You keep what you kill

Darwin is a nice little city, lots of great food to be discovered. And of course Lake Alexander! A saltwater lake, no crocs, no jellyfish. And pretty much no one around. Great place to hang out for a siesta and a swim. I had a very nice Laksa at a downtown foodcourt, too. Darwin is nice and cozy enough, the only thing I can't stand are those dirty, smelly tourist hippies with their disgusting vans parked at every beach. Brrrrrr. Gotta hate those guys. We had a late (9pm) flight out of Darwin to Bali and I checked the official airport website as well as advice from the locals - yes, there are public showers at the airport. Well, turns out that the airport officials don't know about them and deny their existence. Only after I had gone through some interesting moves to wash off salt and sunscreen from my face and arms and head in the toilet's wash basin did I finally discover another toilet with a door to a shower. Not signposted though. But it's there, I assure you. Dar...

Nz Back in the Northern Territory after 15 years! Darwin has changed a lot, I must say. And Kakadu as well. In 2000 we went to twin falls and had to swim up the river to the bottom of the falls. These days, it's boats only. Probably healthier, too. We picked up our car at the airport after some looking around. Thankfully it had been parked right in the sun without a windscreen shade (or whatever they are called in English) so I couldn't touch the steering wheel at first because it burnt my hands. Seriously, such a thing costs what, 5 cents? I'm not really that pleased with the rental car companies we encountered in Oz so far. I had booked a car for Brisbane a couple of months ago with a company called alpha car hire. Normal booking process. Then I got an email from them some two weeks before take off where they asked for a scan of my driving license (no problem) and of both sides of my credit card. I replied very politely that I was hereby sending the scan of the license bu...

I think I've said this a million times already but I've got to repeat it again and again: the world would be a much better place if all campervans would just vanish, cease to exist. Instant world peace, no more hunger, diseases etc etc. We took our leave from Mission Beach and drove to Clifton Beach, North of Cairns. Here we were pleasantly surprised again, probably the best value for money accommodation on this trip in Oz. We had a very spacious, well equipped and clean apartment close to the beach, Clifton Bay Sands Apartments. Nice beach, too. Pretty empty, good long stretch for running and exercising. And close to the pretty tropical zoo, which we visited as well to still the reisebegleitung's desire for cute furry animals. ☺ We also did a nice hike in the Barron Gorge NP in the morning, Glacier rock via Douglas track. Nice walk, beautiful views from the top. I cannot help but shake my head though at the categorization and estimated walking times the Aussies give for ...

From the Tablelands back to the coast, to Mission Beach to be precise. A quick pit stop in innisfail yielded two decent fresh juices, a 'haircut' from a very bossy lady, and on the way out one nice roadside stand with great fruits, veggies, and banana bread. Mission Beach is a nice place, great stretch of beach, rainforest up to the coast with some nice walks, and lots of places to explore nearby like Dunk Island or the Tully Gorge. In the latter we had our second encounter with wild pigs halfway on the track and turned back again. Should've brought my rifle. This made the reisebegleitung quite grumpy and since then pigs have fallen from grace. 😁 We did some running, and for my part, workout on the beach each day as well as lots of rainforest walks. And we finally found a place to spend all our money each day and not regret it - the Juice Bar at the wongaling beach 'shopping complex'. Fantastic juices and smoothies! Good wraps and salads too as well as a...

The random play feature of my Media Monkey app has produced some very nice combinations so far. In fact, some of them are so perfect that I think an AI has developed in this very phone. You are not convinced? Here's three examples that proof that IT has passed the turing test. 1. Play "Student Wankers" (Peter and the Test Tube Babies) followed immediately by "Fick Die Uni" (Antilopen Gang). 2. Play "Say no go (Say no dope)" (De La Soul) followed immediately by "So High" and "Khalifa Krush" (Wiz Khalifa). 3. Whilst driving into the sunrise really early in the morning in Kakadu National Park play "The Light is coming in" (Favez). I think that is sufficient. The singularity is here on my bloody mobile phone. Some other observations. When I came to Australia for the first time fifteen years ago (for University) the general tendency was extremely homophobic, lots of 'male angst' which led to extraordinary macho beh...

Große Froide. Der FC Arroganz ist raus. Danke Messi, danke Neymar!

"In contrast to all other places so far, the Tablelands haven't changed that much since I was there in 2000. Except for kuranda, which just keeps getting worse. We stayed in atherton at the Blue Gum B&B, which was OK. Spacious room with an attached living room / kitchenette and verandah in front. Nice host, quiet, comfortable and clean. Two little points of criticism: why not put fly screens on the two Windows in the living room as well? And then the breakfast isn't much to write home about, I'm afraid. But hey, we came for the hiking in the national parks all around and that was great. A couple other places worth mentioning: coffeworks mareeba, nice cakes and shakes. Mungalli Creek dairy, lovely scones and cheese cake, the yoghurt is OK, too sweet methinks, BUT guys, you gotta watch your best before date. We bought this expensive yoghurt from your fridge and only noticed that it was three days past its best before date when we got home. It was still good and we ...

Driving through the beautiful Tablelands. Stereo is playing Anthrax from the good old days. Antisocial. Ich so zur Reisebegleitung: "Kann man sich kaum vorstellen, dass sowas damals als hart und schnell galt." Sie so: "Fußball war ja auch langsamer in den 80ern als heute." point taken. Gibt es da einen Zusammenhang? Kuranda must be one of the ugliest places in the world. I mean the village and its concept, not the surroundings. I desperately want to pump Haftbefehl at maximum volume whilst cruising the through town, but the stereo ain't working. Fuck me, that never happened to 2Pac and Biggie I bet. But I messed up the chronological order. Must be the climate. 😁 We spent a whole day on the other side on the Daintree the river. Beautiful ancient rainforest, very little in terms of civilization. We stayed at the daintree rainforest retreat, a nice motel with very friendly staff. Good onion. We started early and were well ahead of the crowds. This mus...

Next day, we went on a full day guided tour to see all those lovely birds up close. Fantastic, the guide, Del Richards (fine feather tours, mossman), probably knows everything about australian birds and then some more. Especially where and how and when to find them. We went to a number of places, from rainforest to savannah, and saw a ton of birds. Along with the very interesting explanations from Del. One highlight was not really bird related though: we went to this very posh golf course next to the Pullman hotel in Port Douglas because it has a little lake with some birds around and in it. Turns out there's another inhabitant to that lake - a middle-aged saltie. ☺ apparently, some golfers have actually been bitten in the past when trying to rescue their balls from the lake. Nature red in tooth and claw. 😁

Long time no write. Was too busy doing nothing. ☺ looks like our timing was perfect, we left Brisbane on Thursday when it had already started to rain like crazy, and they seem to be plagued with heavy rains and winds ever since. Whilst we are enjoying the tropical dry season up here in the north. Brilliant weather. Before I go on to rave about the rainforest and all that one severe word of disappointment about the car rental company, East coast car rentals. The booking form gave the impression that pickup and drop off where at the airport, but it turned out to be in town. Which just takes precious time away from my vacation. I wouldn't have rented with them had I known this before. Well, can't be helped, but of course a Hitler rating of 1 out of 10 only. Back to nicer things. We didn't stay in Cairns at all and drove immediately up to Mossman where we stayed at a truly fabulous B&B, the Mossman Gorge B&B. Absolutely fantastic, one of the nicest places we've eve...