wereldreis bas

home sweet home

2009-03-22T10:49:00.000-07:00

Hi people!

This is my final blog-post. I am back home now, back with friends and family and loved-ones.

What a trip this has been! Just simply incredible.... almost impossible to comprehend! I can only tell you that in reallity the photographed landscapes, animals, plants, people, etc. are ALL far far far better than photographs can ever convey. But in the end, the last few weeks, after having seen such amazing things, I felt a bit 'overloaded' (as you can imagine), so it was really time to come home: if you are no longer amazed by the beautiful mother earth, it is time to let it sink in for a while.

Thank you all for keeping an eye on my blog for all these months- It was really really nice to feel that nobody was forgetting me, and was stil with me a bit. Really you have no idea how nice that was.

Last thing I really want to say is: DO AS I DID! PLEASE:

GET UP AND GO TRAVELLING!

NOW!

Bas.

California and San Francisco

2009-03-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

Hi people,
The final leg of my travels is California. After spending almost a week in San Francisco I rented a car for some days and drove to Redwood National Park and Yosemite National Park. It was very nice, but I am looking forward to coming home soon!!
Take care,
Bas.

last day in Auckland + NZ

2009-03-01T12:41:00.000-08:00

Hi there!

I spent my last days in New Zealand in Auckland, with ray and Donnae, a South African couple that lives there. I have met them a couple of weeks ago at Mount Taranaki. They are amazing people! They invited me into their home and treated me to a great "braai" (South African BBQ)! It was so good! I am such a lucky bastard!

Thanks Ray and Donnae! And Mishka (their great cat!)!! We'll be in touch!

Bas.

South Island

2009-02-20T19:08:00.000-08:00

PICTURES

Hi people,

Finally I have some time to give you an update on the last couple of weeks! I have arrived back in Christchurch yesterday with Merel- she flew back to Australia for her last 3 weeks before going back to NL. I will stay another 12days or so in NZ and then fly to San Francisco.

Merel and me met up again in Taupo three weeks ago. We spent a couple of relaxing days there swimming in beautifull water of lake Taupo and its rivers. After that Merel walked the Tongariro Crossing and I travelled to Wellington. We met up a day later and spent two very nice days there. Then we took the boat [ferry] to the South Island.

We arrived in Picton where we saw a lot of sealife, just in the harbor. Hundreds of seastars, fish and even some rays. One day we walked about 28km on the Queen Charlotte Track in the beautifull area around Picton (Malborough Sounds, a sort of ford-landscape).

After that we travelled by bus to Christchurch where we picked up our rental car. We drove immediately to Akaroa, a small place on Banks Pininsula. this is a volcanic pininsula where the crater of the main volcano actually erupted to form a bay of the sea. We swam with Dolphins there!! Amazing, swimming circles with these animals while they look at you.. really seeming to play and investigate you! We also collected (huge) mussels there and cooked them in a nice paella! It was great. We stayed on a farm/hostell... good beginning of our roadtrip!

After that we drove a whole day trough amazing landscapes to go pick up Myrte in Nelson. Myrte is a friend of Merel, travelling Australia and New Zealand aswell. After picing her up we drove to the far north, Farewel Spit and later Abel Tasman National Park. We did a whole day of Seakayaking there and saw heaps of seals and pinguins! We swam at amazing little beaches. In the afternoon we walked for another 3,5hours through the park. It was great. Just check the pictures!

After that we drove to the westcoast and down, to a place called Frans Jozef. There is a glacier there we were going to climb. What an insaine trip! All day climbing up the glacier trough cracks in the beautifull blue ice! Surreal!

Then we travelled South to Te Anau [after visiting Fox Glaciar down the road] where we had a nice afternoon break with Cheese and Wine [Valentine day and Merel and me 4 months together].

The next day we did a boat tour in the Milford Sound: a proper "fjord". Again, amazing. Pictures dont do justice. One of the cool things was that the boat dipped it's front into a waterfall [yes, we were standing on the front deck and got a nice shower].

After Te Anau we drove to Wanaka [great lake views and mountain air] and later Queenstown. Here we spent two days relaxing [reading, eating, drinking, going out, short strolls in the park and town]. We needed that after so much hectic travelling!

After Queenstown we drove south furter, to the South Coast where we saw amazing landscapes and pinguins.

We seem to have saved the best for last: On the way back North to Christchurch we visited the Mount Cook National Park. I can only say check the pictures of the blue lakes and the snowy peaks and crazy glaciers... it was simply magnificent!

The last night we dropped of Myrte in Akaroa, where we started our trip, so she could
swim with Dolphins aswell. The next day Merel and I dropped off the car in Christchurch and you know the rest.

It was an amazing trip, but I am happy that I am now on my way [slowly] to the Netherlands again. What a travels I have don so far! It has been what I wished for and more.. but I miss you all now so.. i'll be back soon.

But first a little bit more NZ and some North America too.

Check back soon!

PICTURES

Bas.

pictures South Island- in progress

2009-02-16T18:24:00.000-08:00

the pictures of the travels on the South Island- the photos of Merel and Myrte will be uploaded soon to check back in a couple of days!

PICTURES

pictures Taranaki-Wellington

2009-02-16T18:22:00.000-08:00

the pictures of the last week on the north island: Mt. Taranaki (vulcano I climbed) and the travels to Wellington after meeting up with Merel again.

PICTURES

South Island

2009-02-11T22:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry people! I am to busy travelling to keep the blog updated, but I picked mussels with Merel as big as my hand and we cooked and ate them, then we swam with Dolphins (insaine), then we kayaked a whole day and encountered seals and swam in crazily beautifull blue sea, today we climed a glaciar all day- IT IS SIMPLY CRAZY!

PICTURES

Bas.

Roadtrip

2009-02-08T01:03:00.001-08:00

Hi people!

You may wonder why I havent written in a while... I am on a road trip on the south island with Merel! It is simply amazing! Pictures will come soon!!

Bas.

next Vulcano: Mnt. Taranaki

2009-01-26T21:11:00.000-08:00

I climbed mount Taranaki- a vulcano that rises out of the coastal flat-lands to 2520m.. an amzing climb.. the previous alpine walk [Tongariro crossing] was nothing compared to this [in terms of physical effort]. My god.. what a monster! Photos will come soon...

Bas.

Rotorua and Napier

2009-01-22T16:58:00.000-08:00

Hi people!

After Taupo & Tongariro i went to Rotorua. This is an amazing place- everywhere there earth bubbles with Volcanic energy. Steam and fumes drift by everywhere- almost everybody has a hotspring in their own backyard! The town smells horrible though- a sulphur smell (like rotten eggs). But is is pretty impressive. I saw a geiser (biggest on southern hemisphere) in a park with some steaming lakes. There was alos a lot of information on Maori culture- they had a great war-canoe on exhibition! See the PICTURES.

After that I went to Napier. This little town on the east-coast was destroyed by an earthquake cin the 1930's. They quickly rebuilt everything in the style of the 30's, so now they have an amazing collection of Art Deco architecture... Just check the pictures.

I also added some pictures of the bustrip to Napier.

Enjoy.

Bas.

Auckland and Taupo

2009-01-17T14:31:00.000-08:00

On top of Tongariro Mountain [1978m].

Hi People!

I've been in New Zealand now for more than a week. I was off to a slow start in Auckland since A- I was staying in a great hostel and B- I needed to get organised (in the brain) about my trip trough NZ.

In Auckland I have visited some vulcanic hills: Mount Eden and the next day Rangitoto. Mt. Eden is in the middle of the city, and on top you have a great view of Auckland. You can also see (in the photographs aswell) the green hills dotted troughout the city: these are all vulcanos! Really something. Especially cool to see a group of cows grazing in the crater of the vulcano.

Rangitoto is the youngest volcano in Auckland. It emerged out of the sea some six hundred years ago. That event has been thouroughly imbedded into Maori (native New Zealanders) culture- they have a gods that are linked to the vulcanic activity of the island. I took a ferry from the harbour of Auckland and dit a 12km walk around the island (which is mostly deserted accept from some holiday homes around the coast). It was great.

After Auckland I travelled to Lake Taupo in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand. It is the biggest lake on the southern hemisphere and was created in a hug volcanic explosion 1800 years ago. The Romans and the Ancient Chines recored that for months the earth recieved much less sunlight! I am happy to not have been here during that explosion! The lake is 30x40km... imagine.

Anyway, the first day I spent walking around and hinking along a river that flows out of the lake, towards some nice waterfalls. Great walk- the water was so nice and clear (and the weather was great too).

Yesterday however, I spent the whole day hinking in the mountains. This was incredible. Simply amazing. The walk I did was Tongariro Alpine Crossing- wich takes you trough some of the most amazing volcanic landscapes in the world. For people who know Lord of the Rings: this is the Mount Doom region (large vulcano with red topping you see in pictures). It was an all day, 23km hike (I did some side-tracks which made it better but also a bit tougher).

I hope the picture show a little bit about the trip because in reality it is simple flabbergasting- mindblowing- insainely wicked. What a trip! See the black lavaflow, the emerald turqouise lakes, the snowtops, the popped red blister, the steam and vulcanic fumes coming out of a valley, and mount Doom in the

PICTURES

What a trip am I making! This is what I came for! Can it get better than this??

Bas.

goodbye Melbourne, welcome to New Zealand

2009-01-10T19:48:00.000-08:00

Auckland

vlnr Donnie, Matt, Dorian, Bruno, Rafa, Leanne, Dennis, Emily, Jet.

Hi people!

I have recently arrived in New Zealand, Auckland. Maybe you can tell from the picture; it is not the most beautifull city in the world in terms of architecture, however it is built on 50(!!) vulcanos amidst the sea. After a couple of sunny days, this weekend has been very rainy. I have spent most days on the internet and in books and travelguides, trying to make up my mind on where to travel (I am alos waiting for a package from Holland with my tent and campinggear).

In Melbourne I had a very nice goodbye-BBQ. Leanne helped me organize it and it was really great. Dennis and Emily were there, ofcourse! And Matt and Jet. And some guys from the hostel: Donnie (from New York), Dorian (from France), Rafa and Bruno (from Brazil). And ofcourse Leanne, who will be coming to NZ in Febuari, so I will see her soon again.

Merel stayed in Sydney- she will do some surfing and working on an organic farm. She will come to New Zealand for 5weeks, from 19januari onwards. We will travel the South Island together, that will be so cool!!!

Big hug, hope all of you are very well!

Bas.

new phonenumber

2009-01-08T15:35:00.000-08:00

Hi people.

My new New Zealand phonenumber is:

+64-211-61-3464

Take care.

Bas.

happy new year!

2009-01-04T15:45:00.000-08:00

New Year I celebrated in Sydney, with my cousin Marc and his girlfriend Clarissa, and some friends of them- some of whome I have met before in Germany or in Townsville. It was simply fantastic. We were invited to the home of somebody a friend of my cousing met while travelling. He had an amazing apartment with an amazing view over Sydney towards the Harbourbridge. It was awesome!! We bbq'ed on the balcony, opened some beers and later watched the crazy fireworks! What a night!

See more PICTURES HERE.

Bas.

PS. Merel spent the night with her friends in the Sydney Harbour, on a boat of people they'd met travelling. She made some movies of the fireworks.. I will try and upload them soon!

merry christmas and happy newyear!

