Welcome to Oz! Darwin looks great - it's winter in Australia but the temperature in Darwin is just perfect - around 25 celcius. In summer it would be too hot here in the most northern point of Australia (only a 2 hours flight from Bali, Indonesia!). Darwin is also a lot smaller then I though; it's more like a town with its 81.000 inhabitants. Only 19 million people live in Australia, an area half as big as Europe. Most of them live in the cities around the coasts. My god, we've got about 16 million people living in Holland alone! I've not yet checked out the beaches; will do that tomorrow.

Tomorrow is also the day that Hans, a collegue from Lotus, will be arriving. We'll be travelling together for 3 weeks, after which he will fly back to Amsterdam from Cairns (East coast Australia). It'll be good to see someone from "back home" again. And that just about wraps up my first Ozzie writing. I'm going to go out to get more and more settled into this Australian experience (which definately is very different from the South-East Asian one!) Enjoy your sunday, I'm sure I will. Floris

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It definately gets a lot colder here in Alice Springs, the center of Australia, the middle of the desert. 25c during the day but down to 5c during the nights. Hans and me arrived this morning at 05:30 after a 20 hour busride from Darwin. It was a beautifull ride though through the deserted, red desert country of the Outback of Australia. Ocasionally we stopped for gas at the most remote places I've ever been to. Nothing there except a couple of Kangaroos, Wombats, Ozzies, beer and large, large trucks (the "Road Trains"). It definately is a different experience from the crowded Holland (and even Europe I would say).

Kakadoo National Park
Just a couple of days ago we went out on a 3 day trip to the wonderfull and truly amazing Kakadu National park. We were the nine of us plus Joey, our real "Crocodile Dundee" guide. It was an amazing trip through the Aboriginee backland of Australia. Just take a look at the picture next to this writing. It's not me on that rock but I do have photos exactly the same. It really is like that! Also the sunset on the other picture; the best sunsets I've ever seen. It was a group of mainly europeans - a guy from Switserland, 2 girls from England, 2 girls from Germany, a Norwegian girl and another girl from Switzerland. Playing the Didgeridoo and the Clapsticks around the campfire while you hear the saltwater crocodiles (Salties) in the "Billabong" (pond) right next to you. The Didgeridoo ("Didge") is the typical aboriginee instrument consisting of a hollow, 1 meter piece of tree eaten out by termites. You blow through it where you produce that typical deep zooming sound. It's beautifull but definately not easy to play.

Too many impressions to write about. Throughout Asia I've seen beautifull temples and other man-made constructions; Australia is the country of natural beauty. You walk 5 mintutes outside of Alice and you find yourself inbetween wonderfull rock creations and desert plains. On thursday we'll take a 3 day trip to -amongst others- the famous "Ayers Rock" (see the last picture on this page). I'm sure that will be another unforgettable experience. For now I'll say goodbye. It's almost 18:30h here in Alice - dark and getting chilly. We're staying at a great backpackers place; -good bar and live music. We're meeting up again with the 2 english girls from the trip, Katie and Nick, so that should be fun. Then take it easy for a couple of days to recover from the last trip where we had to get up at 05:30 every day (yeah, travelling is really a hard life..). Talk to all you soon and thanx for all the e-mails and wonderfull comments in the Guestbook (ja Pepijn, ik ga zeker proberen om een Wombat voor je mee te nemen; moet alleen nog een goede manier vinden om er eentje te vangen. Floris

Another difficult morning after an even harder evening. It was great though (except for my money; where did it go?). We came back from another great 3 day trip out to the desert of Central Australia. Last night we went for dinner, drinks etc with the 10 of us. Three Americans this time, four Brittish, Hans and me, the two Dutchies. 10:30 in the morning now, had to get out of bed because check-out time is 10 here in Oz. Sitting in the Internet cafe I'm thinking back about the last couple of days.

Ulura (Ayers Rock)
I do believe that the natural wonders we saw this time surpassed what we saw last week in up north in the Kakadoo national park. Ayers Rock for one ("Uluru" in Aboriginees). You can take a look at the last picture on this page. It is impossible though to describe the huge size of this rock (biggest one in the world). To walk around the rock takes you about 2 hours (10k) - Hans, Peter and me climbed the rock. On top the views are like nothing you've ever seen - litteraly ALL the country around the rock are big stretches of land, land and more land. Everywhere you look. This allows you to really see the roundings of the earth. Amazing. When walking ontop of the rock it's what I would imagine walking on the moon would be like. In a couple of days I'll have the photos developed and mail them out to you. Enough about this big, big rock now.

At night we had great camp fires again, out in the open, in the middle of the Australian desert. We slept in so called "Swags". This is best described as a big sleeping bag in which you can put your blankets, pillow etc. You sleep totally out in the open which is great. Everytime you wake up you look up into the brightest sky I've ever seen - millions of stars through a beautifull milky way. Ian, the guide, woke us up around 6:30 every morning while he was putting the campfire on again. It gets damn cold at night in the Australian desert.

