kleiner rueckblick in die history

a couple of weeks ago, janne, steffi and me did this roadtrip up to cooktown, visiting port douglas, mossman gorge and cape tribulation on the way up. although the weather was pretty overcasted it was a wicked trip again... spontaneous and real backpacker like

the views were really amazing, nothing but you, outback and one street for the next few hundred kilometres. the driving up to cooktown (that's the most northern point of queensland you can reach with a normal car by the way) was already worth it. we all really did enjoy that. a fact that wasn't that nice: all the dead roos (straiiilian slaaang, shorten everything and you are a half-aussie: kangaroos) and other animals on the street. and you know, in the middle of nowwhere, nobody really cares so if you pass one of these spots there is still this disgusting smell of in the sun rotten flesh :( we fortunately escaped a crash or even an encounter with an animal on the street.

last year, cooktown was only passable with a four-wheel drive but they recently finished taring all the way up for 81 million dollar. this imagination that there are still heaps of parts in australia that aren't made accessible yet, is just weird, isn't it?

please concentrate on the street, janne ;)

and that's popular james cook and three not that popular girls. you know....these...uhm....backpackers.... *lol* in cooktown we got our own guide. an older australian guy wanted to take this picture and then told us all we have to know about cooktown immediately. aussies are just so proud of their country, amazing. "promise, that you will have a look at the old munitions shade, yeah"

that was the place james cook firstly arrived with his ship endeavour. cooktown's bay provided a good place for the repairs and stuff. so that's the starting point of western influence in australia's history and unfortunately the slow dying of aboriginal culture as well. can you read the year? it's 1770....isn't that just amazing and uminaginable? that's nearly yesterday if you think where we would be in european history in that year??? and did you know that aboriginals only were accepted as australian citizens in the sixties??

that's how the typical pubs look like...actually sometimes the front is more open with huge windows and kind of 'balconies' but just to give you an idea of the building

as the pictures above show, you only see pretty much the same landscape until the horizon. but then suddenly there was a big black mountain. first thought was 'shit there must have been a fire lately' but in fact that was the black mountain... just a huge accumulation of black gravel, or big stones.... hm....dear daddy, its history of origins might be something you could ask your pupils in geography, but inform yourself in advance to prevent embarassing minutes of silence ;) to give you a hint, the picture above.

may i introduce you to the AMA- the anna-mobil-australia :) besides a few starting problems *lol* everything went pretty fine. everybody knows i'm used to old cars, huh *lmao*

nothing, ok, heaps of trees (what you see in the backround are trees, looks like small bushes but we were on a big high cliff) that's me in the middle of nowwhere

after the first (mossman gorge, cape tribulation) day we were looking for a camping ground but decided to stay on a public rest area. for dinner we drove to the next pube to sit in its lights next to the highway and enjoyed our food *lol* that was such a funny situation again- 100% backapcker i would say! =) you probably know these little packages of noodles you just have to put together with hot water in a cup. as if that's not crap food enough janne even ate it with cold water...*headshaking*

HAHA there we go!!! i told ya, bavaria rules *lol* that's for jenna, janne and caro for they always said stuff like 'ah bavaria should be an own country' but in the arguments about schoolsystems, language and behaviour i always held my point and my regional provenance :)

steffi and janne, my two companions on the roadtrip

that was such a still place....reeelax!

but you still always have to beware of australian's pets... they might be angry if you disturb them in their privacy *schni schna schnapi* *lol*

we're still collecting all these different animal-warnings. some are really so funny and demonstrating

so when you are driving on australian roads it might could happen that a herd of cows wants to cross the street for there aren't fences or anything, mostly. janne hasn't been far away from the coast during her travels so far and so she was quite impressed, so did these animals cought her attention immediately. "ahh anna, look, the cows, in the middle of the street, take a picture" "uhm, janne, yeah no probs but you really should break first, you're still on 100km/h. BREAK! NOW!!!" first of all the long driving and then the same looking landscape create this misinterpretation of the speed. but i still have to add, that janne could forget nearly everything around here when she is excited about something, the same story with her first wild kangaroo... =) but i took care of that and her *g*

this is one of these kind of exaggerated demonstrations i've told you. i really want to see that situation...they must have pretty strong cows here down under. i guess that's the fresh air and the water =) there is another soo funny 'before-after' sign i really have to show you. it leaves the mark of a kind of dullness a bit, i think, as you obviously wouldn't be able to assess the situation properly without these pictures...

that's such a great pic i think, you can really see the speeeed

that's the kind of place i would never enter, wouldn't even get close to it. i'm just too afraid of the crocodiles....

at mossman gorge we did a short bushwalk and refreshed in the creek, the water was soooooo freezing cold that your toes and fingers felt numb after a while. but it was still so nice, absolut clear freshwater, a bit of a current just in the middle of the rainforest.

that was the place we went for a swim... :)

rainforest impressions

the big sugarcane fields

that's very nice, isn't it? on the way to port douglas you have to cross the pretty curvy street to get to one of the lookouts. you see they really care for us :)