Jeroen, Marieke, Kyra en Evi

Last bit of the Oz trip…

by jeroenmarieke on 2 August 2011, 07:27
Last bit of the Oz trip… | Comments(2)

It's been a while, we are sorry about that! But since we are 'home' with Aukje and Arthur in Cockatoo, there just doesn't seem to be time for the blog..too much dinners, wines and saying goodbyes everywhere. But since we will fly to KL and Indonesia next week, this HAD to be done!

The Breakaways, SA

The Breakaways are striking and a unique example of arid scenery. A very weird looking place just Nrth East of Coober Pedy, it actually looks a bit like the moon (or how we imagine the moon to look) it's very dry, barren en strange colours.

Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy is the opal capital of Australia and because of the extremities of the weather (VERY hot in summer and VERY cold in winter), the people who founded CP decided to move underground. So they build their homes (left top picture), churches (right top pic), cafes and restaurants..under ground.

We spend a nice cosy night in our underground motel room, with a delicious pizza!

 The Oodnadata Track

Time for some rough 4W driving..well, not really. The Oodnadatta track is one the most famous 4WD track of Australia, probably because it runs through a very desolate part of the country with miles and miles of..nothing. The track itself isn't very rough or even challenging (well, not for us that is), but the views were great and so was the scenery. Along the way were a lot of old historic settlements (or the remains) because the Old Ghan Railway line used to be here and so people actually settled in this very empty and dry piece of land. And we had a coffee in the famous William Creek Hotel. William Creek: population 6!, is along the way and a must-do stopover. The cafe is covered wall to wall with business cards, drawings and lots more; we even found a postcard of Sinterklaas!

Old ruins along the way, as well as art! And of course we had a break at Lake Eyre, Australia's lowest point at aprrox. 15m below sea level, and, on the rare occasions that it fills, it is the largest lake in Australia and 18th largest in the world. This year was a very good year because it's full for 75%!

Arkaroola

In the Northern part of the Flinders Ranges is a great national park called Arkaroola. We had to skip this in March because lots of roads were closed but now it was all open. We had a great time exploring, climbing (pic top left) and walking through this beautifull park, with; flowers!!!! (we haven't seen those for a while!)

 For the horticulturalists among us…

Too bad though that it started raining and when we drove South the car and trailer were very very very muddy…

 Bendleby Ranges

The Bendleby Ranges is a little, not very well known place South of the Flinders. It's a working cattle station but the people who own it offer GREAT 4WD tracks, a real training track, nice cottages and camp grounds to stay at and real great scenery (yes, again).

And there Marieke goes (pic top left) on the training track! No problems for Bumpie . The Gumdal cottage was ours for 3 days and the owner even has a little plane, so if you want to come: just fly in!

Clare Valley & Barossa Valley

Both valleys are world famous for their wines and great food, which we both enjoyed! We visited Maggie Beer's shop (a famous Australian chef), drew pictures for grandpa and slowly made our way South..

Mt Buller

..because South is were the snow is! The girls had lessons, Jeroen and Aukje and Arthur had fun skiing and Marieke didn't ski because her knees hurt but it was great to see all 5 girls having a great time on the slopes. For all it was their first time but Tjitske, Diuwke and Bregje quickly mastered the basics and went to the lifts on their own. Kyra and Evi had some more lessons, but that paid of as well. I guess we will have to go skiing in France this winter .

 Last day, the sun came out and we went one more time for some snow fun on the tobogan!

And now we are back in Melbourne (well, Cockatoo), enjoying our time with Arthur and Aukje, enjoying our 'own' home and organising all the things before we fly out next week. We sold both the trailer and the car (HURRAY!!) so now it's just saying goodbye to everyone…:-(.

Heading south…into the cold

by jeroenmarieke on 9 July 2011, 11:05
Heading south…into the cold | Comments(0)

Yes we're on our way back home. A scary thought because a lot of good things will end..but hopefully good things will begin when we are back in Holland. But first..we have some time to spend here AND a month in Indonesia and Malaysia..so who's complaining!??

