Anna and Gordie

Closing the circle

2010-10-23T18:03:00.000-07:00

And well, everything comes to an end eventually and unfortunately our trip is no exception to that – 22nd October we bordered the Spirit of Tasmania and so began the last leg of the journey. At home we got a warm welcome in form of broken toilet, dead rat in the kitchen and one happy terrier.

To wrap it up:

166 days and 24,494 kilometres – we drove, walked, kayaked, snorkelled, cycled, waded in water, scrambled over rocks and rode on a camel and quite frankly had a blast.

And for those of you who were ever wondering what 166 days without shaving or cutting you hair can do, here is the answer:

Australia is huge country where you can have it all – beaches, rainforest, deserts, mountains, you name it. We should not take it for granted though – this home to an amazing population of plants and animals is fragile and slowly loosing it’s battle and if we don’t look after it, some places will live only in photos and memories as soon as in 20 years. And as I just went there and saw it I can honestly tell you it would be a great shame.

Thank you all who read our blog and followed our journey and special thanks to Becky for posting comments and so making us feel like someone does read it.

And of course the biggest thanks goes to our beloved Betty, who took us anywhere we wanted to go

Despite any obstacles

And was not just our car, but our home

Kruh se uzavira

2010-10-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

No a vsechno jednou konci a bohuzel ani nase cestovani neni vyjimkou a tak 22. rijna jsme se nalodili na trajekt, ktery nas vzal zpatky na Tasmanii, cimz jsme uspesne uzavreli pomyslny kruh po Asutralii. Doma nas cekalo prijemne privitani v podobe rozbiteho zachodu, mrtve krysy v kuchyni a jednoho velmi statsneho teriera.

Takze male shrnuti:

166 dni a 24,494 kilometru – jeli jsme autem, chodili pesky, jeli na kajaku a na kolech, brodili se vodu a skrabali se pres sutry, svezli se na velbloudu, snorchlovali a zkratka si desne uzivali.

Pokud jste nekdy premysleli o tom, co s chlapem udela 166 dni bez holeni a strihani vlasu, zde je odpoved:

Australie je obrovska zeme, kde maji vsechno – plaze, destne pralesy, pouste, hory, cokoliv. Nicmene bysme si toho meli zacit vazit – tento domov tisicum rostlin a zvirat pomalu prohrava svou bitvu a nektera mista budou behem dvaceti let jen na fotkach a ve vzpominkach stastlivcu, kteri tam stihli zavitat. A jako jedna z nich vam muzu rict, ze to by byla skoda.

Dekujeme vsem ctenarum, kteri cetli nas blog a tim s nami sdileli nase cesty. Obzvlast dekujeme Becky, ktera svedomite nechavala kometare a tim nam davala pocit, ze to nekdo cte.

A samozrejme nase nejvetsi diky patri nasi milovane Betty, ktera nas vzala kamkoliv jsme si usmysleli,

pres jakekoliv prekazky,

a byla nam nejen autem, ale i domovem.

Wilsons Promontory

2010-10-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

The last couple of days we spent camping in Wilsons Promontory National Park. Even though you can still see the result of last years bushfires, the area is recovering at amazing rate. At the time of our visit lots of wild flowers were in the bloom so some slopes were full of colour and just beautiful. There are number of great bushwalking tracks and absolutely stunning scenery which made it a wonderful last stop of the trip. We got a bit of a scare one night though – we were falling asleep when the van started rocking and we heard a weird sound. I poked my head out to see what’s going on and there was the answer – a wombat was scratching his back on our car.

Poslednich par dni jsme stravili v narodnim parku Wilsons Promontory. Loni byla tato oblast postizena pozary, ktere znicily znacnou cast Viktorie. Skoda je zde sice stale patrna, nicmene jsme byli celkem paf z toho, jak se priroda dokaze regenerovat. Mista, kde byl loni jen popel, se nyni zelenaji. V parku je mnozstvi turistickych tras, takze jsme se tam nenudili. Jednu noc jsme se ale trochu podesili – akorat jsme usinali, kdyz se nase auto zacalo houpat a zvenku se ozyvaly podivne zvuky. Vystrcila jsem hlavu ze dveri a hele – vombat si o nase auto skrabal zada.

Canberra

2010-10-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

Canberra welcomed us with another downpour so we spent the day inside the War Memorial and the Film Archives and caught up with Brent for lunch. As the forecast for the next couple of weeks was rather pessimistic and as it turned out the Alpine National Park was still snowed in and inaccessible we moved the day of departure a week forward to the 22nd and will spend the rest on the Victorian coast. Poor Betty showed no remorse on leaving the hilly inland country and swapping it for a lot flatter coast.

V Canberre pro zmenu lilo jak z konve, tak jsme den stravili v Muzeu a pamatniku valecnych konfliktu a ve Filmovem archivu. Predpoved neslibuje zadne zlepseni a jak se ukazalo, nase dalsi planovana destinace, nebo-li Alpsky narodni park, je stale pod snehem s velmi nevlidnym pocasim. Rozhodli jsme se proto zmenit plan, zamluvili lod domu na dalsi tyden a zamirili zpatky k pobrezi. Betty se nezda vubec litovat, ze jsme opustili hornate vnitrozemi a jsme zpatky na plochem pobrezi.

War Memorial and Museum / Valecny pamatnik a muzeum

Priscilla! / Kostymy z popularniho australskeho muzikalu “Priscilla, kralovna pouste”

Giant sheep / Obrovska ovce

Very detailed even from behind / Velmi detailni i zezadu

Blue Mountains

2010-10-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

…are awesome. They really are. Beautiful, peaceful a huge. One day in Katoomba and then couple of stops on the way out towards Jenolan Caves and we were both in love with this place. It is so massive! We did the walk in Katoomba that includes the Giant Stairwell and wow – they are giant. Towards the end I was more or less on my all four and at the top people kept pointing at my red face and wheezing breathing and whisper to each other.

Blue Mountains jsou prekrasne hory kousek od Sydney. Je to obrovsky narodni park s krasnymi vyhledy na vsechny strany. Stravili jsme den v Katoombe, kde jsme sli stezku spojujici hlavni atrakce, mimo i jine i “Obri schodiste”. To dela cest svemu jmenu, ke konci jsme byla vicemene na vsech ctyrech a na vrcholu si turisti ukazovali na muj rudy ksicht.

Stairs / Schody

And more stairs / A zase schody

And even more stairs / A zase schody

And finally on top / A konecne na vrcholu

Sydney

2010-10-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

Sydney was only a short stop as originally we were not going to venture in with our ancient van, completely unsuitable for city driving. But our video camera is broken and apparently the only place it can be fixed is in Sydney. So after a couple of hours circling around North Ryde alternating between staring into the map, checking the GPS and yelling at each other we finally found a campsite. The camera wasn’t much success though. As it is nothing serious we thought we will drop it off and pick it up the next day but apparently it takes about 2-3 weeks for someone to look at it. If anyone owns a Canon camera, do pray that it won’t break as their repair service was dismal at best. In the end the guy suggested to just sticky tape it for the time being and fix it later. Well seeing that just few minutes he mentioned that even a microscopic bit of dirt can dismiss your warranty claims I am not sure how they would look at sticky tape around the lens. In the evening we caught up with our dear Rohan and made him listen to our stories for the whole evening. The next morning we were off to Blue Mountains.

Sydney byla jen kratka zastavka. Puvodne jsme ji planovali vynechat, nebot nase staricke auticko neni idealne na jizdu po meste, nicmene se nam porouchala videokamera a udajne jediny misto, kde ji muzou spravit, je Sydney. Tudiz po nekolika hodinach krouzeni po okrajovych ctvrtich, lustenim map, ziranim na GPSku a hlasite vymene nazoru jsme konecne dorazili do kempu. Bohuzel v opravne jsme moc nepochodili. Vzhledem k tomu, ze to neni vazna zavada, jsme predpokladali, ze si kameru vyzvednem nejpozdeji dalsi den. Udajne to trva 2-3 tydny nez se k tomu nekdo dostane. Chlapik u prepazky nam nakonec poradil, ze to muzem prelepit izolepou a spravit pozdeji. Coz nam navrhl par minut pote, co nas varoval, ze i mikroskopicke zrnicko pisku nam muze zrusit zaruku. Nevim, jak by vzali cocku polepenou izolepou. Vecer jsme stravili s kamaradem a dalsi den vyrazili smerem Blue Mountains.

New England

2010-10-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately the persistent rain followed us around. We tried to escape it by going inland and succeeded for a day but then it found us again. So after about 10 days of more or less constant rain we rented a cabin. For the first time in 5 months we gave in to other accommodation than our van or friends’ houses. Inside we cranked up the heater and spread our stuff all over the cabin to dry. The positive side of all this rain we discovered the next day. We were on a tourist drive called “The Waterfall Way” and after the rain it was really impressive. The waterfalls were huge roaring cascades of water, really stunning. However after one nice day the rain was back so we went straight to Sydney as the forecast didn’t promise any improvements.

Bohuzel neustaly dest nas pronasledoval kam jsme se hnuli. Pokusili jsme se tomu uniknout a zamirili do vnitrozemi, ale naslo nas to i tam. Takze po 5ti mesicich, kdy jsme bydleli pouze v auticku a po gaucich znamych a pribuznych, jsme si na noc zaplatili chatu. Okamzite jsme se zabydleli – topeni jsme nastartovali naplno a po cele chate rozprostreli nase morkry veci. Nicmene toto obdobi nonstop monzumu melo i sve vyhody. Pres oblast New England vede takzvana “Cesta pres vodopady” a po techto destich to stalo za to. Bohuzel po jednom slunecnem dni se opet zatahlo a deste zacaly nanovo,. Vzhledem k tomu, ze predpoved neslibovala zadne zlepseni, zamirili jsme do Sydney.

Byron Bay

2010-10-04T00:40:00.000-07:00

The rain paused for a brief moment so we can take a walk around Byron Bay, After that we took the pilgrimage to Nimbin. And yes, it’s hippie, full of colour and you can buy weed on every corner.

Dest se na chvili pozastavil, takze jsme meli sanci se projit po Byron Bay. Byron Bay je plazove mestecko, zname jako zastavka pro surfare a mlade cestovatele. Je to velice pohodova osada se spoustou hudby a malych obchudku. Odtamtud jsme se vypravili ne pout do Nimbin, co je hippiesacka osada znama po cele Australii. Zde stale prevlada nalada 60. let, vsude spousta barev a travu lze koupit na kazdem rohu.

Gold Coast

2010-10-02T23:52:00.000-07:00

..and it’s amusement parks. Because that’s what we came for. Unfortunately the rain is still with us. Even though we still had good time. We got an unlimited entry pass for Wet’n’Wild, Movie World and Sea World. All three are pretty awesome. In Wet’n’Wild we discovered that slides have come a long way since our childhood and quite few of them had us screaming. Except for one. they have this one called the Loop and that one left us just shaken and terrified. They lock you inside a tube a and after a 10 meters of free fall you slide into a loop where you actually go upside down. On a slide. Upside down. Yeah, that was past funny.

Movie World is good fun too, we got the photo with Batman, I scared myself to death on the Lethal Weapon Ride and we screamed our lungs on a Scooby-Doo ride.

While we were in Sea World it was pouring rain, absolutely bucketing down, but all the shows were still on and we loved them all. I added rays on the list of animals I have fed and we did more screaming on the Sea Viper Ride. So all in all despite the crappy weather we had great time.

Gold Coast je slavne pro sve zabavni parky. My jsme navstivili tri: Wet’n’Wild (vodni park se spoustou skluzavek), Movie World ( inspirovan filmovymi trhaky od Warner Brothers) a Sea World (o vsem co zije ve slane vode). Pocasi

Musim uznat, ze skluzavky nejsou co pamatuju. Na vetsine jsme rvali desem a z jedne jsme vylezli zcela traumatizovani. Jmenovala se Loop (Kolo) a jsou to ctyri trubky. Do kazde zavrou jednoho nestastlivce. Pod nim se otevre pokolop a pak leti asi 10 metru vicemene volnym padem. Tim nabere rychlost dostatecnou na zatacku, ktera je zvednuta, tudiz ony nestastnik jede chvili vzhuru nohama. na skluzavce vzhuru nohama. A ta rychlost je fakt silena. Znova uz jsme nesli.

V Movie Worldu jsem se sama vypravila na lethal Weaponn. Gordie si netroufnul, ale ja delala machra. Je to horska draha a celkem maso. Kdyz to konecne zastavilo, nesel mi odepnout bezpesnoti pas. Zacla jsem dost panikarit, nebot jsem se desila, ze se z toho vcas nedostanu a budu muset jet znova. A to uz bych asi psychicky neunesla.

V Sea Worldu nam sice pekne lilo, ale vsechna predstaveni se i tak konala. Nakrmila jsem nekolik ryb a vyrvali jsme si plice na dalsi horske draze. Takze ackoliv pocasi teda nic moc, hezky jsme si uzili.

The scary loop / Ta desiva skluzka

Predstaveni, ve kterem mimo jine hraji tuleni / Show with sea lions as one of the main stars

And the amazing dolphin show / A zcela uzasna show s delfiny

On the way to Gold Coast / Cesta na Gold Coast

2010-09-30T01:32:00.000-07:00

From Airlie Beach we went to visit uncle Archie in Yeppoon just outside of Rockhampton. Even though we gave him some (not much) warning, he was surprised to see us. Apparently just after we left Airlie Beach lot of north coast got an absolute downpour and some roads were flooded. Airlie Beach was cut off and Archie assumed that we are stranded there. Well we just made it out and relaxed at Archie’s for couple of days before going out to Grandma’s for another couple of nights. After that we were off to Brisbane. Unfortunately the rain caught up with us and followed us around from then on. On way to Brisbane one of our bikes put a hole in our back window which shattered into million pieces. On the way we pulled into a rest stop for the night. Two caravans were already parked there but we could see nobody outside. We started unloading when suddenly we heard yelling from one of the vans. It sounded like a domestic but hey, we might be wrong. Well, it went on for a while, so we stopped unloading and listened to the loud but incomprehensible conversation. After some time yelling started from the van and then we could hear loud and clear - “Stan killed her!!!” We looked at each other. “Did you hear that?”, asked Gordie. “Yeah”, I said and started to load stuff back into the van. Before we managed to disappear a man run out of one of the vans with a mad expression, waving his hands furiously. We froze on the spot hoping he is not the Stan. Luckily for us it turned out that we are not sharing campsite with serial killer Stan but couple of St Kilda fans on the afternoon of the footy finals.
In Brisbane we caught up with Gordie’s friend John who let us stay at his place and showed us around his work. It’s surprising how small a watchmaker’s workshop can be but then again, most of the time they look at it through magnifying glass which makes it look pretty huge.
Well after a night in Brisbane off we were again, next stop – Gold Coast.
Z Arlie beach jsme vyrazili na navstevu ke strejdovi Archiemu. Ackoliv jsme ho varovali predem, byl celkem prekvapeny, kdyz jsme mu zaparkovali pred domem. Airlie Beach byla totiz odriznuta zaplavami hned po nasem odjezdu stejne jako vetsina sevrniho pobrezi. Po par dnech u nej jsme zajeli na navstevu keGordieho babicce a pak hura do Brisbane. Bohuzel cestou jsme prejeli nejakej hup a kolo nam prorazilo diru do zadniho skla. To se nasledne rozsypalo na milion kousku. Cestou jsem zastavili na noc na odpocivadle. Uz tam byly dva obytnaky a my jsme zacli vykladat veci, kdyz se z jednoho ozval rev. Zacli jsme opet nakladat, nebot jsme nemeli v planu nocovat vedle manzelske hadky, kdyz se z oneho auta vyritil chlapik se silenym vyrazem zurive mavajici rukama. Nastesti se brzy vysvetlilo, ze neni silenec, ale fanousek americkeho fotbalu sledujici primy prenos finale.
V Brisbane jsme navstivili Gordieho kamarada Johna, ktery je hodinarem. Ukazal nam svoji dilnu, ktera se na prvni pohled zda malinka, ale je treba si uvedomit, ze hodinari vetsinu dne maji na ocich zvetsovaci skla. Pres ne to vypada celkem velky.
A z Brisbane uz hura na Gold Coast!

