Australia Article

Christmas Pageant in Adelaide

2011-11-18T17:31:00.000-08:00

After being part of the pageant during our first year in Adelaide (parading with other nationalities and wearing our French outfits, we were representing the diversity of Australia), we have this year the opportunity to watch every of the 60 floats,

This pageant is the largest Christmas parade in the world. Maybe due to the fact that it is too cold to organise such an event in the North Hemisphere.

Click here to see more pictures

Wikipedia - click here to learn more

1 year down under

2010-10-23T21:35:00.001-07:00

1 year ago in Perth

The 24th on October 2009, we arrived in Perth in Western Australia, 17kg in each backpack, impatient to discover this country. We have been welcomed by a nice and helpful Australian couple for a week. That was the beginning…

Also, we left Europe with many questions in mind (see our thought in section on the website before we left) : what to do, how to travel, is the budget enough, would we like this life of backpackers, and of course it was a big question mark what we will do next.

One year after, we both have a job for Schneider Electric, living in a nice flat close to the beach in Adelaide, 2 cars and we have got plenty of staff and furniture; we are definitely at more than 17kg each.

We have seen all seasons. Summer is great , winter a bit cold but short and other time nice to live. We have travelled in most of the country, experience all kind of accommodation.

Let ‘s see how the second year will look like.

The world is so small

2010-02-07T17:31:00.000-08:00

Few days ago, we met other people members of www.couchsurfing.org in St Kilda night market . St Kilda is the beach of Melbourne (20 min by Tram from CBD) ; it has a great night life and a market every Thursday.

Imagine that, you meet somebody from Germany who knows your native small town (= Roche la Molière & Saint Victor sur Loire), who has been there and who has been hosted by one of my best friend (Delph C., not to mention her).

The world is so small…

Australian Tennis Open

2010-02-03T17:16:00.000-08:00

For the ones not passionate in Tennis, there are 4 big tournaments in the World called “Grand Slam” :

Roland Garros
Wimbledon
US open
Australian Open >>> so, one of them is in Melbourne

More than 40 000 people a day, great atmosphere (when it is sunny), famous players close to us. Don’t forget your hat, sun glasses and sun screen because it can be very hot. Don’t forget also some snacks because the food is very expensive. Finally, we have discovered that Tennis is probably the only sport where you can see better in live than on TV.

To the organisers of the tournament : please don’t invite Federer next year, because semi-final and final won in 3 sets are is a bit short, isn’t it ?

Driving in the outback

2010-01-29T23:28:00.002-08:00

It is difficult to imagine how big is Australia from France. From one city to another, there are at least 1000 km. And not that much between.

We were driving all the way done from Adelaide to Melbourne. We spent between 5 and 10 hours on the road and it took us 5 days !

In the outback, imagine that the road is like on the pictures for a while, straight, without traffic or building. Sometimes (every 200 km), hopefully, there is a road house where you can buy petrol and some food…

You are suppose to take lots of extra water, some food, to check your car before leaving. Of course, you need spare tires. It is preferably to stop at each petrol station. Mobile phones don’t get network and it is not recommended to drive by night as you will increase the chance to hit an animal (we have seen hundreds of kangaroos dead on the side of the road).

In our case, we did the trip without spare tire… And of course, we have got a flat tire, fortunately it was close to Melbourne, lucky us. But I would check next time we found a driver to go in the outback.

Weather in Melbourne…

2010-01-24T18:55:00.001-08:00

It seems it would be impossible to define what is the climate in Melbourne. Locals say that you can have 4 seasons in one day. Unfortunately, this is true.

From morning to evening, it is always changing. So, it is common to see people walking with umbrella when it is shining and people with flipflops when it is raining.

During one week, temperature was 13°C, later 43°C, then 20, and finally 30°C on Sunday. Do you need more example ?

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T04:54:00.001-08:00

Happy new year from the “ new year eve capital of the world “ : Sydney !!!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from Australia – Melbourne.