Kakadu National Park/ Mataranka hot springs

Lunch at the Gunlum waterfalls in Kakadu, soaking soaking and swimming in the beautiful warm water springs of Mataranka. On the campsite we also had a nice, unexpected visitor…

Alice Springs

On our way to Alice Springs we stopped at the Devils Marbles (very weird rock formations) and in Alice, Kyra and Marieke visited the 'School of the Air'. An institute that provides long distance education to 170 children living in the outback. In the old days they had to communicate by phone and radio, these days they all have a pc, fax, printer and satelite dish so they can actually see their classmates and talk and chat to eachother and their teacher.

We stayed 4 days in Alice and really liked it. It was cold at night, the days were sunny, the Alice Springs Show was on, the camping was great, Evi finally got to see "Cars 2" at the cinema's, the kids made friends and we had good cappuccino every morning in town…

West MacDonnell ranges and Kings Canyon

After Alice we went to the West MacDonnell Ranges where we stopped at Stanley Chasm and Ormiston Gorge where we made some beautiful walks.

Our campsite in Finke National Park was great..except for the mice who despreately tried to get into our trailer. Brbrbbrrb all those scratching noises at night were a bit disturbing . In Finke NP, we went to a special valley with Palm trees (yes, it's called Palm Valley), a little oasis in the cold dessert with palm trees and great scenery.

Kings Canyon, Australia's Grand Canyon was next. With a little hesitation we started the famous Rim Walk, 6.2km for 'the very fit and confident only'. We know Kyra is fit enough but we had our doubts about Evi..BUT, she surprised us all to walk the whole 6km's without any problems!!

 And for the Dutch people, tja deze wandeling deden we met twee vingers in onze neus! And we were VERY proud of our little walkers!

Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta

A very welknown picture, but even then it still is a remarkable sight. Beautiful place to walk around. We decided to NOT climb Uluru to respect the Aboriginals wishes.

Big plus was that we caught up with Cat, our neighbour and friend from Melbourne who was holidaying here as well.  Too bad though that Kyra was sick and we had to spend a rainy day (yes it rained!) in the tent and Kyra really felt miserable, high fever and aches everywhere. Fortunately the nex day she was much better so we could do some sight seeing!

Kata Tjuta is another remarkable formations of rocks, near to Uluru. We took it easy with Kyra so didn't walk a lot, but were still very impressed with the beauty. We are starting to repeat ourselves here and struggle to find new words, in stead of 'beautiful' and 'gorgeous' …but it all IS very..beautiful!!

After this we head towards Coober Pedy, the Oodnadatta Track and Flinders Ranges!

National Park Paradise

by jeroenmarieke on 25 June 2011, 09:04
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Darwin

Finally we have reached the 4th aussie state of this trip: the Northern Territory. After a couple of nights in Gregory National Park and a bush site along the way, it was great to spend some time in a 'big' city again: Darwin! Of course we went to the famous Mindil market on Sunday evening. A great place to bring your picnic rug, watch shows, listen to people performing, do some shopping and have some nice Indonesian food (a preparation for our stay in August).  Kyra was very impressed with the snake handler (and they were equally impressed with her .

Next stop: Crocosaurus cove, a mini zoo in the middle of Darwin with LOTS of big crocs. Even the famous Croc who played in Crocodile Dundee, now 80 years old. It was great fun and the girls even got to feed some of the juveniles with some bait.

Litchfield National Park

NT is home of two very impressive national parks: Litchfield  and Kakadu.First stop: Litchfield, a paradise of great walks along waterfalls and rivers. Also the birthplace of Marieke's first, but very successful, attempt to make damper (Australian bread made of flour and milk and baked on the camp fire in a Dutch Oven). We had one with chocolate sprinkles and one with tomato cream cheese in the middle: yum!

In case somebody wondered how we look like after 4 months….this is it!

More walks, waterfalls, funny jumps and collecting firewood for the fires.

 Darwin (again)

Next stop, Darwin  Again as Wiggle – our great camper trailer – needed a much needed service. Here we caught up with the Wallis family and had great fun in the new Waterfront swimmingpool.

Kakadu National Park

From Darwin we went to Kakadu and the sunset at Ubirr.