Airlie Beach

2010-09-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

Airlie beach is the place for people wanting to see Whitsundays. So we pulled up in a caravan park and booked ourselves for a day sailing cruise on Camira. Here we took advice from couple of German backpackers that we ran into in Northern Territory and it paid off. We were picked up at accommodation at 7 am and at 8 am started the cruise with some tea and coffee on board. After couple of hours cruising among the islands we pulled up in a bay for some snorkelling. So we hopped of the boat into the pretty damn cold water. As soon as I put my face under water I was glad I was wearing the goggles. My eyes would have fallen out otherwise I think. I found myself floating inside a National Geographic coral sea special. I didn’t even know where to look first. There was so much colour, corals and fish that at one point my jaw just dropped open with amazement. Trust me – opening you mouth when snorkelling is bad idea. At the end of the allocated snorkelling time they pretty much had to pull us and couple of Scots out of water as we couldn’t take our eyes of the world below us. After snorkelling we were exchanging out our experiences while stuffing our faces with cakes and hot tea. From there we were off to Whitehaven Beach, where we had couple of hours of swimming, lazing in the sun etc. After that was lunch buffet lunch and then slow sail back among the islands towards Airlie while we were enjoying complementary wine and beer. We got back at 7 pm so we had a great day out, amazing value and definitely recommend Camira to anybody who will be heading to Airlie.

Airlie Beach je vstupni branou do oblasti posete ostruvky zname jako Whitsundays. Odtud vyrazi spousta lodi na denni exkurze mezi ostrovy a plazemi. Na radu cestovatelu z Nemecka, ktere jsme potkali v Severnim Teritoriu, jsme si zamluvili vylet na plachetnici Camira a velmi se nam to vyplatilo. V sedum rano nas vyzvedli z kempu a v osm jsme uz vyplouvali z pristavu a srkali kafe a caj. Po par hodinach krouzeni mezi ostrovy jsme zastavili v zatoce na snorchlovani. Trochu neochotne jsme naskakali do studeneho oceanu, nicmene na teplotni stiznosti jsem zapomnela okamzite hned, co jsem ponorila oblicej pod vodu. Jesteze jsem mela ty bryle, jinak by mi asi vypadly oci. Pode mnou bylo neskutecne barev, koralu vsech moznych tvaru a velikosti a stovky ryb. V jednu chvili jsem samym uzasem otevrela pusu dokoran, coz pod hladinou neni nejlepsi napad. Kdyz vyprsel cas na snorchlovani, tak nas s Gordiem a dva Skoty museli vicemene vytahnout z vody, nebot jsme nemohli odtrhnout oci od toho sveta pod nami. Zpatky na palube jsme si vymenovali dojmy, zatimco jsme se ladovali kolacema a cokoladovym dortem a zahrivali se cajem. Odtud jsem pokracovali mezi ostrovy k plazi Whitehaven, mistni nejznamejsi, kde jsme meli nekolik hodin na plavani, valeni se atd. Kdyz jsme se vratili na lod, cekal nas obed v podobe bufetu. Odpoledne jsme se nacpani slunili na palube a uzivali piva a vina zdrarma. V Airlie jsme pristali v sedm vecer a cekal nas autubus do kempu, takze jsme meli krasny den a vyborne jsme si ho uzili.

Unfortunately we don’t have underwater camera (broke it in Grampians) but our neighbour from the campsite kindly offered to give us photos from his camera.

My bohuzel podvodni fotak nemame (rozbili jsme ho v Grampians), nicmene nas soused v kempu nam nabidl svoje fotky.

Fins everywhere you look / Ploutve kam se podivas

Mt Isa

2010-09-07T18:14:00.000-07:00

Well just to explain my long absence from blogging - I do have a few posts to catch up on but haven't had a chance lately. We are in Mt Isa, which is a mining town in the middle of nowhere on Queensland, working to make money to get us back to Tassie. It didn't take long to find jobs here but they are neither glamorous nor exciting, so we are pretty much just going there for the money to get back home. The town as such is not too interesting either - has all the neccesities and that's pretty much it. We have one more week to go so hopefully I should be back shortly with something exciting to report.

Abych vysvetlila moji odmlku z blogu - momentalne jsme uvizli v Mt Isa, coz je mesto uprostred niceho v Queenslandu. Potrebujeme vydelat nejaky dolary na cesty zpatky do Tasmanie. Praci jsme tady sice sehnali celkem rychle, nicmene to neni zadna slava, takze posledni tri tydny byly trosku nuda. Mt Isa ma sice vsechny zakladni potreby, ale tim to tak nejak hasne, takze tu neni vubec co delat. No ale mame pred sebou uz jen tyden a pak zas frcime, takze snad budu mit zase brzo neco zajimaveho na psani.

Aniversary / Vyroci

2010-08-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

100 days on the road! Yay!

100 dni na ceste! Hip hip hura!

To Queensland / Cesta do Queenslandu

2010-08-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

The way to Queensland wasn’t too pleasant for couple of reasons. Once again we had hundreds of k’s through uneventful desert and also our car wasn’t very happy. Somewhere along the way we picked up some really dodgy fuel and every 200 km or so our car choked on it. Which meant that we had to pulled over, jump out of the car, move the driver’s seat, get the fuel filter out, clean it, put it back in, put the seat back in, jump in the car and go on. Despite numerous tank refills the dirt must have been sitting in the tank as it remained a regular cycle all the way to Mt Isa. Also during one of our repair stops Gordie didn’t close his door and a road train went by and nearly ripped our door off. So Gordie spent the evening aligning them back into position where he can close them. On a more positive note we pulled up at a car wreckers in the middle of nowhere as we saw the same model as our car in the yard. There wasn’t much left of it but it had a decent radiator and they let us have it if we pull it out ourselves. As ours may not have much life in it Gordie did just that and we got ourselves a free second hand radiator. Also thank to the hot weather up here we had plenty of opportunities to test out our en-suite camping option.

Cesta do Queenslandu nebyla nic moc z nekolika duvodu. Opet jsme jeli pres celkem nezazivnou poust a nasemu auto se to moc nelibilo. Cestou jsme totiz nekde nabrali smejdskej benzin a kazdych zhruba 200km se nam na nem auto zakuckalo. Takze jsme museli vyskocit z auta, vyklonit sedadlo na strane ridice, vyndat filtr, vycistit, dat filtr zpatky, dat sedadlo zpatky, naskocit do auta a pokracovat v ceste. ackoliv jsme tankovali mnohokrat, ta spina zrejme furt sedi v nadrzi a tudiz jsme tento ritual opakovali kazdych 200km celou cestu do Mt Isa. Navic behem jedne takove zastavky Gordie nezavrel svoje dvere a prohnal se kolem nas nakladak. No a vitr, ktery takova obluda pri 130km/h dokaze zvednout nam ty dvere malem urval. Gordie tak stravil cely vecer opravami, aby mohl dvere zase zavrit. Nicmene melo to i sve pozitivni stranky. Cestou jsme minuli vrakoviste aut uprostred niceho a zahlidli jsme tam stejny model jako je to nase. Po kratke domluve nas nechali ho prohlidnout a objevili jsme na nem chladic v slusne kondici. Nas chladic pomalu starne a po dalsi kratke domluve nam spravce rekl, ze pokud si ten chladic vymontujem sami, tak si ho muzem nechat. Zhruba za hodinu jsme odtamtud odjizdeli s nahradnim chladicem zdarma. V mistnim tropickem podnebi jsme navic meli moznost vyzkouset nasi mobilni koupelnu.

Nejodlehlejsi semafor v Australii

Our new radiator from the blue beauty in the background

Chladic, ktery nam darovala ta modra kraska v pozadi

The result of car frustrations. The book in his hand is the hi ace manual

Vysledek nekonecnych oprav. V ruce Gordie drzi navod k obsluze naseho auta

En-suite van / Auto s koupelnou

Australian outback / Australske pustiny

A hranice s Queenslandem

Mataranka

2010-08-10T19:57:00.000-07:00

The area of Mataranka is probably well know to all Aussies thanks to the book “We of the Never Never” but for those non-Australians I will explain. Northern Territory is beautiful but very harsh place to live even today. Now think back about 100 years, to 1902 and you have pretty much no roads and outside of Darwin no supplies within reach, very few people and even they may be couple of days horse ride away and during wet season the isolation may be complete. Now in that time a lady called Jeannie married a station manager of Elsey station which was in one of the areas with the above descriptions. She refused to back down and spent a year living as the only white woman within 100 miles radius on the Elsey cattle station. Her experience is described in a book she wrote called We of the Never Never – as she describes that harsh and merciless country as a place which

“those who have lived in it, and loved it, and left it, know that our hearts can Never-Never rest away from it” (Jeannie Gunn)

When I realized that we will be driving through that place I read the book and really recommend it. It gives amazing insight into the life of these people “out bush” and it is written with much humour and much love for the place and all the people. There is a movie but I do not recommend watching it without reading the book first as I found the way the film portraits the characters and the life very different from the book. When we got to the Elsey we visited the replica of the station, the cemetery which holds graves of some characters and commemorative plagues of other and also the original site. The site is now only a marker as none of the original buildings are still standing. I was really taken away by the place and I think this is the first time I started to understand what people refer to as the Australian outback and life in it.

Area kolem Mataranky, konkretne oblast znama jako Elsey je Australanum dobre znama nebot se postupem casu stala nedilnou soucasti australskeho folkloru. Je o ni totiz napsana knizka jmenem “My z Nikdy Nikdy” jejzi autorkou je Jeannie Gunn, puvodem z Melbourne, ktera si za muze vzala manazera dobytci stanice. Jeji pribeh je z roku 1902, kdy jedinou osadou v Severnim Teritoriu byl Darwin, za jehoz hranicemi to byla na dnesni pomery divocina. Stanice Elsey, na kterou se Jeannie se svym manzelem vydala, je stovky kilometru od Darwinu, tenkrat ale nebyly zadne silnice a Jeannie cekala drsna cesta australskou busi. Samotna stanice nebyla o moc lepsi – jednopokojovy dum vybaveny posteli bez matarce, stolem a dvema zidlemi a zrcadlem se stal jejim domovem na neco malo pres rok. Nevim jestli knizka k dostani v prekladu a celkem o tom pochybuju, nicmene pokud jo, tak urcite vrele doporucuji. Je to uzasny nahled do zivota prvnich osadniku nehostinnych casti Australie a je napsana s humorem a laskou k tomuto mistu i lidem, kteri ho obyvaji. Jak sama autorka rika,:

“Ti, kdo zde zili, kteri ho milovali a kteri ho opustili, vi, ze jejich srdce nikdy-nikdy neopusti.” (Jeannie Gunn)

Kdyz jsme dorazili do Mataranky, navstivili jsme repliku hlavniho staveni ze stanice Elsey, hrbitov, na kterem jsou pohrbeni nekteri z knizky a mnoho ostanich tam ma pomnicky, a misto, kde Elsey puvodne stala. Tam je dnes jen napis, nebot zadna z povodnich budov se nedochovala.

Nejen tato oblast, ale cele Severni Teritorium na mne udelalo velky dojem. Je to oblast extremu – mesice sucha stridaji zaplavy, i v dnesni dobe velmi zridka obydlena, nicmene ti, kteri se tu naucili zit, to popisuji jako raj na zemi.

Replica of Elsey Station

The original site / Misto, kde Elsey puvodne stala

Cemtery / Hrbitov

Plague commemorating Jeannie Gunn and her husband’s grave

Pomnicek Jeannie Gunn a hrob jejiho manzela

Edith Falls / Vodopady Edith

2010-08-08T19:13:00.000-07:00

Edith Falls is part of the Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park and the finishing place of the famous Jatbula Trail. The campsite is located right next to the falls, however the best swimming you have to walk to. And it’s worth it. After a steep but short climb from the campsite you get the cascades above the main pool and they are quite spectacular. Also smaller and croc free, as despite thousands of years of evolution, crocs are still very poor rock climbers. Therefore this was my personal preferred spot. Mind you – I didn’t know about the snakes. I saw small one swimming close by at one point which caused Gordie to leave the pool at warp speed 5 but from another walker I heard that they encountered one nearly two meters in length.

Vodopady Edith jsou soucasti Narodniho Parku Nitmiluk a mimo jine jsou cilem znameho 5-ti denninho pochodu Jatbula Trail. Kemp je hned vedle vodopadu a jezirka, kde se sice plavat da, ale za mnohem hezcim koupanim se musi dojit. Z kempu vede celkem strma, ale ne prilis dlouha stezka hornim vodopadum a jezirkum a tam je to nadhera. Jezirka jsou mensi, ale za to bez krokousu. Navzdory tisicum let vyvoje jsou totiz krokodyli stale mizerni horolezci a tudiz tohle byla moje volba na koupacku. To jsem totiz nevedela, ze to maji i vodni hady. Videla jsem jen malyho a kdyz jsem ho ukazala Gordiemu, vystrelil z vody jak sip. Pozdejc jsem se bavila s parem z Viktorie, kteri tu udajne potkali pri plavani hada a o delce skoro dva metry. Ani me nemrzi, ze jsem o neco takovyho prisla.

Falls and pool at campsite / Jezirko u kempu

Upper Falls / Horni vodopady

Upper Falls from the other side / Horni vodopady z jineho uhlu

Kakadu

2010-08-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly lot of people have tried to put us off going to Kakadu (Kaka-don’t as they call it up here sometimes) saying it’s not really worth the time and money. So we went anyway to see it they were right. We actually liked it though. During the season there are lots of free ranger talks and activities which gave us opportunity to learn a bit about the Aboriginal culture and so allowed us to see the place in different light. Unfortunately some places were once again out of our reach as we only have an old 2WD. We did attempt one unsealed road and nearly got stuck in a water crossing. But Betty is a true warrior and got us out but we stayed on proper roads after that. Even so there are heaps of lovely places to visit and for us it is Kaka-do.

