Sydney....our last station in Australia.....

We spend our last days here, again in Sydney... and encounter rain and clouds! This is not supposed to occur in summer in Sydney!!! (But we are glad, we had sunny weather at least the last time we were here in Sydney about 2 weeks ago. )

What to say about Sydney?
It's big, modern, full of people, full of restaurants, bars, coffee houses, full of great, impressive architecture, full of backpackers and tourists, full of cars which some backpacker wants to sell (thank god, we got rid of ours a long time ago ;-) ) museums, art, fast-food restaurants, full of all kinds of people......full of live.
Take a look at the pictures.
It's a perfect city to hang around. Either with full sight-seeing schedule or - more like us this time - relaxing without doing much....

We try to let sink in all the impressions of the last months, which are a lot.
We are a bit tired and thus our days are more like:
sleep long, breakfast relaxed, walk around, drink coffee, watch people, walk around some more, have a afternoon-nap, eat, drink and go to sleep again

Instead of:
get up early, pack things into the car, drive, get out, walk around, take pictures, be in the heat, get in the car, drive, find sight, get out, look, read, walk, drive some more, look for toilet, stop for toilet, drive, get out, walk, check things, drive, find way, look for night accomodation, get out, unpack things, cook, eat, shower, fall onto the bed, sleep.

We hope you are all well and send you kisses and hugs!!!
Renate & Mirko

Outback - our last Good Bye

Hallo,

while you were shoveling the snow from your front porch and hurriedly bought the last christmas presents we have been driving through the sandy, dusty, hot (41 degree C), sunny and strange Outback again. We rented a small car and rushed away from the crowded east coast and Sydney to 'get lost' in the wastness of the Outback again.
We visited strange towns and stranger places:
slept in the underground to avoid the heat in White Cliffs: Opal Mining Town; listened to Christmal music in Broken Hill; hunted any available shadow in Silverton (Ghost Town, where the movie "Mad Max" has been filmed); shipped on the Murray River in Echuca; unfortunately the "Bushranger Hall of Fame was burned down to the grounds 12 month ago ;-); lookd at the skeleton of a Thyrannosaurus rex; walked between impressive sand formations in Mungo National parc; marveled at a Giant Dish facing the Universe....and no to forget the flies again ! ;-)

Again it was an amazing experience to drive for hours on end through nothingness:
"Impressive! Great!" as well as "I never ever could live here!" crossed our thoughts all the time simultaneously :-).

AND!!! Believe it or not: In the middle of nowhere in 'Broken Hill' we found Santa!!!
Dressed up at 41 degrees sunshine :-0!
But I was not allowed to sit on his lap for the obligatory picture... :-(
Take a look at our XMAS-Special on the right. :-) :-)

We have uploaded a few pictures again.
Our last 'Goodbye' and tribute to the Australian Outback!

We wish you all a good time!!
Renate & Mirko

Canberra - the capital, designed to be

Hallo to all of you!

Canberra is worth an entry! Canberra - as the capital city - has been specifically designed by architects to be the capital city, stamped out of nothing and nowhere in the middle of the Australian bush. And it has been designed to be grand in every aspect of the word ....it can only be driven through by car, as nothing is situated in 'walking-distance' :-)
But there are enough parking spaces planned and provided as well so that's rather convenient. The architecture ranges from spectacular to bold. But everythig has enough space in between.;-)
Here are the pictures.
We spent some pleasent days there, visiting a lot of intersting museums and other exhibitions, which are all free! ;-) Thus our days have been packed and very informative as well.
We even visited the 'Deep Space Communication Center' where there are 'Mega-Antennas' communicating with space-crafts circulating in "deeper space" (as the name truely states ;-) )..was amazing, really.

Now we are in Sydney, where we have managed to sell the car already !! JUCHUUU!
On Wednesday we will leave the city again to travel a little bit inland to have a last look at the 'Outback' and will return to Sydney around the 24th of Dec..

