Not white as chicken, but clearly whiter than e.g. veal. But the color, texture and taste was actually comparable with venison. Not a bad thing, actually.

Right now I am sitting on the terrace of the small half villa I am staying at in Alice. Right outside the terrace is a palm, and above me is a green fluorescent light giving everything a weird green tint. But it actually goes well with the theme; the place is called Palm Resort, after all. And it’s nice and warm with a fresh breeze. Lovely!

27th - 88

“88th floor”. It’s not every day you hear an elevator say that. 9 m/s. 88 floors in 38 seconds. Takes almost 16 floors to slow down to a full stop. Tallest residential building in the world. Tallest building in Australia. Tallest publically accessible floor in the world.

The Heureka Tower in Melbourne is an awesome tower, towering over the other buildings in the surrounding area. You get a great view from the top, but unfortunately it was warm enough to ruin the visibility on the long distances. And a lot of kids. Noisy kids. Very kick-tempting noisy kids. Both when I was up during the day, but also during the night. Despite that it was great getting another perspective to the city.

I went to the Queen Elizabeth market – probably the largest market I have been at for a very long time, and complete chaos. But it was fun walking around the booths, and the building containing butchers, fish shops and delicatessen.

My Visa is screwing up – thank God for Mastercard backup.

I am going home on Saturday. Amazing how time flies. I am leaving for Alice Spring tomorrow morning, but I fear that I will feel that I need more time in the middle.

26th - The waddlers

I picked up my car for the next couple of days this morning. I had made a reservation for a compact (the smallest car they had with an automatic transmission). Something had apparently gone wrong during the transmission from my computer to their system, as they had logged it as a car in the group above the Camry. And not only that –they upgraded me to the group above that for free, as I then would have the GPS unit implemented. Dimensions are more or less the same as the last car, but it’s filled with lovely small features; keyless, GPS unit much better than the previous, better engine and transmission, a small rear camera that get’s activated when reversing – parking the monster just got much easier… Too bad I’m not going to use it much more.

Went a little east before going south down to Phillip Island. I went to the koala conservation center to see their koalas in the open (but still within fences). I think I am getting overloaded with those teddy bears, as I don’t as fascinated by them anymore. Now they almost need to do the tango in front of me to get my attention. It would actually be quite cool if they did that…

I ended the day at the penguin parade; seeing hundreds of Little Penguins come up from the ocean at dusk to get back to their burrows on land was actually quite fun. Small penguins not taller than 30 cm waddle across land and trying to get past the rocks and stones on the beach as fast as possible was more entertaining than expected. Too bad it was chilly and windy as hell. I knew they were small (the world’s smallest penguin race) but they looked even smaller when they waddled past the boardwalk we were standing on just next to their path. We weren't allowed to photograph at the event so no documentation, unfortunately.

25th - Size does matter!

I went to Melbourne’s aquarium today. Pretty average, if it hadn’t been because of their king penguins. I don’t recall having seen them before, but my dad could probably tell you of several occasions where I have seen them. Oh well, never mind about that now. They were pretty majestic (hence the name…), but they weren’t moving much. Flapping their wings, making sounds and just looking good.

I went to watch The Dark Knight at Melbourne’s IMAX theater. That was pretty amazing. It wasn’t the entire film that was in the IMAX format, but the parts that were (mostly aerial shots, the intro, and the action sequence when transporting Dent) looked amazing. The screen was huge, I was sitting on the second row from the back (there where only app. 20 rows) and it was just possible for me to see the entire screen when looking forward.

A normal non-digital movie is filmed on a 35mm film, whereas an IMAX movie is filmed on a 70mm. The surface area of a 70mm can hold 10 of the 35mm film which says a little of the increased resolution and therefore also the possible detail. Because of the size of the reel you can only film 3 minutes of IMAX at a time before you have to enter a new reel. The time it takes to change reels? A couple of hours… 45 minutes of IMAX video results in 4,5 km long filmstrip. No wonder it isn’t many movies that are filmed in this format. The screen here in Melbourne is only the 3rd largest in the world (the one in Sydney being the largest); 32x23 meters (compare that to the one in Imperial in Copenhagen; 15,7x7,4 meters!). The projector is run using two water cooled xenon 15000 Watt light bulbs. Ah, the lovely techno-babble!