2008-12-23T15:33:00.000-08:00

From a sunny and hot (27-32 degrees celcius) Melbourne, I whish you all a very merry christmas and a happy and healthy 2009!

I will spent Christmas with Dennis and Emily and their family. They have invited me for lunch and dinner on 1st day of Christmas. On "Boxingday" (2nd day of Christmas) I will go to see a cricket-match in the big MCG-stadium (90.000 people)- Australia vs. South Africa, together with Dennis, Jet, Leanne and some others. Also Alistair (I guy from South Africa I met in Cairns while travelling) will come to see the game. All day, enjoying the sun, beers and cricket!!

PICTURES

For New Year I will fly to Sydney where I will celebrate with Marc and Clarissa (my cousin and his girlfriend) and some friends. Also Merel will be in Sydney for the New Year. Looking forward to that! I will be arriving in 2009 10 hours before most of you!

Hope your holidays will be well-spent. See you all in under 3 months! 17 March I will be back in Amsterdam...

Bas.

into the desert

2008-12-16T19:59:00.000-08:00

Hi people!

I have visited the 'Red Centre' of Australia the last couple of days. It was simply incredible!

I left Melbourne (by plane) with a sore throat, a fever and backpain. I don't know how I got it, but it was pretty annoying. When I arrived in Alice Springs, it was raining! In the desert! Crazy. Good start hey!? Come here to see desert and 42degrees, and I get here sick, and 32degrees and rain. And Merel didn't come along in the end- she will visit the Red Centre later- she is working on an organic farm now until a couple of days before Christmas.

After having done some checking into a hostel, and some shopping for my tour into the desert, I was happy to get into my bed. I was shivering of fever and seriously thought about canceling my 3-day tour to Uluru (Ayer Rock), Kata Tjuta (Olga Mountains) and Kings Canyon- but hey, don't they have flying doctors here??

So, at 5 o'clock in the morning I got up and got into our tourbus with about 18 other people. We had a five hour drive to Kings Canyon ahead of us. Luckily the rainclouds were gone but they had left the desert cool and green!

At Kings Canyon, the creek was flowing for the first time in 23 months, so we were very lucky to see some beautiful waterfalls: A rare sight. We did a 3,5hour walk into the Canyon where most of us had a nice swim in one of the 'waterholes' (pools that usually survive extended dry periods- very important in aboriginal culture as you may imagine).

After the Kings Canyon walk we drove another 4 hours (past Mount Connel that you can see in the pictures aswell, sometimes they call it "Foolaru" because people think it is Uluru). It was a long drive to our campsite in the desert. We made a nice campfire and put all our swags (heavy canvas sleepingbags in which you put your own warm sleepingbag- swags allow you to sleep outside in the desert) in a big circle around the fire. We ate a good 'chili-con-carne' and drank a beer and fell asleep almost immediately after that.

I woke up just before sunrise. A narrow flaming red line formed the horizon. I stayed inside my warm sleepingbag, feeling only a slightly chilly wind on my face (the only exposed part of my body). The red line slowly grew into a slightly wider dark orange one... everything else was black, the horizon, the landscape and the outline of trees and bushes. After dark orange came bright orange, yellow, even green and then blue... all in 20-30min. What a sight. No sounds, just wind and dust blowing past... AMAZING!!! It's good to be alive- and I am a lucky bastard.

When everybody got up and had breakfast, we went to see the Olga Mountains or Kata Tjuta. This is a very strange rock formation very close (35km) from Uluru. And like Uluru it is a very sacred place. We walked through the amazing gorges for some 4 hours. We found another waterhole to swim in. It was full of huge tadpoles (kikkervisjes), and everybody that got in was cleaned by them. We also found 'ochre' in different colors that aboriginals used for their rock-art drawings- of which we didn't see any because these sacred places amongst the hills are not to be visited by non-aboriginals.

After Kata Tjuta we went back to our campsite for a couple of hours chillin'. When the sun started to go down and the temperature dropped (from 35 to 27 or so I guess), we went for a small walk at Uluru and a visit to the Aboriginal Culture Centre there- very interesting: we saw their tools (boomerangs, spears, diggingsticks, etc.), their paintings, some of their stories and explanations about their food. Great stuff! The walk at Uluru took us to see some waterholes and caves. Our very nice guide 'Mark' gave us explanation about the Rock, it's history and explained to us some of the laws and customs of the aboriginal people.

After that we drove off a little, to see the sunset at Uluru. This was at a big parking area where hundreds of people had gathered in one big photograpghy-orgy. People in high-heels drinking champagne, backpackers in their 'Wicked'-campervans, touristgroups, families... everybody there.. it was hilarious: all watching the sunset at a big Rock- 450km from any civilization (Alice Springs has not even 30.000 inhabitants, and it's the biggest thing for at least 1500km in any direction).

After dinner we got into the swags again for another night under the stars. We were woken up at 5h again to go and watch the sunrise at Uluru. And just when I was climbing out of my swag, still sleepy, I saw a HUGE falling star... very wide tail and very 'slowly' moving... so good!!! Another great start of my day. I felt slightly better since the first day... the fever was gone but backpain and sore throat were still annoying me however.

We watched the sunrise at an empty carpark area (!) and it was of course even nicer than sunset. Then we went for a long walk around the rock (some 10km's!). And I thought it would just be a rock... but it is full of interesting caves, little valley's with waterholes and cracks through which rainwater comes down. And so RED! In short, it is a very intricate holy-place for aboriginal culture, that has visited Uluru for over 40.000years. We have been told about their rituals and things like that. For instance: if somebody dies at this place, the aboriginal tribe there, all of them, have to make cuts in their skin and bleed to mourn the dead and get rid of bad spirits. That is why they politely ask anybody not to climb their Uluru. Unfortunately, aboriginal law has not been incorporated into Australian Law, so it is not forbidden to climb the rock. I (and our whole group) respected the aboriginal's wishes, but we were probably some of the few... many stupid people didn't care and climbed it anyway... buses full of tourist cursing like crazy in the aboriginal St. Peter Cathedral.... makes me sad!!!

Anyway, we had a 6hour drive ahead so we left around noon, after we had a nice 'English' breakfast with beans and sausages and eggs and all that. In the bus back to Alice Springs, I suggested to put all the left-over beers into a music-quiz competition: I sat in the front-seat with the i-pod connected to the stereo and played songs, and who-ever guessed songtitle and artist would get half a cup of cold beer. It was hilarious. For 2,5 hours we laughed like crazy. And then we ran our of beer. 5 minutes later everybody was asleep!

At night, back in the hostel we had dinner all together and then a lot of beers. It was again and amazing trip! I am so happy I have done this before going to New Zealand on the 8th of January.

Check the PICTURES!

Bas.

Great Ocean Road

2008-12-03T18:59:00.000-08:00

Hi people!

With Merel, I made trip along the Great Ocean Road, a famous coastal route along the Southern Ocean, south of Melbourne. Dennis, my friend, was so kind to let me borrow his car- a 1970's Alfa Romeo, 2.0l sportscar. Very very nice! We had a great time. We took two days, walking rainforrests, enjoying the coastal landscape, seeing cliffs and gorges, seeing wildlife (Koala's Echydna's Kangaroo's) and good food, talks and listening to music. It was just GREAT!

Check the PICTURES.

Bas.

Federica!!

2008-12-02T19:10:00.000-08:00

... along the way we stopped at a scenic lookout. Another car parked there, just after us. 3 people get out, 2 guys and a girl. I say politely 'hello' without paying much attention. Just before Merel and I get back into the car, I look at the girl one more time. "FEDERICA!!"
- "Bas!?!?"
My god! How small this planet is. Federica studied with Dennis and Alberto in Delft for one semester in 2004. We haven't seen eachother in 4 years and there we meet, by coicidence, on a carpark along the Great Ocean Road. How insane is life!?!?
Bas.

MOVING ON

2008-11-29T18:22:00.000-08:00

Hi people.

I will soon be moving on to New Zealand. I had planned to stay in Melbourne and Australia until at least mid-febuari, but some things have changed. I didnt find a job in architecture, but in a restaurant. But this is only covering my expenses [barely]. I am not saving any money for the remainder of my travels. Also my father is going through some though times personally. So, I have decided to go to New Zealand soon [probably around 14 december] which will bring me back to The Netherlands around mid-March.

Before that time I am plannig to go see the red-centre [Alice Springs and the N.P. around there] and the Great Ocean Rd.

Ofcourse it is too bad, Melbourne is a great city. I would have loved to spend some more time here and celebrate christmas with Dennis and his friends and family- but fortunately he will move to Paris in Januari- so we can catch up then.

This is the way travelling seems to go: you never know what's going to happen next. That's what the edventure is all about.

Hope all of you are well. Nice to see you are all still following my stories [Nol en Vijf bijvoorbeeld!].

Bas.

Merel in Melbourne's Possum Paradise

2008-11-27T18:30:00.000-08:00

Hi there people. This is Merel. Merel rocks! She is from Utrecht and loves great food and good music, and loves playing violin! I have met Merel about 2-3months ago, when I was visiting Leanne in Proserpine. We enjoy a lot of afternoons in Melbourne's very nice parks. Check the pictures at the PICASA site for an impression of my time in Melbourne.

One evening this week, in the park, we ended up feeding many many possums! It was POSSUM PARADISE. How cool is that!?

More news soon, because Merel and I will be going to drive the Great Ocean Road together and hopefully visit Ayers Rock, the Olga Mountains and Alice Springs soon.

Bas.

work in Melbourne

2008-11-21T18:23:00.000-08:00

Hi People.

Finding work as an architect in Melbourne has not succeeded. The global financial crises has distroyed the construction-industry here. No jobs what so ever. A lot of architects and related professionals have actually been fired. It's havoc. Anyway, I have found a job as a waiter in a Tasmanian Restaurant- very 'sjiek'. It's very hard work but I like it. The money is extremely bad (8euro/hour) but enough to cover my expenses.

You can check the restaurant's website here:

http://www.puresouth.com.au/

Take care,

Bas.

Whitsundays- NEW PHOTOS

2008-11-11T17:26:00.000-08:00

Hi people,

I received some photos of my Whitsunday-sailing adventure. These pictures were taken by Daniella and Iwan; a very nice German couple that was in our group. The pictures are amazing so enjoy!

Bas.

PICTURES

in Melbourne

2008-11-06T15:03:00.000-08:00

... we do a lot of this on the front-veranda of Dennis' house.
Bas.

bad luck!

2008-11-02T17:24:00.000-08:00

[the sunday paper: click photo for enlargement]

Just when I arrived in Melbourne, the global economic crises has crushed the local architecture- and construction-industry... that's what they call bad luck. Architectural offices that had 5-10 jobs available 2 months ago and couldn't find anybody, have now thrown out 10 or 20 people at the same time. The board of architects estimates that over the last 2 weeks, some 250 people related to the architectural profession, have lost their jobs. Just when I am really running out of money and looking for a job... bad bad luck. So, now I am overthinking my options: continue travelling to New Zealand on find backpackerswork there (on a farm or something) or finding a 'normal' job in Melbourne (in shop or restaurant). We'll see what happens.. but I can tell you it is no fun!

Brisbane-Byron Bay-Sydney

2008-10-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

[Sydney from space- the A points at the city center: click picture for enlargement]

Dear All!