Kakadu je nejvetsi narodni park v Severnim Teritoriu a jednim z nejznamejsich parku v Australii. Byli jsme celkem rekvapeni, kdyz se nas od nej snazilo nekolik lidi odradit, ze prej to nestoji za namahu a penize. Presto jsme se tam vydali to omrknout na vlastni oci a nahodou se nam tam celkem libilo. Behem sezonay tam byla spousta aktivit zdarma, tak jsme jich nekolik obesli a dozvedeli jsme se neco malo o aboriginske kulture, diky cemuz jsme se mohli divat na Kakadu jinyma ocima. Bohuzel mnoha mista nam byla opet nepristupna, nebot mame pohon na dve kola. Pokusili jsme se o jednou prasnou cestu a malem jsme uvizli pri prejezdu jednoho potucku. Betty je ale bojovnice a ven se vyhrabala, nicmene dal uz jsme zadne nejiste tereny nepokouseli. I tak jsme toho celkem hodne videli a nasvstevu doporucujeme.

Ubirr lookout / Vyhled z Ubirru

Aboriginal artist at work / Aboriginsky umelec pri praci

Tasmanian artist at work / Tasmansky umelec pri praci

Rock art in Kakadu / Malby na skalach

Here are of their Creators / Par Stvoritelu

Kangaroo / klokan

Nobody is sure this this one really is but it is called Dance /Nikdo si neni jisty co tahle malba presne je, ale jmenuje se Tanec

Darwin (cesky)

2010-08-01T03:04:00.000-07:00

1Nase prokleti co se tyce velkych mest pokracuje. Do Darwinu jsme dorazili pro zmenu behem dostihu. takze opet vsude narvano. Ale aspon jsme se tam dostali v sobotu vecer, nebot v nedeli jsou tam trhy, pres den a pak hlavne v noci, a kvuli nim jsme do Darwinu v podstate jeli. Ten denni trh jsme meli trochu poblem najit ale po nekonecnem krouzeni jsme ho konecne objevili. Spousta krasnych stanku a spousta jidla, takze jsme oba byli celkem spokojeni. Odpoledni hic jsme planovali sravit v kempu u bazenu pred hlavni atrakci – vecernimi trhy na plazi. Zamirili jsme tudiz ke kempu a cestou po dalnici jsme zaslechli podivny zvuk zezadu naseho auta. No ale nic zv;astniho jsme nevideli, tak jsme pokracovali v ceste. Po chvili jsme ale zacli citit cosi zvlastniho, coz se velmi rychle promenilo v cosi odporneho. Tak jsme se rozhodli sjet z dalnice hned jak muzem a jit to prozkoumat. Bohuzel jsme u odbocky narazili na semafor s cervenou a zatimco jmse cekali, smrad v aute se stal nesnesitelny a z jedne nasi skrinky se zacal valit cerny kour. Vyskakali jsme z auta, kde jsme byli a zatimco ja jsem poskakovala kolem auta a volala “hori, hori!”, Gordie popadl hasici pristroj a zmizel v kouri. Mezitim se kolem naseho auta zacali shromazdovat lidi a ja jsem vyhazovala veci z auta. po chvili se opet z koure vynoril Gordie a vsechny shromazdene ubezpecil, ze je vse podl kontrolou. V tom horku se nam roztavil kabel mezi lednickou a zalozni baterii a zacal horet. Ackoliv jsme zablokovali kus dalnice, lidi na nas byli velmi mili a nabizeli pomoc. Teda az na jednoho chlapka primo za nama, kterej nam rukama zpoza volantu zurive naznacoval, at se hnem z cesty. Manzelka ho za to celkem dobre sjela a sla nam nabidnout asistenci. Diky tomu, ze jsme zacli hned hasit, tak zadna skoda nebyla, samozrejme krome ztraty osudneho kabelu. Zato smrad a bordel v aute byl teda slusnej. Kdo nekdy videl hasici pristroj v akci v tak malem prostoru, tak vi, o cem mluvim. Zbytek odpoledne jsme tudiz misto valeni se u bazenu stravili vyklizenim auta. Nicmene jsme to do vecera stihli a tak sjme mohli vyrazit na vecerni trhy. Gordie trval na tom, ze se cestou musime stavit v McDonaldu, aby si mohl zkontrolovat email (ten den uz podruhe). Bohuzel ten mekac, u kteryho jsme zastavili neme mista k sezeni, tak jsme chteli opet vyrazit, jenze ouha….nebyly svetla. Z nejakyho duvodu nam chciply svetla. Protoze se zacinalo stmivat, vraceli jsme se nejkratsi cestou do kempu. I tak sjme dorazili za tmy a teda cesta ve tme bez svetel nic moc. A navic jsme prisli o trhy. Nastesti nam to dalsi den celkem levne spravili a tak jsme mohli konecne vypadnout z Darwinu.
Nez jsme odjeli, zasli jsme do Krokodyli Zoo. To bylo fajn, meli tam nekolik tisic (jo, fakt tisic) krokodylu a v cene vstupneho byla prohlidka behem ktere jsme NARKMILA KROKODYLA. Nebylo to sice zdaleka tak roztomily jako krmit delfina, dostala jsem prut, z ktereho na provazku visel kus siroveho kurete a to jsem bimbala nad krokodylima ocima, ktery koukaly z vody. Nic moc se nedelo az najednou PRASK – ctyrmetrovy krokous vyskocil z vody a bylo po kureti. Na konci prohlidky jsme si mohli podrzet male krokodylatko a vyfotit se s nim. Bylo nam vysvetleno, jak je drzet a byli uplne k zulibani. A taky totalne flegmaticky. Teda az do chvile, nez jsem se ho dotkla ja. To se najednou probudil a zacal sebou zmitat jak zbesilej. Tudiz jsem pohotove zpanikarila a bezela za provodcem pro radu. “Jen ho drz” bylo jedine, co mi doporucil. Pak se tak nejak uklidnil, tak jsme se mohli vyfotit a mohla jsem ho predat zastupu, ktery se mezitim shromazdil a kteri chteli “tohodle, protoze je vzhuru”. NIcmene hned jak jsem ho ppredala, tak zas usnul. Tak nevim, asi jsem se mu moc nelibila.

Darwin

2010-08-01T02:57:00.000-07:00

Our bad as luck as far big cities continues. This time we managed to arrive during Darwin Cup so once again a bit full town but I insisted on getting here on Saturday as Sunday is the market day. After ages of driving around and trying to find the market we finally got there and it was very cute. Heaps of pretty stalls, stacks of awesome clothes and bits and pieces. The afternoon we were going to spend at the swimming pool in the camp before the main attraction - the Night Beach Markets! Which was the main reason we decided to go to Darwin in the first place. On the way back to camp we suddenly heard this weird noise in the back of our car. Oh well, not sure what it was. But shortly after that we smelled something funny that quickly became something awful. So we realized we better turn off the busy highway and check it out. So we drove into the left lane and the red light came on. While waiting at the lights, smoke started to pour out of one of our cupboards. Obviously no time to drive anywhere we jumped out of the car and while I was yelling:"Fire, fire!", Gordie picked up the fire extinguisher and dived into the smoke. People started to gather around while I was pulling out stuff from the car and shortly Gordie emerged from the smoke announcing that the fridge cable caught fire but all good now. Despite the fact that we blocked one lane of traffic everybody was really nice and offered help except for one guy, who was wildly gesturing that we should get out of the way and who got quite an earful from his wife for that. Because we pulled over so quick and emptied the cupboard the only loss was the cable but we were lucky. It was the cupboard where we keep our DVD player and laptop and some other bits and pieces. Unfortunately the smell and mess was horrid. If anyone has seen a fire extinguisher in action in such a confined space will know what I mean. So we spent the rest of the day airing and cleaning our van. But anyhow, we were still able to make it to the night markets. So in the evening we set off to drive to the beach for the night markets. Along the way we pulled into a McDonalds to get some free internet as Gordie insisted he has to check his email (for the second time today). Unfortunately this MC was drive-through only so we wanted to drive off again but… the lights were dead. It was starting to get dark so we decided to head straight for the caravan park and even so we got there in near total darkness, so that was a bit scary. And no night markets. Luckily we found auto electrician who fixed it real cheap the next day and we could get out of Darwin.

Before we did though, we went to a Crocodile Park. That was cool, they had thousands (yeah, thousands, not kidding) of crocodiles and the entry fee included a tour where I got to FEED a CROCODILE! Well it wasn’t as cute or as close encounter as feeding a dolphin as I was dangling a piece of raw chicken on a string above the croc’s head from safe distance and suddenly WHAC! – the 4 metre croc jumped out of the water and swallowed the chicken while I nearly dropped the stick with the string. Later we all got to hold a baby croc for a photo. We were explained how to hold them and they looked totally adorable. Also total phlegmatic – they just didn’t care. Until I touched him that is. As soon as I took the sleeping creature in my hands he started to move like crazy and I didn’t know what to so I did the only thing I could come with – panicked. And also ran to the guide for help. “Hang on!” was all the advice I got. The croc sort of settled down eventually so I could get my photo taken and then hand I over to all the lined up people, who wanted this one “because he is awake”. As soon as he left my hands he fell asleep again so it must have been something about me he didn’t like. So no Crocodile Anna in the making unfortunately. The info talk was super interesting and I have to say that the saltwater croc’s are seriously scary creatures but really impressive ones as well.

Litchfield

2010-07-30T16:04:00.000-07:00

Original plan was to stop in Katherine for few days and maybe do some walking and canoeing in Katherine Gorge. Unfortunately there was a crocodile on the loose and therefore all waterways were closed to public. So decision was made to motor on to Litchfield and try our luck with Katherine on the way back. Learning from the past we pulled up in Litchfield in the morning to make sure we can get a campsite and got an awesome one at Wangi Falls. Now to say that the day was hot is a huge understatement so we headed straight for the water. The only problem in this climate is that after a nice refreshing swim it takes about 3.5 minutes to dry and after a 300m walk back to the campsite I was hot again. Therefore lying on the side of the beautiful plunge pool seemed like the ideal way to spend the afternoon.
Next day we set out to see Walker Falls, which are north of Wangi. As it is only 15km each way we took our bikes. That would have been a great idea, if the was about 15 degrees less. By the time we got to the Walker Falls we were hot, even though it was only 10am, and on the way back in the afternoon we nearly melted. But the Walker Falls are awesome, beautiful place for a cooling dip. Third day we went to see more sights in the park but this time took our car. Pretty much every place you pull up is amazing. We wandered around for a bit but in the afternoon the heat pushed us back to the water again.
The campsite was full every night and every night there were people arriving who couldn’t get in anymore. Our site was way to big for one car so we could fit another little camper in. So every night we offered to share the space with some homeless backpackers and so we were chatting away every night with lovely people.
Both of us absolutely loved Litchfield, it felt like we just spend 4 days in Paradise and it is one of the top highlights of our trip so far.
Puvodne jsme chteli stravit par dni v Katherine a zkusit vyrazit na trek nebo padlovat na reku, ale bohuzel se jim zrovna toulal krokodyl a tak byla cela reka pro verejnost uzavrena. Tak jsem pokracovali smerem na Litchfield a Katherine zkusime cestou na vychod, treba ho mezitim chyti. Poucili jsme se ze zkusenosti a do Litchfieldu jsme dorazili rano a zajistili si mistecko na kempovani. Nasli jsme si prima flek hned u vodopadu Wangi a protoze byl nehoraznej hic, tak jsme rovnou vyrazili na koupacku. Bohuzel v mistnim klima se clovek ve vode sice krasne zchladi, nicmene pote uschne asi za tri a pul minuty a kdyz jsem dosla tech 500m zpatky do kempu, tak uz mi bylo zas desny horko. Tudiz jsme zbytek odpoledne stravili u vodopadu.
Dalsi den jsme se chteli mrknou na vodopady Walker, tak jsme hupsli na kola a vyrazili tech 15km na sever. Nebyl by to spatnej napad, kdyby bylo tak o 15 stupnu celsia min. Takhle jsme se tam doplazili zcela uriceny a to bylo teprv 10 rano. Ospoledni cesta zpatky byla des a nevim jestli je to mozny, ale myslim, ze mi krev dosahla bod varu. Nicmene Walker bylo super mistecko na koupani, kde jsme byli uplne sami. reti den jsme vyrazili omrknout zbytek parku, tentokrat uz ale autem. I tak jsme to museli odpoledne zabalit a uchylit se opet k vode.
Kemp byl kazdou noc plnej a kazdy vecer se nekolik aut uz nedostalo a museli jet shanet nocleh jinam. Nase mistecko bylo dost velky, tak jsme ho pokazdy nabidli mene cestovatelum, na ktere uz nezbylo. Vsichni byli radi, ze nemusi jet buhvikam shanet nocleh a my meli kazdy vecer spolecnost na pokec.
Litchfield jsme si tudiz opravdu uzili a je to rozhodne jedno z nej mist, ktere jsme zatim navstivili.
Wangi Falls

Walker Creek

Florence Falls

On top of Tjaeba Falls

Tolmer Falls

Cesta do Severniho Teritoria

2010-07-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

Cesta z Broomu je dlouha. Celkem nezalezi kterym smerem se clovek vyda – je to daleko. Protoze nemame pohon na vsechny ctyri kola, nemohli jsme jet napric pohorim Kimberley, ale pouze po jeho okraji po silnici. Cestou toho moc neni, tak jsme udelali jen par zastavek v Tunnel Creek a Kununurra.
Tunnel Creek je v podstate tunel, nebo dlouha jeskyne. A opet jsme si uzili nasi uz oblibene zabavy – brodeni se vodou. Jen tentokrat to bylo v naproste tme. A takhle nejak to tam vypada:
V cele jeskyni nejsou zadna umele nainstalovana svetla, takze si kazdej musi vystacit se svoji baterkou. Podle toho, jak stastne si clovek vybere cestu, muze skoncit po kolena, pas ci prsa ve vode. Musim uznat, ze kdyz jsme stala po pas ve vode v uplne tme tak jsem si uplne nevyskala, obcas se nevyplaci si cist veskere dostupne informace, napr. ze v teto jeskyni ziji krokodyli a hadi, ikdyz prej jen mali), nicmene pokud nekdy pojedete kolem, tak se urcite stavte, stoji to za to.

Cestou z Broome do Katherine je spousta moznosti, kde kempovat zdarma, prevazne na odpocivadlech podel dalnice. Tam jsme potkali spoustu prima lidi a vymenili jsme si tipy a zazitky z cest. Obzvlaste dve zastavky se nam ale vryli do pameti. Ta prvni je asi 200 metru od dalnice a kdyz jsme tam sjeli, zustali jsme stat s pusama dokoran. Zaparkovano tam bylo NEJMIN stovka obytnaku. Po setmeni by si to clivek mohl klidne splist a malou vesnici.
Druha vyborna zastavka bylo tesne za hranici mezi Zapadni Australii a Severnim Teritoriem. Nektere staty tady totiz omezuji, co se do nich zmi privezt a Zapadni Asutralii je asi nejprisnejsi. Nesmi se tam vzit skoro nic – zadny ovoce, zelenina, med, vajicka, nektery typy vyrobku ze dreva a sposta dalsich veci. No a my parkovali tesne za hranici a byli jsme tam jediny auto jedouci ZE zapadu. Brzo se to rozkriklo a prislo nas k autu navstivit spousta moc fajn lidi, ale navic jsme posbirali asi tydenni zasobu potravin.