And the price for the ticket was less than 100 DKR. Compare that to a ticket at Imperial for a movie that lasts for more than 2 hours. As far as I recall, if you want a good seat, you can easily end up paying 110-120 DKR.

Watching movies will never be quite the same.

24th - The Olympics

I took a walk in Melbourne today to get a look of the near surroundings (I took a short walk yesterday after arriving to get a loose impression of the center of the city). I went south along the Yarra river which has a row club (or more in the one building) which meant that there was pretty intense traffic on the river with 2-8 (+pilot) person rowboats, including their trainers biking along the pathways parallel with the river giving orders in their intercoms. It was actually a little entertaining to look at.

At the point on the river where several chose to turn around and go back.

Following the river it brought me down through the botanic garden, and going through this I came down to Albert Park Lake & Reserve. It is a park with a lake used by a sailing club, so you could see several small boats sailing along in the water. Also quite a lot of birds, especially black swans. To my surprise they were far from as territorial as the swans we have at home; they pet you come close when walking around (less than a meter) without giving a care, even if they have kids (swanlings?) from this year.

Going back I came through the Olympic park with all the arenas and stadiums. Looking at them I thought of all those people who wanted the Olympics to Denmark. Not one of the stadiums where smaller than Parken in Copenhagen, some significantly larger, and there are 5-7 of them. And the Olympics have not gotten smaller since 1956 when Melbourne had it. You guys are fucking naive if you think we will have the space, resources and infrastructure to hold such an event.

The gold winners at the Olympics in '56. Denmark is represented! Sweden is too, but they don't really matter....

I continued on and I came by the city’s IMAX cinema. I expect to go in to watch The Dark Knight there tomorrow. That’s going to be cool…

I think he took the wrong turn somewhere... But he came sailing by in the early evening

23rd - Sand

Driving from Surfers Paradise was hell; as they were readying for the Nikon GPRace in the streets it was difficult finding that one road that would lead me out and north. It took me a couple of attempts, but finally I was on my way to Brisbane.

Arriving Ditte took me out and showed me around in the city. Brisbane is not a city for tourists, so it didn’t really matter that we only spent the one half day to walk around. The next two days, Wednesday and Thursday, would be spent on Fraser Island, the two of us and Ditte’s boyfriend, Klaus. We left early (early as before 0400) to make it to River Head to get the ferry to the Island.

Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island. That means that all roads are sand. And due to the dry weather lately the sand was very dry and soft. So, as our guide and driver said, the ride would be a little rough. I have never been happier for a seatbelt.

Only 4x4s are allowed to the island due to these conditions. But there are no rules to how much experience is needed to drive on the island. In this case a lot of experience was needed to drive in these conditions, something several people realized when we were there. Our guide at one point called them “these inexperienced drivers”, with a short but very noticeable pause before “inexperienced”, saying that it was the nicest he could call them, but thought something else completely.

Oh, well… I will let the photos tell the story. They will be posted in the next couple of posts (and in not so large versions as I usually do) due to blogger's limits when it comes to photos.

23rd - Fraser Island 1/3

The first (or was it the second?) animal we saw at the island was a lizard. Or iguana. Or whatever that type was called. A snake with legs. They are extremely fast, so it was difficult to get a good photo of them. Yes, it is there, even though it might be difficult to see...

The second (or first?) animal to be seen; a dingo. It was just lying there while we drove by. We where told that it was very unusual that they just sat still when we drove close. We also saw two more later during the sunset on the beach, running around. It surprised me, that despite they are wild dogs they have extremely clean fur - they don't look shabby at all.

The bus we drove around in. Our guide is the small guy on the left.

I took an opportunity and got a ride in a plane for 15 minutes to see the island from above. Nobody said anything when our pilot asked who wanted to sit in front, so I grabbed it. Great view, I was sad it didn't last longer.

Beautiful beaches as far as you could see. The island is app. 125 km long and not more than 25-30 km wide and there is almost becahes all the way on both sides of the island.

23rd - Fraser Island 2/3

From up you could get a great view of the forests of the island. For a moment it was possible to forget that you where actually on a sand island. From up you could get a great view of the forests of the island. For a moment it was possible to forget that you where actually on a sand island.