After Noosa I traveled to Brisbane where I have spent a couple of days with a Dutch friend [Merel] I have met along the way. Brisbane is quite a nice city- even though many people try to convince me otherwise. It has a nice breeze [thanks to the big river curling trough it] and some very interesting architecture, like for instance the State Library of Queensland. This is a renovated building on the banks of the river that really embraces the Queensland climate. The architects have almost created an 'outdoor' library; they have generated many generous and pleasant outdoor spaces where visitors and passers-by comfortably mix and enjoy a book.

After the hectic traveling of the last few weeks [Whitsundays/Hervey Bay/Fraser/Rainbowbeach/Noosa] it was very nice to just enjoy a glass of wine, a book, a night in the cinema and a chat in the park.

After Brisbane I have traveled to Byron Bay- a famous backpackers-destination with a very good surf. I stayed there only a couple of days, mainly walking a bit and reading [The Kiterunner- what a great book!]. I also enjoyed some nice seafood restaurants. Everybody told me that Byron Bay absolutely rocked, but I found it rather small and calm... but probably I have missed something. Although I probably only missed a couple of nice clubs/bars.

But I had to keep traveling. I had booked my flight from Sydney to Melbourne already, so I had only 4 days left to visit Sydney.

Sydney was the first Australian city that really felt like a real global city. This had the feel of a New York, a London or a San Francisco to it. I really loved Sydney. It's amazing how the whole city is facing a couple of see-arms that run trough the city. It feels like this city has a big public square in its center. On nice day's it is full of little [sail]boats and ferries. Also the operahouse was extremely interesting! I couldn't believe I was finally seeing [and entering for I have gone to watch a Palestinian play there one evening] this architectural icon. I thought I would be disappointed but it was very interesting [beauty is such a subjective thing and doesn't really interest me in this case]. It felt like a dream, walking around it, or taking the ferry to one of the suburbs and passing it by boat.

Along with top-class galleries and museums, Sydney has very pleasant [and hip] characteristic suburbs. I visited Manley and also Bondi Beach [by taking the ferry from the city-center]. There was a sculpture exhibition along the coast near Bondi Beach [which was a bit to crowded for me that Saturday] and so I spent one afternoon walking a big chunk of the coastline, going from beach to beach. So nice how almost everybody in Sydney lives 'by the sea'!! Really, people, if you have the chance, visit Sydney once.

Then I flew to Melbourne to go and find a job. I am staying with Dennis, Matt and Merrin again- it's so much fun! They are sooo nice!

Talk to you soon.

Bas.

THE PICTURES

Whitsundays- Fraser Island- Noosa

2008-10-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

[Whiteheaven Beach on Whitsunday-Island: click picture for enlargement]

Hello People!

Sorry for letting you wait for so long. I've been traveling- the east coast is like a roller coaster!

After Prosperpine, where Leanne was working, I returned to Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach is the main port for boats sailing to the Whitsunday Islands. These are a couple of amazing islands with great snorkling, wildlife (tropic forrest, sealife, etc) and beautiful beaches! I did a 3-day, 2-night trip there. Just check the pictures at picasa. In reality it is ofcourse 10x better.

I was on a very small sail-boat called 'Silent Night'. Only 12 people could be on board. Typical backpacker-party-boats normally hold around 20-30. I was on a small boat to get a real sailing adventure. It was a nice mix of people: a 70year old South African woman with her 50-something year old daughter (amazing, they were so nice and taking care of us), a couple of younger girls (English and American, very nice and a bit alternative/artifarty) and a german couple. And there were a Canadian woman (50's) and a scottish woman (end '30s). Fortunately the skipper and his mate were man aswell, so it was balanced out a bit.

It was just SUPER! Jack (the deck-mate) noticed I liked the sailing and explained a lot to me and let me help in running the boat. I absolutely loved it. Fortunately we had great sailing weather: sunshine and a nice breeze. I loved loved loved it! So cool when your boat is plowing through the water in a 45degree angle! I was even allowed to steer the boat for a while! I am addicted.

One evening we were having dinner on the deck while anchored in a little bay when we suddenly heard: ppssshhhhhh. A singel dolphin has hunting the little fish that the deck-light attracted! Just one or two meters from our boat. It spent at least 20min diving down and coming up again.. the light reflecting on her silver body while she was down in the dork waters... how cool is that! Our skipper (sailing the Whitsundays since 14 yrs) had never seen a single female alone, hunting at night near his boat!

One of the days we visited an island with an amazing beach; Whiteheaven Beach. Just check the pictures.. I can describe it! Heaven on earth. And so many fish and rays and little sharks in the shallow waters.. just incredible!

After the Whitsundays I travelled to Harvey Bay. This is the main gateway to visit Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the biggest sand-island in the world and is one big nature reserve. It has many different types of forest (even rain forest) and an incredible amount of species of wildlife (among them the famous Dingo's which I haven't seen). What I did see: Sharks, sea turtles, 1m jellyfish, dolphins, whales, flying possums (looks sort of like flying "eekhoorns"), rays, beautiful sweet-water fish, etc. Bloody amazing. I was on a guided tour which used a sort of Paris-Dakar 4WD bus. It was soo cool. And met amazing people again (from Brazil (Carolina you're amazing!!), Liege, France, England, Kosovo). On the island there are a couple of amazing fresh-water lakes which were great to swim in!

After Fraser Island I spent a couple of days in Rainbow Beach and traveled (all the time with Greyhound bus) to Noosa. In Noosa I stayed at one of the most amazing hostel's ever. A traditional 'Queenslander" (local historic building). And I did a canoe-trip in the wetlands just north of Noosa. 3 days of canoeing: I saw some river-sharks, some big iguana's (sort of lizards), kangaroos and a swimming Tigersnake! Awsome!

It was with a small group; we got 5 canoes for 10 people. With tents and food and sleepingbags we set out and canoed up the river for a couple of hours and made a camp there. The second day we canoed further upstream to visit a big sand-dune in the middle of the National Park. It was like a desert! And that amidst so much green forests and swampy lakes. Incredible.

What a trip this has turned out to be! It is hard to explain how good it was. I hope the pictures do a better job at that than me! And then: I am only giving you a short version of it!

THE PICTURES

a critical note

2008-10-09T23:43:00.000-07:00

[picture stolen from Mark Pynn]

After all the positive messages and my great travel-adventures, now I have some critical notes on my travels, just to share my thoughts with you. ‘Cause not everything is here ‘rozengeur en maneschijn’ [smell of roses and moonlight].

TRAVELLING
First, some note on the traveling. I must say that traveling is sometimes quite tiring. I have met soo many people over the last 4 months, and many of them were very interesting. However, often conversations don’t get much further then: “hey where are your from? Where’ve you traveled? Where are you gong? Blabla.” And that everytime, over and over again… gets a bit tiring. Furthermore, most people are typical ‘backpackers’… I would say, rather young boys and girls that don’t really know what they want in life. And that’s all fine, offcourse, it’s great that they came here to find that out, but I don’t have very much in common with them, for I know very well what I want in life. Also, they seem very happy to not live under their parents supervision, sometimes for the first time in their lives. In their joy that seem to forget however that other then their parents there are other people on the planet who’s needs and wishes one should respect aswell- that is to say: if you want to secure yourself a spot in heaven after this lifetime.

Hostels are very funny things. Sometimes you are in a 8-bed dormitory, while in one of the beds, in the middle of the night, two people are ‘having fun’ with eachother. Or you have gigantic snorrers- people that chop down the entire ‘Swarzwald’ in a night’s sleep. These people snore so badly they should have a red stamp in their passport or hostel-card so that they can all be put together in one room… it’s just insane that these people come and sleep in a dormroom and then prevent 7 people from catching any sleep at all! And then there are the sanitary units. Sometimes showers in hostels are so, freakin dirty, or old and falling apart, that after showering you just don’t dare touch anything. I remember sometimes not wasting my towel on my feet- I would just walk along barefoot until they had dried up… really people, some hostel-showers are amazingly dirty! And, somehow, most people seem not to really care about others: the sounds of people clearing their throats, or going to the lue, is sometimes simply horrific- especially when you've just woken up.

One last traveling thing that is quite annoying is that since Australia is so gigantic, and because some areas are either only accessible by 4WD or because it is to dangerous to just go their by yourself, many things-to-see in Australia are very touristy. They are “small” pockets in gigantic deserts of nothingness, so it’s the place where everybody goes. And sometimes, one can only visit these [national parks] only along the tourist-tracks. These tracks are the only ones there, the rest of the parks is plain inaccessible [accept if you are the Crocodile Hunter], so again: this is where everybody goes. You don’t have deserted beaches for you alone to dip-in [sharks, jellyfish, croc’s] as Titi and I had in Greece, or small river-pools to relax in [snakes, croc’s]. It is really difficult to be alone and enjoy things in your own way.

AUSTRALIA
Then, Australian culture has some strange things. I mean, off course I look at the world through the eyes of a critical architect, but still.

For example, I think there are no people on the planet more dependent of car-transportation. To get around in Australia, one just needs a car, and preferably a 4WD. And then they complain about the gasoline, but one liter here cost’s about 0,70euro! The reason for this car-dependency is the space-use. All Australian families live in gigantic houses, that are all detached 1-floor [bungalow] houses. This not only means they use a lot of resources [four facades to keep the sun+heat out or the heat inside] but it also means Australian cities are incredibly stretched out... very very big cities. I think Melbourne is bigger than Paris, but has only 1/3 of it’s population! One of the problems of these kind of cities is that public transport is very difficult to maintain and quite expensive [km’s commuted per user]. Which off course means- more car-dependency. Stretched-out cities also means traveling by bike is time+energy consuming, and you don’t just walk here or there… I read that Australians are the fattest people in the world, even more so than Americans, and regarding their car-dependency and their amazing craving for fat-food [anglo-saxon cooking] this might be true.

The food thing is also something that stings: they have the most marvelous stuff swimming around- huge quantities of scallops, crayfish, lobsters, crab, crustaceans, mussels, clams, etc. But I guess 75% of it is fried like fish and chips!! Even scallops! That’s just sacrilegious!

The last thing before I stop complaining [hahaha] is the weather. Melburnians complain “it’s cold” when in the middle of the winter, daytime temperatures might vary between 5*c and 20*c! But in general, most places in Australia have very nice weather year-round. I mean, most of the east coast has year-round 20*-35*, even in winter! That might seem very nice at first glance- but aren’t autumn with it’s chilly and frsh mornings and colouring leaves, or spring with it’s crisp rain showers and blossoming trees very nice sometimes? Or the white landscapes of winter and cookies+tea at home?? Well, they don’t have it! It’s the same; sunshine and palmtrees year in year out, day in day out. It gets boring- believe me.

So you see, eventhough the amazing landscapes, the stunning wildlife and the fantastic endless nothingness are great to experience, every place but home has it’s drawbacks…

But I am loving my trip so don’t count on me complaining much more- I will stay here for a while longer!

PS By they way, the aboriginal people’s position within this culture is shocking. I learned that the difference in life-expectancy between native people and the new settlers’ [people of western decent] is the greatest in the world! Bigger than for instance in South-Africa or North-America or even South-America. This says a lot about their socio-economic integration.

