Some national parks on the first roadtrip

• Nambung National Park

  
  The Nambung National Park in Western Australia is located 160 km North of Perth. 19.268 hectare big National Park characterized by its geographically unusual coastal desert. The Park is best known for its limestone formations (the Pinnacle Desert) and wide sandy beaches.

  
  

  

  Pinnacle desert (limestone formations)

  

  Driving on sand without 4 WD

  
  
• Cape Range National Park

Park is located on he coast in Western Australia next to Ningaloo Marine Park. Specifically marked by rocky gorges carved by ancient rivers and beautiful beaches.

It's on of the most pristine and beautiful coastlines in the world.

On the way to Cape Range National Park

Sunset at Cape Range National Park

Beach at Cape Range National Park

Ningaloo Reef

Turtles playing with the waves

Turquoise Bay

• Cape le Grand National Park

Located 45 minutes drive from Esperance, South West of Australia, this park features sweeping Heathlands, rugged coastal peaks and white sandy beaches. This beaches are voted as the best in Australia. Kangaroos on the beach and colorful wildflowers everywhere.

Lucky Bay- Kangaroos on the beach

bush hiking to the whistle rock

Whistle rock

in two hours from one side to the other side of the ocean

Adelaide-Impressions of the cities on the roadtrips

  Adelaide

• Capital city of the state South Australia in Australia.
• City of churches
• festival city: Festival of Arts, Glenelg Jazz Festival
• 1,1 million citizens (Adelaide itself 17.500)
• UTC +9:30 in Winter and +10:30 in summer

On 25.12.2019 I flew to Adelaide. In the plane I had a talk to a guy from Perth. We were talking about family, my trips so far, his job. That sounds weird in the first moment but that's quit natural in Australia to have a Smalltalk with someone you don't really know.

Airport Perth

I was very late at the airport that's how -i started the conversation with the guy. I was impressed how many families are in the plane on Christmas day. But that's how they go and visit their families.
Caused by the time difference (+9:30 hours) we arrived in Adelaide at 11:30pm. Public transport is very good in the cities so it wasn't a problem to catch a bus at this time to get to the hostel.

free pancake breaky 

The same day I went to the Hotel to have another nap and to see my parents the day after. 

The view from the Hotel

This day was a shock for me. I forgot about the day and just went into the city to get a Christmas meal. But 26th of December is Boxing day in Australia. It's a public holiday after Christmas and shops are open. They do have a lot on sale. You can compare this day with Black Friday or Super Saturday.

In Australia companies make more revenue than on Black Friday or super Saturday.
People sleep in the city to be the first one to enter the door, others wake up at 4am to be at the shop at 5am (it still opens around 8am).

Park in Adelaide

Adelaide

Botanical Gardens Adelaide

University of South Australia

Old vs. New Adelaide

Scuba diving as a highlight on the west coast

After one week travelling the west coast we reached the lovely region Coral bay. (1250km from Perth)

Stunning, turquoise and crystal clear water with snorkeling spots just on the beach.

The Ningaloo Reef is an over 250km long Coral Reef on the west coast of Australia and an UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Reef is unusually close to the coast. Only 100 meters or a 15 minutes boat trip and you'll see the various life under water.

Map of Ningaloo Reef part of the Marine Park

The Reef is part of the "Ningaloo Marine Park" and home to around 220 species of Coral.  
In addition to a number of more than 500 species of tropical fish in the nation park including various types of sharks live in this Reef.
Animals you might spot:
- turtles
- stingrays
- Manta rays
- dugongs
- Reef sharks
- tiger sharks 
- hamerheads
- lion sharks 
- humpback whales (June to November)
- whale sharks (May to July) 

Ningaloo is the only Region around the world where a lot of whale sharks come together along the coast at the specific time.
Special regulations make sure that the species are safe.

After two days of snorkeling we booked our scuba dive.
We had to wait a few days so we went up to Exmouth to Turquoise Bay for another snorkeling experience and scenery.

On the way to Exmouth

We also saw some turtles playing with the waves in the Cape Range National Park.


Our scuba diving experience:

My Team 

Two times 40 minutes diving up to 9,80m deep

.

Sharks 

Several Fish

A lot if corals

Our snorkeling experiences:

Us waiting to get picked up by the boat

Manta ray

Very lucky: a big whale shark

Merry Christmas from Down Under

Christmas lights trail Perth: Reindeer Greetings

I wish all of you a lovely Christmas. Happy days with family and friends. Enjoy the food and the presents and the relaxing time.