We hope you have about as much 'Chrismas-stress' as we have: "Christmas??? What's that? Where? When? Why? Huuh?"
..and whish you all the best till the next entry ;-)

Kisses and hugs, Renate & Mirko

Walls of Jerusalem - easier said than done :-)

In the last days on Tasmania we had planned to make a track which is called "Walls of Jerusalem". Tasmania got out all tricks it has in store for odd tourists who think they can do a 'nice weather track' just like that. :-)

Attempt I:
When we started the weather was bad: clouds, little showers of rain..but nevertheless we thought the weather would get better - relying on the forecast. But instead we met hail and freezing cold up there on the highland at about 1000m hight. Nature had a completely different intimidating aspect now compared to our first track at clear blue sky. We stayed at the camp up there overnight sustained by gloves, cap, thermo-trousers and thermo-shirt, two sleeping bags. And in the morning of the second day is was...worse. No mountains, no landscape at all around us...0nly clouds...hmpf ... ok, we went down. defeated and sad. :-(

As soon as we reached the valley the sun came out !! Hallo???!! Ahhh! We drove to the next town for the night and when we woke up the next morning there was NOT ONE CLOUD in the sky!!! blue, blue, blue...wherever you looked. and the mountains laughed at us from the horizon! hmpf! we were so angry and disappointed!!!
we vigorously ignored the 'mocking' mountains till 3pm when we could not longer resist:

Attempt II:
We packed our bags again to rush off at 3:30pm up again to the first camp:
We reached the camp at 6:00 pm in the most wonderful evening sun!!! great! great! great! but it seemed to us, that we haven't been here at all! noting looked the same! all seemed different in the sun! The mountains gave the impression that they could not do any harm at all! We enjoyed it very much and were glad to have gone up again despite the double hardship. On the next morning however the weather started to detoriate again. Quickly we claimed the mountain top of 'Mount Jerusalem' and still had some spectacular views although is was already very windy and cold, clouds gathering together loomingly. Quickly again we retreated to the camp took our bagpacks and were eager to get off the mountains as even more bad weather seemed in store. At the moment we reached the car it started to rain and did not stop till we left Tasmania on the same evening.
HA! Finally we beat the weather and made it to the top though! :-) We were glad, it was quite exhausting :-), but it was worth it...more than!

We post again some pictures. Compare the pictures from the first attempt (bad weather) with the pictures from our second attampt (better weather :-) ..it's quite an amazing difference, isn't it ?!
So, Good-Bye Tasmania! Thank you ! It was great!

Tasmania

We are still alive and have managed to find an internet :-)
Although the weather here changes rapidly between rain, sun, warmth and cold we had the luck to do a 4-day-hike in the Cradle Mountain Nationalparc and had blue sky and sun nearly all the time. It was great! We did a part of the famous 'Overland Track' and although we had to carry our heavy bagpacks filled with food, tent, mats and sleeping bag, we enjoyed the track very, very much. We slept on high plateaus under blue sky with the most spectacular panorama imaginable!!! :-)
Take a look at the pictures from the track!
We even had the luck to spot a Wombat roaming around our tent!!! JIPIIIEEEHH! (Just for your information: wombat-shit has the form of cubes about 2x2 cm big.)

After that we drove a lot throughout the whole country mostly along the beautiful coast. It seems that every street, bridge, church, house, harbour, carpark, supermarket, internetcafe etc. ... which looks "historic" has been built by convicts. The british used the island as a prison in the early years and had the "house furnished" completely before they moved in themselves ;-).

Here are the pictures of the rest of Tasmania we saw ;-)!

We will do another track on monday - for three days. We hope the weather will be generous again. On the 26th of November we will go back to Melbourne to continue our journey on the mainland.
We hope you are all well and look forward to hearing from you.

Renate & Mirko

Great Ocean Road, Melbourne and Surroundings

the "Great Ocean Road" is ...great :-) ! The coast is really spectacular. Even though the day was a bit cloudy and cold..it was "awesome" - as the Australian would express it :-)
We reached Melbourne and liked the city immediately. 4 Million inhabitants, many nice builidings, caffes (for Renate :-) ), etc.

