Australia 1
Brisbane (03-05-2003) till Camooweal (28-06-2003)
Unfortunately we haven't written our English travelreports about Australia. The pictures of this period are available however and you can see them below to have a small impression about the last leg of our Worldtrip. Also there are brief updates written between the photos.
Route through Queensland; 03-05-2003 / 28-06-2003
Your best friend
Updated: 05 May 2003
We finally arrived in Brisbane to start the Australian leg of our trip. The bikes were thoroughly cleaned and then Martins bike didn't run anymore. Martin spent a day cleaning every connector from water but to no avail! Finally the BMW-dealer picked up the bike and after another long search they found the cause in a defective sensor (Hall-sensors). Shipping the bikes was easy as we could roll them on a pallet.
In Brisbane we learned upon arrival that this Monday was a public holiday so we have to pick up the bikes tomorrow from the airport. In the meantime we are doing some sightseeing in downtown Brisbane and enjoy the hospitality of Wayne & Kerrys place although they are in Europe now but we will drop by again when they are back home.
Mister Mark himself
The view over the Glass House Mountains
My name is Graham and I love a tourist for desert
So much in common with Bill Bryson
Martin his big surprise
The Imperial Hotel at Ravenswood
In the middle of nowhere
If you dont know where you are going, you always get there
The result of fighting with a bee
Updated: 22 May 2003
After arriving in the Tableland Mountains just outside Cairns we take a brake for a couple of days. The area here is so different compared to the rest of Australia. It's very green and there are even small lakes where you can swim without having to worry about attacking crocodiles. Australia is so completely different to New Zealand that we only now slowly starts to get used to it. The distances are huge (it takes us an hour to cover 1 cm. on our map) and the sceneries are not changing that much. But on the other hand did we see already quite a bit of the Ozzie wildlife. Martin had already his first accident when he hit a bee which made his left eye almost disappear and it looks really ugly, however Jeannette still claims she loves him. She also faced the consequences of corrugated gravel roads when her bike suddenly completely died because the battery got disconnected. Needles to say we have a ball of a time here.
Jeannette at the Elinjaa Falls
My first river crossing
Who will decide what is right or wrong
Did someone mention the word CROCODILE?"
Back to the Stone age in the year 2003
All alone in the big world
The Smelter at Chilligoe
Glad to be back on asphalt
Looking at the bright side of the road
The Australian Road train
A Black Phyton is warming up
Willie was showing Martin the beautiful moon
The residents of The Gregory Riverbed
Mastering at Gregory downs camp draft
Updated: 24 June 2003
We tried to conquer Cape York but we failed as there was too much soft sand. No fun, especially when you have to drive down the same road! Instead we headed west to the Gulf of Carpentaria. We like this area very much and don't mind a couple of gravel roads; you have to as most roads are gravel roads. We loved the remoteness of Gregory Downs where we stayed almost for 2 weeks in a riverbed. Lawn Hill NP was beautiful with it's gorges where we canoed through. In Gregory Downs they had their annual campdraft which was nice to see. We had an marvelous time but we're glad to be back in Cloncurry. Although a tiny village it is civilization to us and the opportunity to have a nice hot shower again and get ourselves and the bikes prepared for the next leg through Australia.
This is the view while we did some rough camping