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January 12, 2005

Probably never on my journey I've been riding that hard as in the last month. The region south of Perth is well worth a look. Grazing cows, wineries and many forests neraly make you feel home. But then you leave civilisation and one of the two sealed roads from Australia's west to east, the Eyre Highway, leads for nearly 2000km thorugh the Nullarbor plain. Besides service stations (and the trafic) there is not much human life on the way and altough the ride through the plain is boring, the endless open in the Nullarbor is fascinating. Lots of road kill along the way is a sign of the fauna out here and it's amazing ever and ever again what green nature is able to show up altough it's absolutely dry. On the other side of the Nullarbor plain I headed inland again. After thousands of kilometers along the coast (altough you rarely see the sea) I needed a change. All in all the outback is still more fascinating to me. Very improvised mining towns as in the beginning where everyone tries to find his luck, a city completely built by the department of defense for rocket tests and satellite launchs and abandoned places along the Pacific Railway where there used to be more life when the railway was transporting more passengers than these days. After Christmas in the Outback I headed back to the coast and the civilisatin of Adelaide. Being just another Australian city it still was a good place to be for New Year. Altough this work out a little bit different here Down Under. Concerts down at the beach, the count down is yelled and you stand there without a glass of champagne: the whole place is dry. But Australians and alcohol is another story. With the state of Victoria I arrived in Australia's south-east. Most of the 20 million Australians live here but many of them are on the road right now, too. It's not just the Christmas holiday season here but they're also having their summer holiday now. Mainly the coast is fully booked but there's still the possibility to escape inland where the south-east has something new to offer: mountains. They're not as high as the European Alps but you don't need mountains 4000m high to get some decent roads. In the meantime I arrived in Melbourne, for me the first Australian city that has the atmosphere of a big city. A last one is to follow: Sydney. My time in Australia is coming to an end.

December 4, 2004

I'm back into civilisation. It wasn't far anymore to Perth and long before the city announced itself with a little bit more of traffic and homesteads that regularly spotted the countryside. A whole three weeks I spent in Perth. It was really a vacation from traveling at Steffy's home. After nights in my tent an appartment is real luxury. I could also take care of my bike and fix some things I wanted for a long time. Many thanks to Steffy for her hospitality. The south-west of Australia is relatively densly populated but even in the centre of Perth it's quite relaxed. Life in every Swiss city is more hectic. But that's the big plus of Perth, besides the good weather. It's early summer here, temperatures are in the mid-twenties and the sky is blue most of the time. In the meantime I already have quit Perth, population density is going down again but the good weather is still with me. Actually I'm really looking forward to being again on a lone desert road, hundreds of kilometers long.

October 27, 2004

The initial boredom of culturally western Australia has gone. After I finally left Darwin I rode towards the west coast through endlessly long and monotoneous landscapes. There is a national park now and then where there is something to see, but the main attraction often is a little creek or waterfall where you can cool down. Actually the weather up in the tropic north is still dry and hot, the whole flora is mostly brown until the rain sets in towards the end of the year. But then the outback started to fascinate me. If you're riding for hours and hundreds of kilometers on a gravel road, there's nothing and noone around except the cloud of dust behind you, at temperatures close to 50 degrees the sun is burning down on you and you start to hear strange engine noise, being aware that you would be really fucked up if you're having a breakdown out here, that's what I just call great! And then somewhen you arrive again at another unimportant outback town that owes its existence to the mine there or maybe because of fruit or vegetables plantations. Actually nobody would live out there at his own will. And it's just this what makes the outback fascinating: the loneliness, the hostile environment and the people that still choose to live out there. In the meantime I crossed the tropic of capricorn and finally arrived in much cooler weather. There are still 1000km to ride back into the civilisation in Perth and I'm going to take time for that. The summer is just about to set in down in the south. And I really don't want to feel cold.

September 24, 2004

So there I am in Australia, the country where one kilo of beef is cheaper than one liter of petrol. Bad for motorcycle riders, probably even worse for vegetarian riders. The journey from Bali to Timor, from where I flew to Australia, has been longer than I first thought. The estimated 1000km became 2000km in the end. And there were also some corssings on ferries. But once you leave Bali you arrive in the very calm Indonesia. And with the calm comes the simple life. But the volcanic landscapes are truly fantastic. The roads are reasonable but with many bends. A full riding day with only 200km was not uncommon but then you board a ferry from time to time allowing you to relax. And culturally it doesn't get boring neither: From Hindu Bali you cross Muslim Lombok and Sumbawa to be back amongst Christians on Flores and Timor. And East Timor has been the final destanation before arriving in Australia. The war four years ago is still evident. Especially the rural regions are really poor. But everywhere there happy people looking full of hope into a bright future. In Dili, the capital of East Timor, I had to perfectly clean the bike for the Australian quarantine inspection. That was big work. The bike then went on a cargo ship and I had to take the flight. It feels special to be back in the west after 15 months. But you get very quickly used to the standard here. I still have to get used to the much higher prices here. But then traveling is much more comfortable and simple here. Actually I'm not the only tourist here.

August 16, 2004

For nearly two weeks I'm now on Bali and during my whole journey I probably never spent such a lazy time. But everyone else coming here does the same. And yes, people are coming back to Bali. But the tourist places are quite empty, there probably were more once. But it started tough in Indonesia. After two weeks in modern Singapore it was a little shock to arrive on Sumatra. It all felt very Indian: the living standard, the traffic, the chaos. The escape to the south led through nice landscapes but the road and the traffic were demanding. Jakarta on Java didn't offer the big relief. The big city again offers anything but I didn't like the place. But then it got good, really good: The ride through the mountains to the east of Java led through Java's tropical and volcanic landscapes. Few traffic, cool weather, friendly Indonesians and the amazing landscapes made me forget the tough time at the beginning. In the meantime Indonesia has even become a highlight of my trip. I will soon head east to get the remaining 1000km to Australia under the wheels. Australia may as well will be a little culture shock.

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