In the last days we visited some old towns outside of melbourne, dating from the 'goldrush' in 1850 - 1900, with old mines and old buildings, ( We didn't find gold though :-)) walked in the Grampians (a few 'mountains' (=hills) north-east from Melbourne and didn't have any stress in particular. :-)

The most interesting and adventourous things which occured in the past days:
- our sausage disappeared misteriously (the second time... bugger)!
- we had to buy a new battery for the car from a guy whose whole body was tatooed
- our car-engine smoked ??? dope?
- I caught my dirty sock in the act of fleeing from me
- about 16 kangaroos closed in on our tent at the campground and
- we learned that one of the most important battles in australians history lasted less than 15 minutes, left 30 guys dead and a dog with an posthum award and a statue!! (Eureka stockade, 1854 , Pikeman’s Dog (for those interested in more ;-) ))
..... Wow! What do you say? :-) :-)
I guess our grey hairs are caused by that permanent thrill and stress :-) :-) .

Now we are back in Melbourne and will spend our time here till the 4.11., when we will depart to Tasmania, where we will stay for about 3 weeks. We don't know when we will be able to write again, from Tasmania. So don't worry if you do not hear from us a while. we haven't forgotten you! ;-)

The weather is becoming better now (20 - 30 degrees) and we were able to put on our short trousers again! JIPIIHH! ..ups...guess it's cold in Europe though, isn't it. ;-)

Here are the pictures!!! :-)

Kisses and hugs, hugs, hugs!!! Missing you!!!!
Renate

Kangaroo Island

Hallo!

I hope all of you are still interested in our 'adventures' ??

Here is the next blog entry for you: ;-) Kangaroo Island

Although the weather didn't seem too good, we set over to Kangaroo Island, which is a small island near Adelaide. Yes..you are right..it has been know for the many kangaroos.. at least in former times... now a big part of it is still a nature reserve and there are kangaroos, wallabies, pinguins, KOALAS!! (Juchuuuu!!!), snakes, birds etc...

Additionally it has a gorgous coastal scenery.

The weather was rather fine, sunny but still cold. But it can only get better from now on, we keep tellnig ourselves... in comparison to Europe ;-)

We have provided a few pictures again.

We are now on our way to Melbourne and will follow the southern coast for a few days.

We are proud we were able to book our ferry to Tasmania for the 4th of November and are looking sooooo forward to it. :-)

But first: the "Great Ocean Road" to Melbourne :-)

We hope you are all fine and are glad for every comment and email from you!!!!

Kisses and hugs!

Renate & Mirko

Flinders Ranges and Barossa Valley

Coming south from the middle of Australia we suddenly couldn't belive our eyes: everything was green again: green grass, green trees, flowers in all kinds and colours...
We entered the 'Flinders Ranges'! After so much time without any 'Green' we believed us in paradise...we considered the possibility of having been transported to a different planet and time: the Alps... if only there weren't those camels and kangaroos ??? which did not at all fit into our alpine picture ??? ...

... and later, as we came down south even further, we again magically were transferred to the 'Toskana': the Barossa Valley.

So for the record: since our journey began, we have been in: Singapore, Australia, the bush, the outback, the moon, the Alps & the Toskana.
We experienced: incredible heat, incredible cold, rain, blazing sun, cold winds, hot winds, sandstorms and now we have weather like 'autumn' in Europe: we finally arrived in Adelaide.

For us it was good to see some green landscapes again, and more then one house an hour.
We got a real culture shock meeting so many people at once, having the take care not to bump in each other, looking at so many buildings and having so many crossroads, traffic lights and more than one traffic lane to choose from...
But we got used to it rather quickly though. :-)
What will take us longer is the adaption to the cold and wet weather down here.
We discarded the tent until the temperature here raises again above 25 degrees (now 14 - 18) and hope that it will stop raining eventually....