Kakadu is Australia's biggest national park (half the size of the Netherlands) and is ecologically and biologically very diverse: floodlands, low lands, stone country, rain forrest and tidal flats..it has it all. Besides that it features over 280 bird species, 60 mammal species, over 50 freshwater species, over 10,000 insects species and over 1600 plant species. The 10,000 insect species were the most noticable, and one in particular: the mozzie! We had to RUN from the tent to the car, hide inside the tent after dark and you could see hundreds of mozzies on the other side..looking for a little opening to get in. But is was worth it. We took a cultural tour along the East Alligator river and yes, Evi counted 7 salties (fortunately just lying lazy in the sun. Except for one who JUMPED and gave Kyra a heart attack).

A morning trip to the Yellow Water gave us these great views…

 Last night in Kakadu NP we stayed in Gunlom. Again a very nice bushcamp (but with hot solar shower…), lots of playing with other kids and of course nice waterfalls.

Now we are really on our way back to Melbourne. Next stop is Mataranka where we will spend a day soaking on hot springs (Bitter Springs and Mataranka thermal pool) before we will be heading towards Alice Springs.

From Gibb River to Northern Territory

by jeroenmarieke on 14 June 2011, 12:51
From Gibb River to Northern Territory | Comments(0)

Finally the Gibb River rd opened, unfortunately a bit too late for us to do the whole trip so we decided to to do it partially. First stop : El Questro. A beautiful station with gorges, rivers, private campsites, waterfalls. So far this was probably our favorite spot on our trip!

 Middle picture shows our private campsite, no one around us, 5km from the station and overlooking the river.

During the day visiting lookouts (Bronco's Lookout) after driving over 4wd tracks across rivers with salties (big and mean crocs…don't want to get stuck in a river….) and after a long day, sitting by the fire and reading stories (and waiting for dinner to be ready).

 Absolute best spot: Zebede springs with nice warm water in a beautiful setting..the only thing missing was a pina colada!

 Camping life…4 happy brown feet, brekkie in the fire, a nice warm shower and meeting up with friends we made along the way, 3 couples with in total 9 kids: lots of fun!

 New hobby: gorge walking and rock climbing. Especially Kyra turns out to be a fanatic climber of rocks and waterfalls!

 Emma Gorge…gorgeous (but cold!)

 El questro gorge, a pretty touch track through a river and over rocks and boulders. After reaching the 'half way pool', Evi and Marieke had enough but Jeroen and Kyra wanted to do the next bit 'for the extremely fit and confident'…

 …and it turned out to be fine, for the both of them . Kyra had a ball and slept very peacefully. As did Jeroen.

 A little bit sad, but we decided to leave El Questro, easy to stay there for weeks. We decided to move up on the Gibb River Rd and move to Home Valley, a working cattle station where you could hear whip cracking all day long. And agian with beautiful springs (although we had a flat tyre on the road to it…) and scenic look outs.

After Home Valley, we spent some time near Wyndham and via Kununura we left the Kimberleys and went to the Northern Territory; Gregory National Park.

 Great campsite again, next to a river though so we had to look after ourselves. You never know what's lurking IN the water…But the kids didn't mind and played and played.

Some signs along the way that made us wonder or laugh…we had to check our laptop but was all safe and sound.

For the 4WD enthousiasts; some pictures of 'roads' we have travelled. Pic below is the famous Pentecoast River Crossing on the Gibb River. Next stop: Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks.

Too much…

by jeroenmarieke on 31 May 2011, 07:51
Too much… | Comments(0)

Too many pictures, too much to tell, too many days since we have had proper internet connection and maybe too little time to tell all the stories!? So I just start where we left you..on the way to Broome.

Lots of shells on 80 Mile Beach, on the way from Port Headland to Broome. And not only shells, also baby sharks that got caught by fisherman but were thrown away because they were too little.

And finally Broome! A beautiful little town, great climate, good coffee, nice shops, fantastic campsite..we loved it! And when you are in Broome; you have got to go for a camelride!

Enjoy the amazing sunsets….

North of Broome is Cape Leveque, a peninsula that not too many people visit. One wonders why beacuse it is truly a very pretty area. With..pristine waters and white sandy beaches..

In Beagle Bay we stopped at the famous 'shell' church, made in the last century by missionaries.And back at the campsite we watched ' de film van Ome Willem' (a Dutch TV series from the 80's) which is why Jeroen is laughing and the girls are wondering what the fuss is all about? Who cares about some old guy called Willem who likes to eat bread with poo??!

