Thursday, November 25th. Usually I’m not a big fan of zoos but today we went to visit the Koala sanctuary nearby Brisbane. It is more than 120 years old and currently home for 130 koalas. Besides the koalas they show other animals, most of them Australian.

We started with the lorikeets. They are not held captive in the zoo but live in the trees throughout the area and twice a day it’s feeding time for them. The keepers hand out trays with food and visitors can hold them up and be eye to eye with the birds.

Even on my head they were sitting. There was about 40-50 of them and every time a kid was running towards the group they escaped at once just to return to the food a minute later.

After the lorikeet feeding we went to the kangaroo area. The area is

Friday Nov 12th, Day 5 of the road trip. We leave Townsville in heavy rain and hope to leave the bad weather behind. We are near Ayr, almost 100km south of Townsville when the rain stops for the first time. It doesn’t stay dry for long though and when we reach Airlie Beach it’s raining cats and dogs again.

Airlie Beach is the main starting point for tours to the famous Whitsunday Islands. That group of islands has beaches that are said to be among the most beautiful worldwide. I was eager to go there but the weather kind of killed the mood.

With the weather being totally unsuitable for camping we decided to check into a hostel for a couple of nights. Two guys from the share house in Cairns, Pete and Meri, work in a hostel near town and organised some beds in a dorm for us.

The weather remained unstable and we spent our time with cleaning and drying the gear or going fishing at the nearby marina.

The forecast promised better conditions for Sunday and thus we booked a Whitsunday tour for that day. While still in Germany I planned to do a sailing trip around the islands but those trips are unfortunately not compatible with my current budget.

Instead we went for an ocean rafting day trip. The company running these trips bought a couple of rescue vessels and

It wasn’t easy but today I finally got the roadworthy certificate (RWC) for my car. A RWC is necessary to register a car and can be issued by certified mechanics. Unlike the German TÜV there are no specialised inspection stations. The Italian couple that sold me the car had it checked by a mechanic in the city and because it failed in some points didn’t get the RWC.

In such cases the car has to be repaired and presented again to the mechanic that did the initial roadworthy check. He’ll check it again free of charge and either issue a RWC if everything has been fixed or point out the damages that are still in need of repair.

This is the story of my cars RWC:

Thursday 21st: I bought the car knowing that the RWC will cost me around $600. After buying the car I talked to Fred from the car rental to get a recommendation for a mechanic that works for cash. He named the one that also services their cars. In the afternoon I went to see him, showed him the paper that lists the necessary repairs for the RWC  and he quoted me $500 to $550 for the repairs. “How much if I pay cash?” I asked. “$450” he answered. I agreed and he told me to bring the car around on Monday.

Monday 25th: In the morning I drop of the car at the mechanic and in the afternoon I pick it up and drive straight to the mechanic that did the roadworthy check. He was too busy that day and asked me to bring the car around the next day.

Tuesday 26th: I drop the car of in the morning and come back in the afternoon to pick it up. “We have a bit of a problem here.” I was told. “Your mechanic repaired the wrong part of the car.”. “WTF” I think and say. Apparently the radius arms on the front wheels were repaired but those on the rear wheels needed to be repaired.

It was about time to pay the Great Barrier Reef another visit. My friend is a certified open water diver as well and we booked a three dives trip with Tusa. They’re a little more expensive than Divers Den where I did my course but they provide better equipment as well. Especially wet suits are a critical point for me as it’s hard to find one that fits me.

We left Cairns aboard Tusa 5 on Saturday last week at 8am sharp. After the usual introduction by the crew we had a bumpy ride to the reef. The wind was blowing at almost 30 knots and the crew was handing out sick bags to the needing.

After about 90 minutes we arrived at Saxon reef. Not 15 minutes later we were in our gear and in the water. Like the last time it was absolutely stunning. This time we brought a camera and got some really nice pictures.