Look at the pictures for yourself!!!
Tomorrow we will continue even further south to Kangaroo Island and then in the direction of Melbourne.
But as civiliation has us again, we will be able to write more often now :-)

We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Kisses, Renate & Mirko

Back from the Outback

one would believe that in the far Outback of Australia the emptyness prevails and there is nothing and nobody to be seen. But as we drove through we encountered otherwise. There are really a lot of things to see and actually humans to meet. I guess the best thing is for you to browse through the photos to get the feeling of the outback.

The more harsh and unfriendly it is the more interesting was it for us. But never ever would we dream of living there :-).

We passed as amused onlookers a lot of curiosities in the ouback:
- "underground living" in Coober Pady
- skeletons at the side of the road
- km2 of nothingness in all different colours
-"villages" housing about 10 people accessed only via dirt road from the middle of nowhere with again about 500km of emptyness to go through to reach them (no house, no service station, no water ... nothing)
- waterholes with fresh water coming out of nowhere
- ruins / old settlements
- lizards, spiders, flies, mosquitos, birds,
- rough tracks (and now we actually know what 'rough' means, when locals tell you the condition of the road is 'rough' ;-))
- the surface of the moon
- salt
- guys, who call themselve 'Talc Alf' after having lived in the Outback for 35 (!) years

I had my first and hopefully only encounter with a redback-spider...and it was rather informal and not a friendly one.... One of us had to die ...luckily as you correctly assume now, it was not me. :-) Juchuuu!

Take a look at the pictures!!!!

Wish you all the best!!!!
Renate & Mirko

From Alice Springs to Darwin

Hallo,

while you worked hard to keep up the worlds economy (Thank you! :-) ) we have covered about another 1400km driving from the middle of Australia to the uppermost North: Darwin.

What we have seen: flies, saltwater crocodiles, another type of termite mounds (classify the shape for yourself this time :-)...see the picture), Kakadu Nationalpark, flies, dead and living kangaroos, wallabies (= kangaroo ??) , birds, flies, ants (they were either cleaning our dishes before we finished the meal or Mirko was licking their green tail end, which tastes (according to mouth-to-mouth-information (haha) like lemon ???...I didn't doublecheck it though)), flying foxes, freshwater crocodiles, lions, tigers, monkeys (guess where...:-) ), trees, rock paintings, bird billabongs without birds and aren't they supposed to have water as well...on the other hand...who the hell knows really what a billabong is???; flies, millions of magpie geese, flies, grass, sun, waterfalls without water, rivers without water, creeks without water, floodplains without water, wetlands without water....??????; eagles feasting on road kill, roadkill meat grilled on night markets, beaches, flies, dumb looking other tourists with fly nets :-) like us; a flat tire (on OUR CAR!!!!!!!), gravel roads, flies, fuel stations 'Sorry! out of order, we apologies for any inconveniences!' (AAAAAHH!); campgrounds; sitting on the calculated most middle point of Australia , adventure tour groups; flies.....

Here are the pictures.

But if you wake us up in our sleeps to ask us what we have experienced, the answer would definelty predominantely be: FLIES!!! So don't wonder if we kind of spastically wave everything we can wave with when we come back. One never know where the flies hovers.... so take care!! Maybe she is right behind you and you don't know it by now (aaahhhhhahahahahahah....)

Yesterday we reached Darwin and were glad to be able to sleep in a bed again (a real bed on four feet !) and don't have to walk through snake-, frog-, mosquito- and spider infested grass for a mile to the toilet in pitch dark. And by the way... there is a green frog following me around in the toilets! When he is not quick enough I catch him waiting for me in the basin! So take a good look at your toilets before using them, so that he can't jump you from behind. :-)

Otherwise the nature was good, the gorges good to swim in (and it was recommended too)...although we were told later that there where probably freshwater crocodiles in the pool swimming with us. But we were assured that freshwater crocdiles "only bite you" they "don't eat you"! What a relieve! ;-(

We will be going to the south again next week so we will probably be gone missing agin for about a week before we resurface. So don't worry. (would anybody anyway?? ;-))

We keep you informed ! :-) We send you a lot of sun!!!

