yeah that was :..( my australia adventure

here you can see what i was up to all the time i've been away from home. it's such a huge continent but i have to say i did quite well and have seen a lot

• i started in cairns in august and stayed there for 3 months,
• one week outback trip with karl and his 4 wheel drive and several trips in and around cairns region
• then drove down to noosa with triton and enjoyed that stay for 'bout two weeks i guess,
• then by bus to brisbane and
• by plane to adelaide
• there i stayed for 5 weeks,
• then by plane to surfers paradise on the gold coast for the national junior championship
• with the plane back to the south to melbourne for one night
  
• flew to tasmania with birgit and edina, 16 days roadtrip over the whole isle
• flight back to the mainland to melbourne, 'bout two weeks there
• with a coach overnight to sydney, again two weeks ish in manly
  
• then started our roadtrip with the germans i got to know in adelaide in a ford falcon all the way up the east coast
• then on week tomate picking in the inland in gatton
• kept on travelling up north to noosa, two weeks there again
• then one week 'wwoofing' at erwin's heidiland farm in pomona, inland again
• then further north with fraser island- trip
• split up with the other girls and janne and me worked in childers on the mango farm for two weeks
• with the bus up to airlie beach, whitsunday tour and a couple of days there
• with the volleyball guys down again :) to mackay for another beach comp for a long weekend
• up with them again to townsville
• there we met the germans, jenna and caro, again
• on the next day already with andrea, i know her from cairns, all the way up to cairns again, to close the circle in a way =)
• two days roadtrip to cooktown (the northernmost part of queensland you can reach with a normal car and the first arrival of james cook)
• and now i'm hoping that janne and me can make it up to darwin in a relocation car, visit kakadoo national park and just the northern territory
  
• then i gonna fly back to melbourne to catch up with my brother kim, stay there for bout two weeks and then
• i gonna fly up to brisbane because my flight back HOME departures from there....

so i was at the northernmost part, just kind of i know, but definitely at the most easterly point in hervey bay, the most southern point both on tasmania and on the mainland.... so it's pretty easy to guess where i'm going when i come back to australia. i definitely have to get to the centre of australia, i still need the real outback experience, i had one with karl already though, but just not 'that' far (for us europeans probably VERY far already *g*) away from civilization and the coast and travel up the unspoilt west coast. of course i visited heaps of more towns and villages and stayed there for a couple of days but that would go beyond the scope of my, already pretty detailed, report.

(if u click it you can spot it better in a bigger view)

on this way thanks heaps to everybody who accompanied me during my travels

thanks to triton, it was a good point of time to start my actual travels and i really did appreciate all you've done for me including giving me that lift down to noosa, showing me around here in cairns and just undertaking so much different stuff. we had a great time =)

thank you birgit as well for organizing the whole tasmania stuff with all the efforts of booking flights and renting the car and and and...you did a great job and we had a wicked time down in tassie. adventure pure!

and then, not to forget, big thank you to ze germans, jenna and caro. i really did appreciate your kindness of sharing all you had, first of all the car of course, then the possibility just to crash in the car where ever WE wanted, probably not for the pleasure of the city councils ;) and to save heaps of money for accomodation. i'm sorry for the unlucky course of events at the end of our travels as well, pity that we couldn't sort that out with less stress and anger and that neither of us could hold their very own view concerning this issue frankly enough. nevertheless, i hope we keep in touch, i wish you all the best with that shitty-what-will-and-should-i-study-thing ;) i'm sure we all will find our way. and jenna, i will see you at the latest on the world tour of beachvolleyball on timmendorf's beach, cheering on the grandstands :) zanks for all, i zink , ze germans had a great time, haven't we? ;)

and a big thanx to all the aussie-guys here in cairns of course for accepting me as 'one of you', a 'queenslander' *lol* and giving me such a wicked time with heaps of invitations to BBQs, parties, trips and ... yeah woteva. by the way, it took me a while to understand your textmessages with all the slang, short-cuts and spelling.... my time with you was a very special one for i don't think that a normal backpacker experience so much of real australian lifestyle- cheers mate- and apropos...real australian slang. do you remember? "that's not proper english, that's absolutely wrong" "anna, who said we're talking english....we're bloody straiiiilians, don't forget that buddy" *lm(f)ao* i just learned that expression recently: laugh my (fucking) arse off.

and everybody knows who definitely has to be mentioned here: for some he was always my uncle, friend or adoptive father :) karlemann, as he calls himself, thank you for....uhm... i don't even know where to start. thanks heaps for everything you've done for me and that is really not less, too much as i sometimes wanted to accept. without you and your urge to give me the best australian experience, what i definitely had, i would have lived the normal rushy backpacker lifestyle. i'm so glad that i had the chance to experience both sides, like being with and among real aussies as well as travelling as a backpacker on my very own. i couldn't imagine a better course of time. thank you!

alrighti, i try to enjoy my last 33 days and not to think too much about the farewell...as karl told me "don't you worry anna, life is about fun and happiness, so be happy and have fun" - no sooner said than done