Two weeks later... After a roadtrip of 4000km, I'm in Adelaide again. It's official: I'm no longer a traveller in Australia. At least not acording to my visa, but we'll see ;-)

So... I've spend Christmas in Melbourne, in 'ok' weather conditions. Well, not to make you too jaleous, it was only 20 degrees in Melbourne. On my last day in Melbourne I met Els, a Dutch girl who joined me for the trip to Sydney. Apart from meeting her, I spend the day packing my stuff, packing and packing, and have a final BBQ with my housemates who I was about to leave. It was a nice evening, especially because some of us ate a kangaroo burger for the first time. In Australia, the 26th is called Boxing Day, but since the Dutch calls it '2nd Christmas day', it felt more like a christmas diner to me ;)

The next morning I woke up early, to get some parts for my car. Not sure if I told this in my previous story, but the cooling water started to leak agian. Lucky for me, the first shop I went to, had the spare hoses to replace. After replacing them for about an hour, I was finally good to go! It was now really goodbye to '380 in Brighton', where I've lived for a long time in 2012.

Together with Els (my first Dutch travelpartner in my car this year!) we drove South to Wilsons Promontory. It's a nice national park with a lot of green bush and white sand beaches. But unlucky for us, a lot of other people thought about going there as well. With the result, people EVERYWHERE! So, just a quick visit on the nice spots and we already left the park. We found a camping spot just outside the park to stay for the night. Another unlucky thing for us, it was raining a lot during the night... I can't remember any night from my 3-months roadtrip in the rain, so it was a first for me this year.

After this rainy night, we left early to avoid another rainfall. We left the camping in the rain, with the tent stuff completely wet in the back of the car. I planned to drive around the coast to Sydney, but because of the people and the weather, we changed it a little bit. We drove to the Snowy Mountains National Park instead. This is one big area with many mountains. Eventhough the name says 'Snowy', there was no snow in there. In fact, it was a lot hotter than we expected (about 25 degrees during the day). It took us a while to drive inside the park on the unsealed roads, but we had some excellent views. At the end of the unsealed roads, we were also in New South Wales again. While we were looking for a place to camp, we found out that my car didn't enjoy the trip. The cooling water was really boiling. I was sooo afraid it would blow up or something, but ok... no ;-) We were staying in a camping next to Kosciuszko National Park for the night.

The next morning we decided to check out this Kosciuszko NP by driving through the park. This park has the highest mountains of Australia, with a peak of about 2200 meters above sealevel. I worried a little bit about the car, but this park is completely with sealed roads (it didn't boil at all this time). It's really nice driving in there, many different kind of bush around you. In winter, this park is completely filled with snow and it has ski/snowboard tracks in there. Not for us, since the weather was between 25 and 30 degrees ;-). At the end of the day we drove to the coast, to Bega to camp for the night.

Waking up early the next morning on the 30th of December, it was time to get as close as possible to Sydney, with stopping in Jervis Bay and Kangaroo Valley in between. It was about 500km to Sydney, sounds do-able, but... Sooo much traffic. We were really not the only ones on the way to Sydney. In some towns we got really stuck for an hour! We were both frustrated about it, that we weren't able to stay long in Jervis Bay. This is a national park (and territory itself) with a lot of wildlife and white sand beaches. We didn't stay for really long in there, less than one hour for pictures and we drove further... At the end of the day we reached Kangaroo Valley (in the mountains again...) to stay for the night. It was 2,5 hours from Sydney, we prayed that it wouldn't be any longer than 2,5 hours... Also we discussed about our stay in Sydney. We had a hostel booked for the 2nd of January and after, but we didn't had anything at the 31st of December and 1st of January. For NY's night we decided to sleep in the car somewhere, and on NY's day we were able to crash at Sven's place, a friend of a friend from me ;)

OKAY, Monday the 31st of December! The very last day of this amazing relaxing year, we woke up... EARLY. Well early, 7am in the morning ;) Quick shower, quick breakfast and off we were. The first hour was a drive through the mountains again, driving past many farms in the Southwest of Sydney. After passing the city Wollongong, we were finally on the fast freeway to Sydney. Not much traffic actually, it seems that waking up early really helped :) At around 1pm we were in Bondi Jct, where we parked the car in a tennis park. We went as quickly as possible to the city centre, to find a spot to see the fireworks later on the day. We've been standing about 45 mins in a line to Mrs Macquiries Point, but we made it! Yeeahhh.... Ok. It was 2pm, we had to wait another 10 hours, together with another 16998 people in this area (and about 1.7 million people in all area's in Sydney together). It was a s*** long day, especially because the temperature went up to 31 degrees. We entertained ourselfs by napping, looking around, making pictures and videos, talking with some neighbours around us, walking around again... etc. After 9pm, after the pre-NY fireworks in the dark, it got more and more excited. All the people went closer to the Harbor Bridge, so did we. Colorfull lighted boats were re-positioning in the water, so nice to see. Unlucky for us, trees were always in front of every angle to the Bridge.