Cairns
In 3 hours we'll be out of the desert again, flying to the tropical east coast of Australia, Cairns. Hanzie just got up from his late, late night out. He looks like shit (but what else is new...). He just went for a coffee. I think I could use one myself. Have a wonderfull sunday and a new start of the week. Floris

Time passed quickly and what a week it was. A week of extremes. Five Bungees, two dives on the Great Barrier Reef and I just completed a Skydive from 14.000ft/4200m. The most extreme fact of this all will definately be my savings account though! After arriving from Alice Springs last week, Hans and me spent a couple of days in Cairns, looking around, organizing ourselfs and going out. To both Hans and me it looked like a good idea to go Bungy jumping. I'd only done this once before, about 7 years ago in France. This time we choose a day of unlimited jumps (around f140,-/US$ 70) and we made it up and down 5 times (which I believe is more then enough for one day!). It was the bungy site of A.J. Hackett; the guy that Bungeed of the Eifel tower a couple of years ago. We were lucky 'cause he was there that day and we got to meet him.

Cape Tripulation/Great Barrier Reef
After the jumping we hopped into a bus which took us to Cape Tripulation. "Cape Trip" lies about 3 hours north of Cairns; it is the exact point where the Australian rainforest starts. We spent a few days in the forest before going on a boat for the day to dive the Great Barrier Reef. I tell you, it's wonderfull but (maybe due to bad weather?) not as beautifull as the Perinthian Islands in Malaysia. I guess I should make some more dives but it all just gets too expensive. We then had to head back to Cairns as Hans' three week holliday was almost over. As I write he's in the plane, making his way back to Amsterdam. I must say we had a really, really great time!! So yeah Hans, take it easy when you're back, thanx a million for carrying my stuff with you back to Holland and hope to see you soon again.

Tomorrow I'm of south - I'll do a three day sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands before getting into a Jeep to cross Fraser Island. I'll update you on that as soon as I get back. Floris

Whitsunday Islands, Sunday August 6th
While typing on the keyboard I feel the whole world around me moving up and down (no guys, I have not been drinking this time!) I just came back from a 3 day sailing trip around the beautiful Whitsunday Islands. It was absolutely amazing! We went on one of these 24 metres (80 ft) Maxi Racing Yachts. The yachts have been used for many years in sailraces like the Whitbreat race around the world, the Americas Cup and the Hobart - Sydney race. Our yacht, the Apollo, won just about every race there was to be won. We were on there with the 25 of us, including 4 crew. Normally the 25 of them are crew, sailing the ship 24 hours round! We basically helped the crew out - eg. to raise the sails. Incredible, it take 4 people turning these big wheels for about 5 minutes to get the big sail up. The weather was not always that sunny, which gave us great wind thoug. I'll send you some photos as soon as possible.

Whales next to our boat!
On our second day we got really lucky. Right next to us 2 whales came up! A mom with a baby. Truly impressive. The whales bring up there babys around Australia this time a year, before heading of to Antartica again at the end of the year. The whales are constantly huffin' and puffin', squirting out tons of water from a hole in there backs to breath. They swam alongside the boat for about 10 minutes, before diving off into the deep again.

We're going for dinner and drinks in a bit with the whole crew. At 12 tonight I'm taking the bus for a 12 hour trip further down south (Fraser Island). 'Till next time - have a good one! Floris

Brisbane, Saturday August 12th 2000
A quick stop in Brisbane, halfway the East coast of Australia on my way to Sydney. With 1,8mln people living here, Brisbane looks like a real lively and pleasant place to live (if I had to choose any..). Came down yesterday with the Greyhound from Fraser Island. Met Jooyong (Korea) on the bus - we've going around the city together for the last two days. In a couple of hours we'll be boarding the Greyhound again for the 16 hour trip down to Sydney. The weather is still good (23c & sunny); everyone tells me though that as of Sydney the weather will be changing and get really cold (my god, am I looking forward to that.. NOT!!)