The large sand spot in the top is the dune at Lake Wabby.

On the eastern beach there is a wreck of a ship that worked as a hospital ship during the second world war.

The plane we flew around in.

We came up onto a rock formation, 60 meters tall, going out into the ocean. From there we had a great view up and down the coast and out into the water. From there we got to see quite a few aquatic animals. One of them was this sea turtle - unfortunately this was the best photo I got of it.

23rd - Fraser Island 3/3

We were also lucky to see a lot of dolphins swimming around in the surf at the beaches.

Looking in the opposite direction we even got to see some manta rays!

As we were at Fraser Island two days we got to see the sun rise at the eastern beach. It took the sun less than five minutes to reach the point where it is on the photo after it showed itself over the horizon. You could actually see the sun move.

Lake Wabby; a fresh water lake from a spring. The winds move the sand app. 2 meters a year, meaning that in 50-80 years the lake as we know it will be gone. Instead the spring will be sending the water somewhere else.

Lake McKenzie. A lake only based on rain water, which makes it dependent on the app. 2 meters of rain that falls every year on the island. It was beautiful with its white sand beaches.

19th - Getting high

Sorry about not updating yesterday; combining heat and less than half a liter of water a day is the sure way to get the body to open up all the valves… So yesterday in Lismore I ended up in my room being a man about my dehydration; a little whiny, watched some TV, tucked under the cover and wished that somebody would come and give a cuddle to lighten the mood. So that was fun! (Wow, sarcasm! That’s original…!).

I’m still feeling a little queasy, so this will be done fairly quickly.

Driving from Lismore to Surfers Paradise I went by Byron Bay and Byron Cape. Byron Cape is the most easterly point in Australia. Byron Bay is a small town, but the activity was intense – chaos is probably the best description. Probably because of the good weather.

Arriving in Surfers Paradise I ended up in total chaos, as the city is being setup for Nikon SuperGP which will be done in the streets. The streets are closed, rerouted and changed. Making a turn to drive 50 meters to get to the hotel resulted in a drive of 12 km to get around and back to the hotel. At least I can now say that I have been driving on a race track.

Checked in a room on 11th floor; would have felt more impressive if there weren’t 21 floors in the building and I can’t see much more than other hotels in the area from my balcony. Took a walk on the beach where it was possible to see a group of orcas jumping around in the sea.

17th - Purple Ra... Purple Trees!

I started of the day by taking a walk in Coffs Harbour and ended by the harbor and had a decent fish & chips. Not bad at all.

I left for Crafton via Red Rock. Apparently Red Rock got its name due to the intense red color in the earth in the area, something the aboriginals used to their advantage when needing the red color for their paintings.

The red rock was particularly visible down at the beach

There isn’t much to say about Grafton; it’s small town split by a river and 150 years old. Plenty of houses, a few stores and that was pretty much it. The southern part seems to be older and looks more miskept than the northern part. Spread out in the town were some beautiful trees that where blooming purple.

The purple trees lightened up the town

Not a single cloud on the sky today. Nice and warm with a cool breeze from the ocean.

17th - Arrival at Grafton

Upon arrival at Quality Inn in Grafton I realised why this place is more expensive than the other places I have been at. I came into the reception, and when getting my name they start off saying "You're going over to the cottages". Whoa - not just one room with everything it. I enter by the living room, from where there is access to a corridor, which brings me to a large bedroom, bathroom and toilet.

This is absolutely crazy. I think that hotels.com overdid itself this time.

And the internet works. Woo!

17th - Koala patrol to the rescue! (Friday)

I started off by taking a walk in Port Macquarie; seeing the city in daylight as an excuse for getting a new EU -AU plug converter. Let’s see how long it’ll take until that disappears, too…

When leaving the town I went by a koala hospital; any wounded koala that shows up in the area ends up here to be mended and sent back out. It was pretty impressive how much they can do for the animals; they have apparently had several of them being survivors from bush fires with 3rd degree burns all over their bodies (and some with their eyelids melted together due to the heat), but most of them have been able to recover fully within half a year and sent back out into the wild. I was pretty impressed to be honest.

