Week 4 contained the Christmas Eve and the Chrismas Day. It was a bit confused to celebrate or not celebrate this Christian festival without cold weather, families and relatives. Of course, we cooked a delicious meal for Chrismas Eve, but we are always cooking tasty dinners 🙂 We both resign to offer some extra gifts because we received some presents from our birthdays recently.

I intended to do Advanced exam next March, so I have to practice my grammatical skills. Therefore, I tried to include some extra rules in my Blog (either in the introduction or in the descriptions/ recommendations below). So, don’t be surprised if you find some special phrases or words.

–> Like always check our map here!

Route

Day 25: Stay in Sydney (museums day)

Day 26: Sydney – Canberra

Day 27: Stay in Canberra

Day 28: Canberra – Cann River

Day 29: Can River – Tidal River

Day 30: Tidal River – Balnarring

Day 31: Stay in Balnarring

special recommendations

Museum of Australia in Canberra

The Museum of Australia was one of the best museums I’ve ever visited. It’s very modern and displays the two histories of Australia, the days after the British Colonisation and the time before with Aborigine’s. There is also a lot of information about the ill-treatments and problems between the white population and the native people.

The building symbolises the close relationship between these two histories with a distinctive shape like a knot – one cord for each part. The museum contains several galleries with different topics from emotional stories about famous or unique people to the apologies-speech of the Australian Prime Minister.

We highly recommend a guided tour, as we did. In that way, it’s much easier to understand the symbolic of the architecture and the organisation of the exhibition.

House of Parliament in Canberra

As politicians, it was obvious to make a visit to Parliament Hause. Canberra is the capital of Australia as well as the smallest state in Australia (size = Kanton St. Gallen). Canberra is additionally the home of the national parliament. The architecture is very modern and full of symbolic artifacts. Every pillar in the entrance hall was made to tell you a story. Like the museum, this building is more than a place for making decisions – it’s a locality full of representative objects.

We did a guided tour and we were showed the relevant rooms like the chamber of the senate as well as the hall for the “normal” representatives. The Australien representative Democracy practice is developed from the British and the American political Systems – that’s why they like to call it the “Washminster-System”. The whole building is made for the daily political works along with the needs for visitors. There are two cafes, a parliament shop, several exhibitions objects and about 5 tours for tourists (every day except Chrismas Day).

Sunset in Tidal River

As we said in the video, we aren’t very early birds. Of this reasons, we were looking forward to get the opportunity to enjoy a lovely sunset at the beach in a the south national park near Melbourne. The national park is located on a peninsula and contains a lot of hiking trails, small creeks and beautiful beaches. We spent there only one night (high season, late booking) and took fully pleasure of the nature experience. We saw one wallaby during the sunset and one wombat.

Stay in an Airbnb as a welcome change from the camper life

After 30 days in a narrow campervan, to spend two nights in a large bed with a close bathroom and enough space for everything was an extremely relaxing experience. At first, this idea was only an urgent night stay, because all the campsites were already fully booked. Yes, that can happen in the high, high season in Australia. But at least, we would definitely repeat this practice – it is absolutely recommended for everyone who indents to spend a longer time on wheels.

Schwiizerdütschi Zämefassig

Wiehnachte am Strand, am Mittag 35 Grad – strange aber schön!

Week 3 stands for Sydney. We arrived at Thursday afternoon and spent six nights at a close (60 minutes bus drive) campsite in Narrabeen. Because of the high season and the location (Sydney is the most expensive city in the world), this campground was very high-priced, and we spend only the night there. But anyway, we had a great time in Sydney, and we did a lot of activities. That’s also a reason for the little delay of the last post.

–> Like always check our map here!

Route

Day 18: Stay in Foster

Day 19: Foster – Koala Shore

Day 20: Koala Shore – Sydney

Day 21: Stay in Sydney (exploring the city)

Day 22: Stay in Sydney (my Birthday)

Day 23: Stay in Sydney (beer tour)

Day 24: Stay in Sydney (Blue Mountains)

special recommendations

Maps Me (navigation application)

Maggi recommended me this application around three years ago. This app contains an extremely detailed map with marks for quite everything like a public toilet or fuel stations. You can only type the missing object in the searching mask. Maps me will show you for whatever you were looking for.

Running in the eucalyptus forest

As you have surely watched the video, I am very fascinated by the eucalyptus woods. Of course, it is very impressive jogging along a glorious beach. But to run on a hilly and wild looking trail through a light forest is, at least, an overwhelming experience. To feel your heart rate by running up to a little hillock or to pay attention cause of the uneven underground are some significant challenges.

Approaching Sydney by ferry

As I described in the introduction, we lived on remote campsite outside of Sydney in Narrabeen. We had two possibilities to travel to the central city. Either, we could take a direct bus to the town, or we could make a combination of a bus and a ferry trip. The second option takes quite the double amount of time compared with direct drive. But the view from the ferry is fantastic when it is turning to the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Beer tour

Maggi and I have both fallen in love with the beer here in Australia. Especially, the Pale Ale is tasty. Feldschlösschen and the majority of the Swiss beers are nothing compared with these products of this art of brewing! So, there is a good point to start with a guided tour through the pubs of Sydney. We visited a few pubs with more or less exclusive beers. Two of the pubs had their own brewing. Our guide told us some intriguing facts about the beer, the pubs, the history and the connections between these subjects. Christianisation in Sydney results in constructions of churches, but why not build a pub with the same rocks as the house of God was built? The public house has less precision, especially the back side, but it is still there as the church.

Blue Mountains

These Mountains are well connected with the public transport from Sydney. It is a two-hour train journey, but the scenery is quite spectacular. The area we visited is extremely touristic and, therefore, a bit crowded. There are different walking paths and lookout points. Besides the public locations, there is a park with a cable car, a steep train and some exhibition objects from the past Epoque from the coal mining. The environment with the variety of eucalyptus trees and big ferns are very exciting.

Schwiizerdütschi Zämefassig

hicks…. Bier, Blaui Bärge, Blättli ufem Operahouse – krass!

(das nächste mal wieder mit besserem Ton :-), but I’m not a perfectionist 🙂 )

It’s hard to believe that the second week has already past. To travel makes the day shorter, and the life rhythm becomes different. I couldn’t imagine this effect before. At the begin of the second week, we’ve traveled a lot. On Monday for example, we drove another 400 kilometer – but to see the beautiful landscape makes the long distances extremely comfortable. Besides the impressive countryside, the streets are straight and mostly easily to drive. Furthermore, there are only a few cars and trucks you’re passing. I like to drive the campervan on these routes – yes indeed! ( It’s hard to believe, but it’s true!)

–> Like always check our map here!

Route

Day 11: Chinchilla – Byron Bay (Hippy village)

Day 12: Stay in Byron Bay

Day 13: Stay in Byron Bay

Day 14: Byron Bay – Glen Innes

Day 15: Glen Innes – Armidale

Day 16: Armidale – Nambucca Heads

Day 17: Nambucca Heads – Foster

special recommendations

Listening podcasts

In Australia the distances between the cities are huge and we have to drive very long times. Therefore, listen to interesting podcasts is a great opportunity to make our journey more entertaining. Our favorites podcasts are BBC world news, Input (Maggies number one), Context and Ted Talks.

Breakfast in Byron Bay

Byron Bay is quite a nice hippy village with a lot of colours and alternative shops. It is a paradise for all the people who like handmade jewellery or vegetarian food. It almost every restaurant you can find a great variaty of meals without fish and meat. We ate twice breakfast in a very lovely restaurant with the best coffee and bread we’ve ever tasted in our stay in Australia.

–> Fresh Byron

New England

New England is a region in New South Vales. It’s a high plateau (between 800 and 1500 MSL (meters abobe sea level) and looks like the countryside of England. I’m not very familiar with the region in England, but belong the films from this region, New England looks very similar to these showed countrysides. Anyhow, the landscape is just breathtaking, open grasslands, little rivers, and rainforests on the top of the hills (here they call them mountains). One of the main plus points is the cooler temperature. After tree nights in the tropic Byron Bay, sleeping with a nice, fresh wind was extremely refreshing.