Just seconds before 12am, the happening where I've been waiting for all year finally started. The lip, screened on the bridge, was counting off, and the massive fireworks started! Oh my god, so much beautiful fireworks in the air for about 12 mins long. After the firewoks, everyone wished each other New Year. Els and I were soo tired from waiting all day, we went back to my car. I thought the hardest part would start now (since millions of people go back to the city), but it actually went really smooth. Just walking to the train station, waiting for 4 minutes, and we were even able to sit in the train to Bondi! At that moment, my parents called me to wish me a happy new year, but I actually felt so f***ed and tired so it was short call... We were back at my car just before 2am, and since there were lot's of other backpacker cars around us, instead of sleeping uncomfortable in the car, we just set up the tent and slept in the middle of the park ;-) 'Sleeping in a tent in the biggest city of Australia... DONE' Except for one drunk singing French guy at 6am in the morning who woke us up, we both slept very well.

Around 9am, we packed up again and went somewhere else for breakfast. At 10 I called my parents back, this time I felt more sober to talk with them and wish them a good NY ;) To chill out for the rest of the day, we went to Bondi Beach to take a Dutch traditional NY's swim, this time during 33 degrees weather and 22 degrees water! This day I finally met Susanne again, the 3rd person who I actually met from back home since I got in Australia. She was going to travel with me to Adelaide. Around 3pm it got too crowded in Bondi (thousants of people... check the pictures), so we went back to our car and locate Sven's place. Later, we actually found out that there was a shark-alert after 3pm on Bondi, so thousants of people had to get out of the water. We just missed that ;) About 2 hours later we met Sven and his friend Philippe in their apartment in Pyrmont, where we were able to stay for the night. I met Sven in my first week in Australia, a friend of Jago, an old colleague of mine, and he was happy to let us crash at their place. They had some other (French) visitors as well. Since Philippe is French and Sven, Els and me are Dutch, it was a real French/Dutch night but in English language. For dinner, nobody actually had to cook, because there were a lot of leftovers from their NYE, the night before ;) Salads, quiche, fruit deserts, Philippe is a wonderful cook, it was delicious! I found out that I got a little but sunburned on my face, my face was reeaallly red. Thanks to Nivea for the after-sun cremè, it really helped a lot ;-)

The next day we finally took it really slow, starting with breakfast on the balcony with everyone again. After saying goodbye to Sven, Philippe and the other visitors, we left to see the Blue Mountains. It was the second time for Els, but the first time for me. The weather cooled off a lot, so it was a nice day to go over there and do some walking. Unfortunately we weren't the only ones, a lot of other tourists came to the Blue Mountains as well, especially at the Three Sisters lookout. Ahwell, we made some visits are a few lookouts and did a few short walks. Around 5pm we drove back to Sydney, to the hostel we booked next in Bondi Beach, the first 'open' nights after New Year. After chilling out, diner at the McD, I went for a drive to Sydney North to make some night pictures of the city. After a long drive (to avoid tollways) I came back at the hostel around 1am, to get some sleep. Unfortunately I couldn't sleep at all, because 7 stinky drunk Italians continued their afterparty in my room. Oh god, I actually paid for this night, and I almost didn't sleep at all! I'll try couchsurfing the next time.

Then the 3rd of January started! In this morning I said goodbye to Els (she went to New Zealand) and I picked up Susanne up, to leave Sydney and to go in direction of Adelaide. Half of the day was basically driving, around the Blue Mountains, to the more and more 'wasteland'. We made a stop in Bathrust, because Susanne has been told by her dad to check out the race circuit in the town. Quite amazing, it's a real circuit where everyone is able to drive on. We drove about 2 laps, one for the camera recording and one to stop on a few spots for pictures. The circuit goes over a big hill, so I tested my car on the 'downhill' side how quickly it goes from stop to fastest speed without accelerating at all. 98KM/H tops from up to down, without accellerating at all! Funny s***! At the end of the day we stopped in the town Orange (yes, ORANJE!). A very kind-of-Dutch name, but there's nothing Dutch or orange in that town... We decided to camp in that town, and we had dinner in the middle of a buch of non-English speaking, but friendly French people. By the way, it was about 31 degrees that day, the weather forecast showed the following temperatures for the next days: 36, 44, 43, 39. It was gonna be really hot...

Alright, next day was basically driving only, to get as close to Broken Hill as possible. After a slow start (Susanne was still in the 'hostel' wake-up mode), we drove out of Orange around 12pm. It got hotter and hotter during the day, I'm so glad the aircondition in my car works superb! After we passed the last 'big' town Dubbo, we were really in the outback again. Just one long highway, lot's of plain land with bush around us, and ocasionally a few goats around the highway. We reached the small town Wilcannia at the end of the day, we camped for the night over there. It was very quiet over there, except for one other van, we were the only ones in the camping. We prepared ourselfs by filling up waterbottles and watercan, because it was more than 25 degrees during the night... The real heat was coming up, the weather forecast was still telling us 44 degrees.