I drove almost directly towards Coffs Harbour (where I am now), with a stop at Crescent Head, a small coast town halfway. A small town based on its tourism; there where houses to let and a lot of camping space available.

Coffs Harbour is quite a nice small city; I can with a certain confidence say that it’s the largest city between Sydney and Brisbane. Makes sense, because if you choose to drive directly between the two cities, Coffs Harbour is the natural place to choose to spend the night as it is right in between the two places. Nothing much else to say – considering spending a couple of hours tomorrow here before I move on.

No internet tonight either – apparently something has crapped it up here too. But otherwise nice motel; large room, large bed, nice sofa, nice TV. What else to wish for?

First day with great weather the entire time! Woo!

17th - Surprise! (Thursday)

I guess every city has their own variant of rats with wings; Copenhagen has pigeons, Sydney has seagulls, and Forster and Tuncurry has pelicans. These are though a little different from the others due to their huge sizes. I saw a guy filleting a fish at a table down at the water and he had to actively keep the pelicans away. They probably weren’t more aggressive than seagulls, but their size made them much more intimidating.

The pelicans waiting eagerly and aggressively for leftovers from the fish

I chose to go on a drive to a town called Walcha on my way to Port Macquarie. I set the GPS to take the scenic route, which resulted in a couple of hours drive on a twisted gravel road up and down mountains and hills. Think of the roads up and down the Alps, including all the hairpin turns, but without the ability to look further than halfway through the next turn due to the tall trees lining the road on each side. And the gravel, of cause. Fun, but pretty exhausting. Walcha itself was beautifully located in between of some beautiful tree-covered hills and mountains, but pretty boring. Almost no activity and I got the feeling that it was a town where old people moved to to get old and die in peace. And isolated – it required a couple of hours drive to Port Macquarie which is the closest larger town. And that was still by a winding (but paved) road.

Port Macquarie was actually a nice small town. It was filled with hotels which made sense due to the town’s location at the sea. It can’t have been much larger than Walcha, but it was much more active and therefore much more interesting.

When arriving at Port Macquarie I noticed a group of people gawking over something at a small ridge by the water. Considering the children were the craziest in the group I assumed it involved animals. And quite correctly; less than 200 meters from the shore a small group of orcas where swimming around. That was a surprise I hadn’t expected. Woo!

Unfortunately the best photo I got of the orcas. A large one did a couple of jumps, but I unfortunately never caught that on camera. It seemed a little more impressive when it wasn't a staged show.

When trying to update the blog I noticed that the netbook was running low on battery, so I picked up my power cord and plug converter… Well – I would have taken out the latter if I could find it. So to buy a new one has the highest priority tomorrow.

14th - Forster care

First of all; a photo of my car, a Toyota Camry Altise. Nice red color (which now is a little more dusty) and nice and comfortable. Its size might be difficult to see in the photo. It might not be big compared to other cars on the road, but when sitting in it (and especially when trying to park it) you really feel the size (considering I'm used to drive a Renault Megane the few times I actually drive). And the engine is massive (which seldom is used for a “normal” car in DK due to all the taxes and fees) with a very responsive speeder. It’s awesome, with some need to get used to.

Leaving Newcastle I went to Singleton to get a little into the land. From there I went to Forster where I am now. In between I took all those small roads that also took me past several vineyards. The weather was actually quite nice – as long as I stayed in my car, as it was extremely windy. There isn’t much more to say – I spent much of the day on driving around in the landscape, enjoying the views. Doesn’t really give much to tell on a blog. It’s limited how many times I can write “ooooh, it’s beautiful” without it getting redundant.

I saw NSW’s tallest tree! Ooh! It was fairly tall, but not as much as expected. A platform was placed so that the people coming by could get a decent look – improved by the fact that there had been made a clearing so that the entire trunk was visible. It required a 5km drive on a dusty forest gravel road, and from when I entered the road to I left it again I didn’t see a single other human being.

I need to get used to the great size of Australia. I don’t feel I get far on the map(s) even though I have spent hours on driving. But I assume that that is something that (hopefully) will change within the near future.