Fossicking in Glen Innes

Maggi had an awesome day with fossicking in Glen Innes. We found a few very colourful and beautiful stones. It was also a great pleasant to me to meet Steve, the owner of the farm. He was telling us a few stories of his life. The best we remember is “you need to live your life and have fun, you don’t know if you die tomorrow and no one came back from the other side telling the life is better over there”. If you are in Australia, this is a place to go!

Schwiizerdütschi Zämefassig

Wunderbarschti Landschafte, wunderbari Mönsche – Australie isch super!

So, after two videos, it is high time for the first blog post about our journey.

Although we only travel, the time for writing the blog posts is limited. Therefore, I cut down the number of blog posts. My goal is to publish one blog post and two videos (Schweizerdeutsche Zusammenfassung & General Impressions) per week.

The blog post contains the current travel route (via Google maps with a lot of help from Maggi), some hot tips and some travel insights and last but not least a short summary in Schwitzerdütsch from Maggi.

–> For the travel route click on the link.

Route

Day 1: Brisbane – Maroochydore

Day 2: Stay in Maroochydore

Day 3: Maroochydore – Tinana

Day 4: Stay in Tinana (visit Harvey Bay)

Day 5: Tinana – Seventeen Seventy

Day 6: Stay in Seventeen Seventy (Maggis Birthday, LARC excursion)

Day 7: Seventeen Seventy – Emu Park

Day 8: Stay in Emu Park (Crocodile park, singing ship)

Day 9: Stay in Emu Park (trip to Keppel island including snorkeling)

Day 10: Emu Park – Chinchilla

special recommendations

use TripAdvisor

This tool is very useful if you are not familiar with a place and you want to carry out which restaurant is the best or which places you have to visit. Of course, your taste could be different, but the crowd intelligence is mostly right 🙂

Breakfast in Maroochydore (Envy Café)

This café is quite awesome. You can choose between various breakfasts like salmon with a lemon sauce and toast or bruschetta or more common ones like bacon and eggs. Additionally, you can order delicious cafés (like in every place in Australia) or tasty smoothies.

Fraser Coast Wildlife Sanctuary

This little zoo is a volunteer project and very affordable in compare with the Kuala Sanctuary in Brisbane or the Sealife in Mooloolaba. The kangaroos are very trusting and lovely. You can them feed very easily; sometimes the kangaroos are fighting with each other for getting the food first. Furthermore, you can see assorted birds, reptiles, turtles and a huntsman spider (it is big but harmless).

Camping Seventeen Seventy

This camping ground is located at the little town with the number name. James Cook discovered the state Queensland in 1770 at this point. Besides the camping, there are only a few cafés and holiday residences. Different to the most other places at the east coast, on this camping you can see the sunset over the water. For Maggi and me a great opportunity because the sunset is mostly too early for us (at the moment about 4.45 am).

LARC-Tour

As you can see on the picture, this pink vehicle is quite big and can move in the water as well as on land. The tour guide was very friendly and explained us the history and the wildlife of this region in about 1 hour. He also had to entrain some children with some stories about penguins (some birds with black and white plumes) and funny surfings with the vehicle. It was a very pleasure trip.

A crocodile farm in Coowonga

This place was very impressive. The guide explained us in about 1.5 hours the farming of crocodiles and showed us a tour through the farm and the area and, of course, some examples of this very dangerous animals. One of the goals of maintaining this farm is to display the benefit of cultivating crocodiles: meat and skin = money = jobs. That’s the way it works.

Snorkeling

It’s just amazing. If you enter the region of the great barrier reef (or the southern part as we did), please take the time for a short or a longer snorkeling or diving trip. It was the first time for me, I would have regretted it if I haven’t done it! (Maggi too!)

Schwitzerdütschi Zämefassig

S Umereise fägt, mir hei schöni Ort entdeckt und gniesses.