Across to NT

2010-07-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

The road from Broome is long. Doesn’t really matter in which direction you are going, you will be going for a while. As we don’t have a 4WD we couldn’t take the Gibb River Road through Kimberley but had to stick to the sealed road on Kimberley’s edge. There isn’t all that much along the way, especially not for 2WD so we only made two stops – Tunnel Creek and Kununurra.

Tunnel Creek, as name suggests, is a tunnel. And once again we were back to our now quite popular activity – wading. Only this time in darkness. Here is what it looks like:

Yup, there is no single artificial light in the tunnel, so you have to find your own way using a torch. Depending how lucky you are in choosing your path you will be either knee deep, waist deep or even breast deep in water. I have to admit that standing waist deep in water in total darkness I wasn’t exactly screaming with joy but if you are ever in this area, this is definitely not a place to miss out on.

On the way to Kununurra we pulled up in Halls Creek which had an interesting bottle shop:

The had Cascade Light and Carlton Light.

Along the way from Broome to Katherine there is plenty of free camping along the highway on nice rest stops. Along there we met a lot of nice people and swapped travel stories and tips which was great after our VIC/SA solitude. One rest stop we couldn’t help ourselves and had to take a photo of, unfortunately it doesn’t quite do it justice. It’s a place about 200m off the highway and when we approached it our jaws just dropped open. There was AT LEAST hundred caravans, campervans, camper trailers and tents. In dark you could easily mistake it for a small village.

One other spot we definitely recommend for overnight stay is a rest stop just pass the WA/NT border. You are not allowed to take any fruit, veggies, honey and about 100 other things across the border and as it so happened we were the only ones on the whole rest stop coming from WA and going to NT. Word got out and within couple of hours we met heaps of great people and collected about weeks supply of food.

Broome

2010-07-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

Broome is one of the most talked about city on the coast. Once again it was super busy but someone just cancelled their campsite in a camp we pulled up at so we were lucky and got a good spot really close to Cable Beach. It is sooooo hot now, we spent a day wandering about town and then hit the beach and the water to cool down. And today we went for local specialty – camel ride! It was awesome. The camels are so cute! The must be the most relaxed animals I have ever seen. They are just chilling in the sand, then when asked they get up and go, the lay down again, chewing the whole time, totally unworried about anything. And one trivia fact – did you know that Australia has the biggest wild population of camels in the world? Apparently it might the last wild population of camels actually, so Australia actually sends camels to Asian and Arabic countries for their breeding and conservation programs. Also if anyone stayed awake during the movie Australia long enough, these camels appeared in it. Our camel is called Apollo and behind him walked his best mate Murphy, who wanted to catch with with our Apollo so we had an extra camel head by our side the whole time.

Broome je jedno z nejnavstevovanejsich mest na zapadnim pobrezi, tudiz opet narvano, ale nekdo zrusil svoji rezervaci zrovna kdyz jsme dorazili do kempu, tak jsme dostali jejich fleka. Je tu pekne horko, tak jsme se pocourali po meste a pak se usidlili na plazi. Dneska rano jsme vyrazili na mistni specialitu – jizdu na velbloudech. Bylo to super. Ty velbloudi byli uplne rozkosny. Navic to musi byt asi nejuvolnenejsi zvirata, jaky jsem kdy videla. Lezi v pisku, pak se teda zvednout, projdou se po plazi, pak se zase svali do pisku, celou dobu zvejkaj a je jim to vsechno jedno. Australia ma udajne nejvetsi a mozna i posledni divokou populaci velbloudu na svete. Ted dokonce velbloudy vyvazi do Asie a arabskych zemi na jejich pokusy opet vzkrisit tamni velbloudi poulace. Nas velbloud se jmenoval Apollo a za nim sel jeho nejlepsi kamos Murphy, kterej se celou dobu snazil dohnat naseho Apolla na pokec, tudiz jsme meli celou dobu vedle sebe velbloudi hlavu navic.

Karinjini

2010-07-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

- the gorge(ous) place

After two days driving through desert we finally made it to Karinjini. It’s title of oasis in the desert is more that well deserved. Even in winter the days are hot and there is nothing but hot red sand everywhere you look. Except for Karinjini gorges that is. Even in summer there you can find waterfalls, green forest and pools to dive in to cool down. When studying the brochure we couldn’t help but wonder – 3km with estimated 3 hours time to make it? huh? What do you do, crawl? Well, not exactly but close. As we realized in Grampians earlier, walking can mean scrambling over rocks, even climbing. Here it is wading through anything between little streams and neck deep water. The Dales Gorge is no problem, nice walk with pools to stop at for a swim. The Weanu Gorge is a different story. Now there you take your shoes off about 300m into the walk and it’s not worth putting them on until you get out again as you are in some sort of water most of the time. Sometimes just up to your ankles, sometimes waist deep, if you make a wrong step even neck deep. It’s really amazing, you make your way through pools and passes and you feel like an adventurer discovering new world. It is an incredible place. The only minus would be that now everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is our van is red. The dust just gets everywhere and there is nothing you can do. But even though some of our clothes will never be it’s original colour again, it was worth it.

Po dvou dnech jizdy pre spoust jsme konecne dorazili do narodniho parku Karinjini. Karinjini je prezdivana “oazou v pousti” a musim uznat, ze je to titul velmi vystizny. Nebot ackoliv kam se clovek podiva je jen cerveny pisek a i v zime je tu vedro, v Karinjini clovek najde vodopady, zelene lesiky a jezirka ke koupani.

Kdyz jsme koukali do brozuky, moc jsme nechapali, proc u 3km treku je uvedena doba chuze 3 hodiny. No ale jak se ukazalo, “chuze” je velmi siroky pojem. V Grampians to znamenalo cokoliv od chuze, pres skrabani se pres sutry az po vicemene lezeni. Tady to zas muze byt cokoliv od chuze pres brouzdani se vodou po kotniky az po brodeni se vodou po krk. Prvni trek nebyl problem – prijemna prochazka se zastavkama na koupani. Druhy a treti trek jsme uz boty sundaval po asi 300 metrech a obuli je zas az u auta. vtsinu casu sjme totiz travili ve vode, nekdy po kotniky, jindy po krk. Oblast je to opravdu uzasna, kdyz se clovek brodi mezi tema skalama, tak ma pocit, ze je prvnim prukopnikem, ktery se sem probojoval. Neustale jsme zasli, jak je to tady krasny. Akorat jedno minus to teda ma – ted mame vsechno cerveny. Auto zvenci i zevnitr – cerveny. Ten cervenej prach se dostane uplne vsude. Ale ackoliv nekolik kusu obleceni se asi uz nikdy nenavrati do sve puvodni barvy, stalo to za to.

Behind us you can get only with abseiling equipment / Za nas se da dostat jen se slanovaci vybavou.

Exmouth

2010-07-15T20:26:00.000-07:00

Well if Denham was busy, Exmouth was one step beyond that. Again all accommodation booked out and once again we ended up in overflow. This time for $39. It wasn’t just us – everybody who ended up there was cursing. So not the greatest start of the visit and so we decided to have a look around the next day and then leave, rather than spending three day there as planned. So the next morning we picked up snorkelling sets and headed for the national park. There we found out that some places came free overnight so we quickly grabbed one and yay! We were happy campers again. The next two days we spent staring at the coral reefs and fish swimming among them. I have to say that as I am new to snorkelling (one of the things that happens coming from a landlocked country) I really had troubles convincing my brain that it is ok to take a breath even though my head is obviously completely under water but eventually I had to do it and it was fine from then on. Breathing that is, as far as the sharks go I wasn’t convinced by one of the locals who was telling me that sharks are harmless as long as you don’t try to cuddle hem. I didn’t see a shark and have to say I don’t regret on missing out. As camping in national parks is affordable we did stay three days as planned and it was awesome.

Pkud jsme si mysleli, ze Denham byl preplneny, tak Exmouth to vzal jeste o stupinek dal. Opet bylo vsechno plny a opet jsme skoncili na nahradnim ubytovani – tentokrat na fotbalovem hristi a za $39. A nebyli jsme jedini – nadavali jsme tam spolecne se vsema, co se tam octli. A tak vzhledem k nehorazne cene ubytovani jsme se rozhodli to dalsi den omrknout a pak mazat pryc, avkoliv jsme planovali zustat tri dny. Dalsi rano jsme si vyzvedli soupravu na snorchlovani a vyrazili do narodniho parku. Tam se ukazalo, ze se pres noc uvolnilo par mist, tak jsme si jedno hned zamluvili a jupi! Zase bylo dobre. Dalsi dva dny jsme stravili ziranim na koraly a ryby, ktere se mezi nimi prohanely. ja jsem nikdy predtim nesnorchlovala a musim priznat, ze jsem mela celkem problem presvedcit muj mozek, ze se muzu nadechnout, ackoliv mam hlavu uplne pod vodou, ale eventuelne jsem se nadechnout musela a pak uz to slo. Teda aspon to dejchani, co se tyce zraloku tak me jeden z mistnich moc nepresvedcil,kdyz tvrdil, ze zraloci jsou neskodny, pokud se s nima clovek nesnazi mazlit. Ja teda zadnyho nevidela a ani toho nelituju.

Crossing the Tropic of Capricorn / Prekracujeme obratnik Kozoroha

Few pictures from a gorge walk/ A par snimku z vyletu po udoli v parku

Monkey Mia

2010-07-14T20:22:00.000-07:00

Monkey Mia is a nature reserve and the nearest town is Denham. Which, when we got there, was pretty much booked out. Turns out it is school holidays and this is obviously a popular destination. The only spot we could get was in an overflow camping area which was basically just an empty block next to a caravan park that it belonged to. There was no toilet, no power, no rubbish bins, no nothing…$25 a night.
Next morning we drove to Monkey Mia to see the famous dolphin beach. Few dolphins come every morning for their share of fish which they now can get only under the supervision of park rangers. They can come as many as three times in the morning but they may not, apparently you are most likely to catch them there at eight. So we were waiting there at eight, along with a swarm of people who fired up their cameras as soon there was a fin above water. The dolphins came but it was hard to see over all the people. We were a bit disappointed by that but we did get to see them, even if not very close up. After that we wandered around the beach and actual always happened to be close by when the dolphins came back for more fish. The second and the third time there was only fraction of the original crowd and the third time – I GOT PICKED FROM THE CROWD AND FED A DOLPHIN!!!!! I gave him a little fish, his name was Puk ad he was super cute. He rolled to the side and very gently and calmly took the fish from my hand. Which is pretty much I talked about for the rest of the day.
Monkey Mia je prirodni rezervace, nejblizsi osadou je Denham a ten byl totalne preplneny. Ukazalo se, ze jsou momentalne skolni prazdniny a tohle musi byt oblibena destinace, nebot jediny misto, ktery jsme na noc sehnali, bylo na parkovisti vedle kempu. Sice tam nebyly ani zachody, elektrina ci odpadkove kose, ale i tak chteli $25 dolaru, coz jsme jinde platily za krasny kempy se vsim vsudy.
Dalsi rano jsme vyrazili do Monkey Mia podivat se na mistni slavne delfiny. Nekolik se jich jich tam denne objevi na plazi pro svuj pridel ryb, ktery dostanou pod dohleden tamnich zamestancu. Udajne muzou priplavat az trikrat behem rano, ale nekdy treba jen jednou, tak je pry nejlepsi tam byt hned kolem osme, aby je clovek urcite chytil. Tak jsme tam rano cekali spolecne se zastupem turistou, kteri zavarili svoje fotaky pokazdy, kdyz se nad hladinou ukazala ploutev. Delfiny priplavali, ale pres vsechny lidi je nebylo videt tak dobre, jak jsem doufala. Byli jsme trochu zklamany, ze jsme je nevideli moc zblizka, ale i tak to bylo hezky. Pak jsme toulali po plazi a tak nejak jsme se vzdycky nachomejtli pobliz, kdyz bylo dalsi krmeni. Na ty dalsi dve uz tam byl jen zlomek lidi, co byli na to prvni a tak jsme videli delfiny hezky a zblizka a na tretim krmeni jsem byla dokonce vybrana a mohla jdem jednoho delfina nakrmit z ruky. Jmenoval se Puk, desne rozkosnej, prevalil se na stranu a jemne si vzal rybku. Coz bylo v podstate to jedine, o cem jsme po zbytek dne mluvila.

Kalbarri

2010-07-13T21:12:00.001-07:00

From Pinnacles we drove most of the next day to get to Kalbarri. And here it was noticeably warmer so after a very long time we could sit outside while having dinner. The next day we went to see one of the main tourist drawcards – the Kalbarri National Park and it’s famous Nature’s Window. There is a very nice 8km loop walk starting from there and going along the river – first on the cliffs and then through the actual river bed. Despite the bad weather forecast it was quite sunny and warm at first, then cloudy but still warm. Which was probably better as the whole track is exposed, there is no shaded part, so the overcast day worked well for us. When we were starting at the Window there was heaps of people trying to take photos so just walked past and when we got back after finishing the loop we were the only ones there. The road there and back is one of the worst ones we have ever been on. It’s so corrugated and absolute nightmare to drive on. At point we had to stop as there was an echidna crossing the road at a very leisure pace. As soon as got back to camp it started pour down, so the forecast was correct after all.

Z Nambugu jsme jeli vicemene cely dalsi den opet podel pobrezi a opet na sever az do Kalbarri. Tady uz bylo o poznani tepleji a po dlouhe dobe jsme mohli veceret venku. Dalsi den jsme vyrazili na mistni hlavni atrakci – Narodni park Kalbarri a slavne Prirodni okno. Od nej zacina moc hezky 8km trek, ktery vede napred po svahu nad rekou a pak samotnym korytem. Predpoved sice nebyla moc optimisticka, ale zatim bylo teplo a obcas mezi mraky vykouklo slunicko. Nakonec se ukazalo, ze den trochu pod mrakem nam asi vyhovoval lip, nebot cela trasa je v otevrene krajine a neni tam zadny stin. Kdyz jsme vyrazeli od Okna byla tam sposta lidi a vsichni se to snazili vyfotit, tak jsme kolem jen prosli a fotili az na zpatecni ceste, kdy uz tam nebyl nikdo. Silnice tam a zpatky pres ten narodni byla ale desna. Neskutene rozbita a cely auto se nam klepalo a nybylo slyset ani vlastni myslenky. Cestou jsme museli zastavit a dat prednost jezure, ktera se velmi lezernim tempem vydala pres silnici. Kdyz jsme dorazili zpet do kempu, zacalo lejt jak z konve, tak ze ta predpoved mela prece jenom pravdu.