Three days driving around Fraser Island - the largest sand island in the world
Before heading down to Brisbane we spent 3 days on Fraser Island - with the nine of us we got a 4 WD LandRover, some tents and a bbq and drove of to Fraser Island. Being 120km long and 30km wide, this is the largest sand island in the world. Only dirt roads, that's why 4 WD are the only cars allowed. It's a truly beautifull island with inland lakes and an 1935 shipreck laying right on the beach. We had two Joke's on board - both from Friesland. Two Germans as well as Chris, another great guy from Germany. Not to forget Stephan (Mr Austin Powers) from Switzerland and Carry, our only UK girl (what a relief after being on the Whitsunday boat with no less then 20 English!!). Et bien, c'est tout pour ce moment. Floris

Sydney
This was the week of the three big city's of Australia; Sydney, Canberra & Melbourne. I really enjoyed Sydney - so amazing to see the Sydney Opera House (first picture on this page) with your own eyes! It must be the most famous landmark in Australia. It took 14 years to build (instead of the 7 planned) - it cost over 100 million $ (instead of the 7 million planned)!! It was finally finished in 1973. The Danish architect Joern Utzon left the project before it was finished because of all the critisism he got from especially the Australian government. When he left only the shelled roof had been finished. He has never been back to Australia to see the finished Opera House. "It now no longer is my project", he said, as his design for the actual inner Opera house was never carried out (too difficult, too expensive). A group of Australian architects finished the inner Opera house.

Next to the Opera house there is the beautifull Sydney Harbour Bridge that you often see depicted in the same picture with the Opera house. One morning I went up to Homebush Bay, the site (about 11km outside central Sydney) of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. It was amazing to see all the stadiums and just imagine what will happpen here in only 3 weeks time! I did a tour through Stadium Australia, the Athletics stadium. Amazing; it seets 118.000 people alone!

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT)
Canberra ACT is for Australia what Washington DC (District Capital) is for the US. It's a small territory (maybe 120km by 30km) with Canberra as it's main city. This is where the Australian Government is seated. Canberra has got some amazing buildings and good art gallery's. For the rest I must say that there's not that much to do or see here (unless you're interested in politics). Let's move on to Melbourne quickly!

Melbourne
Wow, a bit away from all the backpacker places! This week I was invited by Julie to stay at here and Sonya's place. We met Julie and Danielle on a trip to Barcelona last year - it was good to see her again. On saturday I went to see a real Ozzy Game, Footy, with Matt, David, Bruce and Michelle. This is a game only played in Australia (maybe a bit in the UK) and is best compaired to Rugby. Personally I believe it's a bit more interesting then Rugby. It's not that rough but played a lot faster. Carlton won over Brisbane easily. That night we had a good night out. This left us the whole sunday afternoon in a cool place in Prahran (one of the Melbourne areas) to have lunch.

Tomorrow it's time to leave again. Tasmania is my next destination. Tonight (wednesday) I'm gonna cook a real Dutch dinner for the four of us at Julies (nope, won't tell you what I'll cook yet - actually still have to figure a real good thing out). This afternoon I'm going to have a stroll around St Kilda, just outside Melbourne on the beach, and Albert Park where the Formula 1 is held every year. This is just a street circuit, so I should be able to walk through the pits & stuff. Talk to you later - from a cold but (partly) sunny Melbourne. Floris

Tasmania, thursday August 31st
This is truly amazing - Tasmania. The natural beauty, the snow topped mountains, the lakes and endless wilderness. Only 472.000 people live on this -relatively small- island south of main land Australia. When arriving on Hobart (Tasmania's capital) the rain was pooring down. Nevertheless I spent a day looking around the city. The highlight was the visit to the oldest beer brewery of Australia, the Cascade Brewery (1827). Brought back memories of the times working at Bavaria.

The day after I set of exploring the island. I rented a car for 5 days, tried to get some people to come with me but was unfortunate - Tasmania is almost deserted at the moment - no tourists (there where only the 3 of us in the hostel). The good thing about this is that you have all the places to yourself. The first four days I spent walking through the mountains. Did tracks of about 5 hours a day. Lake St Clair and Cradle Mountain where definately my favorites. I truly recommend Tasmania to anyone visiting Australia. Together with Uluru & the Olgas (Alice Springs) this was the highlight of my Australia trip.

The last day in Tasmania I spent in Port Arthur. This was a 19th century penalty colony (prison) for the convicts brought over from England and Ireland who still kept comitting crimes while in Australia. I wasn't too impressed with it - there are a lot more interesting old builings in other parts of the world I would say... Off to Perth now, all the way west of the country (and a 6 hour flight to get there - just travelling in the same country!!). Perth will be my last destination in Australia. See you there. Floris

Perth, the most isolated city in the world
Spent 5 days in Perth. Really didn't do that much; met Mike, this english guy and we pretty much went out the first three days I was there (not that I'm complaining..). Watched the Footie Final between Essendon and Melbourne. Melbourne didn't stand a chance! Visited Fremantle and the Pinnacle Desert where we went sand surfin', This was actually quit nice - you get this big surf board and sit/stand/lay on it while surfin' of the sand dunes. Must be the most interesting thing to do around Perth, it being the most isolated city in the world! I guess that for me it was just another city. I'm ready to move on now and see what's going on in New Zealand. Take care Australia - I had a beautifull time; I might see you again sometime. Cheers for now. Floris