Victoria, South Australia: 30.03. – 13.04.2011

At 6am we reached dead tired the northern island. The Oceanrecliners on the ferry from Tasmania do look quite comfortable, but they are everything but. Before we managed to head due west it meant to release Nisto from its bonds, fill up tires and the fridge and have lunch with our agent. Only because of his efforts we finally got our compensation for that forklift who tortured our backdoor.

On one of the world’s most spectacular coastal roads, the Great Ocean Road, we headed towards Cape Otway. And indeed, for once, they do not promise too much. Magnificent beaches, turquoise water and amazing cliffs as far as the eye can see. Despite these breathtaking views, we again headed inland. In the Lake Elizabeth in the Otway National Park there are supposed to be Platypus and of course we didn’t want to miss out and tried our luck. However with the result we do not quite agree, while Sonja is convinced she’s seen one, keeps Markus telling that it was a frog or something. Whatever it was, we’ll never know. But what we do know is, that this little lake indeed is a spectacular sight by itself and was well worth the visit.

We also came up along a couple Koalas, actually heaps of them sat in the trees in Cape Otway. Thanks to a tip we got in Brazil, we even got the chance to camp just below them. While the Australian ‘Bear’ hardly makes any sound and only moves occasionally to have a bite of those yummy leaves  thru out the day, they really turn up the volume at night. You would not belief how much noise these little buggers can make when it is about to defend their territory.

After these excursions we dashed, like many other tourists as well, for six limestone giants, that mainland resigned to the ocean many millennia’s ago. Originally there have been twelve of them that’s where the name Twelve Apostles comes from but with some time wind and waves manages to crack many hard nuts.

Our next destination was the Grampiens National Park. Even if we got rained on a few times we never really had to make huge changes in plan. But here we got to feel the effect of the heavy rains of the last summer. In January there where over 100 landslides that made the center of the park impassable. Anyhow that didn’t discourage us and we stormed the Info center, where the Ranger fed us with an alternative program. And so one could see us wandering around the northern end of the Park for the next two days, this area was mostly spared from the heavy floods.

If one speaks about scuba diving in Australia normally they talk about the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland or maybe about the Nigaloo Reef in Western Australia. That the southern end of the country offers some of the most pristine scuba diving places is largely unknown. Also we didn’t expect much besides of the chance to finally see one of those sea dragons. However we have been surprised by the crystal clear waters of the Piccaninnie Pond in the National Park with the same name and the biodiversity of the wonderfully covered pylons of the Rapid Bay Jetty on the Fleurieu Peninsula. We would have liked to check out more of these places, as we still haven’t found one of those dragons (personally we declared them as extinct!), but we ran out of time as we have an appointment in the end of April. With whom we won’t just tell here and now.

We cruised along the coast along wonderfully solitary beaches. Put in the one or the other 4WD track in the dunes and got some exercise with digging Nisto out of the Sand. But this part of our journey is not only remembered as a good one. About one year ago he hatched out of a chocolate egg, and ever since he’s been traveling as a true companion on the bonnet along with us. That was until he has disappeared without a trace in the little town of Bridgewater. Our investigation makes us belief that he has been hijacked. As we truly miss our Icy, we’d really appreciate all relevant information. How he looked on the day of his disappearance you can see in the in the picture gallery within the companions. We keep his spot free until his safe return. His substitution for the time being took Blue. And Australian Schlumpf (see picture gallery), he’s got carelessly left behind on a campground.

The last days we spent with already colored trees in the Adelaide Hills and the Barossa Valley.

Kind regards from the Outback.

Sonja and Markus

Here it goes to the pictures...