Aboriginal people are very much struggling with fitting into the new Australian culture while at the same time adhering their own, older culture. It is simply shocking to see, that after all those years, there seems to be no understanding, no solution, no dialogues to resolve this problem… aboriginal people are are very poor, marginalised and helpless culture, on a deserted island in an ocean of white Australians.

Bas.

Airlie Beach-Prosperpine

2008-09-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

From Townsville I travelled [again by Greyhound] to Airlie Beach- a small harbour town near the Whitsunday Islands. I am planning to go sailing there for a couple of days. But first I continued travelling to Prosperpine where Leanne, my friend from Maastricht was picking Eggplants [aubergines]. She was staying in a guesthouse where everybody was working, so a nice group of people who all knew eachother. It was great staying there!

It was simply perfect, seeing Leanne. We spent most of our time catching up- talking about our travels, our troubles and all the things we miss! She is now off to New Zealand, but we'll probably meet again in Melbourne in December, so maybe even celebrate Christmas/New Year together!?

I am back in Airlie Beach, where I booked a sailtrip to the islands, but the boat was nut fully booked, so now i need to wait another 3 days in this boring town [mainly filled with drunk young backpackers]. Good thing is, that Alister, the South African guy I met in Cairns, is making his way down here [after two weeks of chilly-picking]. Maybe we'll sail toghether, or maybe we'll head south together afterwards... we'll see!

Enough for now. Enjoy the pictures [reality is however much better].

Take care people!

Bas.

Townsville

2008-09-18T15:11:00.000-07:00

Hi there again!

Long time no write- me sorry! But last time I think I gave you enough to read for a while!

After my bus-trip I arrived in Townsville in the late evening, and was, to my surprise, picked-up by my cousing Marc and my aunt Tante Tiny! My aunt and uncle had just arrived that afternoon. We drove to Marc's house where he lives with Clarissa (his sweet girlfriend) and Marion and Andy- Andy studies with Marc. It was a big German family so I have been re-learning my German for a week (although it was mixed with English all the time). But it was great! I got a big matrass in the livingroom and it really felt like home!

We had ofcourse lots and lots to talk about, which we did most of the next day. In the evening Clarissa and Marc had the great idea to all go to a Shakespeare play in the botanical gardens of Townsville. IT WAS AMAZING. A group of very funny and diligent actors had set up a temporary theatre in between the trees. Actually, there were only seats for the audience, the actors themselves didn't have a real stage but some stage-elements (a bench, a table, etc.) were just placed in between the trees of the garden. It was great! They mixed the old play with some modern elements and music, a few days later we were still lauging about it and enjoying that great night out!

We also took Marks' Monster-Machine (a huge 4WD) to a national park north of Townsville. It was a beautifull rainforrest on some mountains reaching 1000m. We walked around on some trails and were stunned by the amazing plants (see photos) and sights (photos).

The last evening with Tante Tiny and Ome Mike (they are so nice) we went out for dinner. Townsville is not the most lively of places, so finding a nice place proved not very simple, but in the end we found a nice steakhouse. I had advised Clarissa Marc and Ome Mike on Kangaroo. Luckily they really loved it! Did I already tell you about Kangaroo meat?

[KANGAROO MEAT is extremely good for the environment. Kangaroo's don't consume a lot of water, their feet are adapted to the dry soils so they don't damage the toplayers of the firtile lands, their dun (poo) doesn't contain a lot of CO2 (15% of Australia's CO2 production is caused by cattle), they only eat some plants and leave the rest growing so it can re-pollinate the land (so not the cow-as-lawnmower-effect), AND their meat contains very little fat. So, in Australia, forget normal steaks, EAT KANGAROO (or vergetarian)]

What was extremely nice is that my aunt Tiny (the oldest sister of my mother) reminded my so much of my own mother! The way she talked and says things and just IS... really like 'mi mum'... It was so nice to have a sort of surrogate mother here for a couple of days! Thanks for everything!!

The group (Marc, Clarissa, Andy, Marion) and another friend that studies with Marc and his girlfriend, Jochem and Nicole, together with some others, we're busy doing a diving course. So, one day we went to Magnetic Island for some diving practise. I took the snorkelgear to go along.

Magnetic Island is a small island in front of Townsville's coast. It is very nice and the Koala's and nice beaches attrack many backpackers and tourists. The ferry takes about 20min, so it is really close. While the whole bunch was occupied with diving I did some snorkeling and stayed on the beach with either Jochem or Nicole who were taking turns looking after their little baby, amazingly sweet and incredibly nice Julie!

Later that week I got a cal from Birthe, who was staying at Magnetic Island, to see if I wanted to come and see the Koala's. So, i went over there for a nice lazy day, crowned by some nice pictures of some beautifull Koala's.

The last night at Marc-and-Clarissa-and-Marion-and-Andy's place I cooked some Red Emperor-fish for them (with some potato and salad help from the others). It was very good (ahum, if I say so myself). I had some small presents for all of them because they have really spoiled me! There was beer in the fridge, and enough food (crunchy peanutbutter sandwiches as much as I could eat- which is a lot, as most of you know) all the time and such a great atmosphere! It was definitely one of the best weeks (9days) of my Australia-trip! I felt like a little prince! It was so nice to spent a long week with Marc, my cousin. We figured out that we have probably never spent so much time together in our lives (maybe not even all time added up)! But it was really really nice.

In Januari they will be coming to Melbourne, so I can return the favor!!! Thanks for all! Great people! (Also the whole rest- Andy, Marion, Nicole, Jochem, Julie and the others).

PS. Clarissa, special thanks for the cellular-biology-classes!!

PICTURES!

instructions

2008-09-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

Hi there people! I posted a few new messages on the blog. On the right side of the blogpage you can see the titles I've posted in september- best to read them in the following order:
from Perth to Darwin-1
from Perth to Darwin-2
from Perth to Darwin-3 STORY OF THE SNAKE
Darwin-Cairns-Townsville
Bas.

Darwin-Cairns-Townsville

2008-09-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

Darwin was a pretty nice town. The climate however, was a bit hard to deal with. At the moment is what they call the build-up. Everyday starts sunny and warm and end a cloudy and humid. There is no rain yet, the Wet will start only in a month or two, but humidity is building up. So, in Darwin it was warm and humid. And not much of a breeze to relief us.

Mark and I spent our last days hanging out together, visting a night market next to Mindil beach (where we ate Crocodile, Emu, Camel and Wallaby). We met tons of interesting people to hangout with (japanese, Irish, kiwi, south-korean). Among them Marielle and Birthe, the girls from on the road. We met up several times for some beers, or just some hanging out. I tought them the TIMTAMTRICK. Tim Tam's are Australia's favourite chocolate cookie (oh yes they are amazingly good, hard chocolate on the outside, soft caramel chand chocolate inside between some crunchy biscuits). They are rectangular and the trick goes as follows (Dennis and co. tought me in Melbourne): bite of the diagonal oposite corners of the cookie, dip one end in hot tea, and suck the other end. Once you either feel tea in your mouth or the cookie going soft, you pop it into your mouths entirely at once. It will just explode inside... superb! Marielle got the hang of it quickly, Mark and especially Birthe will need a lot of practise to get the prober result.

I left Darwin by plane, to Cairns where I stayed in a very nice hostell. Birthe followed me the next day, because she had 3 weeks of travelling booked, starting from that hostell. I also met Alister, a South African guy who's going to live her in Australia permanently after travelling for a while (which he starts now). We had some great political discussions, right from the start! I had missed that a bit with Mark. I have also told myself I should take more pictures of the people I meet, so I can remember them properly, so Alister (and Gary) and Birthe and Marielle should be there in between the photos somewhere.

After two days in Cairns I took the Greyhound bus and travelled to Townsville. The bustrip was amazing! I hope the fotos (from the bus, so those pictures will not be the best) well show it a bit. Beautifull rainforrested mountains and the valleys filled with suger-cane and banana plantations. So nice to travel those (6hours) distances and just enjoy my ipod!

from Perth to Darwin-3: THE STORY OF THE SNAKE

2008-09-07T23:30:00.000-07:00

The last night with our van, we stayed at a crappy old caravan park just 2hours west of Darwin. When it got dark we spent, like we did almost every night, reading outside, next to the van. Then, time came to go brush my teeth, so I walked over to the toilets/showers. I didn’t take a flashlight so only at the very last moment I noticed the big snake enjoying the warm pavement just outside the showers. My foot was about 30cm’s from stepping on it. My hart skipped as I stepped back quickly! I called for Mark in the darkness, and while I went to take the camera with my hart beating like crazy, Mark had teamed up with a couple of Aussies that had heard me calling Mark.

“aaah, that’s probably just a tree-snake.”

“well, isn’t it a bit aggressive for a treesnake, John?”

“jeah John, I think it is a Taipan”

“well, maybe it is… jeah, I think you’re right”

One of them nutty guys tried to catch it for a while, and when he did (I was standing 20m’s back, shaking as a leaf) he carried it away and with a big, discuss-trowing spin, trew it as far away into the bushes as he could.

I’ve been doing some looking up, and judging from the pictures and all, I have come to understand that it was actually a Taipan. It is regarded as the most deadly and aggressive snake in Australia…. I think I have been quite lucky!

(so, all the stories actually seem to be true… I am for sure never going to pee in the dark again without bringing a flashlight).

from Perth to Darwin-2

2008-09-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

first scroll down to read "from Perth to Darwin-1"

Well, sorry for that long story there people. I will try and keep this second one shorter. But at least one of the stories will have given you a good view of how amazingly cool our trip was.

At Coral Bay we met a couple of nice people with whom we spent a night in the pub and a night on the campsite. After Coral Bay we drove further north to Exmouth, a ratherdull place. We camped some 30km outside of the town on a caravan park along the coast. At sundown we went to the beach to cook some seafood pasta.. it was great, sitting there with a beer, under the stars! After that we drove back to the caravanpark at 20km/h. There were kangaroos everywhere. We had a hilarious trip. We got some of it on video, so I’ll try to put these little movies online when I#ve got a chance to.

Continuing north we headed inland for a while, towards Tom Price- on the 2,5hour road we saw about 11other vehicles.... I ran over a snake (our first)! Around Tom Price (mainly a mining town) we visited beautiful Karinjini National Park- beautiful gorges in the middle of very hilly desert landscapes. We swam in one of the river-pools, underneath a waterfall- the water was so blue! And it was so nice and quiet- just great.

After Tom Price we stayed at a beautiful free campsite in the absolute middle of the desert again. Amazing place, an amazing sunset and so many stars! And then when you wake up, the first thing you see is this amazing landscape all around!

Heading further north, towards Broome, we encountered a lot of monotonous landscapes, interrupted by the occasional gigantic bushfire (flames we saw from afar were at least 30m high!). We also encountered dustdevils: small (but big) tornados going through the sandy landscape. One came very close when we were parking for a break somewhere. Amzing how is seemed to have a brain, it seemed like an animal, going through the forest searching for food. It was very small, maybe 1,5-2m across, and (visibly) 8m tall… slowly following its fast and blowing up leaves and sand. We really wondered how things like that sustain themselves. It seemed so small, but kept on going and going.

We stayed the night at 80mile beach, a beautiful caravan park on a great beach, but since the sea is full of, well, virtually anything dangerous you can think of, swimming was not advised. Look but don’t touch! Amazing seashells littered the 100m wide (and 80mile long?) white sands.