Renate & Mirko

Driving through the "Red Heart" to Ayers Rock

Hallo,

we have been driving through the outback route "The Read Heart" to Ayers Rock (Uluru) and "The Olgas". On our way we have visited the "Western MacDonnal Ranges" with its attractions, the "Kings Canyon" to finally, after 4 days, reach Ayer Rock, which is situated about 400km to the South of Alice Springs.
The Ayers Rock was really impressing, standing there within the landscape. We walked around the Base and were thus able to view it from very different angles. After that we also visited the so-called "Olgas", another monolitic rock formation 50km away from Uluru. This was also very nice, especially when the afternoon sun paints the rocks really red.

Now we are back in Alice Springs to prepare for our going North now.
Click here for pictures :-).

Ah, something worth commenting on: the wheather here was not at all totally hot and cloudless, as one expects. Yesterday and today we had rain!!!! Even though in the weather statistics of Alice Spring it says "NO RAIN" in September. ;-) and it is also rather cool today instead of hot.

Alice Springs will also be historically known as the burying place of Mirkos hiking boots as they decided to give up and dissolve. We tried hard to prolong this but as the sole finally came off, we had no chance to stick to them ;-).

We wish you all the best. Kisses, :-)
See you!

Renate & Mirko

From Cairns to Alice Springs

Hi everybody,

after a lot of driving we arrived in Alice Springs.

If you haven't experinced it yourself you probably don't really know how it feels driving hour after hour, day after day through landscape containing nothing but bushes, grasses and sand. The occasional occurence of a road house (every hm...ca. 200 km) is a real highlight.

And if a Kangaroo hoppels along the side of the road you feel like having got the jackpot of action.

We covered about 2000km in these days!

If you ask us what you do all the time, staring out of the car, having a cruise control don't even having to bother to keep your feet on the gas pedal..... don't ask...we have shut our brains to 'standby'.

But at least some of the ideas you have (during higher spiritual moments throughout the drive) I want to share with all of you:

1) The names of the characters "Kanga" and "Roo" in Winnie the Puh actually put together form the word "Kangaroo", which they are...but "Hey"...first time I have seen through this deeper meaning...WOW, isn't it ??

2) Kanagaroos look right and left, before they cross the 'Highway' but I haven't figured out why still there are so many dead kangaroos on the side of the road, especially as the traffic is reduced to approximately two cars an hour..... ???

3) Water can get very hot in closed cars exposed to sun. Next time I try making tea...will keep you informed about the thrilling results.

4) Mounts of termines around Alice Spring are more shaped like penises than those near Cairns. ??? Someone knowing if there is scientific research on that?

5) It is not possible to think 'NOTHING'...all my attempts have resulted in thinking nonsense..even worse than the points above... so beware!!

On our way we tried to stuff in as many sites as possible: Lava tubes in Undara National Park, canooeing in Lawn Hill National Park, Devils Marbles, Old Telegraph Stations, scurril Road Houses in the outback...hm.. that's it...probably ;-)

Click here for pictures.

On Saturday we will start off for another 7-10 days Outback driving... which means no telefone, no internet, no fridge, but instead flies, mosquitos, sun and dust. :-) But that's what we came for, isn't it :-)

We hope you are still with us and look forward to your comments! :-)

Hear you again after the outback. :-)

Kisses, Renate & Mirko

P.S.: see out new link for our picture gallery about 'signs' ;-)...will be updated throughout the whole journey!

Beware of Kangaroos

Hi to all of you!

Believe it or not Kangaroos are not harmless, sweet and cosy!
Two days ago I was attacked my a monstrous kangaroo about the size of 3o cm height! -> see picture to the right which was taken only minutes before the horror started!!!
It attacked me as I wanted nothing else than watch it in a ZOOOOO!!! Ok, one can ask: "What the hell were they doing in a zoo, if all of Austrlia is full of Kanagroos??" but this was a so-calles "Rain Forest Wildlife Habitat" and showed a lot of animals, you won't spot so easily in free nature.
The kangaroo scratched my feet and wanted to bite me!!!!!!! I tried to defend myself using a sheet of paper and my Ray-ban sunglasses - ok, the idea seems a bite strange to the observing eye, but I didn't HAVE ANYTHING else to defend me with - and I lost both of them in the hard fight.
At the moment of sheer terror Mirko stepped in heroically to distract the raging animal and got himself into the fighting scene. And I got away. uf... Mirko, ah, yes, he got away too...

So let me tell you...never trust a Kangaroo - be it as small as it may!
Everytime we pass a road-sign "Beware of crossing Kangaroos" a shiver runs down my spine! I got a real trauma here! DON'T YOU DARE LAUGHING out there in you safe officies!!!

We also made a trip to Cape Tripulation and Cooktown, where there are amazinly beautiful and empty beaches. They look wonderful, but they are treachous, because you have crocodiles as well as deadly stingers (Jelly fish) there and there is a warning to go swimming...this probably kind of explains the "emptness"... we left pretty soon as well ;-)

Have a look at the pictures.

We are not sure about our next steps...but the main direction is West (Alice Springs) :-)
As there is nearly no internet and other means of communication as soon as you leave the city, we don't really know when we will be able to make a new post. So please be patient with us :-).

We send you our best regards!! Thanks for yout comments and emails! We love it!!!
:-)
Renate & Mirko

Back from the Barrier Reef

Hallo to all of you!

We had a really great time in the last 4 days diving the Great Barrier Reef. The boat and the crew were phanatastic and the dives were excellent. One can say that everything went fine... and that will be probably one of only a few time where we will be able to say that. ;-)

We made 13 dives and saw: a lot of sharks, huge schools of yellow, blue, silver fish into which we sort of "merged into" :-), stone fish, lion fish, a lot of small stuff and thousands of corals.
It was really amazing. :-)

Now back on land we start to get "land-sick" because the ground does not rock any more :-)

We hope to be able to start from Cairns to Cape Tribulation (a little bit to the north) today in the afternoon or tomorrow.
We also hope that we will loose the kilos which we gained because of the excellent food on the boat (5 time a day) again soon ;-)

We will keep you infomed. :-)
Meanwhile take a look at the pictures from the diving trip.

Best regards, hugs and kisses to everyone.

Renate & Mirko

Accomplishments so far...

Hallo,

First: my luggage has finally arrived! juchuu! But...who the hell put so many clothes into it? Now that I am already used to have only two T-shirts and one pair of long and one pair of short trousers, a plastic bag with my deo and a soap...who needs all those things here... ;-)

Secondly: we have bought a car! JIPIIIEEHH! Let's see how long we say 'YIpiieh' before starting to say 'damn car...left us in the middle of nowhere!!!' ;-)
but at least we can leave Cairns and do our first trips to the table-mountains starting right tomorrow morning.

We bought a new radio for the car:
I said:'But who is going to install it in the car?'
Mirko said: 'What...Why are you asking? ME!!!!! Baby! I can do it, no problem...'
I looked incredulously.
We bought the radio.
Mirko took a professional look at the cables coming out of the car-front and said: 'Let's let the garage do it!' :-) :-)
That's travelling with a Software-specialist....
I have more than doubts for the outback. I truly hope we have no mechanical problems... ;-)

From the 27th of august to the 1st of september we are on the live-aboard diving trip to Great Barrier Reaf, so you wont hear from us during this time.
But we will be back as soon as possible, don't worry...;-)

Hope you are all well!
...missing you....

Renate & Mirko

Australaia - arrived in Cairns

Hallo,

after several difficulties with airport and airline personel (my bag has still not arrived) we arrived safely in Cairnes. The weather is fine and not too hot. Today we tried to find out more about buying a 4WD for us and it turns out will take some more time to find the right car for us.
We had a tough timetable today: buying clothes and stuff for me, checking on the car and visiting the town. What we already know is, that we really need a car...distances are rather wide to walk.

