Letho's Blog

This week we were WWOOFers (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) at Cloudsong in Kangaroo Valley. That means we worked 5 hours a day for accomodation and food. We did a lot of weeding, built a stairway in the garden, cut wood with a chainsaw, cleaned the chatels and did several other things around the house.

This was our first WWOOFing experience and we were lucky to have a great room and bathroom as well as a host who was very eager to discuss political topics : ) All in all a good experience.

The view from our window:

After work our offroad adventures began.

We saw our first live WOMBATS, lots of KANGAROOS and Blue Tongue Lizards. Those being less dangerous, we also saw Redback and Whiteback spiders, countless other spiders and two baby Black Snakes.

We went along two offroads (Kangaroo Valley Upper River Road, Bugong Fire Trail) with our great LandCruiser 4-Wheel-Drive (another car wouldn’t have made it so it was the right choice) ..

.. and saw the Fitzroy Falls.

Unfortunately, it is getting dark quite early (around 6 p.m.) so our time to go and see something was limited. But fortunately the cutest animals come out at that time so we had quite some wombats crossing our way. They stand still, don’t move and suddenly disappear. Have a look yourself:

On our last day we went to the Eastcoast and had fish and chips at the pacific which was fantastic. Again some new birds – PELICANS.

Not to be forgotten a little sightseeing – we saw the most famous Kiama Blowhole.

DID YOU KNOW that Kangaroo valley is one of only 7 valleys in the world that are totally surrounded by mountains ?!

Having met some other couchsurfers at the Bavarian restaurant (!) in Manly (north of Sydney) we went together to the Blue Mountains on Sunday 19 September.
We first went hiking which was extremely exhausting since our guide Sam wanted to try a trail he had never tried before. The whole hike was sports rather than sightseeing since the only things we saw were ferns and trees.

After climbing all the way back we went to the Echo point – finally some sightseeing, and a beautiful view!

Also we got to see the famous “Three Sisters”.

But most important of all – we got to see KANGAROOS!

Hi everyone ..

I put some photos on Facebook from our first two days in Sidney. We’ve been to the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Opera House, walked around the city centre and drove to Bondi Beach by bus. At Bondi Beach (which is really beautiful) the “Festival of the Winds” was taking place.

Look here!

We arrived after a long and mostly sleepless night at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, early in the morning and set our feet on Asian soil for the first time in our lives.

After exchanging some money to the local currency Baht and getting a taxi ride into town (for only 200 Baht =~ 5 €) we stepped out of the car and .. BANG! With all air-conditioning gone we fully felt 29°C at high humidity.

We had about 8 hours to spend – and oh my, what adventures would await us!

After strolling around for a while we stumbled upon a typical South-East-Asian market full of flavors and smells. We saw different kinds of food, only a small percentage of it recognizable for us European visitors. Everybody seemed to fry something but we didn’t dare to try any of it. We went into a market building and suddenly…… the Chao Phraya river!!

We continued with a visit to the Bangkok Grand Palace which was simply stunning:

Although we had been warned by our Taxi driver we decided to take the risk and go for a .. Tuk-Tuk ride. With their fearless riders and generally dubious vehicle condition this near-death experience was survived by our short-term belief in Buddhist gods.

The day wasn’t nearly over by now .. to be continued!

We are actually doing it.

We – that’s my fiance Inka and me, Frank.

What exactly are we doing? We’re taking one year off – from Germany, from Europe, from our families, friends, beloved hobbies, from our previous lives. For almost 3 years we only have been talking about it. Then, finally, in 2009 we began to plan the details – our journey to Australia where we would travel and stay for up to a whole year!

So we quit our jobs. We booked a flight. Inka gave up her flat in time and moved in with me. We prepared and informed ourselves weeks over weeks, got our vaccinations, threw a farewell party for all our friends, found someone to move in our flat with all the stuff still in it, packed our bags and got on the train.

Oh .. and sometime before I setup this blog in order to keep you informed – you guys at home, you guys looking into traveling to “Oz” as well .. and all you other guys interested in our journey.

And finally we got on our flight in Düsseldorf on 12/09/10 via Bangkok, Thailand to Sydney, Australia. That’s where we’ll start to write up a few blog entries in further detail down the road… often announced, eventually alive and kicking!

By the way – that’s us: