Ozzieland here we come!

Location: Sydney – Adelaide

Date 25 March – 31 March

On Friday it was time to leave Fiji, or at least that was what our schedule said. WRONG. Flight didn’t leave until tomorrow! Right cuz we were there, returned the rental and booked the place in Sydney we decided to get on the plane anyway. So off we went to Sydney only to leave it straight away the next day. Off we went to pick up our spacecar J named War God. The spacecar is  really cool lets say.. big Station wagon that is slightly higher on its wheels. We can kind of extend the end of it and then with a tent at the back we can sort of sleep in teh fresh air. Really cool. The first day we drove to Gundagai where we camped next t a river and the old train tracks that the first settlers used. The little villages we passed reminded me very much of an old western movie, the flying hale bales were the only thing missing.

The second day we passed the wine district of NSW/Victoria. We stopped in RUtherglen where we picked up some delicious olievs and olive oil ( the owner was dutch ). Of course with olives should be wine ( and actually cheese as well) so we stopped at a winery as well. The winery owner advised us to camp at Stantons Bend, which is a nice Free camping spot near the murray river. It was absolutely amazing. It was the first time for me to camp in the “wild”. It was a beautiful setting and after Remco made a small campfire we sat down and enjoyed the scenery. Cockatoos (white parrots with the little thing going on on their heads) were literally flying everywhere. I think we say about 500 of tem. Screaming like madman and flying up and down the river.  Waking up was magical with no sounds other than screaming birds and a foggy river.

We continued our trip to Echuca which is a village that back n the day used steam boats on the river. Now very touristy of course and it felt like walking through a universal studio village.

That evening we slept near Adelaide in little place called Petal island ( it meant WASHING MACHINE yey). On our way we passed a river that was either flooded a while ago or had always been a lake. It felt like it could be a film location for Harry potter with dead tree branches sticking out of the water. Very eary

.The next day we drove for quite a while ( a bit too long maybe) and we camped in the teeniest village ( which only had a ferry crossing) called Purnong. Again this was free camping which is something I love about this country.

On the 31^st of March we had our first dive in cold water. Whoop Whoop. We went to the Rapid bay Jetty ( which is at the fleurieu peninsula of south Australia). On the way over to a campsite here we actually saw our first Roos ( Kangaroos). What a mighty animal it is and very refreshing to see them alive after the many road kills we had seen alongside the road). 

We booked 2 dives with Diving delight ( recommended by Scott from Los Angelos) to go and find the elusive “leafy se dragon”. To say in curde words this looks like a mixture between a leaf and a seahorse and can only be found in South Australia and western Australia ( nowhere else in the world!!!!). But it did mean facing our fears (or at least mine) and dive in seriously cold water. First dive i was wearing a vest ( couple of mm), a 5 mm long john and 10 kilo’s of lead with a steal tank. God lordy that walk down the jetty nearly crushed my spine!. It was a very shallow dive but boy was it amazing. We spend 75 minutes under water (and by the end I had turned into an ice cube) and it was in 1 word spectacular. We did see 3 leaf sea dragon and when we found the first one we both did a little hula dance ( well figure of speech). It is an extraordinary fish. It looks like a leaf so very hard to find and is mustard yellow. On its back it looks like it has extra fins that help him move. The jetty ( pier) is really cool and all sorts of fish and corals call it their home. We saw many sea-stars, zebra fish, king fish, and more. The second dive we alsy saw a sting ray and big groups of fish which we swam amongst... super cool experience. I have to add that on the second dive I did put on an extra vest and hood cuz the cold was not helping me relax under water. This time we stayed for 62 minutes. In the end I couldn’t take any pics anymore because I was shaking so badly!

Current Location: Port Fairy, Victoria Australia

All pics:

AU - Sydney to Adelaide

AYO, Marrem