The next day we hit Broome, where we stayed two nights on a very nice caravan park where we could just walk onto the beach, even see the blue sea from our van! Broome was very lay-back, but nothing really special. At night there was the rising of the moon- celebrated as the “stairway to the moon” because of the moon’s reflex ion in the mud plains at low-tide. We had never watched the moon rise before, and the whole town came to watch it with us, but it was just amazing. It just takes a couple of minutes. The nicest is just before the moon appears the light shines from behind the horizon for a moment- Brilliant. We tried to meet up with Marielle and Birthe, the French and German girl we met along the way since they had sent us an sms that they were in Broome and up for a beer, but they were in the end already to tipsy to walk all the way from their side of Broome to our side (where the moon was rising). But we didn’t miss it fortunately.

Further north we stayed at Kunnanura, a small town along the banks of a huge lake. I was writing in my little logbook (in which I write down all the nasty stuff I think of all of you, haha) while the sun was setting. Mark was taking a shower and had locked the van, so unfortunately I have no pictures to prove it, but: suddenly the skies turned black and full of noise. I thought they were birds but when I looked better hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of bats, flying foxes, filled the skies. From where I was sitting to the horizon. For about 15minutes! What an awesome sight. Apparently they nest in the trees along the lake on one side and go off feeding every evening, all of the together (poor fruit-farmers). Coolest were the couple of bats after the big group had passed; the followed quickly, but strangely unsure of their route, all alone in the skies: “hey guys, wait up! Sorry, I forgot to put my alarm again!”

At the caravan park, Mark and I barbequed. While at it, some older guys, all Aussies staying with their families, talked to us about travelling Australia, their memories of travelling in Europe, beers, etc. Three nice girls working there, really cool, came up for a chat. One, Jade, spoke Dutch. She had been living in Den Haag for a while and loved it. She was actually planning on going back there in spring, because her boyfriend was Dutch (bommer).

Near Kunnanura was a small National Park with a couple of walks. It was aboriginal land. Many trees and plants were explained through the eyes of the indigenous people: how they were used for food or tools.

Slowly getting closer to Darwin we followed Victoria River for a long while. A majestic river in a megestic landscape. We saw a kangaroo drinking the water, and got a glimpse of our first huge salty (saltwater crocodile, that can easily reach 4m’s)- actually very close to the drinking kangaroo- so we hung around for a while, awaiting some action- but it didn’t arrive.

We stayed the night over at the caravan park at the Victoria River Crossing roadhouse (motel/gas station/ pub/ restaurant). At night we had a free concert there from a oldies-singing-guitar cowboy. Just great. And while drinking a beer we met a couple of construction workers (drunk) busy constructing the new bridge there. A big group of them had been camping out there for a couple of months, working 7-7day/week trying to get a couple of bridges constructed before the arrival of the “wet” (season). They had gotten half a day off, that Sunday, and were all celebrating in the roadhouse… there were not enough women there it seemed, but enough beers for sure!

Near Katherine (Northern Territory’s 3rd largest town after Darwin and Alice Springs) we stayed at a national park where we swom in a nother big waterfall-pool called Edith Falls. There was a nice campsite that we decided to spent the night at, and there is nothing better, I can tell you, then to dive into a fresh natural swimmingpool (still had to watch out for snakes and the occasional croc, but we’re getting used to that now) after a day of driving trough the heat. At the pool we got talking to Gary- an older guy that looked a bit like a rockstar. Check the pictures. He knew a lot about snakes and stuff because he had been collecting them for a long time in his life. He joined us for dinner, shared some beers with us and we spent the night talking about mainly music. Turned out he loved music as much as we did and he had a laptop full of the stuff with him. The best thing was: a very nice bottle of wine. Gary rocked!

The next day we went one a canoo (kayak actually) trip at Katherine gorge. That was nice, but we’d expected a bit more crocodiles (however sweetwater ones, but still, we just got a partial glimpse of one of them). The landscape was awesome. Clouds (first ones in more than a week) and the resulting changing of the sunlight added a bit more drama.

The last two days we spent in Kakadu National Park, the biggest in Australia, west of Darwin. We saw many big crocodiles there, and finally some aboriginal rock art! They had drawn fish and other animals (hunting trophies) in x-ray, examining their internal organs and skeleton. Very cool were the drawings of white men: actually drawn in white, with their hand in their pockets and with wooden shoes! Also many portrayed the stories that they passed on from adult to children for many generations, while they lived among the rock-shelters for many thousands of years.

The best part was the view from on top of these rocks. Mark and I spent at least an hour, watching the wetlands, just silently watching.taking it all in. Overwhelming.

This is the most northern part of Australia one can get to without a 4wd. It is close to Arnhemland, the biggest aboriginal land, where they still live like they have done for thousands of years. It was stunningly beautiful. Just incredible. As some of the picture may show. So many shades of green, as far as I could see. What I life I’ve got! What a lucky bastard I am to be able to come here and see this…

PICTURES

from Perth to Darwin-1

2008-09-05T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody.

It is quite difficult to make time to tell you about my last 3,5 weeks. I am now in Darwin, and since it is nice and warm here (read: too hot for me!) the town is full of backpackers. Everybody wants to use internet so it's busy everywhere. I will probably write this blogpost from Darwin, Cairns and Townsville- where I will probably once you read this. I am flying to Cairns tomorrow (1 september) and i will travel then to Townsville where I will meet Mark and Clarissa (my cousin and his girlfriend) and my uncle and aunt! Oh yes, Leanne, my friend from Maastricht, will also be there.. great!

START
So, where to start? Well, last time I mentioned that Mark and I were travelling to Perth by bus. We actually ended up staying in Freemantle, a small little town just outside of Perth with a bit of a bohemian-flavour to it. Actually, there is a very nice little museum there with the wreckage of 4 Dutch VOC (east indies company) schips, among them the Batavia- it sunk not far from Perth. Really cool was the collection of old maps on which Australia was named "new holland".

TRANSPORT
I was thinking about buying some kind of vehicle (car/van) to travel north, but that turned out to be such a hussle (paperwork, looking for a vehicle, checking it mechanically, etc.) that Mark and me decided to rent a campervan. We made some serious budget-calculations and in the end it proved to be not only a nicer option to travel than bus+hostells, but also a cheaper option. So, we picked our little van [the flowrider] up on the morning of 7 august and headed off north.

For me it was the first time driving on the left side of the road, and in a car with the steeringwheel on the right side... quiet an experience: putting on the window-wipers when you want to use the turning-blinkers or slamming your arm really hard into the door on your right when you want to change gears... By the way, I had to do all the driving (at least some 5000km we calculated) because Mark's driverslicence had expired a while ago!

SICK
In Freemantle I had cought a small cold, since everybody in the hostells was having some form of sneez (or "the sniffies") it was just a matter of time before you catch it yourself in one of the dormrooms. So, for a couple of days I had a small fever and sore thoath and running nose. When we left with the van this was still the case, that is why you can see me in the first pictures still with my jacket and sweater and even scarf!

PINNACLE DESERT
The first thing we went to see was the Pinnacles Desert. We had seen many pictures of it and expected huge rockformations, but they turned out to be more of a human scale. It was however quite a magical place. And although it seems very sunny, the first week driving daytime temperatures were not higher then maybe 20c. The first nights each of us actually slept in 2 sleepingbags!

KALBARRI
The next day we drove to Kalbarri, a small seaside village in the Kalbarri National Park. The coastline featured many interesting CLIFFS and sealife (dolphins, dudongs, whales and sharks). Inland the park had a couple of beautifull gorges. We decided to do an 8km walk in one of the gorges, but we could only reach it by driving trough the desert for 1 hour on a sandy dirtroad. About half way we were stopped by a tourgroup (tourists) taking pictures of an ECHYDNA. This is a sort of ant-eating "stekelvarken" that is actually closely related to a Platypus (vogelbekdier). It had crossed the dirtroad just before the bus of tourist had arrived but was now really scared and digging itself into the sand. The tour guide told people to stand back so the Echydna would come out again but some people just kept on going to close so we all just gave up after a while and continued our journey (some people just blow it for everybody).

The gorge was really in the middle of the desert. So nice, barren desert landscape for miles and miles in all directions, and then there is suddenly this green artery with different plants, annimals and landscape... really great. It was very calm there aswell; not mny tourist did the 8km WALK, so we had the 'path' just for ourselves. Path was however quite a big word... there were just some peggs every couple of hundred meters, and the route in between you just had to find yourself. Some parts of the path involved CLIMBING over the rocks along the river.. really cool. And (we guess because it was so calm) we have come across quite a few KANGAROOS... very beautifull big wild animals.

KANGAROOS
On the way out of the park, on the sandy dirtroad, we almost hit a couple of Kangaroos aswell... these silly fellas all just pop up when the sun goes down and all just try to commit suicide! They really jump towards the car when you pass... really strange, they seem curious and not aware that it is actually dangerous for them. But luckily I didnt hit them.

STROMATALITES
The next day we continued our trip up north. I was starting to feel better and also the temperatures were rising. We were going to two BAYS called "sharkbay national park". I think we were about 800km north of Perth now. And highways in this part of Australia (actually all roads between Perth and Darwin) are just 1 lane roads (one up and one down), which makes travelling not very fast. Also we had to keep an eye on our fuel-budget so we didnt drive faster than 100km/hour. In the south of one of the two bays we visited a magical place. In the shallow waters Stromatalites live: these are the most ancient LIFEFORMS on the earth. It's single-cellular life, that builds up into rocky formations. They have been arround for 2,5 billion years (earth is about 4,5billion years old) and were responsible for building up most of the oxygen in the atmosphere so that more complex life-forms could emerge (1 to 1,5 billion years later). I had read about these lifeforms in a book by Fridjoff Capra called 'web of life' and here at Sharkbay is one of only 2 places in the world where these lifeforms still exist. And for most it doesnt look very special, "just some rocks".

But the place itself was very MAGIC! It was warm and very silent.. the water was very clear and shallow, and the clouds in the sky seemed so low we could almost touch them... it seemed like i was dreaming... the light was so soft, the sounds of the sea seemed very far away or almost fake, everything seemed to pass in slowmotion. Amazing.

SHARKBAY
We stayed in Denham, a small touristy village in the national park where we saw a very nice sundown on the beach where two girls were taking a brave bath in the sea (sharks-stingers-jellyfish-coldwater). Next day we spent doing laundry, shopping and driving around a bit. Denham was not a very spectacular place, although we visited a nice blue LAGOON a bit inland from Denham that was stunningly beautifull. A little sign there said: "hotspring" so we set out to go find it. While walking around the circular lagoon we thought several times of diving in, figuring that the lagoon being locked off from the sea couldnt be housing in dangerous things from the sea. But when we got to 1/3 of the roundtrip we read a little sign saying: "do not swim, dangerous Stonefish inhabit these waters". Thank god we didnt go in! These are very well camouflaged fish nasty fish that have a couple of spikes on their back that simply kill...

CAMPING
The next morning we had a chat with the two brave girls who turned out to be French and German. They were doing the same trip as us in the same timespan, so we figured we'd meet them again later (and we would).

After that we drove north and planned to stay on a FREE CAMPSITE along the highway that evening. Since distances are so big between villaes in Westarn Australia, along the highway rest-area's are provided where you can camp one night for free. It was beautifully located near a (now dry) riverbed. Here very rudimentary toilets are provided, however a shower is not.