Forster is a nice place. There isn’t much to look at here; it’s mainly residential areas with large roads (think American suburbs and you get the idea how most of Forster is). There are a lot of hotels and motels around, but that makes sense as it’s a very nice place. A couple of restaurants spread out, but not much more than that. Walking around by the water I saw a group of pelicans on the opposite bank.

13th - And so it begins...

Renting a car in the middle of Sydney where they drive in the left side of the road resulted in me being high-strung from the beginning. Talk about a baptism of fire. First time in a long time I had such a high a pulse. I’m glad that I had been walking through Sydney for a week as it made the navigation easier. The GPS got all confused with all those close streets. It was embarrassing that I, being a tourist, could find my way through Sydney’s streets better than a machine built for exactly that.

I left Sydney and drove out to Blue Mountain. It was a little further than it looked on the maps, but I made after a couple of hours. It was beautiful. It was vast. The two photos below don’t quite do it justice, and the blue tint that gives the mountains their name wasn’t so obvious today (as it’s dependent on the current light).

Afterwards I drove to Newcastle to spend the night. I am now sitting in a hotel room that is 4-5 times larger than the one I was staying at in Sydney, and it’s at the same price. Awesome. So I’m a little disappointed that the TV in the room is almost as small as the one in Sydney. Ah, the problems I have.

Newcastle is a boring town of what I saw when I tried to find a place to eat. I’m probably comparing it too much to Sydney, something I’ll probably do with every single city I’ll get through the rest of the vacation. It’s therefore pretty nice that I can focus on the nature instead until I get to Brisbane. So tomorrow I’ll get started immediately on driving north. I’ll take some nice small roads instead of the direct highway, and hopefully not get too late to Forster where I’ll spend my next night.

13th - On to act 2...(Monday)

This day was the conclusion of my staying in Sydney, so now it’s on to the next act of my vacation. The conclusion was very non-active. I wandered around in the city without much goal and just checked out the people and the general activity on the streets. I went to King’s Cross to get some lunch, an area that is a little special, but very pleasant. Even got to see a drug deal in action (free, no admission fee!). Woo!

I sat an hour at circular quay just sucking in impressions. It was nice; it’s amazing how much time can pass by just sitting and looking. I did the same after taking the last night pictures of the opera house. I had to force myself away and back to the hotel. That building is beautiful in the night.

I think it’s a good thing that I won’t be staying as long at the other locations I have planned; I got way too attached to the city. It’s probably quite healthy for me that I am moving on now.

Tomorrow I’ll be picking up my rental car at Hertz and driving to Newcastle, but not without first going past the Blue Mountains. I’m looking forward to see how it will go driving in the wrong side. Left side. Whatever you want to call it.

Let’s see how the weather will be. Until now it hasn’t been impressive.

13th - I miss you (Monday)

I will miss the beauty of the opera house, bridge and the Sydney skyline. And I will miss looking at them during the night.

I will miss sitting at Circular Quay outside a café looking at the bypassing traffic of boats and people.

I am sorry that I won’t have another chance to peek a look at the hot waitress at Sienna Marina.

Sydney, I will miss you.

But I will not miss the crappy weather.

13th - Balls! (Sunday)

I took Sydney’s west side today. A good walk around ended me back in Darling Harbour. After lunch I walked around a little and ended up in the middle of a market at the Rocks. A lot of weird tourist stuff, but maybe it’s just because I am a tourist but it wasn’t as crappy as such tourist stuff usually is. Oh, well – nothing bought; I’ll have plenty of chances in the near future.

Because a rabbit's foot is so last year...

I went up in Sydney Tower – the highest accessible place in the city. Nice view, got an alternate look at the city.

I had dinner at an Indian (Indian as “Hello, this is customer support”, not “Bless Manitou for the bison!”) restaurant at Circular Quay. Really nice food, actually better than expected – it was not simple tourist food, but actually genuine quality. And not because of their waitresses – not this time. He was small, happy and chubby, and a helper (his son?) was tall and skinny. No girls this time. Damnit. Not that they could have been as cute as my waitress yesterday, but they could at least have tried…

13th - Feuer! (Saturday)