Imagine that you can stay outside for Christmas, that you can wear only a T-shirt and that the following week end, everybody goes on summer holidays. It looks strange, isn’t it ? That is how it happens in Australia.

Only one issue in mind : Winter time in Australia should be long without “break” for Christmas and new year eve.

All greetings for our families and friends !

Change the time on your watch !

2009-12-21T04:05:00.000-08:00

Australia is a big country. If we were not sure before, now it is clear.
We have spent a lot of time on the road, that is one point.
But which is more impressive for me is that we changed the time on our watch/phone/camera 3 times in 10 days ! (doing it in Europe without going backward is impossible).

Western Australia (Perth, Broome) to Northern Territory (Darwin, Alice Springs) = +1 hour
Northern Territory (Darwin, Alice Springs) to South Australia (Adelaide) = +1.5 hour
South Australia (Adelaide) to Victoria (Melbourne) = + 0.5 hour

Hopefully, it seems that between Victoria (Melbourne) and New South Wales (Sydney), there will be no change.

Coober Pedy

2009-12-17T01:11:00.001-08:00

Coober Pedy is an interesting small town between Alice Springs and Adelaide which is world known because of opal mines. After hundreds kilometres in red bush from Alice Springs you arrive in this white town.

Almost everything is underground: churches, houses completely furnished, hotels and hostels, bars and of course opal mines. Be careful, underground bars are more commercial than real local place. Underground, walls are white and red and sometimes, if you are lucky, you can find some opals in your room.

All population is leaving for or thanks to opal. Anybody can have a permit to dig. Some stays few months, other several years looking for this precious material. All are a bite crazy to live here where there is nothing to do in this place surrounded by the desert and where the temperature can reach 60C.

Uluru sunset and sunrise

2009-12-09T01:57:00.000-08:00

Sunset and sunrise on Uluru sounds like a dream for a lot of people everywhere in the world included myself.
I imagined to see it in the middle of the bush with nobody in a quiet atmosphere and with some aboriginals explaining this sacred rock and their story.
The reality is a bit different. You arrive in a parking with a perfect view on Uluru but not completely alone. A lot of tours and people want to see the sunset like you. Some groups drink alcohol (like champagne) and have a dinner in a front of this rock like a celebration stopping time to time to take a picture. Even helicopters with tourists fly over Uluru.
You can’t find any aboriginals around, only Western type guides.
Anyway this rock is still impressive and the sunrise gives to you a real emotion: the rock appears slowly in the sunlight giving to it progressively colours and shadows.

The Ghan’s train between Darwin & Alice Springs

2009-12-01T01:38:00.000-08:00

Before to take the train you can following information:

Train’s name: The Ghan
Departure: Darwin, 22:11/09, 9 am
Arrival: Alice Springs, 22:11:09, 11 am
Distance: 1500 km
Number of night in the train: 1
Stop: Katherine for 4 hours
No service on board

You arrive in the train with your own food and some equipment for sleeping like pillow and sleeping bag (nothing is provided in budget class).
After 4 first hours in the train, The Ghan stops in Katherine where you can book a tour for 4 hours to the gorges or to the city, organised by the train company.
Then you come back in the train and enjoy 18 more hours of desert as unique landscape through the window at 90 km/hour. Very slow compare to TGV in France…

Sharks or dolphins

2009-11-23T23:26:00.000-08:00

Game : try to distinguish on the pictures below what is a shark and what is a dolphin. You can click on each picture to make it larger and publish your answer as a comment. The quickest to give the right answer will get a nice postcard from West Coast.

Solution will be published in 2 weeks.

A) B)

C) D)

Bush experience

2009-11-18T20:41:00.001-08:00

Let’s go to the bush for few days ! You are going to Karijini National Park to visit his fabulous gorges and because this park is in the middle of nowhere you will camp in the bush.

First what is the “bush”? It is an Australian expression that means country side or area without any habitants.

