Roadtrippin' in Australia

Arrived at 8am on 7/10/2010 at Brisbane Airport. Departed from Brussels, then further stops in Abu Dhabi & Singapour. Flights were ok but exhausting at the end. Sunny morning. Kate picked me up at Brisbane Airport with her son Simon & after one hour of driving we arrived at their home.

Beautiful house & garden. When you arrive you got to zigzag between the cows because they won't get out of the way for any reason :). Got a nice room, talked a bit with Kate and then slept for 10 hours till now, 22h. Still didn't see François neither the boys they are already sleeping I think ! Will be for tomorrow. Kate will help me tomorrow with opening a bank account & getting a phone number !

Went yesterday to the movies with Max & his girlfriend, watched Wall Street: Money Never sleeps (20$ the ticket !), very good. Today started work at 7:30am, hard work, but gettin muscles & experience, the view is amazing, looks like Lord of The Rings landscapes. Stopped at 10h30, and started again at 2:30pm till 5:30 pm. Exhausting, my back hurts a lot but finally we finished the 250m² of turf. => One piece is half a m², so 500 pieces of 15kg each, thats 7,5tons to carry.... (passe mal!!!). Now chillin in front of the telly watchin cricket, India-Australia. I'm Simon's new best friend & tomorrow havin my first grasse-mat since I arrived :) ENJOY

Woke up with this view => Everythings flooded, opened a bank account at Commonwealth Bank & chilled out

Went to Brisbane with the train to meet a guy for a car & also visited Celine, she has a great flat, on the way back passed through Chinatown, funny.

Did my first day of fence painting, chill job cuz i can listen to music meanwhile. François seems happy so thats ok. Got payed 150$ for the turf job. Yesterday planted some bushes with Kate & did some gardening.

Did some more painting & gardening the last few days. some pulvérisations. Also built two wooden boxes with François so they can grow pumpkins in it. Went yesterday to the Suncorp Stadium, watching Brisbane Roar - Newcastle Jets (1-1), really good. Beautiful sunday today, Kate went off to Sydney with Simon gettin a new dog. Still in search of a decent car.

Worked all week long, except on Monday where I went to the mall and eat some amazing sushis at Sushi Train. Today continued the fences & mowed the lawn. Then watched Max fly his Red Bull plane. I gotta train on the simulator to fly it. Great day.

Melbourne Cup Today !!!! It is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race. Billed as The race that stops a nation, it is a race for three-year-old horses and over, over a distance of 3,200 metres. It is the richest and most prestigious two-mile handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races in the world. The event is held at around ten to 3 pm on the first Tuesday in November by the Victoria Racing Club, on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne.

Everybody bets on a horse, even if they don't follow horseracing daily, so I had to put a bet. After some quick research on Internet yesterday evening, I decided to bet 10$, for winner place, on Shocking (last year winner, and 13/1 odds) and Americain (11/1 odds).
Favorite horse for every analyst was So You Think (3,5/1 odds). So, after a really amazing race, guess who won ?
Ow yesss, thanks a lot Americain ! 110$ in my pocket, I won the Velge's family sweepstake (everybody puts 6$ in a bowl, then you need to pick three random horses, Simon picked Illustrious Blue, Tokai Trick & Americain for me, and I won again!).

That's what you call professional betting.

Bought my car on monday, everything works good except little problem with the 4wd so I'm going thuesday to the mechanic to get it fixed & get a general check-up of the engine to be sure everything's ok. Continued the fences. Cleaned my car with the vacuum-cleaner & used carpet cleaner to clean the stains in the back. You can see the bullbar is a little bit bent (bought it that way), but we're going to try to straighten it up.

Today we (François, Kate, Simon & myself) drove to Mount Neebo, for a picnic at Jollys Lookout. Wonderful view & nice place ! Check out the pictures, you can even see the ocean.

Went to church market where Sam is selling her cookies, brownies & cupcakes. Then brought my car to the garage for check-up some repairs. Then spent whole week buying camping gear, stuff to build my bed, gps, etc....
Bed is built with: 2 wooden boards, 7 wooden poles, 16 angle brackets and a dozen of screws. Today I also bought a foam matress fais sur mesure 1.3m x 1.8m bed linnen & a quilt & two pillows. Here some pictures of the result, more detailed pictures will come later on. Tomorrow I'm leaving Velge's home, I'm very excited to finally travel but also sad to leave this beautiful place & the whole family.

(PS: on these pictures you can't see the foam matress yet, these pictures were taken with the air bed installed, but it is way too thick (22cm), instead of my foam matress (5cm) so it looks like there isn't much space to sleep but actually there is way more. )

Bought some working gear with François, got my own steel-tip shoes now ! Kate found me a job at one of their neighbours, laying some turf for 20$/hour, . I'm startin in 2 hours, we'll see if it goes well.

First stop in our adventure, Byron Bay. Paradise on earth. Surfing with the dolphins, wonderful sunrise, chillin out with hippies in the railway station, awesome live music, aboriginal art & cute little shops & markets. A vibe impossible to describe ! We were'nt dissapointed and knew, the day we left, that we would come back here for sure !