The dive site was called “Magic Wall”, probably because of the coral structure that formed a wall easily 10m high. It looked like

One big point on my list of things to do while I’m in Cairns was diving at the Great Barrier Reef, said to be one of the best diving sites in the world. As I never had dived before the obvious solution was to do a so called intro dive. That’s a day trip to the reef with snorkeling and one scuba dive. Those trips cost (on a decently fast boat) about $180 to $230 for the day.

When I mentioned my plans to Andy he pointed out that due to the weak season (hello economy crisis) several companies cut the prices for their dive courses and there was some nice discounts out there. That way I’d get a four day dive course with two days in the pool and two days (five dives) at the reef for twice the price of a day trip. Plus I’d be a certified diver afterwards and could basically go diving on my own everywhere in the world.

Took me a couple of days before I made the decision to do the course. Unless I’d totally dislike diving it was too good a deal to pass on.

Day 1, Sunday Trying to get into a course with as few students as possible I booked one that starts on Sunday. Worked well, besides me there were just two other guys in the classroom. The morning of this first day was filled with theory and getting a medical examination by a doctor. The doc certified me fit for diving and we went to the swimming pool after lunch to have some practical education.

We started with collecting the gear and for scuba diving that’s a lot you have to collect. Tank, BCD, regulator, weights, fins, mask and wetsuit to be precise. For the next two hours we practised basic skills and got ourselves used to handling the gear.

[caption id=“attachment_269” align=“aligncenter” width=“380” caption=“Dive Equipment on the Boat”][/caption]

Day 2, Monday Today we went straight to the pool and started with swimming. Yes, swimming, everybody who wants to be a diver has to be able to swim 200m and stay on the surface for 10 minutes after that. Not too hard so everybody managed to do it and

There is a beautiful piece of earth called Atherton Tablelands just half a hour south of Cairns. I planned on going there for some time and for Sunday I got a couple of mates together and rented a car. Renting the car was quite cheap, my old boss gave me a discount and thus it was just $30 for the car instead of $55.

We planned on starting at 7:30 but changed our plans on short notice. Warm temperatures, stuffy bedrooms and partying neighbours don’t contribute to a good nights sleep.

We, that is Hiroko from Tokyo, my housemate Chris and Nico from the hostel. Both of them from France.

When we left Cairns at 8:30 the sun was already shining bright and it promised to become a warm day. We made our first stop on the road to Yungaburra and got a first impression of what the tablelands look like.

On our way farther into the tablelands we came across the Cathedral Fig Tree. That thing is about 500 years old and

Thursday, May 20th 15:30 CEST: Leaving home by car. We decided to start early as we expected to hit the rush hour in Bremen.

Thursday, May 20th 16:30 CEST: Check-in at Bremen airport. I was hoping my luggage wouldn’t exceed the weight limit as the scales at home showed almost 23 kg (the max weight for the Qantas flight) for the bag and the backpack combined. Fortunately with 22kg it was within the limits. Lufthansa didn’t even charge me for the 2kg I was exceeding their weight limit. My father and me passed the waiting time at the airport bar and on the visitors terrace. About an hour later it was time to say goodbye for a year and board the plane.

Thursday, May 20th 18:10 CEST: Timely take-off to the short 45min flight to Frankfurt.

Thursday, May 20th 20:00 CEST: Check-in with Qantas in Frankfurt. Lufthansa forwarded my luggage directly to Qantas so I just needed to get my boarding passes. For the flight to Singapore I had already reserved an exit row seat. When I asked for such a seat on the flight to Adelaide I was told that since recently Qantas always charges an additional fee for these seats. Well, for a mere 6.5 hours a regular aisle seat will do.

[caption id=“attachment_30” align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Qantas 747-400 at the Frankfurt airport”][/caption]

Friday, May 21st 00:10 CEST: With a slight delay of 15 minutes I’m leaving Germany. My examination of the onboard entertainment system