New year is here, 2011 is gone and 2012 here it comes! Happy New Years to you all! Feels exiting with a new year ahead of me, full of opportunities and maybe some traveling too :)
Devils Marbles, along the Stuart Highway, on the drive way up to Alice SpringsDecember was quick, with long hours at work and I still managed to squeeze in some traveling during the weekends. First weekend was spent working at the Christmas Bazaar at the Swedish Church, was there on Sunday and helped Ida in the smörgås-tent. Went to see Savanha sing at the RAAF in Point Cook where she was singing with her choir. Beautiful singing, and the chapel was full of anticipated kids in all ages. Good to see the kids, Savanha and Oden, even for a short period of time that Sunday.
A very focusing Savanha singing
2nd weekend was a long one, started to drive up the car for my brother and dad's Aussie-road trip, Toyota 4Runner from Melbourne to Darwin. Start was on Thursday at 1pm and arrival time to Darwin was Saturday 7pm. What a drive, now I know that Australia is amazingly big distance wise. First day we drove to Port Augusta, around 1080km in 10 hours, second day on Friday we drove to Alice Springs (picked up a guy from the Czech Republic - his car stopped and Mick couldn't fix it - and the best advice he got was to leave his little car by Stuart Highway and come with us to Alice, and so he came with us ... all the way to Darwin as it turned out later in the car :). We drove for 13 hours before arriving to Alice at 8pm and the next day we woke up at 4am and drove the remaining 1500km to Darwin in roughly 15 hours.
Just 1221km to Alice ... and from there another 1500km to Darwin
Road entertainment - emus strolling along
Happy me on Stuart Hwy in the middle of nowhere
Camel-guy walking with his camel down to Alice, met him around 100km north of Alice
Long time no see ... me with my brother and dad in Darwin, Saturday 10 Dec
Car being prepared for the drive back to Melbourne from Darwin, took them a few hours to get ready, not sure why the car was cleaned before the drive in the desert ...
The most memorable things from this quick road trip was the long long highway that didn't have many curves, the long road trains and the help they gave us when overtaking them, the guy with the 2 camels walking from Kathrine to Alice Springs - pretty cool thing to walk in the desert with two camels. I remember we had to make two u-turns to be able to take a photo of the camel guy and have a quick chat to him.
Seeing my dad and brother in Darwin on Saturday felt very good, long time no see ... almost 2 years ago that I've been away now, they both hugged me and my brother lifted me up although he knows I hate to be lifted up in the air :). They started the long drive towards Melbourne on Sunday afternoon after a big shopping tour to the supermarket, they both got some driving lessons for the left side and manual driving with the Toyota, and re-arranging the car for their needs. They got 10 days to get down to Melbourne before we're flying away for Christmas all of us.
MUMC had their Christmas party on Sandridge Beach in Port Melbourne on Thursday 15th of Dec, with traditional bbq and drinks, went and had a good chat, food and bike ride along the bay. One of the girls from the club, Emma, did the MUMC hut in a ginger cookie cake, looked amazing and tasted good too.
On Monday morning, Dec 19, my brother calls me early and tells me they are stuck outside of Marla in SA (South Australia), car was leaking oil and the left hand wheel bearing was broken and they could only drive very slowly. I was happy to inform them that I've paid a road-assistance before the road trip and that they didn't need to pay anything for the towing. Turned out the only thing they had to pay once they've been towed to Marla was the new wheel bearing (once the spare part arrived from Adelaide the next day with the bus) and the work the mechanic guy had done on the car. RACV paid the rest for them, which was excellent! I was really happy with RACV and that they could drive on Tuesday afternoon again ... and arrive to Melbourne on Thursday morning :)
All of us took of to Tassie on Thursday evening, flying to Launceston, my dad and brother got an envelope at the airport with the boarding passes - the trip was a surprise from me and by looking at the passes I thought that they would know where we were heading. But no, my dad didn't have a clue where Launceston is and my brother was all exited and very curious where that surprise place could be located. He eventually asked a guard where Launceston is and was happy to know that it's on Tassie. I was taking them all to my favourite place in Aussie, the most beautiful spot I've seen this far in this big country.
We stayed in Tassie for 8 days, drove from Launceston to Georgetown, Bridport, St Helens, the Freycinet Peninsula and National Park, the Nut, to Cradle Mountain NP before heading back to Launceston for the flight back to Melbourne. Camped all nights except for one night in Swansea where we had to sleep in a cabin since the camping spots were all fully booked. Did the scrambling up and down to Cradle Mountain summit for the 2nd time this year. Tough walk up and much more tougher on the way down, I did make it down but my legs were shaking many times and I was looking forward that delicious dinner we would get at the Cradle Lodge later on.
Pictures being taken over a lookout point west of Launceston on the way to St Helens
Wineglass Bay, Freycinet NP, my brother plunging into the water to try his new boogie-board, he was so happy, I was documenting his progress and he was less happy when I asked him to go back to the car park since we had a long walk up
Cradle Mountain summit - 2nd time up here this year, lots of scrambling, a bit scary and I still don't trust my legs to 100% so I was scrambling on my bottom on the way down and this way it took me a long time to get down
New Years come very quickly this year, I guess the year was so fully booked with things that I didn't have enough time to reflect over the last year. I love to travel, even if I've been traveling interstate now for almost 2 years, still too much to see and I still want to see many thing in Australia. Still haven't been to WA (Western Australia), so this year I hope to make it to WA.
New years eve was spent with my dad, brother, Mick and some friends in Albert Park over looking the city fireworks from the park. Very good spot to see the fireworks and I was happy to be with my family after such a long time :)
Fireworks from the city, overlooking from Albert Park
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