Pinnacles

2010-07-06T02:41:00.000-07:00

From Perth we hurried north – towards hopefully warmer weather. The last two nights it was 2 degrees in the morning. About 3 hours drive up the coast is Nambug National Park with it’s pinnacles. They are not sure how they came to exist, apparently there are two theories but the info centre in the park didn’t seem 100% sold on either of them. Apparently they can both be proven wrong in the future. The pinnacles are pretty cool though, regardless of where they came from. And there are so many of them! I always thought it’s just few of them on a little sandy spot but it’s more like a miniature desert with thousands of them. There is a 3km drive through or you can walk as you wish amongst them – we did both.

Z Perthu uz spechame na sever za teplem. Posledni dve noci v noci mrzlo, rano byly asi dva stupne, tak je nacase popojet za lepsim pocasim. Asi tri hodiny cesty podel pobrezi na sever je narodni park Nambug. V nem se nachazi snad tisice kuzelu z kamene, o kterych si nikdo neni jisty, jak se tam vlastne dostali. Maji dve teorie, ale v mistnim infocentru si nebyli plne jisty ani jednou a udajne obe mozou byt v budoucnu vyvraceny. Nicmene at se kuzely vzaly kde se vzaly, vypadaji super. A je jich tam mraky. Je to takova minipoust, vede ji 3km okruh autem nebo se clovek muze courat jak chce. My udelali oboji.

Gordie sun tanning / Gordie se opaluje

Perth 2

2010-07-05T04:43:00.000-07:00

We found a carburettor specialist in Perth and even though it cost us, he did magic. Not only it turned out that the carburettor was totally done (not putting any fuel in the engine) but the metafold was not ideal either with several air leaks. As it turned out we have been driving on 2 cylinders the whole time. Someone must have been trying to fix it in the past as Jim (our carburettor magician) pulled out a cork that was replacing one of the (airtight)bolts. Anyhow - a fair bit of money later our car is running as we haven’t seen it before – no backfiring, no shaking or vibrating and starting on the first try. Also the sound of running engine dropped down by about 100 decibels. So once again thanks to Jim at Perth Carburettors who did amazing job on our car and we can continue our trip!

V Perthu jsme nasli specialistu na karburatory a ackoliv to nebylo zadarmo, dokazal nemozne. Nejen nas spravil nas udajne zcela nefunkcni karburator, ale nasel a opravil i dalsi zavadu. Udajne jsme celou dobu jeli jen na dva valce (ze ctyr). Jim to spravil a tudiz nase auticko je ve forme, v jake jsme ji jeste nikdy nevideli – neklepe se, startuje a do kopce nefuni. Take zvuk beziciho motoru je asi o 100 decibelu min. Takze jeste jednou diky Jimovi z Perth Carburettors a my muzeme pokracovat v ceste!

Margaret River…not

2010-07-04T04:43:00.000-07:00

After a lazy week in Perth we drove down south to Margaret River region. On the way there we spent a night on a rest area and in the morning couldn’t get the car started. While in Perth we took it to the RAC mechanics for a check a paid them $400 to hear that we are driving an old car. We thanked them for this amazing revelation and now cursed them because up until we dropped it off at their place it was an old car, but at least a functioning one. So we spent the morning waiting for roadside assistance. In the afternoon we finally got to Margaret River and went to see if there is some hiking in the area. It was too late to go walking now but tomorrow. Except the next morning we once again spent waiting for roadside assistance and realized that we are not going walking but driving back to Perth to a car mechanic. Apparently our carburettor is buggered. So once the car was going we started our drive back to Perth. So all we saw of Margaret River after driving some 300k’s each way was the info centre. Thanks to Matt who kept straight face when we knocked on his door within 48 hours again.

Po tydnu lenoseni v Perthu jsme zamirili na jih do Margaret River. Cestou tam jsme zastavili na noc na odpocivadle a rano jsme nemohli nastartovat. Kdyz jsme byli v Perthu, vzali jsme auto na kontrolu a servis k mechanikovi. Tam jsme zaplatili $400 aby nam rekl, za mame stary auto. Podekovali jsme mu za tento uzasny objev a ted jsme ho proklinali, nebot do te doby, nez na Betty sahl on, jsme meli sice stary, ale funkcni auto. Takze cele rano jsme stravili cekanim na opravare, ktery nas nastartoval. Odpoledne jsme konecne dojeli do AMrgaret River a zamirilo do infocentra. Nasli jsme informace o nekolika trecich, ale uz bylo pozde nekam vyrazit, tak jsme to nechali na dalsi den. Bohuzel dalsi rano jsme stravili stejne jako to predchozi – cekanim na opravare, aby nas nastratoval. To uz bylo jasne, ze nejdem trekovat, ale jedeme zpatky do Perthu k mechanikovi, nebot nam chcipnul karburator. Takze 300km tam a 300 zpatky a z Margaret River jsme videli jen infocentrum. Dekujeme Mattovi, ze udrzel vaznou tvar, kdyz jsme u nej opet zvonili, zhruba 48 hodin pote, co jsme se s velkou slavou loucili.

Perth

2010-07-01T04:43:00.000-07:00

Finally we reached the WA capital. Exciting especially for our friend Matt and his girlfriend Francis whose place we moved into. After our Nullarbor experience we realized we may need bigger range of weapons to fight the long stretches of just driving so we raided their local library for audio books. Gordie had time to catch up with Matt and together they did their pilgrimage to Bon Scott’s grave. We went out on the weekend to get a taste of city life again. Apart of that we just chilled out in a house, where you can move around freely, don’t have to knee down when doing the dishes and sleep on a queen size bed. Thank you Matt and Francis!

Konecne jsme dojeli do hlavniho mesta Zapadni Asutalie – Perthu. Coz zrejme nadchlo hlavne Gordieho kamarada Matta a jeho pritelkyni, do jejichz bytu jsme se nastehovali. Po zkusenosti z Nullarbor jsme uznali, ze na mistni dlouhe streky budeme potrebovat vetsi zbroj nez nasi kolekci cedecek a z mistni knihovny jsme pobrali audio knih kolik jsme mohli. Gordie mel cas na Matta, se kterym se dlouho nevideli a dokonce spolecne vyrazili na pout ke hrobu Bon Scotta (puvodni zpevak AC/DC). O vikendu jsme vyrazili do viru velkomesta a jinak jen tak uzivali drobnosti jako ze jsme nemuseli klecet pri myti nadobi, mohli jsme se po byte volne pohybovat a spali jsme na normalni posteli.

Wave Rock

2010-06-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

On the way to Perth there is not much interesting to stop by. In fact there is not much at all. Towns are still about 100-200 km apart and very tiny, some are more just stations than towns. One stop worth making is the Wave Rock though. It’s quite impressive, 15m high rock that thanks to erosion now looks like surfers dream (if it wasn’t a rock obviously).

Cestou do Perthu neni moc zajimavosti. Lepe receno tam toho vubec neni moc – cesnice jsou furt 100 az 200 km od sebe a nektery jsou spis farmy nez vesnice. Jednou zajimavosti je Wave Rock – Vlnova skala. Je to cekelm slusny sutr, asi 15 m vysky asi 100m do sirky a diky erozi ted vypada jako sen vsechn surfaru (teda kdyby to nebylo z kamene samozrejme).

The township nearby has an original way to tell it’s story – they made it out of metal. The figurines are gorgeous and the accompanying text tells the history really well. It is quite fascinating as well – the town was only connected to electricity in 1989 and had no mobile phone coverage until late 1990’s.

Blizke mestecko si naslo svuj originalni zpusob jak vypravet svoji historii – postavili ji ze zeleza. Figuriny jsou uzasny a doprovodny text nadherne popisuje historii osidleni. Napriklad elektrina sem zavedena az v roce 1989 a mobilni telefony tu nemely signal az do konce 90. let.

Esperance

2010-06-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

From the wast emptiness of Nullarbor plains we longed for a change of scenery so headed south to Esperance, home of Australia’s whitest beaches. We found a very lovely caravan park outside the town centre and stayed two nights in this harbour town.

Esperance as such is not all that interesting, it really is all about the beaches here. And they are REALLY white. First day I went for a bike ride. Alone, to put some distance between me and Gordie. After two weeks of being within an arm length from each other we needed it. There is a lovely 40km circuit that took me along some of the finest beaches I have ever seen. Along most of it there was a bike path and as it was Friday morning, not much traffic at all. Which suited me well – it was up and down a lot and some ups were a little too steep for me liking but nobody saw me push the bike. Once the track turned inland there was one last up and then about 3k’s downhill – awesome. The last 15 or so kilometres were flat and unlike along the coast there was no wind so I felt like I was flying.

On Saturday we drove to Cape LeGrand National Park, which is where Lucky Bay is. Now for those of you who don’t know this – Lucky Bay was voted in 2006 Australia’s Whitest Beach. So obviously we had to see it. It is quite amazing. The sand is so soft that you feel like you are walking on white icing. Which made me feel like having cake but really, the beach is stunning. While we were in the park we went to Frenchman peak, steep climb but amazing view. Especially Gordie loved it because on top of the mountain was a topless chic sun tanning. Gordie kept talking about that view for the rest of the day and didn’t while there took quite a few photos, none of which show the park very well.

Po prejezdu Nullarbor jsme touzili po zmene krajiny a tak jsme zamirili na jih, do Esperance. Ta je udajne domovem nejbelejsich plazi v Australii.

Samotna Esperance az tak zajimava neni, ale ty plaze okolo stoji za to. Prvni den jsme vyrazila na projizdku na kole. Tentokrat sama, nebot po dvou tydnech co jsme se jeden od druheho vzdalili maximalne na par kroku, jsme potrebovali trochu prostoru. Nasla jsem krasny 40 km dlouhy okruh, ktery vede kolem nekolika skvostnych plazi a pak se vraci vnitrozemim k nasemu kempu. Podel vetsiny vedla stezka pro cyklisty a protoze byl patek rano, tak tam skoro nikdo nebyl. Coz mi dost vyhovovalo, nebot to bylo dost nahoru a dolu a obcas ty nahoru byly trochu nad me sily. Tak me aspon nikdo nevydel potupne tlacit kolo do nekolika useku. Kdyz se to ale stocilo od pobrezi, nasledoval asi 3 kilometrovy sjezd. Tak jsem se zakousla do riditek a svistela jak vitr. Pak uz to bylo po rovince az do kempu a protoze narozdil od pobrezi tam neradil vitr o sile tajfunu, jelo se uplne bajo.

V sobotu jsme zajeli do narodniho parku Cape LeGrand, ve kterem je plaz jmenem Lucky Bay. Ta byla v roce 2006 vyhlasena “Nejbelejsi plazi v Australii”, tak jsme to jeli omrknout. Pisek je tam tak bilej a jemnej, ze mi to pripadalo, ze se prochazim po cukrove poleve. Diky cemuz jsem dostala desnou chut na nejakej dort. Kdyz uz jsme byli v te oblasti, rozhodli jsme se vylezt na Frenchman Peak, kopec, ze ktereho ma byt uzasny vyhled. Gordie byl vskutku nadsen, nebot na vrchlu se opalovala divcina nahore bez. O tomto vyhledu Gordie mluvil po cely zbytek dne. Nafotil toho tam sice celkem dost, ale nic moc pouzitelnyho.

Frenchman Peak

Lucky Bay

This is Whistling Rock – if you stand at the taller end you can hear the echo of the ocean.

Tohle je Piskajici kamen. Pokud clovek stoji u toho vyssiho konce tak je slyset ozvena oceanu.

Nullarbor

2010-06-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

Oh well, we had to do it… It was after all the shortest way to get to WA. So we took a very deep breath and drove onto the Nullarbor. And yes - it is flat, more or less straight road that seems to get longer with every kilometre that you drive.

It’s quite hard to keep occupied when driving pretty much non-stop for three days, watching the distance count down on the GPS. When we got tired of music we tried doing crossword puzzles. I was reading the clues to Gordie so we can both guess. The roaring engine and fans make it a bit hard to hear each other properly and so when I got to one that said “cul-de-sack”, Gordie heard “cool-to-suck” and gave me some very inappropriate suggestions. After that we turned the music back on and stared out of the window.

One really cool place to stop is the Head of Bight, which is a place whales migrate to for winter. Apparently there can be more than hundred whales at a time but we were not that lucky. However lucky enough to see a couple, mum with a baby. They were pretty close to the shore so we got a quite good look at them. They didn’t poke out of the water much though, as we were later explained the don’t do it so close to the shore, because the mater is too shallow. There was another one farther away and that one waved the tail couple of time. Too quick to take a photo though.

Also travelling the Nullarbor is not cheap – petrol is about $1.70 a litre and on 1200k’s it shows. In the end we were quite happy when we were across. It’s an interesting experience and even though we just drove we still had a feeling of achievement when we finished it. We are nothing compared to some though – along the way we passed 3 cyclists. Now that’s hardcore.

Nullarbor je v Australii povestna silnice a postrach mnoha ridicu. Je to totiz asi 1200 kilometru napric pustinou. Jedinym rozptylenim jsou benzinky zhruba kazdych 200 kilaku, nicmene vzhledem k tomu, ze tam benzin stoji $1.70 (oproti normalnim 1.20 – 1.30), tak jsme se na tankovani ani moc netesili. Navic silnice je vicemene rovna, takze rizeni tam fakt moc zabava neni.

Jednou prima zastavkou ale je The Head of Bight, coz je zatoka, kam se na zimu stehuji velryby. Udajne je jich tam nekdy i pres sto, ale my takove stesti nemeli. Par jsme jich ale zahlidli, mamu a miminem, byli blizko pobrezi, tak jsme je dobre videli. Bohuzel ale z vody moc nevykouli. Jak jsme se pozdeji dozvedeli tak to ani u brehu moc nedelaji, voda je na manevry pry moc melka. Jedna velryba byla kus od brehu a ta obcas mavla ocasem. Bohuzel bez varovani, takze se nam to nikdy nepodarilo vyfotit.

Cesta pres ullarbor je zajimavy zazitek, ale nakonec jsme byli celkem radi, kdyz jsme dojeli na konec. A ackoliv jsme v podstate jen sedeli v aute tri dny v kuse, v cili jsme meli celkem vitezny pocit. Musim ale podoknout, ze proti nekterym jsme uplny masla – cestou jsme minuli celkem 3 cyklisty. Tomu rikam hardcore.

Viewing platform at the Head of Bight.

Vyhlidka u Head of Bight

Nullarbor coastline.

Pobrezi podel Nullarbor.

The Big Kangaroo on the WA-SA border

Klokan na hranici mezi Zapadni a Jizni Australii

Nejdelsi usek roviny v Asutralii – 146.6 km kdy vubec nepotrebujete volant.

Eyre Peninsula

2010-06-14T17:01:00.001-07:00

Instead of taking the inland shortcut we decided to do it properly and drove down towards Port Lincoln. Very soon we started to doubt our decision as we were driving in straight line through monotone landscape, no towns. But 400 k’s later we finally got to Port Lincoln, which turned out to be a lovely port town. The night we spent in Lincoln National park where we got camp spot right next to a beautiful beach.

After having a look around town we drove over to Coffin Bay. That is also a nice park right at the sea. Next day we took our bikes for a ride. The track was really cool, nice up and down with lovely views all the way.

