Australia

I left Alice after only a week, road trip sounded more exciting! I really enjoyed Alice, had an awesome time there, but when I got the opportunity to go to Perth again I couldn't say no.

So off we went! And this wasn't thought through properly, we thought it'd be more fun that way. So monday morning the boys, to my surprise, started packing the car. A couple of hours later we were on the road. With little money and an oil leak that we only found out about the last day we had to give The Rock a miss for this time... Too bad when I was that close, but we're talking a 500km detour! And my mate had just broken his rib jumping into the water from a 20 m high cliff the day before..
So we drove and drove, through red sand, burning sun and the world's most annoying flies! They crawl everywhere!

My mates are very impulsive, and don't always prefer to plan things, which meant that we had an empty jerrycan in the boot..
We just made it to Coober Pedy, but not all the way into the servo station, so we had to push the care, AND the trailer, into the servo to fuel up. At least we made it...

We ended up camping at Streaky Bay on the South Australian coast after 15 hours of driving. I slept in a swag (slags sovepose) on the back of the trailer under the full moon, beautful as only nature can be.

Back in Perth we stayed with my mate's family whick are a crazy bunch, but very lovely! They made me scrambled eggs for brekky every day!

I got to meet up with Sandy and Tanea again, from my Perth-Broome tour up WA, and that was great! Sandy and I went to Rottnest to see the great channel swim, which unfortunately was cancelled, but we had a great time anyway. Rotto is a beautiful little island!

But after a few weeks of relaxing, going to the beach (the whitest beaches I have ever seen) and eating home made meals, it was time to go to Sydney.

Saturday was Mardi Gras and that was pretty crazy. I have never seen so many fit, half naked, gorgeous men dance to Kylie Minogue in my life! Quite an experience, I tell ya!

And for the first time of leaving a place in Oz, there was noone to send be off and say goodbye. A bit sad since I was leaving the country, but at least I've been lucky to have had friends take me to airport etc to say goodbye throughout Australia!

It was so sad to leave, but the bright side was that a new adventure was just around the corner..

I'm sitting in an internet cafe and sweating like a pig. Someone said it was 44 degrees today, and it sure feels like it! Thank goodness it's dry here.

If this was Darwin I'd be flat out.

The heat in Alice is quite pleasant actually, especially when you don't have to work... It reminds me a bit of Greece mid summer actually. And I finally feel like I'm on holiday. I love this!!!

It was really good to see my mate Justin again. He lives at a caravan park with another mate at the moment, working here. I love living at a caravan park merely for the fact that it feels like living outdoors. If I want to take a shower I have to walk to the shower block (which I for once don't hva to clean..), it's only a short stroll, but a nice breeze hits you on the way and you smell the flowers and trees. Lovely.

We just decided that it's about time to leave Alice. Even though I just got here, I'm always up for a road trip! Particularly one without much planning. Last minute adventures are always the best.
So the guys are taking me out for a bit of sightseeing this weekend around Alice and then we pack our bags and leave. They've already promised to stop at the Rock and the Olgas since we're so close. It's only a 500km detour...

Than we head south for a bit and hope to be in Perth in about two weeks. I never thought I'd see Perth again so soon, but I'm stoked that I get to meet Tanae and Sandy again!

I'll try to keep yous updated, but I doubt that I'll be near internet until I get to Perth. We'll see.

By the way, thanks to everyone that sends me e-mails! It's so nice to hear what's going on in your lives! And good to know you still think of me...

Savner alle mine venner og hele min familie... Gleder meg masse til a se dere alle igjen snart!!! Just one more month left in Australia, it'll be a bittersweet goodbye.. Someone seriously have to invent a machine that can take people from one place to another at the speed of a thought.. Preferably with unlimeted luggage capacity, hehe.

Suss og klem!

I don't know if I'll ever have enough time to write down everything I'd like to share with you...

Two months in Darwin and I've hardly written at all, too busy living I guess. I've adapted to the Aussie lifestyle by now, life is pretty crusie..

It's hard to have left Darwin and sit back and think of everything I've done. There's so much, Christmas, New year, catching up with old friends, making new...

