Perth: 08.12.2010 – 11.01.2011

Give it another go on December 8th just after midnight. Never before have we met so many familiar faces at an airport. But also this time excitement was not to be left out. First the catering was missing, then the drug dog did not finish his job in the plane and ultimately the most important was not there; the pilots. After everything and nothing was found, we finally could start our air journey. The jump across the big ocean we could even spend completely horizontal, more relaxing one cannot fly.

On mid afternoon on December 10th we finally landed in Perth. Yes you counted correctly, more than two and a half days later. One because we spent 29 hours airborne on four different flights and two because we flew across the famous date line, we could not even say beep so quick came and went December 9th. Or in other terms it did not exist for us, so now we are a complete day younger than everybody else.

At the airport our friends Gemma and Ian received us right at the gate, the delight of the reunion was tremendous, there was lots to talk about and for us Holidays all inclusive started. The two of them spoilt us from head to toe. Also the sun showed herself from the sunny side and together we explored Perth and its surroundings. Lots we have heard about the famous Australian fauna. But we wouldn’t have thought that we would see Loris all over town and that Black Cockatoo come by for breakfast just on the tree outside of our bedroom window. On one excursion we even saw our first Koalas and Kangaroos. Australia couldn’t have started any better.

Unfortunately we met one of the last mentioned animals also in an unpleasant way. Because we wanted to see sunset in the Nambung National Park or more accurate at the Pinnacles Desert, where thousands of unique columns who look like termite towers stand but they are actually petrified tree trunks, we drove home after dark. Ian saw the Kangaroo facing away from us on the opposite lane from a good distance already nevertheless as we wanted to pass it almost in walking pace, one half of our car already made it, but still Kangaroo decided to turn around and jumped with a big bang into our side. If some of us were sleeping, instantly all have been right awake again and we began searching for the animal without success. As there was no permanent damage to the car we hope that the Kangaroo is also fine and prosper and off in the bush avoiding roads for a while. We continued with even bigger care and did see some three more of them, fortunately all of them only from a safe distance.

Christmas we spent in perfect Australian manner with just over 40°C we did about the only bearable thing; cooking ourselves on a white sandy beach till the worst (heat) is over. While at home the world seemed to drown in that other white but freezing stuff, we most probably spent our hottest Christmas ever with fresh Cherries and Peaches instead of Peanuts and Mandarins. On December 30th we welcomed our 5th visitor on our journey; Silvia and José with their one year only Lorena, they travel from Perth to Sydney in a ‘little’ Motorhome. The seven of us let an exciting year draw to a closure and welcomed a new one with the search for the fireworks; a supposing simple task seemed quite tricky because not even the police was sure if there even is one. Here we need to mention that in Australia private fireworks are strictly prohibited add to this that the City of Perth concentrates more on Australia Day (January 26th). Finally we found it, however the champagne to celebrate the New Year had to be kept secret, also in Australia public drinking is an offence.  Different country, different manors!

On January 4th the big farewell came, Nisto arrived as planed on that same day in Melbourne. Markus traveled alone to avoid expensive accommodation cost and because we counted on getting Nisto before the weekend. But also in Australia, things with shipment never go as planned, here it seemed that customs did not want to part from the container Nisto was in and the big waiting started. Fortunately Markus met Danica, or actually the other way around, a friend from Buenos Aires who just moved to Melbourne, who showed him around town and also offered a spare bed. Thank you very much. Finally the date to open the container and the inspection of Nisto was set to the day after Sonjas arrival, to January 12th.

If our six day cleaning and paint spraying effort paid off you can read in the next report.

See ya

Sonja and Markus

Supplement: Here we want to release a huge thanks you very much (come again) to our friends Ian and Gemma. We’ve had a wonderful time with you and that month passed way to quick, but we for sure will meet again here in Aussie.

Here it goes to the pictures...