Mark went to look for firewood, but put on gloves, which seemed very wise with all the spiders and snakes in this country. Soon thereafter a caravan parked, a door opened, trhee little children jumped out and starting playing everywhere: in the bushes, in the dry-riverbed, even along the little remaining pools in the riverbed (crocodiles?)... haha.. Mark looked rather silly with his gloves on!

We build a nice campfire there and started cooking. Soon thereafter two other guys (german and irish, our age) arrived with a campervan. We chatted a bit and the invited us to come sit at their table (which was lit by a nice bug-repelling candle) to eat our dinner. So we did and chatted a bit. Later on, one of them tried to blow out the candle, which didnt work, so the German guy said: I`ll do it, blew very hard, and before I knew it I was fully covered in red candle-wax, even in my hair and eyes. It was spilled over my favorite jeans and t-shit.. sucker! So stupid. I have never heard any "sorry" for that. It sucked, blew my evening. I have carried the jeans around till now (i am writing this in Townsville) to take it to a dry-cleaner, but just found out that I have lost the jeans somewhere (left it in a hostell somewhere I guess)... FUCK! Probably better to have gotten rid of this bad-luck item, but I really regret to have lost this nice jeans... stupid German 'dude'!

The freecampsite was great however, so we decided to do this more often (without anoying visitors).

CORAL BAY
The next day we drove on to Coral Bay. We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn (steenbokskeerkring), so we were finally really getting north and into warmer weather. Coral Bay was again a touristy village in the middle of nowhere, on the Southern tip of Ningaloo Reef National Park, which is famous for it`s abundant sealife. The village comprises not much more than a little harbour, two caravan parks, a backpackers (hostell) and a hotel-com-pub-com-restaurant-com-bottleshop.

Immediately we went to hire some snorkeling gear. Coral Bay is a small bay protected from the sea by a large coral-reef. This means relatively safe SNORKELING since most sharks, stingers (rays), jelly fish etc. stay outside in the ocean. The people renting us the snorkeling gear were very nice so we chatted a bit and found out that they also offered outer-reef tours to go see sharks, the outer reef, dolphins, turtles, Whales and swim with Manta Rays on a small boat. It immediately felt right so we booked a tour (about 100euro for half a day). But first we went for some snorkeling on our own.

As soon as I put my head under, I couldnt believe what I was seeing! It is an entirely different planet there... unbelievable. SO many fish! In all colours and shapes, big and small.. amazing. And the CORAL, like big surrealalist forrests, going on for miles! Greenish, purple-ish, brownish, reddish, blue-ish, big leaves, small leaves, spikes, sponges, sea-cewcumbers, stars, etc. Just simply amazing! The water was however quite cold (20c), so we had to go back to the beach every 45min to dry and warm-up again. Late in the afternoon, just before sunset, just before getting out of the water I encountered a beautifull little ray (rog in Dutch)... about 80cm wide, gliding through the water, with a very long, whip-like tail. And just a bit further a white one, hoovering over the sand on the bottom. And when I got out, and walked trough the shallow water, another white one flashed by, gliding over the white-sand. Such amazing creatures (however, these can also be quite dangerous, especially when stepped on they can strike you with their sting- these actually killed Steve Erwin, the Crocodile Hunter).

BOAT
The next morning we went on the boat-trip. It was really great: just 9 people on the boat, a very enthausiastic and smart crew (an older skipper and a young girl). We were supposed to go from 9 'till 14hrs, but arrived back ashore around 1630h. Really, we hit the jackpot it seems.

On the tour we saw some sharks (smaller ones), more and bigger corals and fish, followed a mother-humbackwhale with her calf and a young feemale humpbackwhale for 1,5 hours, saw the mother feed the calf (from afar), the calf going crazy which meant; jumping out of the water and splashing like a dolphin about 20 times, and even the big mama do it 3 times, some more sharks and coral-reef snorkeling and the hightlight of the day: a big manta-ray.

We were going quite close to the beach with th eboat for an hour, and just when I thought we wouldn't find a Manta today, the guide-girl told us to put on our gear and stand on the steel-rack on the back of the boat and prepare to glide in, as quitely as possible. When we did it, I looked down and immediately saw a huge black SHADOW appearing in the sandy but quite clear water. It was about 3 meters deep here, and the big Manta-Ray appeared just under me... so amazing!! I could see every little detail.. her eyes, her guils (kiewen), the accompanying fish that clean here parasites, just everything! SO AMAZING! She glided so quitely trough the water, slowly plapping her wings like a giant bird... slowly filtering the seawater trough her mouths and guils to extract the plankton from the water. While we swam along, just 2-2,5m above her, she made a big very slow gliding turn, and came back... we swam along again. The beautifull animal was swimming towards the beach, back and forth, since the waves of the shore mixed the plankton very well... at least 15minutes the 3,5m wide MANTA wasn't bothered by us and just kept on swimming up and down. It absolutely blew my mind. Such an amazing experience. But then, as quick as it had come, it turned around and took of. Swoosh, gone. So incredibly fast as it could move! A-MA-ZING!!

This is why I came to Australia.. what an experience. I`ll for shure never ever forget that.

PS1 PICTURES you can find in the 'my photos' link on the right side
PS2 REMAINING STORY belonging to the rest of pictures will follow

that's how great life is...

2008-08-31T22:22:00.001-07:00

quick

2008-08-21T00:11:00.000-07:00

Hello People!

I am travelling from Perth to Darwin with Mark- the Canadian friend I met in Margret River- in a rented campervan. Well, we have 3 weeks to do the whole trip (about 6000km's with all the detours we take) and most of the country is empty! So no internet, no people and no phone-network. It is beautifull though.. i'll let you know when we get to Darwin- the pictures will be amazing! It's a promise (I've seen them already, haha).

From Darwin I will fly to Cairns on 1 september to travel to Townsville to meet my uncle and aunt and my cousin (who studies there) and his girlfriend. And I will also probably meet Leanne! How cool is that!?

So, check in soon again. I leave you with just a couple of atmosphere-pictures!

Bas.

Perth Margret-River Pemberton

2008-08-03T04:50:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody,

I am in Pemberton now, south of Perth and I have found some time to leave the fireplace and write a new story for you all.

Well, before leaving Melbourne, I spent another couple of days hanging out with Dennis and his friends. Dennis, Emily and me were invited to have dinner at Dennis'parents one evening and there I met his sister and her boyfriend aswell. It was really great, such a nice family. Great to finally have met them.

The footie (australian football) game was sold out for the first time in it's history during the regular season... so, we were too late to get tickets- but we saw an awsome game in a pub... we had quite a few beers, but no headache the next morning- luckily because I had to go catch a plane to Perth.

I arrived in Perth while it was a great warm and sunny saturday evening. I thought: this s great. I booked into a hostell and went for some great asian food. But the next morning the weather turned bad... and has stayed bad (cold and pretty rainy for the whole of last week). The next day I had a chat with one of my roommates, an English guy named Matt. He was a graduated geologist looking for a job in Australia. I walked around in rainy Perth for most of the morning, but during the afternoon I took the train to (sunnier) Freemantle, a port-town near Perth to team up with Matt again. We walked around, had some beers and fish&chips, walked a bit more and went to an amazing Little-Creatures Dining-hall in the harbour (remember: my first night in Melbourne, where I ate kangaroo- that was also a Little Creatures Dining Hall... Little Creatures is a brewery of good beers, and the Dining Halls are usually old halls... one big warehouse-space for good food and great beers). We had a lot of fun chatting and drinking.

The next day I left Perth (not a really exciting town... very empty... feels like a quiet village) by bus southward to Margret River, a famous wine-area in Australia, some 5hours from Perth. It is beautiful around there: huge forrest mixed with huge cattle-fields and solitairy trees and wineries. It is also nof far from the coast.

I was staying at a lodge there, a hostell in barraks-form. Most people there were backpackers working in the wine-industry, so it was quite a busy place at night, but during the day there was virtually nobody. The staff was great: a Dutch woman for some days and an Australian woman some others- but they were very energetic and positive... and helpfull.

My first day I was told I needed a car to travel and see the surroundings because everything is so bloody far apart. I decided to take it easy the first day and see if there was another option. I decided to go on a tourist wine-tasting tour the next day and think about renting a car a day later. Late at night, a new arrival (Canadian guy named Mark) came up to me and asked whether I would like to team up for the car-rental and split the costs. Michelle the Australian hostell-woman from the hostel linked him to me. That's all good, but let's first meet up for the winetour.

The winetour sucked a bit. Not a lot of info on the wines, just basically tasting them (whithout proper explanation about how to do that) and not a lot of wineries. But a great Australian adventurer as guide and some nice people on the tour made it into a nice day anyway. At lunch we had some bush-tucker: typical Australian forrest food like bush-limes, flowers and a 'grub', a sort of big fat wood-worm that feeds of dead wood underground... I ofcourse voluntered to eat it.. and it was pretty good hey! Quite sweet.. bit like shrimp... no worries, it was dead before I ate it.

When Mark (Canadian) and I walked back to the lodge, we crossed paths with a blonde girl and just said hi. I looked over to Mark: "she must be Dutch". Two hundred meters later, at the lodge, Michelle came running up to me: "a dutch girl signed into the hostell just now and had hired a car is would like to take you guys along"! Haha.. jep, we just saw here (we thought, and were right). So, when she got back to the hostell we got talking quickly and diced to go visit some caves on a drive south to Augusta and Cape Leeuwin the next day.

Her name was Emke, a doctor working in a hospital in Adelaide since about a year. It was her last week of holidays before going back to the Netherlands. She studied in Utrecht but was originally from Eindhoven and her parents live now in Geert-town (Helmond), so my soft-G didnt really bother her... haha. She turned out to be a very nice person.

The south-western tip of Australia has a limestone-bedrock some 30 kms wide on which the wineries thrive. Underground, the erosion-process has formed beautifull caves which we went to visit. Once I upload the pictures you will see how beautifull the stalagtites and stalagtites were down there... some of it was so amazing that they really couldnt be named stalagmites animore... they had so many amazing shapes, just mindboggling. We laughed a lot.. it was really a GREAT DAY with the 3 of us (not for that little bird Emke hit with the car though...).

The next day it was a shitty and rainy day. I took it easy and did my laundry, read my book, listened to some music and wrote in my diary. In the evening the 3 of us went for a dinner in one of the pubs in Margret-River (which only exists of a couple of streets and has probably 2 or 3 pubs, not more). It was great- good food and nice people to share it with.

On friday Emke was leaving to Perth and Mark and me had decided to take a bus to Pemberton, a little tiny village in the middle of the woods, some 150km's east of Margret-River. The first 2 hours of journey we were on the same bus (there was no direct connection so Mark and I had to go north to Bunburry first and then south... taking us some 5,5hours....).

In the bus I had a nice talk with Emke, who's a really great, energetic smart and funny girl (like me born in januari 1980). Meeting people like this makes travelling really worth-while!! It was super and I'll never forget it.

Mark and I arrived in Pemberton in the afternoon. We had booked a hostell and when we arrived, they gave us a key and told us we'd have to stay in a cottage, a couple of streets up the road. When Mark and I arrived there, we coulnt believe our eyes: it was a great wooden cottage, with a porch on the front and a nice fireplace inside. It immediately felt as home!

We lit a fire, bought some food and made ourselves nice and comfortable. In the evening two Singaporan girls arrived and an hour later an Australian family arrived. Dad was a bodybuilder and mom pretty talkative, and they brought 3 daughters (18, 16, 14). One of them had a soccer-game nearby the next morning, and them being from Bunburry 3 hours up the road had decided to make it a nice family weekend out. We chatted all the way till midnight around the fireplace.. it was really good. To bad I don't have time to go and visit them although they invited us, I should really start to head up north soon.

Today, sunday 3 august i think, Mark and I walked into the woods to a tree we could climb. The Glaucester-tree is the world tallest tree-top lookout. You can climb to the top at 61 m's by climbing steel bars that have been struck into the side of the treetrunk... You'll see the pictures soon, but I can tell you that 61m's is pretty high up a tree! And half-way you really shouldn't look down (as I did... it toook me a while to get going again).

After that we went on a tram/train tour trough the woods. Pemberton has always been a logging and wood-sawig town, so we got a nice explaination about the forrest and the industry, the history of the town and the animals and plants within the woods. It was really great!

Tonight we are enjoying the fireplace in the cottage for the last time, tomorrow we'll be going back to Perth. I am planing on looking for a cheap car to buy to travel with to the north and north-east... probably the easiest and cheapest if I can also sleep in it. But it has to be a good one- don't want any repair-surprises along the way because that would chew up a huge chunk of my budget... but first, I should really really get back to the fireplace and my glass of wine.

All the best to all of you! I am loving it down here though sometimes I miss many of you! Big hugg. Bas.

PICTURES

comments

2008-08-03T02:02:00.000-07:00

Thanks people for your nice comments!! You're still reading my blog?! Nice to see new followers (pap en jans, raymond and sigrid, geertje meneertje, some anonimous in spanish)! Keep it coming!

As a reward I will post a new blogpost in a couple of minutes (which doesnt matter since most of you are probably still asleep).

Bas.

phonenumber

2008-07-26T05:31:00.000-07:00

People,

My Australian Mobile Phone Number is:

+61 450 644 720

Bas.

huiswerk

2008-07-23T01:06:00.000-07:00

Hi there all of you people around the world.

My former workplace was named by Wallpaper Magazine to be one of the 'hottest' new architecture offices of 2008. On visit the wallpaper website and the architects directory there to see more.

Huiswerk Architecten also (finally!) got their new website running, check it at:

www.huiswerkarchitecten.nl

Melbourne-2

2008-07-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

Luckily Dennis had a quiet week at university so we were able to go to Emily's parents' beachhouse at Anglesea (2hours south-west of Melbourne)for a couple of days. It was really great!

We arrived on thursday-afternoon and after doing some grocery-shopping we installed ourselves in front of the fireplace to get warm. All days were quite chilly (7-10 degrees) and we had some sun and rain, almost Dutch autumn-weather. Dennis went for a surf in the afternoon, I went along to monitor his skills but there were almost no waves to catch. So I just enjoyed the fresh air on the beach and the sundown. That evening we cooked, ate, and had some beers in front of the fireplace. We had a great discussion during dinner about Damien Hirst's artwork (2 cows in the series "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living") I had seen in Tokyo.

The next morning we took off for driving along the "Great Ocean Road", a coastal (high)way that leads all the way to Adelaide (I think). Amazing views and cliffs along the way. We spent most of the day in the car (since distances are amazing here in Australia) be we hopped out of the car for some scenic spots and a walk or sight here & there.

So for instance we visited a rainforrest (a small piece of it, left over in one of the valleys along the coast). They had made a tree-top walk, with steel bridges, so you'd get a better view of the forrest-canopy. Turns out that even in the relatively moderate climate-zones trees can grow fast and huge; some of the trees grow 1m/year for the first 50years of their live. And eventhough they grow so fast, their wood is excellent: strong and hard. Some of the trees in along the tree-top walk were some 35m high, but they can grow over 100m tall!

Our destination for the day was the 'Twelve Apostles', a coastal rockformation (picture above). We arrived there (after a long but very enjoyable drive trough cultivated lands a bit further from the coast) very late in the afternoon with the sun almost setting- it was an absolutely stunning and spectacular view! It was just the perfect moment, with the clouds opening up for some sunshine, a sturdy breeze from the ocean, not to many tourists and a nice wavy ocean!

Very close to 'the Twelve Apostles" there is quite a dramatic coastline with blow-holes, caves, secluded beaches and cliffs. We wandered around a bit and ran into a solitary black kangaroo... beautiful, but to shy for me to take a picture in time.

We drove back from the Twelve Apostles during the evening and night. Along the way we had a very nice dinner in a pub overlooking the moonlit quiet ocean. What a great day.

Since we arrived home quite late we took it easy the next morning. Dennis went for a surf after breakfast (but still not much surf at Anglesea) and the rest of us cleaned up the house. Before driving to Melbourne we dropped by the Anglesea Golfcourse to check out the Kangaroos. You can see them in the picture at the picasa site:

pictures of beachhouse-weekend

This week I will be in Melbourne, watching two alp-stages of the Tour de France (yes!) and spending my time reading and visiting some museums. Friday-evening we will all go watch a game of Australian Football ("foottie"). It is a mix of Rugby and Soccer. It is the coolest game (after basketball) that I know. It really cool and everybody is into it here- seems to be one of the biggest sports in Australia, if not THE biggest. We watched a game of Dennis' team in a nearby pub (while enjoying another kangaroo-steak) and I enjoyed it so much that we will go and watch Hawthorn Hawks (Dennis' favorite team, 3rd in the standings) against Geelong Cats (1st in standings) on friday... They've promised me it will be great. Looking forward to that!

pictures of Melbourne-time at picasa

That's all for now people. Guess next time I will be writing to you from the west-coast. Take care,

Bas.

who what where when

2008-07-20T18:49:00.000-07:00

Hi there people,

All good here in Melbourne. I forgot to tell you last time who is Dennis. Well, Dennis and I met in Delft while he was studying there for six months in 2004 (I think). I had just gotten back from Barcelona, and Alberto (my architect friend from Barcelona) had come to NL to study in Delft for six-months. I think Alberto and Dennis met in University and soon we teamed up for great discussions and dinnerparties with the Erasmus-group in Delft. Since Dennis got back in Australia soon thereafter, we've always maintained contact by email- it is great to discuss and talk face-to-face again!

After a week of thinking and planning and talking, I have figured out a sketch-plan for my trip the next couple of months (gosh). I will fly to Perth from Melbourne, saturday 26th. I will spent a couple of days in the beautiful area south of Perth (hilly lush farmlands and wineries along the ocean) before starting to travel north along the west coast, eventually passing Broome and Darwin on my way to Cairns, where in early September (if all goes well) I will meet my aunt&uncle when they will be visiting my cousin in Townsville (south of Cairns). After that I will travel south again along the east coast (let's hope all the european, Japanese and American tourists will have left again by then) passing Brisbane and Sydney to come back to Melbourne (end of October?).

Before flying to New Zealand I will probably have to work for a couple of months (as an architect hopefully) to refill my budgets... but we'll see how it goes. Its a rough outline of my plans, but on the way, one can never really predict what happens...

Melbourne-1

2008-07-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

Hello there,

Just quickly, a picture of Dennis and me, and a picture of us all having dinner at 'little creatures' in Melbourne. In the background you see Dennis and me and from left to right: Mat, Merrin and Emily. Excuse me for looking tired- but I was.

I got a phone here in Australia, so might you miss me, you can give me a call (but I might be busy or sleeping if I dont pick up...).

+61 450 644 720

I am passing my days here just wandering around Melbourne and spending time in the university architecture library; planning my trip a bit and trying to figure out a way to best travel is continent-sized country.

Talk to you soon again.

Bas.

Moving On

2008-07-13T20:11:00.001-07:00

After Tokyo where I spent the last couple of days checking more contemporary architecture and spending good times with sweet Marieke (picture above) I have taken a flight to New Zealand. I landed in Auckland early in the morning, and a very nice guy that I met in the plane, gave me a ride to the centre of Auckland (after having arranged a hotel at the airport because my flight to Melbourne was leaving quite early the next morning). There he drove me around in his car to see some of the centre and give a me a sort of little tour. I will be back there in a couple of months so this little preview turned out really nice. We had a great breakfast/lunch somewhere and then I took of into the city centre.

It was dark and rainy (yes, on this side of the world, at these lattitudes, it is actually winter time people). And Auckland doesnt seem to be a very pretty city (although the bad wheather must have emphasized that). The impression that I got from it was also that it is a rather quiet city. But there were many interesting things (nice bars and restaurants, some interesting older and newer buildings, and tons of amazing postcards of the surroundings) that kind of make me look forward to travelling that amazing country. There are only 4 million people living in this huge country, of which 1 million live in Auckland and about another million live in Wellington+Christchurch. So... it must be really really empty out there in the wild.

I had great (amazing) dinner in a nice small pub there, amazing seafood, maybe even fresher then the Japanese seafood...

The next morning I hopped on a plane to Melbourne, where winter has brought even cooler temperatures. Dennis, a friend a have met in Delft a couple of years ago when he was studying there for a semester after I came back from Barcelona, picked me up from the airport with his 1973 Alfa-Romeo sportscar! He was there with a friend with whom he lives together and went out to surf that (cold sunday) morning. It was really really REALLY great seeing Dennis again. We have been spending all afternoon chatting and walking around Melbourne, and in the evening we have gone out for dinner together with his friend and housemate Math and another friend and housemate (girl) named Marrain and Dennis' grilfriend Emmily, that I've met before in Delft aswell. It was really nice, AND good food! First evening in Australia I have already Kangaroo! Very nice! Love Australia alreay!

More to come soon.

SICK!

2008-07-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

How insane is this picture hey (for the ones recognising Daan's sister Jans and her boyfriend)!? On (alomst) my last morning in Tokyo (and Japan) I walked up to a museum designed by Le Corbusier- thought I'd better go check it out- I saw them just coming out of it. Out of the blue, I meet friends on the streets of Tokyo, a city with 36 million inhabitants... this is really insane! I went crazy- just couldnt believe it. really nice! We've been chatting about Japan (they were just starting a 4 week trip) and in the evening we met again for some dinner and drinks. It was really REALLY nice!

Defeated!

2008-07-07T02:42:00.001-07:00

The mountains, or the weather-gods have defeated me. I didnt het higher then 2300m. There was snow and I couldn`t find the track. I have been looking for it for 45min, but couldn`t find it. With the ice and all the boulders (as you can see in the pictures) it was quite dangerous, and since I thought you`d all like to see the photos, I thought: lets enjoy it from here. Nice thing was that all the way up dan down (4,5hours) I didnt see a single soul. Only the last 6 of the approx.18km`s (along the river) there were quite a few Japanese tourists... but up in the mountain, all alone was realy really really special. Really great- just the sound of birds, wind and my respiration and sound of pumping of blood in my ears... That`s life... so defeated? Guess not!

pictures at picasa

Mountains

2008-07-06T04:06:00.000-07:00

Today I have arrived in Katayama, in what is called the `japanese alps`. Sure hilly here, but alps... not really.. yet. I`ll get up early in the morning (0600h) to go catch a bus to Kamakochi, 1500m up in the mountains (there should be real ones there). From there I am planning to climb up the 3rd highest mountain of Japan, some 3190m. Up in the morning and down in the afternoon again to get back to my hostell in Katayama with the last bus... Let`s hope the weather is good. By the time the first one reads this I will at least be half-way up if all gets well.

The hostell that I am staying at in Katayama is actually not really a hostell- it is a Zenn-buhdist temple, that rents out rooms (dormitory). Nice people here. Lots of young people wanting to go up mountains. It`s got a good athmosphere. It is run by one of the monks, an old guy that speaks perfect Enlish. I`ll take pictures here before leaving, promise.

After Kyoto I have travelled to Hiroshima, to see what the first atomic bomb had done. There was a memorial park and a museum documenting the events. It was very impressive!

After that I went to Himeji, where there was an amazing and huge castle, still mostly in authentic style. That was marvelous... check the pictures (although they are not half as good as reality).

pictures

After that I`ve spent a day in Nara and a day in Osaka, where I have visited more temples and a museum by Tadao Ando. It was nice but all not really what I`d expected. So, now I am here, planning to spent some days in the mountains before heading back to Tokyo, to spent my last days in Japan with Marieke and see some more of that amazing city.

Bas.

Kyoto-2

2008-07-02T01:02:00.000-07:00

Hello there!

I have spent a couple of days in Kyoto. This is the cultural centre of Japan so heaps of temples, gardens and shrines. I walked a lot and the result you can see in mi picasa-website:

pictures of Kyoto

Anyway, in the hostell in Kyoto I met a guy and a girl from Barcelona and we spent a lot of time chatting in the evenings. Yesterday-evening I was planning to write a long story about Kyoto, but first I ended up having a great politcal discussion about life with Felio- the guy from Barcelona- who by the way has travelled an amazing lot. After that we ate something together and another Spanish guy with his argentenian girlfriend joined us at the table. They had also just started a trip around the world so who knows, maybe we;ll meet again somewhere on this planet. Never thought I would speak so much Spanish in Japan! Haha.

But since we had such a good time yesterday evening I didnt manage to write. I think that all the temple and castle and garden stuff will speak for itself. Enjoy the pictures. I am off to Hiroshima now, catching a speedy train again, so go and see what those Americans have done there at the end of WWII. Talk to you soon!

Greetings,

Bas.

PS I ENJOY YOUR COMMENTS! So dont leave without posting one!

Kyoto-1

2008-06-30T04:59:00.000-07:00

Hello there again.

I am in Tokyo now, and my internet-money is running out after all this blog work. I will try to give you an impression of Kyoto a.s.a.p. for in this hostell there is easy to use internet... but a bit expensive... dont know when I will be able to use it again because tomorrow will be a busy day- running from temple to temple.

More to come soon...

Photos

2008-06-30T04:58:00.001-07:00

By the way people, I have arranged some of the photos in the picasa albums-new and old-, and turned them so they are better to view...

Kanazawa

2008-06-30T04:37:00.000-07:00

After Sendai I travelled to Kanazawa on the north-coast of Japans main island. By bullettrain it took me just a couple of hours. It was a great trip to see some of the countryside... wanted to jump out and do some more hikes... hope I have time for that at the end of my trip... after having seen Kyto and all of that...

Kanazawa is quite a small city, and not much there except one of Japans best gardens, a beautifull villa- where taking photos was out of the question, and a very new museum of contemporary art. I checked into a small guesthouse... and this turned out to be amazing again!! Runned by a friendly older woman, it was just great! Clean tatami room again for me, and quite a few interesting travelers- some americans and an australian botanist woman... very nice conversations again.. and some tips for my trip in Australia. Unfortunately I have not taken any pictures of that guesthouse.... it was as if time had stood still for 40years. The telephones for the rooms were still distributed from the reception with one of these antique swithboards! And all the painting and furniture was old, but very well maintained and clean.. amazing.. all organized around a small patio garden.

The museum and the gardeb were just a couple of mintues walking. In the museum there was quite an interesting exhibition of Ron Mueck, who makes hyper realist sculptures... really amazing! I added some pictures I googled just to give you an impression. Forget about Duane Hanson of the sixties.. this guy makes madamme Toussods looks like amateurs!

Anyway, the museum is quite an interesting building aswell, but I dont want this to become an architecture blog- so, just google it if you want more, or check the pictures in my picasa album.

The garden was really amazing- I can understand it is one of Japans best. It was again very hot and humid and cloudy, and however it might have spoiled the pictures a bit, the sights were stunning! Enjoy the pictures at:

pictures at picasa

Sendai-2

2008-06-30T04:12:00.000-07:00

Hello there!

In Sendai in that great hostell I met an Italian girl named Alessandra, she was from Torino and was doing an internship at Slow Food, Japan. Very interesting stuff, great talks. Also, the Sendai Mediatheque, a famous contemporary building I wanted to see, was closed on my first day, so I had to stay another night for else I would have come up north- by 300km/hour bullet train, you have seen in the previous pictures- for nothing.

Luckily I waited fot the Mediatheque to open because it was really a radical building[in terms of structure], really worth seeing. Especially the lift-ride trough one of these web-like shafts was really some experience.

That day I had to spent extra in Sendai was a great day by the way. I found out, just in time, that some of Japans best coastal scenery was close to Sendai: a small bay filled with with over 200 small islands. No people and just some small fishing-villages. It was kind of difficult finding my way there since everything was only in Japanese... but really nice to be hiking a bit in nature! Spent a day crossing some bridges to some islands and climbing a small hill there... Hope the pictures tell some of the Sendai story. In real-life it was about a 100times better- except for the crazy heat and humidity.

For the pictures check:
http://picasaweb.google.com/basvanderpol1980/Sendai

Sendai-1

2008-06-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

Dear all,

I am in Sendai now (and found time to quickly write...). Just wanted to show you how great the youthostell in Sendai is! Check the pictures above! Traditional tatami-rooms in traditional old farmhouse! Fantastic.

I cam here by Shinkansen, bullettrain. Very comfortable. I will stay only one day (2 noghts) and then hit the road again.

Hope you are all well. Take care- Bas.

Tokyo and Yokohama

2008-06-24T01:12:00.001-07:00

Dear people,

Finally I found another internet-place. Today I visited a fishmarket in Tokyo and Yokohama. And yesterday afternoon I went up one of Tokyo's tallest buildings. I have added to pictures to the picasa page from previous message.

Tomorrow I will leave Tokyo and head for Sendai (north).

Its amazing here.

Bas.

Tokyo- Japan

2008-06-21T23:29:00.000-07:00

Dear All!

I have arrived in Tokyo. It was a excellent flight, contrary to my expectations. I had the best seat in the plane and very kind KLM people and a nice German guy (living in Tokyo) sitting next to me to chat a bit.

Marieke, my Dutch friend that works as an architect here in Tokyo, picked me up at a trainstation and I am staying at her small but quite comfortable place. She usually works crazy hours but she seems to have been able to make some time to spent with me which is excellent.. and he has introduced me to Tokyo and learned me quickly how to travel this huge (35million inhabitants) megapolis. Great to have such a guide!

Everything is amazing here, everything is so different, and people speak hardly any English (which I find quite amazing). And I am told that outside the Tokyo-Yokohama region there is even lesser English or Western-writing... so, I suppose Japan will become quite an adventure...

The first 2 days I have been going around the city while Marieke was working. I have checked some areas with very interesting contemporary architecture (since Tokyo has grown very fast and was bombed during the war not a lot of historic stuff still excists in Tokyo- so, temple pictures will come once I visit Kyoto). The only drawback is that is is the rainy season now in Japan, and it has been raining a lot since I got here (almost 2 days in a row now, first day was a bit better though). But it is ok- I guess I will get used to 26 degrees and rain...

Oh yes, I have also felt already two earthquakes (terremoto in Spanish I believe). Nothing to worry about, "we get one of those every couple of days" Marieke told me. Haha, welcome to Japan!

Marieke will go for work now to London and Paris and Lausanne, so she will be back in Tokyo next week, by which time I will have left first North to Sendai and then Southward to Kyoto, Osaka and more. First two more days in Tokyo and Yokohama. At the end, 8-11 june probably I will be visiting Tokyo-area again.

Oh yes, before I forget: it is quite hard to find a place with internet here, since every Japanese has internet on his mobile they have no need to go outdoors... so I have no clue how often I will be able to post any messages on the blog or upload any pictures. Sorry for that. I`ll make up for that in Australia, it`s a promise.

Also my mobile phone doesnt work, so don`t be tempted to sent any messages since I will not be able at all to read them (unfortunately).

Well, folks, that`s all for now. Thanks for all your kind messages! Contrary to all your beliefs, I will (and already do) miss you guys every now and then. But I am fine now and looking forward to seeing the rest of this a-mazing country.

Take care,

Bas.

for pictures check: http://picasaweb.google.com/basvanderpol1980/TokyoJapan1

PS1 Marc and Clarissa: yes! looking forward to meeting you in Australia! Can`t wait, to be honest, especially after our good times in Darmstadt and Frankfurt!
PS2 Jan, vet succes met de laatste loodjes van de film- ik ben er zeker van dat hij heeel vet wordt en kan niet wachten hem te ontvangen. Laat me even weten als ie klaar is want misschien is het het makkelijkst als je hem op CD naar die vriend van me in Melbourne stuurt.
PS3 Freek makker hou je haaks, wat ben je toch een fijne vent.
PS4 Ka, ik mis jullie nu al, maar dat maakt niks, ik ga nu vet genieten.
PS5 Benjamin tio! Fijn dat je mijn blog gevonden en gechecked heb- keep it up.
PS6 Helen, ich denke auch an dich- und viel gluck mit Bjorn zusammen wohnen zu gehen!! Grussen auch fur ihn.
PS7 Jordie, thanks- en ich weit dat ste good op heur lets.
PS8 Elke, tot snel! Succes met je kunstwerken (en vergeet sleutels en contract SAM niet).

hasta patata

2008-06-18T01:39:00.001-07:00

Tot in de pruimentijd mensen! Laatste dagen waren super!

starting date

2008-06-12T02:10:00.000-07:00

It has to start somewhere
It has to start some time
What better place then here?
What better place then now!?

19 june 2008, 15:20h, my flight to Tokyo will leave from Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam). Just so you know.
Bas.

prologe

2008-06-12T01:24:00.001-07:00

Like every 'tour', my 'tour du monde' has a 'prologe' aswell. I visited the Greek island of Milos with Laetitia, one of my very best friends! All pictures you see are made by her (some are incredible). It was an amazing trip and a great way to prepare and relax before my world-trip.

Milos is a volcanic island (like famous Santorini) and has many amazing landscapes: every erosiontype geology has to offer you will find on Milos. We found many many deserted rocky beaches with crystal clear blue water. Amazingly beautifull and for us alone (almost no tourists in june at Milos). We camped, rented bikes (and a small scooter for one day), had great food... just perfect.

Now a week of final preperations and say-off's is a awaiting me. I must say I sense a bit of anxiety now... but, if you want something in life: just reach out and grab it.

You can check a few pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/basvanderpol1980/PrologeGreece3608110608

roadmap

2008-05-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

I made a little map so all of you can see where I will be going.

launch count down

2008-05-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome people,

I am trippin'! Check out my travels.

Bas.