my Arrival or the Australian Winter

Aussie ! Aussie ! Aussie !

What does that mean ?

That must be the general battle cry of the Australians.
Perhaps it replaces their anthem in the drunken moments of life? who knows?

Great Ocean Road

Not bad for the first picture, is it?

Unfortunately, I was still used to walk on the northern hemisphere ...
For those who can't get bothered to turn their monitor around: this is a picture of the 12 Apostels. In a group of international students we have been on a two day trip along the Great Ocean Road. From there, you have these and similar great scenic views on the south coast of Australia.

Here is another panoramic view of some more Apostels. There should be 12 of them, but maybe the erosion condemnes this destination of pilgrimage as untrustworthy as time goes by.

Isn't that scary? This authentic replication of the Lord's Supper happened in the evening of the same day. Doesn't our driver look like Jesus? Altogether (I was taking the picture) we've actually been 13 persons.

We stayed the first night in the "Bimbi"-park, where we saw our first koala bear! He is hiding a little bit behind a branch.

And there were the kangaroos. I would have never dreamed of seeing the first ones of this kind on a golf course. In this case, about 4 dozens were mowing the lawn!

kangaroos in motion

golfers and kangaroos in peaceful coexistence

Just before Geelong we saw heaps of local surfers. Even in the deep winter this mammal paddles out towards the open sea, just to be washed on the beach by some waves. In this way it only helps to provide food to the sharks. (Bells Beach, Torquay)

Uni Life

The only picture where I and the other exchange students don't get problems ...
Theme of the night was "cross-dressing".

A little bit more ordinary was the cocktail evening of our unit. At least in the beginning. At the end we wrapped everything in toilet tissue.

Some more pictures from the Australian "winter" in Geelong

view out of my room

Geelong Waterfront

view on the sailing club

For making a change we wrapped our roommate Chris in toilet tissue.

what a pity!

Melbourne

On the weekend everybody talks about Melbourne. Of course, this metropolis has got more to offer during nighttime than Geelong with its two clubs or so. It didn't take me long to see the city during daylight. However, if you ask people for places of interest in Melbourne, perplexity takes over...

in the "Crown Casino" (I don't know how the guy in the lower right corner got into the picture!)	Melbourne is without question a nice city, it is just lacking THE big landmark. I was for example in the Crown Casino (left), in the zoo (right) and at the beach of St. Kilda.	zoo
	During the summer the Melbournians are flocking here to. At the moment the water is still cold and it's very windy (see tied up palm trees)
Yarra-River and skyline of Melbourne

Under Down Under

September 2001.

Geelong is experiencing the spring right now. What happens, if you do a bus trip to Tasmania now? You can get your warm clothes out again.

The attentive geographer surely asks: bus trip to Tasmania, how does that work? We went with the bus to the Melbourne harbour and boarded the "Spirit of Tasmania" together with the entire bus. After the 12 hours lasting crossing we arrived in Devonport. I really feared that we wouldn't fit in the small harbour with our huge ferry.

The bus drove us in the following 7 days to almost every part of the island. Sometimes it was like a typical bus tour: getting out, making pictures, getting in again. Whenever we had a little bit more time, e.g. the ascent to the summit of Mt.Wellington, it rained continously (right) and we have all been happy to get back into the bus, sitting on our wet clothes.

Hobart

Cradle Mt.

Tasmania is definately pure nature and we also had much fun to stay in different caravan parks each night.

Also interesting: Our group consisted of 17 different nationalities! United States, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Netherlands, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Canada, Malaysia, Nepal, Norway, Sweden, Singapore and Syria !
One night we practised to say "cheers!" in every language! That didn't just take long but also required big loads of beer... :-)

Small runway at the Cradle Mountain. This caravan park was really off the map. (35 kms to the next supermarket)

tasmanian devils

... even more pictures!!

Stand: 04.10.2001