Christmas was very different. Worked dayshift and almost forgot that it was Christmas eve cause no-one here celebrates it. So that evening I ended up watching dvds at a Simon's place. He's a real good friend of mine that I've had so much fun with. I once told him that he looks like the little pet monkey I was glued to as a kid until I lost it on a bus in Greece when I was about five. (I guess I wasn't glued to it after all..) So what does he get me for Christmas? Yup, his pet monkey that he's had since he was a kid. How nice was that?!
Christmas day I had lunch at the pub with all the regulars.. Very, very nice actually. Great food! I can't believe Mark threw out all the leftovers!! I wanted those spuds for brekky!!!!

New years eve I was working again, and the following morning as well, so Gary and I took it easy. Went to Dinah beach for a few drinks and a laugh. Saw Penguinman and bellydancing girls. Counted down the end of the year, welcomed the new and went to bed. Pretty much..

I never got the chance to go pig-hunting. Not really sure if I wanted to anyway.. Didn't go Barra fishin either, but you've gotta save somthing for next time, hey?
Went fishin one day though, didn't catch anything, so it was mostly a chill and sunbake day. Very, very nice. Went for a swim and ate chicken wings.

My ear seems to dislike any other water but what comes out of the shower, but luckily my friend the fisherman has got heaps of creams an shit that worked miracles. I'm forever grateful for his care.

I owe a lot of thanks to many people in Darwin actually, time went so quickly, and it wouldn't have unless I had so much fun.
And I must remember to thank my stars as well for keeping me out of trouble.

I was riding a push bike home one night after visiting a mate, when the chain hopped off.. Right outside Bagot community. It is a black fella community where you, as a female especially, don't want to hang around by yourself at night. So I turned around to go back to my friend's to get help with the chain when the whole back wheel fell off as well!! I was flabbergasted and had no idea what to do. Then a cop car came by and offered me and the bike a lift back to Winnellie. I couldn't think of a safer way to get home. How lucky was that?

Aussies in general are real friendly people. I'm amazed...

I'm sooooo sad!!!

Just a week left in Darwin and I might never see the place again!

I left Mission beach and went to see me mate Andrew in Townsville again. We had heaps of fun, but I sort of had to keep moving, get a job and all that. So I went to the place where I knew I had lots of friends; Darwin.

And it didn't dissapoint me, I've had so much fun hey.

Got a ride with a truck driver up here, he's a really nice guy. He even let me drive his road train for a few km, it's a huge 3 trailer, 43m long truck! Good fun.

I got me old job back at the pub, and have lived and worked here for more than a month now. It's home to me.

I've met so many lovely people here, it's unbelieveble. I'll write some stories later, now I've gotto go again. Sitting in the bottle-o waiting for it to close. Which it just did!

Talk to ya later!!!
Love you all...
And miss yous...

At least I found out what I wanted to do.. I went back to Darwin. I have lots of really good friends here and I got my old job back straight away.

I left Townsville and my dear friend Andrew in the beginning of December. Got a ride with a truckie, Allister. The trip took almost four days. We stopped in Charters Towers, Heugeden, Mt. Isa, Three Ways, Tennent Creek, Katherine, Tipperary (cattle) station, Adelaide river and a few other places before Darwin.

He is a really nice bloke and I had such a good time. I really enjoyed driving a road train.

We stopped in Adelaide river so that I got to see the buffalo that was in one of the Crocodile Dundee movies, Charlie.

In Darwin I got my job back and started the next day. One of my best friends up here has gone south so everything feels a bit different, but I'm getting used to it now. Making more friends and new memories..

I pretty much just hang out at the pub or with people I've met at the pub. I prefer that. Can't stand all the people in the city.

Now it's the day before newyearseve and I'm with Heidi in Palmerston. Tomorrow I'm actually working.. Hopefully we'll finish pretty early so that I can go out for a bit.

This computer can't find my camera, so no pics this time..

As I'm writing this I'm in Mission beach. Yup, back again. But not very long. Leaving tomorrow, going back to Townsville. Which is where I came from on Tuesday.

After spending a couple of days in Victoria, Andrew and I flew to Townsville on Wednesday. The next day we drove back to Airlie beach to catch up with friends. It wasn't quite what we'd expected, but I had a really good weekend. It was all different now that there were so many new people and very few of the old that we used to know. But on the other hand, it was like we'd never left. Strange...
Saturday we went out and had a really good time. The wolfjuice might have had something to do with that, hehe. It's a dangerous mix of vodka, redbears, redbull and cheap white wine..
Sunday was spent by the pool or in the shower. Very hot day.. It was a very good, lazy sunday. Especially after having eaten the biggest brekky of my life, the so-called "fat-boy-breakfast", which consisted of steak, bacon, sausages, eggs and veggies.

After the weekend we haeded back to Townsville and stayed there for a couple of days. I was supposed to go to Mission on Tuesday and stay a while, but it seems that there will be a change of plans since my friend up here suddenly got a girlfriend, and then it feels a bit awkward to move up here..

So now I'm back to scratch not knowing where to go next. But that really doesn't bother me cause I've got friends in so many places I'm spoiled. All I have to figure out is which place I'd rather be.. So I'm giving myself till after this weekend to come up with some sort of plan..

It's all good. Plans change all the time. It's part of what I like about travelling, the freedom to do exactly what you want, when you want.
So now I'm going to take some "me-time" and see what my gut feeling tells me, hehe.

Hope everyone is enjoying this pre-Christmas-holiday time, and I hope you get lots of nice, white snow back home!
The wheather here doesn't give me any Christmas feeling at all, so I actually envy you a bit.. But just a little bit.

Take care!!

Leaving Darwin was hard, I really liked it there and I miss all my friends..

But my dad was coming over so I had to fly down to Melbourne to meet him.
Wow, it was cold down south! I got a cold that I'm still trying to get rid of..

But the bonus was seing daddy, and that was fun!
He had brought birthday presents for me! Thank you all!!
I got a new camera, and I took about 300 pictures while we were travelling 'round the south. But I forgot the cable so I can't upload them at the moment.

First thing we did was fly to Tassie!! Great little island. We flew to Hobart and went to a winery, the Cadbury chocolate factory.. Mmmm.. And drove to Ross where we spent the night.The Man'O'Ross hotel is a really nice pub, I think my dad wished he could stay there for the whole stay, hehe..

But the next day we had to keep driving, had a tight scedule. We went to a wildlife park close to Launceston to see the Tasmanian Devil! And then we watched the V8 car race until I got hayfever... (It suchs to be allergic..)

The last day we wanted to see a bit of the Tasmanian wilderness.. But the fog put a stop to that, so all we saw were the signs pointing towards the lookouts..

Ah well, Tassie is beautiful, and I would love to go camping there some time.. Maybe next trip.

Back in Melbourne we rented a car and headed for South Australia. We stopped in Apollo Bay before the Great Apostels and in Mount Gambier before we went to some fossil caves in Naracoorte.
After that we took the inland road down to Melbourne again, which we drove straight through. We stopped in Traralgon to say hi to Andrew and then spent the night in Maffra at Helen and Robert's farm. They are truly lovely people!

Next day we headed for the Snowy mountains. We stopped in Jindabyne and drove up the mountains to see Australia's tallest mountain: Mt. Kosiouzco. (Don't know if I spelled that right, but it doesn't really matter..)
We went to the Snowy River festival and watched some horsemanship and Stockman's challenge. (Basically people riding horses, cracking whips, saddeling their horses and that kind of stuff.)

We've been to Canberra and saw the new parliament building, but that wasn't too exciting so we kept on driving towards Sydney.

My birthday was spent in Sydney, at the Aquarium and Darling Harbour. In the evening my dad took me to the operahouse to see a ballet, it was a really, really good day! Tusen takk pappa!

The next few days were spent i bit north of Sydney, we went swimming at Killcare beach so that my dad got to swim in the Pacific and watched the surfers..

Before we headed back to Melbourne again we went up in Sydney Tower and took a tour in the harbour on a jet boat, good fun!

We stopped along the way at Birldland wildlife park and got to hold a big snake and a cuddely wombat! We stopped at for luch at Helen and Robert's again and my dad dropped me off at Andrew's in Traralgon.

Altogheter we drove more than 800km on Tassie and more than 4000 on the mainland! Unreal! I don't have to say that we saw a lot and had a lot of fun!

Thanks to everyone for remembering my birthday! Some of the messages was real unexpected, I can't believe you remembered! But they all warmed my heart. I miss you all!

At the moment I'm working as a barmaid in Darwin in the Northern Territory.

I work at a workers pub right outside the city centre. It looks a bit dodgy, but the people here are wonderful. I've met so many nice people it will be really hard to leave..

I try to get around a bit on my days off, but you really need a car to get anywhere nice, so I've only been out of town once.
Although I have been "pub-crawling" in town.. Fun, but I like staying at the pub better!

Next Sunday Heidi and I have got the day off to do something togheter before I head south to meet my dad. So hopefully her boyfriend will take us and some friends to Litchfield national park and then do a barbie later.. Can't wait!

Gotto go, I'm on my boss' computer and I don't want him to get cranky cause I'm occupying his office too long!

Later!!!

(A "pot" is a small glass (a scooner is a big glass, kinda like a "halvliter" in Norway) and "gold" is the short term used to describe the beer called XXXX Gold... You should hear all the short terms they've got for their beers in this country, hehe: green cans, red stubbies and pots of gold..)

Unfortunately, I only had one day in Perth, I was in a hurry to get up to Darwin to see Heidi and start making some money again...

So I hopped on a bus to Broome. It took 7 days and it was truly amazing..
Had a really nice driver, Sandy, and she'd brought along her crazy 16-year old daughter, Tanae. Or 10A as I call her, hehe.

The bus left Perth early in the morning and stopped in a small town after a little while. First stop to hop on or off, but since I hadn't much time, I was going to stay on the bus all the way to Broome. Which on one hand was a shame, cause my ticket was valid for six months and the west coast is sooo beautiful. On the other hand, I got to know Sandy and Tanae and they're really good people!

This was the bus we spent a week on:

We went to the Pinnacles

They're really beautiful. In was almost a bit mysterious cause it was raining and it created a strange atmosphere.

And we went to national parks..

Me in Nature's Window

Took heaps of pictures of flowers...

Saw animals:
Dolphins at Monkey Mia

Eagle

Emu

Wild horses

Lots of beautiful landscapes..
Ghost gum

Sunrise at Auski at 6 am...

We went snorkelling at Turquoise Bay.

The current there is so strong that all you have to do is walk up the beach, get in the water and let it carry down to the other end of the beach. No swimming; more focus on fish and coral!

We went to Eighty mile beach, which unfortunalety has so strong current that you can't swim.. But you can relax, enjoy the view and collect shells.

In Broome we went out to see the dinosaur prints and the sun set over Cable beach.

Later that night we went to see the staircase to the moon...

And the next day I saw camels!!

It was a really good trip, so good actually that I wouldn't mind doing it again!

And I wouldn't mind going back to Perth either.. It would be awesome if I got to meet Sandy and Tanae again. Miss you guys!

Yesterday I went diving for the first time in my life, it was awesome!! Really cool.

I snorkelled for a while and saw lots of stripy fish. Took a few pictures, I'd bought an underwater camera. But I can't afford to get them developed yet.. Just bought a trip to the west coast and that was the rest of my savings... It better be worth it!!!

I actually can't wait to go... I'm leaving tomorrow. Flying to Perth and then taking a bus up to Broome. Then I fly from Broome to Darwin to meet up with Heidi. I'm really starting to look forward to seing her again. It'll be nice.. Had a hard time making up my mind on where to go and which direction, but my purse finally made that choice for me, hehe. And then my dad will come a month later! That's gonna be really, really nice..

But back to diving.
I went out with a boat called Osprey (the down under diving company)and that was really good. Snorkelled and dived and ate lots of nice food.. It's really a nice experience to see the reef from below, not like from above...

Gotto go now, out of internet credit..

Talk later! By then I'll be in Darwin...