After leaving Byron, we're heading down south to Yamba, apparently their should be amazing green pools and blue pools where you can jump off from, they were'nt that great but still some nice pictures to be taken

After Yamba, off to Coffs Harbour, where the Waterfall Way starts, till Armidale. Wonderful waterfalls, amazing national parks and peaceful driving :)

Dorrigo, halfway on the waterfall way, pretty high (elevated ?) town (700m), so our good old Hilux Surf had some overheating problems on the way up, but we took a break for a couple of minutes and then she was climbing fine again :) Pretty dead town, but amazing National Park, tropical rainforests and beautiful canopy !

Back from the Waterfall Way, le wanted to check out the picturesque town of Red Rock (250 inhabitants), and we weren't dissapointed ! Wonderful views, beaches, landscapes !

Diamond Head is that kind of place that you will only find & go to because you found an amazing camping spot close to it in your CAMPS 5. This amazing book, the Travellers Bible, will guide you to wonderful camping spots in the wild. Kangooroos waking us up in the morning, 4WD on the beach, enjoy !

Very nice city, with some good surf and a huge foam party at Fanny's !

Sydney, the capital of NSW and one of the most beautiful Harbours in the world. We had an amazing time in King's Cross and at the Great Aussie Backpacker Hostel. Unfortanetely we couldn't find any work, and living in Sydney is very expensive !

Wonderful National Park, but very hot on the day we were there. Enjoy the Three Sisters !

Avalon ! The best place we've been to so far in Australia, together with Byron. and definitely the best Aussie's we will ever meet in Australia !!! Thanks a lot to the Vann family for having us for Christmas lunch ! It felt so good to celebrate christmas with aussies and not being alone on that day ! We could finally sleep in a real bed :) The next day Harry took us to a nice little waterfall with a rockpool. and with the beers, the guitar & the didge good old James Lang jammin' for us, it was a wonderful day !

Back to Byron Bay for NYE !!!! We met some amazing Ozzies from QLD in the caravn park where Nick & Sara were staying. Thanks Deacon, Dazza, Azza, Twinky etc... for lettin us party with you guys !! Awesome ! NYE on the beach was great :) amazing jumps at the Quarry ! Enjoy

After all the good times in Byron, time to find some fruitpicking work. Even if QLD was flooded, we were stupid to go to Mundubbera, the citrus capital. Very bad experience ! Being ripped off by a farmer isn't funny at all. Still we met 2 great German girls, Lisa & SIna. Mundubbera we won't miss you !

Byron Bay, been there 5-6 times, and every time we love it ! You know what they say about it People stay for one day, then one week, then forever. We will miss your beautiful beaches, chill atmosphere, live music, great people. Awesome place !

Thanks so much to Nick, Sara, Ali & Harry and to all our friends from Avalon for this wonderful week ! Legends !

Thanks Jake for having us on Australia Day, good times :)

On the road to Mooroopna, we made a halt in Canberra were we met a friend of Louis, Morgane, who is on Erasmus at Canberra University. Had a nice party there then continued our trip.

We had to make an other stop on our way to Mooroopna because we were waiting for some money for fuel. We headed to a nice camping spot in Oura, where we met Damien, a local guy who was very friendly and invited us to drink some beers and watch the sunset at his place.

Arrived in Mooroopna, where we checked in at Turnbull Bros Orchards. Started picking the next day, apples, 2 bins = 80 $. Next day Louis got fired, so he left for Melbourne trying to find another job.

One week later, still working at Trunbulls. Didnt work on friday nor last weekend because it was too wet. Worked on Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday. Louis went back to Belgium, sad but he is confident it was the best decision to make. Meanwhile im still working but not that happy about the money I am earning. Even if i finally joined the 3 bins - a day club ;) . Have to save money to service my lovely car. Hope it wont cost too much. Im searching for a cheap and reliable mechanic around Shepparton. Work is hard and not very rewarding but you have to make a living right ? I love Australia ;) BLOODY APPLES AND PEARS ! I miss surfing !

After almost two weeks of picking pears, it was time to leave Mooroopna. So I packed my stuff, cleaned my room, and on the road again. After two hours of driving I arrived in Melbourne. Had a nice draught beer at the Little Creatures Brewery, 10$ but it was worth it. The next day I did some sightseeing and wandered in Melbourne CBD. In one of the backalleys I found a hairdresser, so I finally cut my hair, it was about time :) And it must be said, she did a good job (surely because she's from Byron :p).

After two days in Melbourne it was time to hit the road again, heading to Torquay to start the Great Ocean Road. Torquay, the surf capital of Australia, is a very nice place and you can buy all your surf gear in surf city. After havin bought a wonderful boardshort I decided to check out the waves at Bells Beach, a very famous surf spot, where every year in April they have the Rip Curl Pro Surf Comp. The surf was awesome, but the water was very cold and you had to be careful in the shallow water with the rocks underneath.