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Scroll a bit down cause we put this question a few days: there is a request to write the blog in Flemish. I know several non-Flemish speakers were following us in the beginning. If they are still reading or if others picked in, we will of course continue in English. So, pls leave a quick comment or send me a mail if you want to keep it in English. If we dont get any, we will swap to Flemish.
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Day 18 and 19 - Perth to Adelaide and Adelaide visit

Yesterday was a travel day so not much to say really. Except that we ended the day with a sauna and a swim in our hotel. Prices are considerably lower in Adelaide than in Perth, but we are apparently still used to the Perth tariffs so took a nice hotel for our last 2 nights in a normal bed. Tomorrow we are in the monstertruck again.

Today was a cultural day. We read about the must-sees of Adelaide and most of them are actually out of town (more on that in the coming days) except a few. We started with a lazy morning and headed to the Tandanya National Aboriginal cultural centre where they do a live aboriginal performance at noon. The performance was done by a guy from the most northern islands of Australia (Torres Strait Islands) and we were in a small amphiteatre (for about 100 people) together with a whopping 2 other people. So when the guy asked "the audience" to repeat "thank you" in his local language ("esso" for those interested) it was slightly embarrassing to hear Olivia louder than the "audience". As most of you know, Hanne loves this kind of things and usually shouts along very loudly. Our two fellow culture-lovers were British elderly, also notorious for their loud shouting. So, you basically heard me and Olivia. Only one of us was saying the right words.

And it got better: not only had he prepared his local dances, he also prepared a dance that the audience could dance along and he was going to teach us. As he is probably used to huge audiences (or, more likely, to make it less ackward), the dance was to be done from our seats. If you think Hanne and the old British were slightly embarrassed about repeating some local words, imagine how they felt when being asked to dance... And so we enthousiastically learned the dance. Hanne played it smart and took Olivia on her lap to hide behind. No hiding for the British or me... Where is that camera when you need it...

The best part was actually the Q&A at the end where we got some more insights into the life of Aborigines in the new world. It confirmed our feeling that there is a long way to go to integrate both cultures in a proper way. Apparently there is quite some racisme which holds Aborigines back from getting jobs, which implies a lot of crime gets blamed on them etc. It reminded us of the middle-of-nowhere town on the Track where a 50+ year old fellow Aussie tourist warned us to always close our motorhome because "our indigenous friends steal everything".

Afterwards we went to the South Australian Museum which was quite impressive. A rather eclectic mix of dinosaurs, rocks and other gemstones, local fauna, aboriginal art and a lot of aboriginal "tools" to hunt, gather, sail or kill (animals and people). Much bigger than expected and really interesting. The picture of todays blog is a boat they used (until very recently) to sail around the Papuan Islands in the (very rough) Pacific Ocean as a rite of passage to become a man. There are nicer and easier ways to become a man...

To Jef - once your African collection of headrests is complete, you can start on a Papuan collection. We saw some nice ones today :-)

Tomorrow we hit town and then back in the motorhome for a full month!

Ciao mates.

PS: I started the day with run number 3. I am aiming for 20 runs to keep it realistic. For the same reason, Hanne aims for 0 runs. Wisdom comes with age. Physical fitness degrades accordingly.