After some more lazy days in Broome (nice pool) we wanted to tackle to Gibb River Road. Every 4WD's dream…too bad though we were still not allowed on the complete track because we are heavier then 3 t . So we changed our plans and went to Windjana Gorge national park. Oh and pic left bottom is a little bit of the famous road…not too rough at all!?

Windjana Gorde is an amazing national park with great walks and…crocodiles…

Fresh water crocodiles and therefore not (too) dangerous…but still very interesting to look at. From a distance, just to be safe.

Time for serious stuff: walking in a cave (Tunnel Creek Gorge) with a torch, with your feet IN THE WATER! And, to make things worse, we heard that croc's have been seen as well. Well, this has got to be my ulimate nightmare but we did it anyway. In the deepest part the water was up to our chests, Kyra was swimming and we had to lift Evi but a very remarkable 'walk' and Marieke came out a little braver.

Great views from our campsite at Windjana Gorge, a happy Jeroen with a beer and a book and cool water crossings. What more do you want!?

Well..jumping pictures!

Bungle Bungle National Park was our next destination. After 2 hours with 45 river crossings (see pic below), we reached the campsite where we caught up with friends we made before: The Allen Family and the Wallis Family. Lots of fun for Kyra and Evi (we even had a proper water fight) and for the parents too. All of a sudden there were 9 kids to play with. And we even made a real Aussie damper (= a bread cooked on the wood fire, made of flour with milk..yum!)

Remarkable 'bee hive' formations, that's why it's a UNESCO World Heritage Park.

Just beautiful.

Picaninny Creek, dry now but a couple of months ago it was a wild river…

And time to move on, back again, the 2 hours great 4WD-ing, with the 45 crossings and we reached Kununura, with the BIG dam over the Ord river. Yes and indeed a lot of water is going through…that's the reason why the Gibb River is still partly closed because so many crossings where damaged and/or the water is still too high. But we will do a little bit of the Gibb River from here and will be going to El Questro tomorrow.

Wonderful WA!

by jeroenmarieke on 18 May 2011, 09:09
Wonderful WA! | Comments(0)

It just keeps getting better and bigger! We swam with the biggest fish on earth (the whale shark), saw the most beautiful coral and lots of fish in Coral Bay and on the Navy Pier Dive, walked trough deep river gorges in Karijini National park, made camp fires…all in all: we are having a GREAT time!

In Coral bay we rented a glass bottom boat so Kyra and Evi could sit with their nose on the glass and yell out 'oooohhhhh'  and 'aaaaaaah'  when we peddled around the bay.

 Beautiful beaches and sand dunes.

And then:  WHALESHARKS!! The biggest fish on eart and they choose the Nigaloo Reef to return every year to feed. Seeing them is very special and takes a lot of effort. All (most) companies have so-called spotter planes in the air which will direct you to a whaleshark in the water. A couple of hundred metres you have to jump in and swim as fast as you can towards the whaleshark. All of a sudden: BAM it's coming straight at you! CHOOSE!!! So you dive left (or right) and when the shark passes, you turn around and try and try to keep up with him.  After that, you get picked up by the boat and after a another hundred metres, you do the same trick. VERY impressive!!!

And Kyra saw him (or her?) too!!

Jeroen went diving on the Navy Pier (one of the best shore dives in the world) and saw the most amazing fish. Marieke was planned to go as well but that dive got cancelled because of the weather .

And little things too…playing and reading to each other and Kyra's first tooth came out!

Turqoise (really?) Bay in Cape Range National Park.

After that we went to Karijini National Park where we finally were allowed to make our first camp fire. We did a couple of beautiful walks and the girls amazed us with their climbing, jumping and walking km's in very rough terrain.

And again, beautiful gorges and sunsets!

On the road to Broome!

Gorgeous…gorges, dolphins and sand dunes

by jeroenmarieke on 3 May 2011, 09:22
Gorgeous…gorges, dolphins and sand dunes | Comments(1)

Just this week we said to each other that we are very happy with our trip this way, through Western Australia. Yes it's empty and yes you don't pass a lot of cars when you are driving but first, that's actually not a bad thing and second: ohohoho what a lot of beautiful things WA has to offer!

