07/01/2003:
Australia is covered by a network of roads with mystic names - the Gulf Track is one of these. This track crosses the north-east corner of the country and connects Cairns with Darwin. A big stretch of this road is crossed by many rivers and therefor is only passable by 4x4 vehicles - if its passable at all. In the dry season most of the creeks and rivers are amlost dry, but in the wet season this track is often flooded over many kilometres.
Once again we drive a lot of kilometres, but this time not through desert-like scenery but through forests and savannah - and the remoteness is with us. Every two hundred kilometres we cross a gathering of houses where sometimes petrol and basic food is sold. Except this we just see many nice places to camp close to birds and fishes which we once again try to catch - without success. Unfortunately we are not advised to take a bath in all of these many small waterways: this part of the country is also called "Croc Country"! |
06/22/2003:
We have the chance to join one of the biggest cultural festivals of the Aborigines: the peoples of Cape York meet every two years in Laura to celebrate and exchange their traditions and cultural dances. Finally we do not have to miss out an encounter with this ancient culture. "Our culture - our way" is the motto of the festival - follow us to our special page Laura to get a feeling about the things that happen there! |
06/18/2003:
No diver can come to Cairns without to dive the Great Barrier Reef. We board a big catamaran in Port Douglas which takes us to the Outer Reef on a 90-minute-cruise. On three dives we discover diverse corals and colourful fish. If you want to see some more pictures, our special page diving is for you!
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06/15/2003:
Once again we start on a journey across this huge continent. The Sandover Highway - resembling nothing of a Highway - takes us along the first 700 dusty kilometres: nearly no other car but many interesting reptiles to share the road with!
After about 2,000 kilometres the vegetation changes abruptly. As we cross the Great Dividing Range we leave the dry Outback and enter the wet Tropics. Here a tropical rainforest covers much of the area. This rainforest once covered nearly all of Australia (some 50 million years ago) but now has only about 0,3% of Australia's space. Nevertheless it's still home to many endangered species of plants and animals like the Cassowary or the tree kangaroo. That's why it is listed in UNESCO's World Heritage since 1988. |
06/09/2003:
Before returning to Alice Springs, we spend some days at the "Old Ghan Road" which connects Finke with Alice Springs.
We set up our camp on top of a nice dune overlooking the environs. This weekend hosts the great Finke Desert Race, one of the biggest events in Central Australia. Not only thousands of spectators camp along the "road" but hundreds of motorbikes, sidecars, 4x4s and buggies compete to be the first one to cross the 460 km Outback. The winner this year took only four hours to drive the road which we took some weeks ago - it took us two days!
But not all of the racers are that fast and we enjoy two days of best views over all the competitors. |
06/05/2003:
We spend some days exploring the Amadeus Basin which holds some of the most spectacular natural features of Australia: The Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and the Kings Canyon.
Our visit to Uluru had something magical. This immense monolith - more than 600 millions of years old - rises 348 metres into the sky in front of us. From far it's hard to estimate its size - the nearly 3.4 kilometres long seemingly even surface glances in amazing different colours during sunrise and sunset.
But being close, Uluru shows even more: it is a sacred place for the Anangus, the Aboriginal People of that area. Every cave, every vault and every fissure on the surface of the rock have a special meaning. Every feature has its meaning according to the Tjukurpa - the creation time on which the life and law of the Anangu People is based.
Accompanied by an Ranger and several brochures we explore the features and try to learn more about their meanings - and about the life, history and law of the people who live here since thousands of years.
In Respect of this belief and law we do not climb Uluru. We are surprised for how many of the visitors it still seems to be a necessity to get to the top of that rock - for the Anangu it is showing disrespect to their culture. Instead we walk the base of the rock - a marvellous way to explore it! |
