12th December - Margret River

This morning we extended our stay in our current accommodation, now staying there until our return flight. It will take us about an hour to get to the airport. That's acceptable. The motivation for bigger excursions is gone.

Nevertheless, we drove 220 km south today. The goal was the Margret River wine region. And once again, it's confirmed: wine regions have their own charm. The same goes for this one.

There will be more information and photos later.

No. There is very little information and no photos.

We had some food and drove back.

The place was actually a bit nicer and there were a lot of wineries in the area. But what's the point if we're traveling by car and we're not allowed to drink anyway? So the 220 or rather 440 km were actually in vain. The coast, about 15 km to the west, is not particularly spectacular either. And I didn't want to drive further south anymore.

So we are one experience richer...

We are currently taking a break in Bunbury, about 100 km south of our last location. We will probably do some shopping on the way and make ourselves comfortable tonight.

A few thoughts that went through my mind while driving:

By the end of this trip, I will have driven almost 10,000 km, about 1,000 km per week. Around 5,000 km per country. I think that was too much. And there is a big difference between Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand, the landscape changes its appearance relatively quickly. You have different types of landscapes in a short period of time. It's very diverse. In Australia, there are also gigantic natural experiences. But they are often very far apart. So you often drive long distances, often not very varied, before you have an impressive scenery in front of you. That sometimes exhausted me.

What I don't want to miss here in Australia is the encounter with Claudia, Darren and Marcus, lovely people! Marcus, I will send you another email when we are back home. Something came to my mind today about your tennis game, which you were so dissatisfied with. We weren't there, but that couldn't diminish your disappointment (hopefully it has by now!). But what I want to write to you, dear Marcus, doesn't belong in the blog that many others read, who don't know you and who you don't know.

So please be patient a little longer.

Sydney and the Opera House were also very beautiful. A wonderful architectural experience, even though the Opera House will be 60 years old next year; still absolutely modern and deeply impressive!

The next highlight was the Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles.

The many different animals (especially the koalas) and the Nambung National Park with the strange stone pillars in a yellow sandy desert (blog entry from November 29).

I would need more space to write about New Zealand now. So even in this enumeration, you can see that the distances in Australia are just incredibly larger. Something that is absolutely unusual for us Europeans. We barely leave a town and already pass the next town sign. That cannot happen to you in Australia. We were now in the most densely populated states of Australia, where over 50% of the population lives. In the north and in the center, you will probably be able to drive hundreds of kilometers without encountering a single soul. You have to like that.

Well, now it has gotten a bit more extensive after all.

That's why there's only one photo today.