Next morning we packed up and headed back up the coast. Again in a straight line. Along the way was a sea-lion colony. We had a bit more luck with photos this time and actually have some, unlike with those seals.

Namisto zkratky vnitrozemim jsme se to rozhodli objet poctive a vyrazili kolem pobrezi. O tomto rozhodnuti jsme velmi rychle znejisteli, nebot jsme jeli v prime linii a celkem monotoni krajinou. Ale po asi 400 kilometrech jsme konecne dojeli do Port Lincolnu, coz se ukazalo byt celkem prijemne pristavni mestecko. Noc jsme stravili v blizkem narodnim parku, kde jsme kempovali primo u plaze.

Rano jsme se podivali po meste a pak pokracovali do Coffin Bay. Tam jsme vzali kola na projizdku po super trase, krasny vyhledy.

Po dvou nocich tam jsme se zase sbalili a vyrazili podel pobrezi zpet na sever. Cestou jsme zastavili u kolonie lachtanu. Tentokrat jsme meli s fotkama trochu vic stesti nez tenkrat u tulenu.

Who can spot a sea-lion?

Kdo najde tulene?

Flinders Ranges

2010-06-09T18:28:00.000-07:00

There is a bit of talk about Flinders Ranges so we went to check it out. In a book I read that if we were mere 60 million years earlier we might have attempted to climb the highest mountain on Earth. Too bad, bit late for that. Flinders are supposedly just stumps of what used to be a range higher than Himalayas. It’s very pretty though. On the way we stopped by a place called Flinders Ranges Information Centre and while they did have information on some small towns in the area, they didn’t know anything about the actual ranges, nor had they a map of walking tracks. So we continued towards the national park to a place called Wilpena Pound. Pretty sure that used to be a cattle station and now is a resort, the only one in the area that doesn’t belong to the Parks and Wildlife and charges pretty high fees for camping. We did manage to get some info there at the Parks and Wildlife Centre about the walking and camping in the area but again no map. To our disbelief we were told that maps for hikers are a waste. The fact that the office was otherwise packed with glossy brochures on just about everything didn’t seem to bother them. But maps for hikers are apparently a waste of paper. Anyhow, with a pathetic A4 print out with a sketch of the area we drove to a free campsite for the night. Now we can’t verify this but the campers next to us said that inside their van at 8.30am next morning the thermometer showed 4 degrees. Next day we tried to navigate with our sketch to a start of some walk and another campsite. We passed few signs on the way but none of them indicating 4WD track. In fact, according to one the campsite was 2WD accessible. So we were quite surprised when our poor van was suddenly crossing deep ditches and water. Not quite what we expected. At the camp we just dropped out of the car and didn’t even want to think about the way back. The walk was great though and the campsite beautiful. Next day we repeated our involuntary driving adventure and drove back to Wilpena as I refused to leave Flinders without seeing the actual Wilpena Pound. It looks like a huge crater and it’s really cool. After that we headed back towards coast.

trochu jsme toho slyseli o pohori Flinders a tak jsme se tam rozhodli zajet podivat. V jedne knizce jsem se docetla, ze kdybysme tu byli o pouhych 60 milionu let driv, mohli jsme se pokusit zdolat nejvyssi horu sveta. Udajne Flinders kdysi bylo majestatne pohori prevysujici dnesni Himalaje. Nicmene cas je celkem obrousil a holt uz to neni co to udajne kdysi byvalo. Cestou jsme zastavili v kancelari s napisem “Informacni centrum o pohori Flinders”. Tam sice meli informace o nekolika malych vesnicich v okoli, ale nic o Flinders. Nesehnali jsme tam ani mapu. Tak jsme pokracovali smerem k naronimu parku a mistu jmenem Wilpena Pound. Mam dojem, ze to kdysi byvala farma s dobytkem, dnes je to resort s predrzenym kempem. V tamnim informacnim stredisku jsme se sice konecne neco malo dozvedeli o tamnich turistickych trasach a kempovani v parku, nicmene k nasemu nemalemu udivu nam bylo mimo sdeleno, ze turisticke mapy netisknou. Pry jsou to vyhozene penize. Asi tu maji velmi levne zachranne vrtulniky, dokonce levnejsi nez papir. Navic to stredisko bylo jinak nacpane brozurkama o kazdym zapadakove siroko daleko, ale turisticke mapy jsou prej zbytecny. No nic, nakonec nam daly A4 s nacrtem oblasti a my vyrazili smerem kemp. Nasledujici sice nemuzu zarucit, ale nasi sousede nam dalsi rano tvrdili, ze uvnitr jejich obytnaku v pul devate rano namerili 4 stupne. Ja moc odhad nemam, ale je fakt ze jsem rano byla zabalena ve svym spacaku a odmitla vylizt dokud slunce plne nevyslo a nerozmrazilo nam okna. po snidani jsme vyrazila k zacatku znacenych tras a k dalsimu kempu. Cestou jsme minuli par ceduli, ale nebylo tam nic o narocnem terenu. Naopak na jedne jsme nasli znacku, ze kemp je dostupny i autum s phonem na dve kola. Tudiz jsme byli celkem prekvapeny, kdyz jsme najednou v nasi staricke dodavce prejizdeli vymoly, strme straze a vodni toky. Kdyz jsme se konecne dostali do kempu, z auta jsme doslova vypadli a razantn odmitli byt jen pomyslet na zpatecni cestu. Trek byl ale fajn a kemp krasnej a dalsi den jsme se nakonec uspesne opet probojovali nasim nedobrovolnym automobilovym dobrodruzstvim. Pred odjezdem z Flinders jsme se opet zastavili ve Wilpene a zasli se podivat (=vydrapali se po ctyrech) na vyhlidku, odkud bylo videt cele pohori. Vypada to jako velkej krater a je to supr.

Ruins of s sheep station which at it’s peak held 40,000 sheep

Pozustatky ovci farmy, ktera kdysi chovala 40,000 ovci:

Aboriginal drawings in a cave describing an initiation ritual.

Kresby Aborigincu, ktere popisuji iniciacni ritual:

A tady uz zase chodime:

Hiking again:

And the supposedly 2WD track:

A tady jsou flinderske silnice:

Wilpena pound:

Leaving Adelaide/ Odjezd z Adelaide

2010-06-05T17:41:00.000-07:00

From Adelaide we headed north towards Flinders Ranges. About half way we stopped for the night as it was getting late and we were tired. So we pulled up in a caravan park in Gladstone at about 8.30. The office was dark so we were going to take a spot and pay in the morning when the lights came on and a head appeared in the window.

“What do you want?” – Ehm, a site for the night.

'”Oh for f…s sake! What the f…k! Do you know what time it is?” –Ehm, yeah, it’s 8.30.

Why the f..k would you turn up so late?I don’t f…ing understand that!You know what? I’M MISSING BONES! And it’s the season final! – Ehm….sorry? ( note: Bones is crap!)

She then went on with lot more swearing which I won’t publish, took our money and kicked us out of the office. So that much for local hospitality. We left Gladstone as soon as we could the next morning.

Z Adelaide jsme vyrazili na sever smerem na pohori Flinders. Zhruba na pul cesty jsme zastavili na noc, nebot zacinalo byt pozde a my jsme byli utahani. Zajeli jsme tudiz do kempu v Gladstonu. Bylo asi pul devate a na recepci byla tma, tak jsme chteli zaparkovat a zaplatit rano. Najednou se ale rozsvitilo a v okne objevila hlava.

“Co chcete?” - “Ehm, kemp na noc.

“No do pr…!Vite kolik je hodin? Do hajz..” – Jo, je pul devaty.

No do pr…! Proc jedeta tak pozde? To nechapu! Vite co? Prichazim o Bones!!! (=trapny americky serial, totalni nuda)

Pak nam jeste chvili nadavala, vzala si od nas penize a vykopla nas z kanclu. Tak asi tak pro mistni pohostinost. Rano jsme se sbalili a vypadli jak nejrychleji to slo.

Adelaide

2010-06-05T17:39:00.000-07:00

Adelaide was awesome. It is actually a very beautiful city. We were a bit surprised as we haven’t heard about Adelaide much but it would have to be our favourite OZ city so far. We met with Lara, Gordie’s friend, for breakfast and then strolled through the city. We also bought a new camera – finally! We were basically just wondering around the city and eating for two days. So yeah, awesome.

Adelaide je super. Je to nahodou moc hezky mesto, coz nas trochu prekvapilo, protoze jsme o Adelaide moc neslyseli. Zatim je to asi nase nejoblibenejsi australske mesto. Sesli jsme se s Gordieho kamoskou Larou na snidani a pak jsme se toulali mestem a konecne koupili novej fotak. V podstate jsme se dva toulali po meste a jedli – proste supr.

Over to SA/ Prejezd do Jizni Australie

2010-06-02T04:52:00.001-07:00

From Grampians we headed back to the coast, to Portland, where we tried to get a new camera but haven’t found anything we liked. After a night there we went to have a look at a seal colony nearby (I love seals!). It is meant to be a colony of 600 seals, well I counted about a dozen, included one that really wasn’t moving. But it was nice to watch the small ones play in the water and the walk there was very nice along supposedly Victoria’s highest sea cliffs. We tried to take a photo of the seals with our video camera but for some reason it didn’t come out. In fact this is the only photo the camera actually recorded:

The seals are down at the sea and you can’t see them on the photo.

Another cool thing they have in Portland are white kangaroos. They are bred in SA’s Bordertown and are actually totally white. Not albinos, real white kangaroos. There are few pic’s under the Czech text.

From Portland we headed to SA and in the afternoon crossed the border and were in another state. Yay! First stop was Mt Gambier. Again we tried to buy a camera and again we didn’t like anything that was on offer. The night we spent in Tantanoola, which has pub that became the final resting place to the Tantanoola tiger. He is stuffed and overlooking the bar now.

Z Grampians jsme zamirili zpet na pobrezi, do Portlandu, kde jsme se snazili koupit novej fotak, ale zadnej se nam nezdal. Dalsi den jsme se jeli podivat na kolonii tulenu. Udajne tam zije na 600 tulenu, ja jsem napocitala asi tucet vcetne jednoho, kterej se vubec nehejbal. Ale je hezky pozorovat ty mlady, jak si hrajou ve vode a ten trek tam byl taky moc fajn. Snazili jsme se neco vyfotit nasi videokamerou ale bohuzel nic se nenahralo. Jedina fotka, ktera vysla, je tahle:

Ty tuleni jsou dole u more, na ty fotce nejsou videt.

Dasli super vec, co maji v Portlandu, jsou bili klokani. Chovaji je v Jizni Asutralii a jsou opravdu bili, ne albini, opravdu bili klokani. Dole je par fotek, ktery nastesti vysli na kamere.

Odpoledne jsme prekrocili hranici mezi Viktorii a Jizni Australii. Hura! Opet jsme se snazili koupit fotak a opet se nam nic nezdalo. Na noc jsme zastavili v Tantanoole, coz byl kdysi domov tantonoolskeho tygra. Nebo vlastne jeste je – dnes je tygr vycpany a vystaveny v mistni hospode.

Leaving Grampians/Odjezd z Grampians

2010-06-02T04:52:00.000-07:00

Last day in Grampians was not exactly a highlight. First we decided to check out Mt William, the highest peak of Grampians. The brochure promised 360 views of the mountains, happy couple smiling on the photo enjoying the sun and the fabulous views. So we drove up to the carpark and set out on the short 2 km hike to the summit. It was quite cold but sunny. Well, at first it was. Few minutes later it was cold and cloudy and few minutes after that it was freezing, windy and we were in a thick cloud. Nevertheless we proceeded to the summit as we figured out that in such strong wind the cloud must blow over soon, right? Must have been one huge cloud as despite the crazy wind it stayed there all the time we were trying to get up. Also instead of being helpful and blowing into our backs it was blowing against us. So towards the wind I was pretty much wiping the track with my face trying to walk against this storm that came out of nowhere while Gordie was behind me swearing and cursing. Anyway we made it to the top eventually and this was our reward:

Yup, couldn’t see a thing. Naive as we are we stayed there in the cold and wind waiting for it to blow over, nearly freezing to death. It did blow over. As soon as we descended to the car park that is. So below the Czech translation are some photos I could have taken from our car without feeling like I am trying to conquer the South Pole. From Mt William we drove to a campsite in southern part of Grampians for our last night in the area. From the campsite started another walk, so we went to give it a go. After a bit of a climb we got to a nice view which I took a photo of. When passing the camera back to Gordie we dropped it and broke it. Back in the camp Gordie tried to fix it, which finished the poor thing off completely, so here is the last photo ever taken with our camera:

So as I said – not exactly the highlight.

Nas posledni den v Grampians nevysel uplne podle predstav. Napred jsme se rozhodli vyrazit na Mt William, coz je nejvyssi hora Grampians a udajne jsou z ni uzasne vyhledy. Na brozurce byla fotka paru, ktery se vyhrival na slunicku zatimco si uzivali vyhledy na cele udoli. Tak jsme vyjeli na parkoviste a vyrazili na kratky doukilometrovy pochod na vrchol. Bylo sice celkem zima, ale slunecno, tak jsem si brousila zuby na panorama pohori. Behem par minut se sice zatahlo, ale stale dobry. Za dalsich par minut byla furt zima, ale pridal se vitr a zatahlo se jeste vic. Za dalsich par minut jsme byli ve vanici uprostred mraku. Tvrdohlave jsme postupovali k vrchlu, ackoliv jsme ksichtem vicemene drela o zem, kdyz jsem se snazila jit proti silicimu vetru. Gordie sel za mnou a nadaval. Kdyz jsme se konecne dohrabali na vrchol, byli jsme odmeny timto vyhledem:

Presne tak, videli jsme kulovy. Chvili jsme tam v zime a vetru naivne vyckavali, ze se ten mrak treba prevali, ale kdyz jsme byli uz skoro zmrzli, roztrhala jsem brozurku a dali jsme se na sestup. Mraky se nakonec prevalily – kdyz jsme dosli zpet na parkoviste. Dole dam nejaky fotky, ktery jsem sice mohla udelat rovnou z auta, bez nacviku dobyti severniho polu. Od Mt William jsme se vydali do kempu v jizni casti Grampians, kde jsme planovali stravit posledni noc v teto oblasti. Primo z kempu vychazel trek, tak jsme vyrazili. Po kratkem vystupu jsme se dohrabali na vyhlidku, kde jsem hned zacala fotit. Kdyz jsem fotak vracela Gordiemu, tak jsme ho upustili a rozbili. Zpatky v kempu ho Gordie zkousel spravit, cimz ho dodelal uplne. Takze tady je historicky posledni fotka z naseho fotaku:

Jak rikam – nebyl to uplne nejlepsi den.

Grampians

2010-06-01T21:48:00.001-07:00

From the coast we drove back to the inland, to Grampians. Driving there is quite funny – it’s totally flat, even when you get right up to the mountain range. Then these rocks just suddenly rise up right in front of you. We picked up some maps in the local info centre we headed to the first campsite. On the way we saw some emus – first time we saw those in the wild. The look soooo funny when they run!