Saturday, the 5th of January. I'll always remember this day! We woke up early, quick shower and quick breakfast, and we left the place. Only 200km to go to Broken Hill, 2 hours driving. And finally I was in the town I wanted to visit for so long. First we made a visit at the Flying Docters visitors centre. There we were able to see a few airplanes in the hangar during the tour, something I didn't see in Alice Springs before. Once we went outside, the heat got real... In around 38 degrees we drove to the Mundi Mundi plain lookout. This was actually the location where they filmed Mad Max 2, the road warrior about 30 years ago. I watched the movie just around a week before I left Melbourne, and the road/structures are still the same. Quick some pictures and video's, and we drove back to Silverton, basically the main base from the movie. In here we went to the Mad Max 2 museum. A place with so many pictures on the walls from the takes and stuff that they used for the movie everywhere. The owner actually kept many cars in good condition over there, but full of dust. It's just cool to see that someone is such a huge fan, that he made a museum out of it :) The guy also informed us some news about bushfires in Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria. I was not surprised, but it sounds really serious. When we went outside again, the weather was on it's worst mode: 44 degrees, with a hot, warm wind around us. Even in the shadow it's really hot. But we survived half an hour in the shadow, in a park in Broken Hill easyly for a lunch BBQ. Afterwards we went to the Broken Hill sculptures just out of town. Actually not so much interesting, so we left after 5 minutes. It was still 4pm, we decided to find a camping with a swimming pool, and we found one! 'Yes we have a pool and its BIG!', just included in the price for the night! So awesome, just minutes after checking in we jumped in. The pool felt so nice, we stayed there for about 3,5 hours! About half an hour before sunset, when it cooled down a little bit, we drove back to the Sculptures site (we actually already paid entree fee, but we wanted to see the sunset at that site). With a few people around us, I saw one of the best sunsets in Australia. The sky was so completely red, with nice reflections on the sculptures, just amazing! Afterwards we both were not in the mood to cook in a 35 degrees kitchen at the camping, so we ate a big sandwich at Subways. Weird and drunk people were easy to spot in the town, it was Saturdaynight anyway... With 33 degrees during the night, we tried to sleep as much as we could. So, this day was really the hottest day of my life, it wasn't easy to 'live' that day, but thanks to the air conditioning and the state of my car, that didn't break down this day, we made it through! One fact is true, this heatwave is one of the biggest in Australia ever. Not just where I am, but over the whole country.

The next morning we drove out of Broken Hill, just a one way drive to Adelaide. We passed the South Australia stateborder just 20 minutes after driving out of BH. The drive started in the outback basically, but the further we went, the more 'living' land came around us. Around 3pm we drove into Adelaide, the city where I'll be working for unknown time :) We checked in at Beach Hostel Glenelg, the hostel were I used to stay with Ulli and Bettina before. Not so many people as I expected, but still one of the nicest hostels in Australia. At the end of the day we drove to the city for another easy threat, chicken with rice and salads! It's not easy to adjust to a new place again, but because there's not much traffic in Adelaide (well, compared to Melbourne), I think I'll be alright...

The next day was my very last Holiday-day. The temperature was still on high-mode, so we didn't do much. I showed Susanne some places where I've been before, such as Glenelg, Port Adelaide, the view from Mount Lofty and the very old Formula 1 circuit (next to CBD). At the end of the day I prepared myself for my first day at work, so early bedtime.

Well ok, so this was the story of my last trip. I just completed my first week at E3 Learning! Well, I really like it! Such a nice work environment, really nice colleagues (about 40 in the office), they really made me feel welcome here. I haven't done a lot of work this week, mostly just work-in and basic (Australian-law) trainings. But I'm picking things up very quickly and some colleagues told me my English is actually really good. I'll probably stay here for a while... Just a couple of days ago I got the official message that my business visa has been granted. My visa expires in January 2017, so that's still a WHILE away ;)

Last Tuesday, after my first day, I gave Susanne a lift to the bus station so she was able to go to Melbourne. After saying goodbye, I was basically alone again! For the last couple of evenings I've been looking for a room, because the hostel doesn't feel comfortable when I work at the same time. Too many tourists and too many drunk or low-life locals in Glenelg, it actually feels a little bit scary. I'll give an example: a few days ago, after I visted 2 houses, I went to the McDonalds around 10pm for a meal. A (tipsy) guy came to me, first to make a picture of me because I look really familiar with a famous character (TBBT, guess who...). Secondly he asked me to sit with his family (pointing at his wife and 2 kids), because he found it stange that I was sitting alone. Normally I never do that, but ahwell, what can happen, meeting real strangers makes life interesting! So I was sitting there, we were talking about Australia, about NL, about the kids'life, etc. But it was a little bit weird to see them sitting there, with 2 big family meals, at 10pm, with a drunk father. Anyways I rejected the offer to come to their house, that would go too far... Just before they left, the mother told me: 'Thank you for calming down my husband, have a good night!' OMG... This is just one story. There are many things that happened last week, outside of work, but I'm not gonna share them here ;)

So I've send a couple of replies and called a few people, now I found a place to stay in Marleston, about 3km from the City. A place with my own room, and 3 other Australian and one French housemate. I think I'm gonna keep looking for a probably more social place, with more 'European'/backpackers. But at least I'm out of the hostel.

Next week I'm planning my vacation to NL, it will be around the end of February / beginning of March for 2 week! You'll notice a facebook message from me when I booked my flights ;)