Arrival in Australia on 29.01.2020 at Jeni and Jim's in Traralgon

The time in Bangkok is already over, we took a taxi to the airport. Since we couldn't check in online, we arrived at the airport a bit earlier. There was a young Thai girl at the counter, her name tag made us smile, she had the funny last name Thitiporn. Checking in with Rotraut was smooth, but she got a bit nervous with Hans-Werner. The reason was that the passport number on the visa for Australia was incorrect, an additional number had somehow slipped in at the end of the number sequence. This made the visa invalid for now, and if the Australian Border Control refuses entry, the airline has to fly the passenger back free of charge, so clarification had to be sought. After more than half an hour of anxious waiting, we finally got the green light and received our boarding passes, not without being reminded to do it right next time.

After another 7,760 flight kilometers overnight and without sleep, we landed in Melbourne at 10 am (plus 4 hours time difference). Endless queues at immigration and baggage control, waiting time of over two hours.

When buying the next prepaid card, we had a surprise: the card costs 10 AUD for a validity of 30 days, 12 GB of data volume, flat telephony in Australian landline and mobile networks, and flat telephony to German landline and mobile networks, equivalent to approximately 6.80 €.

Afterwards, we picked up the camper van, bought the essentials at the supermarket, and drove across Melbourne to St. Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne with a great beach promenade. Due to our fatigue, we had to give up this plan and went straight to the parking spot. This means a driving distance of 45 km. Driving on the left side works quite well. It is unusual that the turn signal lever is located on the right side of the steering wheel, so the windshield wiper often has to take on this task. We were able to secure the second-to-last place at the parking spot and then just sleep.

The next day, we drove the 140 km to Traralgon to our friends Jeni and Jim. The temperatures range from 35 to incredible 42 degrees, but it should cool down in the next few days.

01.02.2020: As predicted, the temperature has dropped by 25 degrees in the last 16 hours. It just started raining. That didn't stop us from doing the Lyrebird hike. In the end, we were all soaking wet.

02.02.2020: Jeni's family reunion in Inverloch. We were also there. The meeting point was the park at the beach, and then we had lunch: fish and chips. Nice conversations with Jeni's family. Afterwards, a beautiful hike through the dunes to the beach.

We learned a new word. In conversation with the family, the word 'Poms' came up. When we asked, we found out that it is a coined word for PooME's = Prisoners of old Mother England. Originally, it referred to Aussies with English roots, but now it refers to all English people.