First night we spent at the northern tip of the park and next day did some walks nearby. The weather was ok, it wasn’t raining, but it wasn’t sunny either, the sky was grey the whole day so the photos didn’t come out as impressive.

As we realized over the next couple of days walking in the Grampians means rock hopping, possibly rock scrambling. The tracks are well marked but the are no highways built so on many occasions you you fid yourself crawling over rocks of various shapes and sizes. It makes it really good fun but on the other hand while you feel like you have just conquered Everest, in reality you walked one kilometre to a lookout.

Next 3 nights we spent in the middle section as we discovered that we can camp there for free. Adjacent to the national park is a tiny state reserve where the Plantation campsite is. Last year the reserve was meant to be joint with the park and so Victoria’s Parks built a beautiful new campground with facilities there. The reserve however hasn’t been joint yet so they can’t charge fees as it doesn’t belong to them yet.

The first there was a massive downpour so the next morning we woke up in a huge mud puddle. Despite our best efforts soon mud was everywhere and on everything in the car. Fortunately rain eased off after the night and so we were able to sweep out sand out of the car over the next three days.

In Plantation we met a very lovely Dutch couple who spoke good English, so we spent the next two nights hanging around a campfire exchanging travel stories. They are now in Adelaide and later heading north to NT so all the best to them and safe journey!

After three nights in the middle we spent another night in the southern section before heading back to civilization. We absolutely loved Grampians, it is a stunning place with breathtaking views everywhere you go and any direction you look.

Z pobrezi jsme zamirili do vnitrozemi, do pohori Grampians. Cesta tam je super – je to uplne placaty, az do chvile, kdy clovek stoji u upati tech kopcu, je to krasna rovinka. Poridili jsme si mistni mapy a vyrazili do kempu. Prvni noc jsme stravili na severni spicce parku. Cestou tam jsme videli nekolik ptaku emu, poprve co jsme je videli ve volne prirode. Mimochodem vypadaji desne legracne kdyz utikaji!

Rano jsme vyrazili udelat par treku v okoli. Jak se ukazalo, “chodit” v teto oblasti muze take znamenat “lezt” ci “plazit se”. Trasy jsou tady sice dobre znacene, nicmene na vetsine z nich drive ci pozdeji clovek preleza sutry ruznych velikosti. Coz je sice celkem sranda, nicmene zatimco ja mela pocit, ze jsem prave zdolala Everest, ve skutecnosti jsem pouze “dosla” na vyhlidku jeden kilometr od parkoviste.

Dalsi tri noci jsme stravili ve stredni casti. Tam se totiz dalo momentalne spat zadarmo, nebot kemp je v prirodni rezervaci, ktera nepatri pod Spravu narodnich parku. Loni se to melo spojit, tak tam Sprava narodnich parku postavila ze sveho rozpoctu krasny kemp, ale ke spojeni zatim nejak nedoslo, tak za nej nemuzou vybirat.

Prvni noc tam desne lilo. Rano jsme se probudili v bahennni lazni a ac jse se snazili jak chteli, behem rano bylo bahno vsude a na vsem. Nastesti pak uz neprselo, tak jsme pisek dalsi tri dny vymetali z auta.

V tomto kempu jsem narazili na velmi prijemny par z Holandska. Oba umeli celkem dobre anglicky, tak jsme dalsi dve noci porovnavali cestovatelske zazitky u taboraku. Touhle dobou by meli byt v Adelaide a pak miri na sever, tak jim drzime palce.

Posledni noc jsme popojeli na jih, odkud jsme se pak vydali zpet do civilizace. Grampians nas naprosto nadchly – nadherne vyhledy kam se clovek podiva, vsude kopce a skaly. Klidne jsme tam mohli zustat dyl, ale byl cas se poposunout. Mam mraky fotek ale vybrala jsem opet jen ty nejoblibenejsi:

One for the climbers – behind me is a famous rock climbing area.

Tady jedna pro horolezce – to za mnou je mistni nejfrekventovanejsi lezecka oblast:

I might be smiling but really I am praying that I don’t slip.

Tady se sice usmivan do fotaku, ale ve skutecnosti se modlim, at neuklouznu.

Grand Canyon a la Grampians

Silent Street/ Ticha ulice

Wouldn’t this be the most awesome place to take a bath?

Tohle by bylo uzasny misto na nalozeni se do vany.

Great Ocean Road

2010-05-26T04:10:00.001-07:00

From Ballarat he headed down south towards the Great Ocean Road. It’s an amazing drive, you can do it in a day but we took two and a half, there is a lot to stop and look at along the way. I will put up just some highlights:

Z Ballaratu jsme zamirili na jih, na Great Ocean Road, coz je silnice, kterou postavili prevazne vojaci, kteri se vratili z 1. svetove valky. Nekteri z nich nemeli po navratu zamestnani a nechteli farmarit a statu bylo jasnym ze bez zamestnani se jim moc darit nebude. Nejen z financni stranky, ale hodne i z psychicke. Tak prisli s napad postavit silnici podel pobrezi s krasnymi vyhledy, ktera bude spis turisticka atrakce nez dalnice, nabidli jim slusny plat a dobre podminky a tak postupne postavili silnci, ktera je dnes asi neoblibenejsi turistickou trasou v Australii. Da se projet za den, ale my jsme si nechali pres dva dny, nebot cestou je toho hodne k videni. Tady je par fotek toho, co se mi libilo nejvic:

And yes! This IS the lighthouse from Round the Twist! Apparently it appeared in Mad Max too.

Erskine Waterfalls/ Vodopady Erskine

Gordon the Handsome:

And of course the “Twelve” Apostles.

Toto je asi hlavni atrakce Great Ocean Road, znama jako 12 Apostolu, ackoliv je jich tam jen osum.

Loch Ard Gorge, the place of a ship disaster which had only 2 survivors out of 56 passengers. The two got washed out on this beach and were eventually rescued.

Tot je zatoka Loch Ard, misto ztroskotani lodi, ktere prezili jen dva z 56 jejich pasazeru. Ti dva nakonec dopalvali na tuto plaz, kde byli zachraneni.

The Razorback

Thundering Cave/ Hrmici jezkyne

Sovereign Hill

2010-05-24T04:08:00.000-07:00

Even though it was very cosy at Gordie’s nana’s, we had to move on at some point. So after lunch we packed up the van again and headed east, towards Ballarat. We could have gone straight to the Great Ocean Road but we wanted to stop in Sovereign Hill. Lot of you have probably been there, but just in case someone hasn’t – it’s and 1850’s working town. Which means that once you walk through the entrance, you are in 19th century. All the shops and workshops work the same way they did back then , all the people are dressed the way the would be back then so you actually feel like you just travelled in time. And it is quite amazing. We walked through old houses, watched candle maker make candles, goldsmith work a barrel of gold worth about $140,000 (wouldn't you love to get your hands on that!), policeman fire a musket (filmed it for our brother-in-law) and walked through the gold mines. We also tried to play 1850’s bowling (yeah, I know – they had bowling?). Apparently back then it was not allowed to bowl with one hand – two hands only.I suck but Gordie didn’t do too bad. As we were there mid week and off-season there were not the usual crowds and it was AWESOME.
Ackoliv to bylo u babicky velmi pohodlne, holt jsme se jednou museli poposunout. A tak jsme se po obede sbalili a vyrazili na vychod. Mohli jsme sice jet kratsi cestou, ale chteli jsme se zastavit v Sorvereign Hill, coz je zive muzeum. Je to v podstate replika mestecka kolem roku 1850 a zcela funkcni. Vsechny dilny a obchody tam pracuji stejne, jako v 19. stoleti, lide jsou obleceni podle tehdejsi mody takze si clovek pripada, jakoby prave procestoval casem. Prochazeli jsme starymi obydlimi, pozorovali jak se tehdy delali svicky, koukali na zlatnika jak zpracovava hroudu zlata o hodnote asi 140,000 dolaru (tezko jsem odolavala pokuseni to popadnout a sprintovat k vychodu), videli, a hlavne slyseli, jak se strilelo z muskety a prosli se starymi zlatymi doly. Taky jsme zkouseli hrat bowling podle tehdejsich pravidel. Koule byly tehdy z tezkeho dreva a hazet se je smelo pouze obouruc. Mne to teda oc neslo, ale Gordiemu se celkem darilo.
Toto je jediny zpusob dopravy (krome chuze) po meste:
This is the only mean of transport other than walking around the town:
No a tady nam pred zraky prelejvali bohatstvi, o kterym se mi od te chvile zda:
Here we watched a block of gold I have been dreaming of ever since: And the candle maker/ tady se delaji svicky: We tried to pan some gold ourselves when that guy refused to share his block but no luck…
Kdyz se s nama zlatnik odmitl podelit o tu svoji krychli, tak jsme se pokouseli tady neco sami vyrejzovat, ale nejak se nedarilo:

Mt Buller

2010-05-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

We slept in as the electric blanket was impossible to get out off. We spent morning with nana and jus after lunch went for a drive to Mt Buller Alpine Village. As the name suggests it is up in the mountain so we had to go up, a lot. our poor Betty was huffing and puffing climbing up the long hill. On the top are magnificent views though. The village looked a bit deserted at the time, it was still before the season so apart of lot of trades people we were pretty much the only visitors.

While we were driving up we noticed a suspicious smell of petrol. We were a bit worried that we pushed the engine too hard or it has a leak somewhere or something like that. So on the top we walked around the car trying to find out where the smell keeps coming from because towards the end of the hill it was really bad. After a while we opened the fuel tank cover and realized it was actually quite simple – the fuel cap wasn’t there. And as it so happens it had to be on a windy road so we splashed out about 10 litres of petrol. Oh well, so we drove back down to the petrol station but couldn’t find our cap. We got a replacement one, which Gordie managed to put on but couldn’t get it off. After a bit of fight it snapped and half of it stayed in the tank. So Gordie went back into the station to get pliers to get the thing out. Unfortunately they didn’t have any so he came back with two screwdrivers instead. Following the principle of chopsticks he tried to get the cap out but with very little success and 15 minutes later he was getting pretty aggressive with the sticks. It was hilarious to watch. In the end he got it out – not in one but couple of pieces, but it was out. To finish the successful visit to this petrol station Gordie spilt lead replacement all over his favourite jacket.

The dinner and night was at nana’s again – I love that electric blanket!

Rano jsme si prispali hlavne proto, ze se nam nechtelo opustit elektricky vyhrivanou postel. Rano jsme stravili s babickou na farme a po obede jsme jeli na projizdku na Mt Buller, kde je zimni stredisko. Museli jsme se vydrapad do velmi slusneho kopce a nase auticko funelo a souralo se rychlosti hlemyzde, ale dojeli jsme. Zezhora byly nadherne vyhledy do dalekeho okoli a nebot jeste neni sezona, byli jsme vicemene jedinymi navstevniky.

Cestou do kopce jsme zaregistrovali silny zapach benzinu. Meli jsme strach, ze nam to nekde tece neboze je neco s motorem. Tak jsme nahore obchazeli auto a dumali, co to muze byt. Nakonec se ukazalo, ze to neni problem az tak slozity – Gordie nedal zpatky vicko na nadrz a tak nase auto nejen smrdelo jak benzinka, ale cestou jsme asi vycintali peknejch par litriku. No nic, jeli jsme zpatky na osudnou benzinku, ale vicko jsme nenasli. Sehnali jsme tam vicko nahradni, ktere se Gordie podarilo na nadrz narvat, sundat uz ale neslo. Po trose boje to prasklo a pulka zustala v nadrzi, nastesti u otvoru. Tak sel Gordie do benzinky pro kleste, ktery nemeli a tak se vratil s dvema sroubovaky. Ty snazil pouzit podobne jako cinske hulky, coz sice bylo uzasny sledovat, ale efekt to moc nemelo. Asi po 15ti minutach ho to uz celkem rozzurilo a vicko nakonec vyndal, sice ne v jednom kuse, ale vyndal. Aby Gordie zavrsil sve uspechy u teto pumpy, polil si svou oblibenou mikinu primesi do paliva.

Vecere a nocleh byli opet u babicky. Zcela jsem se zamilovala do te vyhrivane postele.

Lake Eildon/ Jezero Eildon

2010-05-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

The next day we woke up for a change in fog. Couldn’t see past the nearest tree. Once it finally started to lift we got ready for a little walk in the park. We started off with a nice stroll alongside the lake but once the track turned away from the lake, it got steep. After crawling up the hill we were pretty breathless but the view wasn’t too impressive. Well as it turned out later, this was just a first bump on a long road. We were going up and down like on a rollercoaster. The summit we were aiming for wasn’t until couple of very steep bumps later. We were really glad to finally get to it. On the way down we were walking amongst dozens of kangaroos who were happy to stand in safe distance and stare at us as we walked past.

When we got back to the campsite and looked in the map we realized we are actually quite close to Gordie’s nan and as it wasn’t too late we decided to drive there for the night. I typed her address into our GPS and off we went. Unfortunately it turned out that the shortest way is not always the best and ended up driving down a windy, narrow, dirt road. When we got to Mansfield and finally had phone reception again, we called Gordie’s nan and went for a dinner. as we haven’t eaten properly since breakfast, we were starved and the pizza place owner watched in disbelief as we polished off a large pizza each. Gordie’s nan seemed happy to see us despite the fact that we ambushed her at 7 p.m. with less than an hour warning. Again we could spend a night in a nice cosy bed.

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Dalsi den jsme se probudili pro zmenu do uplne mlhy. Nevideli jsme za prvni strom. Kdyz se to konecne zacalo trochu trhat, vyrazili jsme na mensi trek u jezera. Zacalo to jako prijemna prochazka kolem jezera, nez se to stocilo od jezera, kde to zacalo celkem stoupat. Kdyz jsme se konec vyskrabali na vrchol, byli jsme celkem bez dechu a vyhled teda nic moc. Nicmene se ukazalo, ze tohle byla jen mesi predehra a odtud to pokracovalo jako na horske draze – nahoru a dolu. Kdyz jsme konecne zdolali ten posledni, meli jsme toho uz tak akorat. Cestou dolu jsme se prochazeli mezi desitkami klokanu, kteri postavali v bezpecne vzdalenosti a zirali na nas.

Kdyz jsme zpatky u auta mrkli do mapy, ukazalo se, ze jsme nahodou uz jen kousek od Gordieho babicky. Kdyz jsem jeji adresu natukala do GPSky tak mi to dokonce tvrdilo, ze jsme jen asi hodinu cesty. Naskakali jsme do auta a vyrazili. Bohuzel nejkratsi cesta neni vzdycky idealn a my se ocitli na klikate, rozbite ceste, kde jsme se drkotali rychlosti chuze. Kdyz jsme se konecne doklepali do Mansfieldu, kde jsme meli zase signal, zavolali jsme Gordieho babicce a sli na veceri. Nebot jsme od rana poradne nejedli, byli jsme celkem vyhladoveli. Majitel pizzerie nevericne sledoval, jak jsme do sebe kazdej nacpali celou pizzu. Po veceri jsme jeli k babicce, ktera nas celkem rada videla, ikdyz jsme k ni vpadli v sedm vecer vicemene bez varovani.