I wandered around in Sydney to found a new pair of shoes. After a lot of searching I finally found a pair I could live with. Spent way too much time on doing that. Also, I found a Telstra prepaid SIM card. Ready to put it in my phone I opened the pack, but realized that I needed to activate the subscription online. And the hotel net is down. Hurray? So I went to Sydney’s customer information and borrowed their net. I needed to enter my address (but why? The woman at Woolworths where I bought the card already entered my home address), but it refused my Danish address (which wasn’t a problem at Woolworths). So I entered my hotel’s address, but that failed too no matter how I entered it. And suddenly it said the registration had been locked due to too many failed attempts to activation. So the only way to do so is to call them… “Activate your phone by calling us”. Huh? I refuse to use my Danish number to call them, that’ll be expensive. So I ended up sending them a mail telling them of my opinion. I have no idea how they’ll react until I get access to some working internet.

After that I took a walk in the eastern Sydney and I came by King’s Cross. Nearby there was a plaza where the trees and light posts were dressed. I didn’t figure out why they were dressed, but it was quite funny-looking. Weird.

I ended up for dinner at a restaurant called Sienna Marina. Nice restaurant, good food and some cute waitresses – especially mine. Damn. The waitresses were worth the visit, but the food wasn’t disappointing, either. Maybe to the slight expensive side, but that was understandable. The restaurant is highly recommended – and not only because of my waitress. It’s located by the bay in Woolloomooloo. Yes, there’s an area/suburb in Sydney called Woolloomooloo, and it doesn’t even get caught by the spell check. Isn’t that awesome?

On my way home from dinner tonight I was thinking of the fact that while I have been in Sydney, I have seen more fire trucks on their way to jobs than police cars. Guess what hotel there where two fire trucks parked at? Yup – I stood outside together with the other guests looking up at the hotel, but after a couple of minutes we were allowed inside again. A little excitement is always nice, but then again, it can be overdone…

13th - WIP (Saturday morning)

The internet supplier is working on solving the problem with the wireless internet (or rather lack of it). Apparently a defective router is the source of the problems. The same excuse we get at the office when we lose the net. What it basically means is “We have no idea what the problem is but we’re looking into the issue whenever we have time.”

Getting a new pair of shoes today. I really need them if it continues raining. My current shoes are like sandals – but less waterproof.

13th - LPO unplugged (Friday)

Rain. Rain never changes.

It’s been pissing with rain most of the day today. Combine that with shoes that aren’t waterproof (a few too many holes…) and the result is not impressive.

I went to the fish market today and it was actually quite interesting. It was fun walking around looking at the booths with loads of fresh fish. I ended up having an early lunch; a Lobster Platter. Half a lobster covered in mornay sauce, two oysters with bacon (cooked together), two oysters with mornay sauce (the shells were filled with mornay and cooked. Think about how little space the actual oyster takes up in the shell, and mornay was used to top off the shells), 4 huge prawns, plenty of small octopuses, octopus rings and chips. Plenty of food for two, so I didn’t have much problem eating most of it myself. But what was up with all that mornay sauce?!

When I left it had begun raining. I went back to the hotel to get some dry clothes and ready for the evening when I was going to the concert at the Opera House with London Philharmonic Orchestra. Of cause the internet didn’t work yet.

The concert was actually quite good. I don’t know much about classical music, but I was entertained in the entire process.

Not bad, not bad at all.

13th - Sydney by night (Thursday)

Today I went to Taronga Zoo, but it wasn’t what I had expected. Of cause, you won’t see a tourist brochure saying “this zoo is kinda average, nothing special, but come and see anyway!”, but I had hoped for more considering how positive various sources had been about it.

It wasn’t until I came back from the zoo the day’s real fun started; I went on a tour in the Opera House which was actually quite interesting. Curse the international copyrighting laws from not letting us take photos of the theater halls, but there wasn’t much to do about that.

After that I went for dinner at a place called “Pancakes on The Rocks”. Most of the dishes the restaurant serves has something to do with pancakes, and it’s located in an area near Circular Quay called The Rocks (hence the name, it’s not because you get ice cubes together with your pancakes). It wasn’t bad at all – I’m seriously considering going there again before I leave the city. After that my hunt went out to get photos of the opera house in the dark. A few of the photos can be seen below. When taking into consideration I don’t have a tripod I’m pretty impressed with the photos. But see for yourselves and let me know what you think.