We checked into a hostel with shared bathroom after finding that all other options are rather expensive and not within our budget. So we are in the real "backpackers hostel" now... only that we are the oldest ones here, although trying hard to deny it. :-)

Food is rather ordinary compared to Singapore. No more cookies with shrimps and unidentifiable drinks, sweeties or other things for Mirko. Just "plain meat" :-) ...

Wish you all the best,
Renate & Mirko

p.s.: Where the hell is my backpack????

Arriving in Singapore

Hallo all togehter,

we have arrived in Singapore savely..but... as usual my bag did NOT arrive. :-( Why always my bag and not Mirkos :-) This is not fair. :-(
And they are "still tracing it" what makes me troubling even more.... uffff! :-(

Otherwise we enjoy the city ... it's rather hot (35 degress) and there's a high humidity. But the food is good and we try to see as much in four days as we can. Guess that will probably be enough.
And I hope enough time for my backpack to be 'located' and brought...

We will continue to Australia on August 20th. Looking forward to it. :-)

Click here to see more pictures.

We wish you all the best,

Renate & Mirko

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Only 2 days left.....

The departure is still totally irreal. Are we leaving? Who is? We? Me? Where to? Interesting....

That's how my living room looks like.

The question which comes immediately to your mind will be: How are they going to put all those things into two backpacks? And that's what we wonder, too.

In earlier days, we only took a toothbrush and a T-Shirt with us.... but getting older you think about takeing: medicaments, sunhat, books, good shoes, something agains moscito bites, locks, shower gel, air pillow (??????), two or three T-shirts, leatherman, warm clothes,...... Uff...

I guess every outdoor-shop would be proud of our sortiment. :-)

And I hope that I thought of everything concering the things I leave behind.... close water tabs, check heating, redirect post, give plants in good hands for care, provide mother with good instructions :-) ....

As always there are a lot of helpers at home who will help us to arrange things from the far. Thank you to them right from the start. :-) without them we would not be able to leave everthing behind so easily!

The taxi for the airport will arrive on saturday at 12:00...

We will first leave for London and then in the eventing (21:30) from London to Singapure, which will take 12 hours, more or less. So everybody turning around in your nice bed saturday night can think of us. :-)

We will be back on the blog soon.... in singapore. :-)

Un beso, muchos abrazos, kisses and tears.....

Missing you already!!!

Renate & Mirko

First milestone completed...

Hallo,

I have sucessfully completed the first step: -> quit work.

Second step: -> relax and enjoy...completion of step two seems far away!!!!!!

Third step: -> prepare and complete travel arrangements... = work in process

It IS strange to be without work. I can visit shops during opening hours without fighting for breath and - for your information - the supermarkets DO have fresh milk...at earlier hours in the day - amazing, isn't it...

I have received only a few private emails today and got only about two phone calls...private phone calls :-) ...strange...stranger...the strangest feeling... ;-)

But I guess I will get used to this. more than I will like to. Coming back will probably be harder then letting go.

But missing you is hard. I miss you all. Already.

Mirko is still engulfed in work... so he hasn't even started with step one :-)

But at least he has - almost - cleared his "soon-going-to-be-ex-flat".

only..12 days to go... gulp...

Renate

Starting again !!! :-)

Hallo!
Our starting date is now fixed... it will be the 15th of august... :-)
We are:
Happy to leave behind again: work, troubles, doubts, day-to-day-tasks, daily routines, traffic jams ...
NOT happy to leave behing: family, friends, quiet and peaceful nights, clean toilets and bathrooms ...
Looking forward to: freedom, uncertainty, new adventures, your company, impressive sights, new people, different countries, unknown food, sea, sun, time ...
NOT looking forward to: snakes, spiders and all other venomous animals in Australia, heavy backpacks, no bed for the night, car breakdown in the outback ...

We hope you are with us again! :-)
Renate & Mirko