Your adventure begins at the end of a one long day journey in bus with a group of 16 people and 1 guide. You are discovering the camp: 3 tents, 2 big tables, 1 barbecue, 1 camping gas. You are warmly welcome by flies coming on your face and flying around you, so happy to see somebody. Not necessary to specify that wearing a “fly net” is better in this area. Except the camp, nothing around ; 2 toilets and 2 showers by 50 meters from the camp. And of course, mobile phone are not working.

Night is coming, it is time to prepare your bed, wash yourself, cook the dinner, and take some rest.

Your bed is a swag. A swag is an australian made mattress with a protection against cold weather, insects and animals. The guide will explain you that you should first check if the swag does not contain any animals and disinfect it with a spray. Then you can roll it back until the time you will use it for the night.

Then you need to wash yourself, be prepared because toilets and showers are not close from the camp so don’t forget anything like your towel and take a torch with you because it is becoming dark. You can even go there with somebody if you are a bit scare by frogs, spiders, dingos or bogs (really big here) or maybe a snake, who knows.

For dinner, lucky you, you have a guide with you who knows how to cook something good in the middle of nowhere.

To sleep you have 2 possibilities: tent or outside. Outside under stars should be the best if you are not scared by the bush and flies at 5am. Just before going to bed you are discovering lights very far away like a sunset. After a call with a satellite phone, the guide is explaining you is a bush fire almost at 10 km far from the camp. You have to pack your luggage and put it in the bus in case you have to evacuate during the night.

Then you are ready to sleep. Good night ! And enjoy stars and quiet atmosphere, nothing will disturb you except the bush itself: fire, insect, flies……

4200km on the West Coast

2009-11-16T21:19:00.001-08:00

Western Australia (WA) is huge (1/3) of all Australia.

We were travelling from Perth to Broome (more than 4200 km by bus including detours) and the biggest town crossed was Geraldton with nearly 20 000 inhabitants.

On one hand, imagine that you are driving for several hours without any village on the way, only petrol stations sometimes.Therefore, this is the main reason why we did not take a van to travel on this part of Australia.

On the other hand, imagine that as few people are living there, you can see easily the wild animals in their natural environment. Kangaroos, emus, snakes, lizards, eagles on the ground ; dolphins, sharks, manta rays, diverse fishes, whales, turtles in the ocean. It is simply amazing.

They have even too much animals that they need to reduce some of them drastically. For example, they put some poison for fox, and spread voluntary Myxomatosis virus for rabbits.

Imagine also that all the beaches are desert, that you can swim alone in the ocean. We have the feeling it could be different on the East Coast… Wait and see !

Last but not least, most of the places we have been staying have a swimming pool and barbecue at our disposal.

One Australian Sunday around Perth

2009-11-06T00:57:00.000-08:00

10am : Toc toc toc, wake up the day is sunny and it is time to spend one Sunday like Australian people.
First a breakfast with Australians in a Park in Perth: eggs, sausages, mushrooms, bacon, tomatoes, bread, fruits, orange juice in order to begin the day.
Then swim in the ocean in Cottesloe, discover how to play with cold waves and think about the strong and dangerous Australian sun on your skin.
Then direction Fremantle, walk in this suburb of Perth, see the market, streets, port, eat a Fish and ships and go to pubs (like Little Creature pub - famous bar and brewery), meet friends, chat and drink beers all day. Pub and bars are full of people from mid-day until 10 or 11pm.

Stopover in Singapore on the way to Australia

2009-10-29T01:58:00.000-07:00

Imagine, you are landing in Singapore which is an island and a country, going through all identity checkings within the airport air conditioning atmosphere. And then, moving to the taxi, the airport’s front doors open.
A hot and humid weather is coming in your face. Welcome in Singapore. Around 30°C all the year, no fresh air, only rains during the wet season.
You are going to the city and you are feeling so small between skyscrapers. If you walk in the city you can find a mosque, a temple, then a church.
A real melting pot of culture exists, you can easily get any kind of food you want (even if Asian food is the most common despite sometimes a lack of hygienic conditions). But each different group seems to leave their own way.
Also, you will learn that it is not fully democratic with censure for the local press.