Melbourne

2010-05-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

From Narawntapu we just drove down to Devonport to catch the boat. As we had a cabin we had a really nice sleep in a warm bed for a change.

We got to Melbourne about 7 a.m. and fought our way through city to a car park in Carlton, where we left the car till the next morning. We had a stroll through the City, visit the Melbourne Museum, Markets, saw a movie. But in the end I don’t find Melbourne all that different from other big cities. In the evening we went to visit Romy who was the most fabulous host. After yummy dinner Gordie sneaked out to catch up with his friends Chris and Sue (whom I hope to see during our return Melbourne drive-through) while me and Romy were still busy gossiping. The night we spent happily snoring in Romy’s bed while she slept on the living room floor – once again, thank you!

Next day it was off on the road again. We got up at 5 a.m. to avoid the traffic and headed north towards Lake Eildon. Most of the drive was so foggy we couldn’t see anything at all. Same went for our arrival to Lake Eildon – couldn’t see a thing. We were tired and so spent the day snoozing and reading and cleaning our van.

Z Narawntapu jsme uz jen sjeli do Devonportu, kde jsme se nalodili na trajekt do Melbourne. Meli jsme kabinu sami pro sebe a tak jsme se po nejake dobe vyspali v teple posteli.

Do Melbourne jsme dorazili kolem sedme rano a probojali se pres centrum do Carltonu, kde jsme nechali auto. Pres den jsme se toulali po Melbourne, zasli do muzea, na trh, do kina a vecer na navstevu k Romy, kamaradce z filmove skoly. Ta nam byla vybornou hostitelkou a po vyborne veceri jsme klabosili az do noci, zatimco Gordie zasel na pivo s kamaradem ze stredni. Romy nam navic ochotne propujcila svoji postel, ve ktere jsme si opet krasne pochrupkali.

Rano jsme si privstali, nebot jsme se chteli vyhnout doprave a tak jsme vyrazili kolem pate rano. Bohuzel cela oblast, kterou jsme projizdeli, byla zahalena mlhou hustou tak, ze by se dala krajet, takze jsme toho moc nevideli. Kdyz jsme konecne dorazili do cile k jezeru Eildon, nebylo to o nic lepsi – furt mlha. Tak jsme si po zbytek dne cetli, uklidili auto a dospali nas dluh z rana.

Narawntapu

2010-05-16T20:52:00.001-07:00

The morning was sooooo cold! It was freezing! The car wouldn’t start till it got a bit of sunshine on it’s cold parts. From Liffey we drove to Deloraine, where we slowly defrosted over some pies and coffee in local bakery. From Deloraine we took a back road to Narawntapu National Park – home to probably hundreds of happy wombats. We had heaps of them hopping around the campsite, nibbling on grass. As we still had time we went for a short walk to the top of Archers Knob where we got a beautiful view on the park and way beyond it. Unfortunately our cameras couldn’t do it justice. After we got back to camp we went to watch wombats, wallabies and pademelons (or watermelons as Gordie calls them) coming out for dinner.

Rano byla desna, ale fakt desna zima. I auto odmitlo nastartovat, dokud ho nenechame aspon trochu rozmrznout. Z taboriste jsme jeli do blizkeho mestecka Deloraine, kde jsme pomalu roztali nad kafem a pochoutkami z mistni pekarny. Odtamtud jsme pak pokracovali opet mezi pastvinami do narodniho parku Narawntapu, ktery je domovem stovkam rozkosnych, hunatych a baculatych vombatu. KOlebali se nam kolem auta na ceste za necim k snedku. Jeste byl cas tak jsme sli na prochazku na vyhlidku Archers Knob. Bohuzel nase kamery nezachytily vyhled tak, jaky opravdu byl, ale aspon neco. Vecer jsme neodolali a sli pozorovat vombaty a male klokany, kter se nam prohaneli kolem taboriste.

Liffey Falls

2010-05-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

I woke up feeling a strange draft on my head and my ears were freezing. After opening my eyes and getting my bearings I realized that the back door must have opened during the morning and we were snoozing with or heads hanging out of the car. And the morning was cold and miserable:

But the the sun came out and we were happy campers again :

After a quick look into the map in the morning we decided on the next stop to be Liffey Falls as none of us has been there before. It was a very pleasant drive through fields and past occasional farm or lonely house. The campsite at Liffey Falls is beautiful and once again there was nobody there. We took the 3 hour return walk to the falls only to realize that these are THE FALLS – from all those postcards, calendars and websites about Tasmania, probably the most photographed falls in Tassie. Back in the campsite we considered hanging out in the evening but only for a very brief moment as it was totally freezing.

Rano jsem se probudila, nebot mi nezvykle tahlo na hlavu. Kdyz jsem konecne rozlepila oci a trocu se rozkoukala, ukazalo se, ze se nam behen rano otevrely zadni dvere a my jsme podrimovali s hlavama venku. Coz dokonale vysvetlilo me omrzle usi. Rano teda nic moc – zima, mlha, celkem ponuro, ale behem hodiny se vycasilo a bylo zase fajn. Po snidani jsme koukli do mapy a za dalsi zastavku vybrali Liffey Falls, nebot jsme tam jste nikdy nebyli. Cesta tam byla prijemna, mezi poli a pastvinami. V kempu jsme byli opet jediny. Nebot bylo ani ne poledne, vyrazili jsme na trihodinovou prochazku k vodopadum. Tam se ukazalo, ze toto jsou asi neslavnejsi tasmanske vodopady. Videla jsem je snad stokrat na kalendarich, pohledech a webovkach. Ani jeden z nas ale netusil, ze to jsou ony. Na vecer jsme si planovali ohynek a posezeni venku, ale zima nas velmi rychle zahnala do auta.

Longford for the night/Noc v Longfordu

2010-05-15T20:29:00.000-07:00

In the morning we just packed up and drove to Longford for the night. On the way we stopped by Lake Leak, which is a lovely spot in the middle of nowhere. After checking out Evandale where according to our camping bible we could have slept parked in unmarked car park next to a primary school we decided to continue to Longford and pay for a night there.

Rano jsme se sbalili a vyrazili smer Longford na noc. Cestou jsme se stavili u jezera Leak, coz je pekna zastavka uprostred niceho. Podle naseho pruvodce po kempech jsme mohli noc stravit zapakovani vedle zakladni skoly v Evandale, coz jsme ale s diky zamitli a popojeli do vedlejsi vesnice Longford, kde jsme si zaplatili nocleh kempu.

Freycinet

2010-05-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

After a pretty chilli night in Mayfield we headed towards Freycinet National Park. We have been here a lots of times but mainly during summer and therefore used to this place being pretty crowded. This time we were nearly the only ones here. As we have been to the Wineglass Bay lookout about 100 times we decided to try something different this time. We did the Mt Amos walk. And it was quite different. It started like the other walks in the area – nice wide track, little up and down here and there but then started to get quite steep and suddenly we were on all our fours trying to hold on to a huge piece of steep, slippery rock. When we finally scrambled all the way up, we were breathless. The view was worth it though. Unfortunately it was incredibly windy. And we had to sit there for over an hour while Gordie was filming a time lapse of the view. When he finally turned off the camera I was so happy to be finally going down. Not for long though. That huge steep slippery rock turned out to be even less pleasant on the way down. We made it back to camp just before it got dark and my legs were a total jelly after that mega descent.

In the evening we had to literally fight off the possums who were quite happy to climb on our chairs and table checking out if there is anything to eat.

Finally on the road/ Konecne na ceste

2010-05-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was the re-scheduled departure date. At three we were mostly packed, house was still a bit untidy and there were few things to sort out. So I started with the idea that maybe we can leave the next day. At that moment Gordie pushed me into the car, started the engine and basically kidnapped me. Truth is – we probably would never leave otherwise. The first night we spent in Mayfield, a lovely campsite at a beach.

Streda byl jeden z mnoha planovanych datumu odjezdu. KOlem treti jsme byli vicemene sbaleni, dum byl sice jeste trochu neusporadany a meli jsme par drobnosti na zarizeni. Tak jsem jen tak mezi reci navrhla, ze treba muzem vyrazit az zitra. V ten okamzik me Gordie hodil do auta, nastartoval a vystrelil vpred. Pravdou je, ze jinak bysme nevyrazili asi nikdy. Noc jsme stravili v prijemnem kempu v Mayfieldu na vychodnim pobrezi Tasmanie.

Before departure/ Pred odjezdem

2010-05-10T04:21:00.001-07:00

We have just spent a whole day driving around town organizing stuff, picking up stuff, dropping stuff off and sorting stuff out. We got our first aid kit, RACT roadside assistance, car insurance, tools and other bits and pieces. In short we are total chickens. Because from what I heard most backpackers just rock up at the airport, buy the nearest car they can afford and take off into the outback. The stories we heard usually don’t involve much shopping (apart of bottle shops and groceries) and definitely not much paperwork and you never hear the word “mechanic” in there. Mind you these stories might be the base for the other stories we have heard a lot lately, that is about people and their cars breaking down in the most remote places highly unsuitable for breaking down at. So only time will show if this running around town in madness was a total waste or the best thing to do. Also we spent heaps of money today… mostly on stuff we hope we will NEVER use…

Talking about breaking down – our washing machine is dead. Highly unpractical as I have saved up piles of washing as I wanted to do it all before we go, so it’s all nice and clean and ready to go. Which means I will spend quite a while in the Sorell laundromat tomorrow.

Tak dnesek jsme stravili zarizovanim, nakupy, organizovanim, rozvazenim a vyzvedavanim vseho moznyho. Takze mame lekarnicku, pojisteni na auto, asistenci pri nehode, nejake naradi a dalsi drobnosti. Ve zkratce jsme celkem mejdla. Nebot vetsina ostatnich cestovatelu, o kterych jsme slyseli, jednoduse vyskoci z letadla, hodi svuj batoh do nejblizsiho auta, ktere si musou dovolit a vyrazi za dobrodruzstvim. Tyto pribehy vetsinou nezahrnuji prilis nakupu, jeste mene papirovani a nikdy slova jako “autoopravar”. Na druhou stranu tyto historky muzou byt podkladem pro dalsi typ pribehu, kterymi nas v posledni dobe vsichni zahrnovali, a to o autech, ktere se v podstate rozsypaly na velmi odlehlych a tezko dostupnych mistech. Takze hadam, ze az casem se ukaze, jestli jsme dneska plytvali casem nebo si naopak velmi pomohli.

Jo a taky jsme dneska utratili celkem dost penez… prevazne za veci, ktere doufame, ze nikdy nepouzijeme.

Jo a kdyz uz jsme u toho rozsypavani se – nase pracka je zcela kaput. Coz se moc nehodi, nebot jsem prani odkladala az na ted, abych mela vsechno krasne vyprany na cesty. Coz nyni znamena, ze znacnou cast zitrka stravim v sorellske pradelne.

Work Farewell/Posledni den v praci

2010-05-01T14:08:00.001-07:00

Friday 30th April was officially my last day at work. Which was quite sad actually, I sure will miss all the people I worked with and their partners and kids. They are a lovely bunch of people and I wish them all the best.
On Saturday Gordie did more work on van – he swapped the car seats for better ones because the driver’s seat was broken. The new ones are actually more comfy and look better as well so that is one success story. The water tank is well on it’s way, I cleaned it and I think Gordie has all the parts now so he might have a go at it today. Immobilizer is now in and Gordie is absolutely in love with it.

Patek 30. dubna byl oficialne muj posledni den v praci. Coz bylo trochu smutny, kolegove a jejich rodiny mi budou chybet. Mela jsem stesti na prima lidi a do budoucna jim timto jeste jednou preji vsechno nejlepsi.
V sobotu se Gordie opet vrtal v nasem obytnaku. Vymenil sedacky za lepsi, protoze ta na strane ridice je rozbita. Jedna strana totiz nejak povolila a pokud by v ni Gordie stravil 20,000 kilometru, tak mu ty zada uz asi nikdy nikdo nenarovna a nadosmrti skonci jako Quasimodo. Nadrz na vodu jsme odmontovali, vysypali z ni nekolik kilo pisku, pak jsem ji vycistila a dneska ji Gordie zkusi namontovat zpatky.

Betty

2010-04-11T22:37:00.000-07:00

After months and months of car hunting and expensive misfortune which led to arguments and depression we finally found her. Her name is Betty, born in 1978 could be discribed as mature lady but still fit and going strong, however flat or downhill roads are preffered.

When we got her she the interior was well on the way. There is sink, fridge, foldout bed, cupboards, stove and power ponts. Unfortunatelly the sink, the stove and the fridge wasn't properly hooked up so we had that plus heaps of other stuff to keep us busy.

Tak toto je Betty, nas domov od domova jak se rika. Stastnymi majiteli jsme se stali v zari, po mesicich brouzdanim inzeratu v tisku i na internetu.

Betty je sice zraleho veku, nicmene stale beha jak zamlada. Pravda, uprednostnuje jizdy z kopce a po rovince, ale jinak zatim vse funguje.

Domu jsme si ji privezli uz v zari. Po mechanicke strance je sice zcela v poradku a interier taky nebyl spatnej, ale prece jen bylo co delat. Lednicka, varic a drez tam sice byl, ale ani jendo nebylo zapojeny. Krome toho jsme chteli vymenit svetla za LED zarovky a vylepsit par dalsich malickosti.

Introduction / Uvod

2010-04-11T01:44:00.001-07:00

This is hopefully going to be a blog about our trip around Australia.
Am saying hopefully because it may not end up that way. I have never had a blog so it’s hard to say if I can keep it up. I know the few attempts on keeping a diary during my teenage years didn’t last more than few days at the very most. Other problem will be internet and power access. Both of these we may have only occasionally and therefore won’t be able to turn the computer on all the time. So we will see but hopefully this will be a blog.
It’s aimed mainly at our families and friends who want to check what we have been up to, what fortunes and misfortunes we have been facing etc. Let’s face it – who doesn’t just love reading or hearing about other peoples misfortunes? Ah we all do…
I would love to keep both versions – English and Czech – going but am not sure time will let me. Any volunteer translators?
As I said – not sure how successful I will be but will try to keep this one going!

Toto bude doufejme blog o nasich cestach kolem Australie. Rikam doufejme, protoze to tak taky nemusi dopadnout. Nikdy jsme blog nepsala, tak tezko rict, jak dlouho u toho vydrzim. Kazdopadne mych nekolik pokusu o psani diare behem puberty nedopadlo nijak slavne, par dni nanejvys. Dalsim problemem bude elektrina pripojeni na internet. Ani jedno totiz nejspis nebudeme mit moc casto. no holt uvidime.
Jinak tento blog je hlavne pro nase rodinky a kamarady, ktere zajima, jak se nam dari ci nedari.
Pokusim se udrzet obe verze – anglicky i cesky, ale tezko rict jestli to budu stihat. Jinak cestinu posledni dobou moc nepouzivam, tak to holt neni co bejvalo, jak po gramaticke tak po slohove strance, tak prosim o shovivavost.