Kalbarri national park: the Murchison river that travels through it gave it gorgeous gorges…

Pictures top and bottom, 'Natures Window' …

We stayed at the Big River Ranch, a working ranch that has some camp sites as well and of course; the girls had to go horse riding. And this while singing (very) loud and clear: 'ik heb een pony, ik ga rijden op mijn pony, ik maak een ritje met de teugels los' (Dutch children song about going on a pony ride).

Top left, one of the many roadhouses we have to stop to get lpg. Loyal Bumpy (the girls felt they had to name the Land Cruiser just takes in a lot of fuel.The drive to our next campsite was through (and in) Francois Perron National park, VERY sandy but no problem for Bumpy.

Beautiful beaches, red sand dunes and a nice picknick spot.

And today: the dolphins of Monkey Mia! There were a lot of people around us and yes, it is a tourist circus but it still is very special to see these amazing creatues up close and personal. Kyra actually got picked to feed one and that made her day (or month?). Well, we will go to Exmouth later, where snorkeling with whale sharks is on the intiniary so let's see what she remembers most. Tomorrow we are of to Coral Bay and Cape Range National Park. Love..that car, but also: WA!!

South West WA

by jeroenmarieke on 27 April 2011, 09:22
South West WA | Comments(0)

For the European's: remember holidaying in France in the middle of summer? Standing in line for the showers and the toilets (with the toilet roll under your arm , waiting endlessly for the person in front to finish their dishwashing, people everywhere, and singing and music all night?

Well that was Dunsborough for us last week! Easter holiday and so every Australian takes time of to go; camping! Or so it felt.

The famous tourist region around Margareth River isn't famous for nothing! Beautiful beaches, wineries every where, nice weather, lots to do for the kids..so it didn't sound like a bad place to stick around and for the Easter holiday and to wait for Johan and Diana who were holidaying there as well with their 3 girls. The reunion at the beach for Lotte's 1st birthday was great, especially since their girsl hadn't been told we were going to be there so their eyes were as big as…plates!

Old fashion fun, together with another Marieke from Melbourne who was on holiday too. Great to see them again and for the girls too.

Cape Leeuwin lighthouse and wineries wineries wineries everywhere..

Real lions in the lighthouse? They did sound like it!

Kyra and Jeroen went for a cave explore tour on their own in Giants Cave, only for kids of 6 and older so Evi and I had to go somwhere else for our adventure! Jeroen and Kyra had a GREAT time, climbing, ladders, abseiling, crawling..Kyra was still bouncing up and down when they came out. In the meantime…

Evi and I went underground in another cave. Not as challenging as Kyra's cave but it still was dark (and scary), you could shine you own torch (or not) and we had to climb lots of stairs too.

Easter 2011. A bit different this year, not looking for eggs with Aukje and Arthur in their backyard or with grandma and grandpa but just with the two of them on the beach. Still fun and they didn't really care..its the result that counts! Jeroen missed the egg search as he was diving the HMAS Swan wreck. Beautiful dive, very impressive to look up and see the hull and also swim in the ship through all the rooms. Still waiting for some pics of the trip.

And little things for us are BIG things for little girls because here Evi finally learnt to ride her bike alone…so now the bike has to go everywhere with her .

After a week at our camp site in Dunsborough we went North to Cervantes were we visited these very strange and almost alien-like limestone rocks..The Cervantes Pinaccles. Nice to play hide-n-seek according to the girls and for us..just wondering and imagining on the HOW and WHEN..because even scientists haven't figured out yet how there strange things ended up here.

And after this..Kalbarri National Park, Monkey Mia, Exmouth, Broome…on our way to Darwin.

Peace and quiet

by jeroenmarieke on 21 April 2011, 08:12
Peace and quiet | Comments(0)

After so many days of screaming (and laughing) girls, it was time for some quality time in the forest. So we went to Dwelingup, Lane Pool National Park and found a little piece of heaven…

A beautiful campsite and the only sound was the singing of the birds, the wind in the trees and (ah well) a screaming little girl. This is camping as it was meant to be. And of course, with some 4 wheel driving.

Two super girls.