Christmas is a lot different to me this year in Australia. Not only the fact that I'm on the other side of the world also the fact that I'm on my own and not with family and friends.

Another difference is the date of celebrating Christmas.

Australia is celebrating Christmas on 25.12. with the following boxing day (26.12.). These days are both public holidays and the 24.12. is like any other day.

I'm staying in a hostel so I can enjoy the sun and the beach over the Christmas days and take part in the organised family dinner in the hostel on 24.12. 

Scarborough beach Perth

International Christmas Dinner 

I will spend the actual Christmas at the airport and in the plane. My flight to Adelaide to meet my parents the day after is in the afternoon on 25.12.

Eventhough that I don't have the feeling Christmas is coming up, the decorations are singular. 

Not only Christmas trees...

 ... also outside houses

...the Matagarup Bridge...

Christmas projections: St. George's Cathedral, cathedral square

Mooditj Yongas 'Solid Kangaroos'

Santa's Throne

Gingerbread house

Angel Wings

Light up Christmas tree 

...the city with its lights Christmas Lights spots around the city...

... and even the bus.

Perth- Impressionsof the cities on the roadtrip

Perth

• capital city and largest city of the state Western Australia
• Population of 2.06 million people
• located 2.130km from Adelaide (South Australia) or 2.652km from Darwin (Northern Territory)
• size of 6.4 square km (included 30 government areas and 250 suburbs)
• UTC +8 hours

Street Art Perth

Perth city

Train station Fremantle

London Court 

City beach Perth

City Perth

Roadtrip 1.0

Where: Roadtrip along the westcoast of Australia
How long: 18.11.-20.12.2019 (almost 5 weeks)
Travelbuddys: Angelique, Chloe, Sarah
Nationalities travelling together: French, German
kind of travelling: roadtrip with a van

My Team and our car  

Due to the short time that we are available (me 12.11.-26.12.) we had to think about buying or renting a car.
We all met the first time in Perth three days before we started our trip, so we decided to rent a car, that we don't need to calculate time to sell our car we might have bought.

Different nationalities might have different understandings of a roadtrip. But we are all backpackers, so we had roughly the same idea of travelling.

First time shopping for "living in the outback"

How did we figure out what we want to see?

The main help that we got was from the App CAMPERMATE. This App is made for travelling in New Zealand and Australia. It tells you all important information backpackers need. Not only spots to go, also things that we have to look for if you live "on the road".

Things we had to look for (almost) every day that are quit natural if you live in a house:

- toilet
- shower (hot and cold)
- water (drinking, and for our water tank in the car)
- Laundry
- place to sleep (if possible for free)
- plugs (for charge phone, lap top, power bank, camera, head phones,...)
- wifi
- petrol station (almost every day due to long distances of driving)
-...

Another helpful App is fuel map. It shows you the different prices for petrol that you can find your cheapest station to fill up your petrol.



Things that are faszinating on the west coast, even if you spent time in Australia before going to the west coast:

- towns are called cities even if they are pretty small. But they are big for the western side of Australia. A lot of cities or towns are just a Roadhouse or/accommodation. The biggest city is Perth (2,06 million citizens =79% of western Australia's population). 92% of western Australian citizens live in the south west corner of west Australia.

- it's really really hot and no wind makes it even worse. The car stays hot and food is dying in the cupboard because of the heat.

- there is actually wildlife in Australia. We drove during sunset a few times and even that we would be covered if we would have an accident with a kangaroo we drove only 40 km/h that we can stop in an emergency.

- mining is really really big business in Australia, especially the west and south west of Australia is full of mine sites.
The state west Australia hosted 127 principal mining projects and hundreds of smaller quarries and mines in 2017-18. The principal projects produced more than 99 per cent of the industry's total sales value.
Iron ore, Gold, Nickel, Alumina, Zink, ... Mines can be found in the Inland or outback.
2017-18 mining had a value of $88 billion. 

- service is really bad in a lot of parts in western Australia. I had only service in Perth and sometimes on the coast, but no service at all in the Inland. Other providers are better but still struggling.

- the flies are really mean. There are not only thousands of them, furthermore they go everywhere they want to. So we had to buy a fly net to cover our face. We couldn't figure out, what attracts them... We had the feeling that they love sweating people the most. So we tried to keep ourselves as tidy as possible.

- the distances between the "cities" are massive. Two days of 8h drive each and not even reached a big town, only Roadhouses and petrol stations. Also not a lot of changes in the landscape.

Wildlive camping