Lombok Day 1 (Friday)

We all woke up at around 8 or 9. I was so hungry. So we went to the restaurant to eat our breakfast. I ate yoghurt with fruits, a waffle, scrambled egg, and some bread. That was so much food! I usually barely eat breakfast at all. But that at least rescued me from having to eat any lunch.

We mainly stayed in the the hotel. My mom really wanted to buy some pearls. She knew a guy who had good pearls, so we all went to his shop. The pearls were interesting. At one of the shops, was his daughter (i believe). Everybody wanted to take pictures of me and the small girl. After that there were some ladies with babies who wanted to take pictures of me with them. I got slightly fed up by all of those pictures.

My mom bought some pearls, and we then got to go. At the ATM, I really wanted to press the buttons, so my mom and I cramped into the little ATM room together, while my dad bought some pocari for his bike trip the next day. We ate in this restaurant that I don't know the name of. The food was good and filling, really filling.

Back in our villa, we had to go swimming, because the pool was so nice. I thought the water was very cold, but I didn't seem to mind that much in the end.

Lombok

On Friday and Monday we had no school. Plus Saturday and Sunday. So basically we had a 4 day weekend. It was awesome!!!

While most of my friends stayed in Jakarta, I went to Lombok. To be exact, we went to Senggigi. Our resort had a pool right in front of the door to our room. It was a pool that was so called private to us only It was so much fun!!!

Our "private" pool

We arrived in Lombok at about 1 a.m on Friday, because we left Jakarta only Thursday after school and we also had a slight delay. At the entrance of the resort were these fish ponds, with small fountains. The fountains were off and it was dark outside. I noticed the pond immediately when we go there. But apparently my dad didn't. He fell into the pond with his clothing and shoes on, making the whole family and the hotel boy cramp up in laughter. Once we got to our room, all we did was brush our teeth and go to bed.

On our way back to Jakarta

When I woke up in the morning I saw a huge caravan in the parking spot next to us. It was 11.5 meters in length and about 4 meters in height. Our little RV looked tiny compared to this huge monster. They had a Border Collie with them. The two elderly people lived in the caravan. I think that that is pretty amazing. I can't imagine a life in a camper.

We headed for the rental place, where we rented or RV and  gave it back. Our vacation was pretty much over now. We seemed to have completely wrecked the car. We broke 3 mugs, 2 glasses, Shredded a tire, and we crashed into a tree when driving backwards. Very interesting when you look back at what  a human is capable of doing in only 1 week. Or actually, about 9 days.

We ended up at a transit hotel in Singapore. We were too tired to go on to Jakarta. We had a great peaceful sleep and continued to Jakarta the next day in the morning. I was really happy to see my dog again. She seamed very happy to see us too. Jumping and running around the house were just 2 of the things she did. Licking my face was another. I loved the holiday and really look forward to going back. By the way, Christmas is creeping up on us. And I'm going to Finkenberg, in Austria. Just like last year. Even the same hotel as last year and many years before that. It is our winter holiday destination from now on. Until things take on differently. I'm going to blog that holiday too. So keep your eyes out for it.

Derby to Broome

Oysters

Willy Creek Pearl farm: We went to the tour at 2 p.m. Since it was only 11 a.m, we set for the beach. There were meant to be crocodiles in the water. I didn't bother changing, so I decided to just play with the water a little bit without getting wet. Without much success. I was running away from the waves, but sometimes that were so big that the plashed me completely wet. I ha to change at the end, so that I didn't have to live through the tour in wet clothing. During the tour there was a girl called Tara who explained the origin of pearls and the way they are formed. Of coarse there was much more info, other than that. We also went on a boat tour after that, which was part of the pearl tour. My brother, mother, and dad went on a helicopter flight afterwards. The view was amazing. According to the pictures and my family's point of view. I waited on the ground for only about 5 minutes.

View from helicopter onto Willy Creek

"Staircase to the moon"

In Broome we watched the sunset and then found our way to another beach for the "staircase to the moon". My brother stayed in the car sleeping, while the rest of us took our folding chairs and watched the moon come up and showed the staircase. We barely found a caravan Park in the the dark. Well we found about 4, but they were all closed. The last one at least had open gates. So we went in and wanted to pay for the night in the morning. It was 9:30 in the evening anyway.

Manning Gorge to Derby

In the morning, after we've had breakfast, we were ready to hit the road again. But first we needed to get some water for our water tank. That's when we discovered a flat tire. We had no spare this time. So our only choice was to fix it. Luckily there were two older people who helped us fix the tire. They used this weird sticky thing. I have no idea what it was. But at least it was ready to be used again after that. We had to stop at a tank station that had a car repair center. The outback kind. My mom, brother and I got an ice cream while we were waiting for the new tire. With our new tire on, we were all set to continue to Derby.

Bell Gorge had a waterfall, which was nice to look at. I feel really bad for not swimming towards it now that I'm writing this. The hike was short and fun to do. Not that tiring, but we did have to scramble up some rock on our way back. There was moss all around the rocks in the water there. I had a hard time getting out, due to the slipperiness of the rocks.

Bell Gorge waterfall

We slept at the same park as last time. In Kimberly Caravan Park. Even our spot was pretty much the same. We just moved over by one spot to the right. The good thing is that we were right in front of the bathroom. We didn't have to walk that far in the dark to get there.

HVS to Manning Gorge

Again we were driving for most of the day. On our way we completely shredded a tire in the middle of nowhere. Just the way the outback is. My dad had to change with the spare in the killing heat. I was just watching and playing with the burning rubber that came from the inside of the tire. This tire was at it's complete end. A repair is pretty much impossible.

My dad fixing the shredded tire

Manning Gorge

Manning Gorge was also one of those gorges with a water pool at the end. It was apparently supposed to be a 2km long walk there. It felt like much more. It took us 1 hour to get there and we were walking pretty fast. Going back to our camp felt half as long. Maybe because I had something to do this time other than walking and spotting some lizards. I was talking to my brother about random things that didn't make much sense if I think about it now. Like for example our Christmas wish lists(mine is still empty), school, and Lego. My brother used to be obsessed with Lego. Not as much now though. There was a man walking in the opposite direction than us, and he overtook us at the end. I don't think he went all the way. It was impossible. He might only have gone to the "x", which was about 3/4 of the way to the gorge. My brother wanted to stop to drink every second. I got forced to drink too each time. I hate being forced to drink.

Doon Doon to HVS (Home Valley Station)

In the morning we were all soaked through, because of the heat. There were flies everywhere. When I stepped out of the RV I saw that the place isn't that nice after all. We made it to El Questro now. We visited the Zebedee Springs.

Zebedee Springs is just like a river of warm water. My mom loved it and so did the rest of us. My dad and I were catching tadpoles. It was fun, but they gt away all the time. We had a great time splashing around.

The Zebedee Springs

Jackaroo's Waterhole was our next destination in El Questro. There was a huge boab tree in the area and of coarse water. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to swim in it.

Chamberlain Gorge was surrounded by water. We couldn't walk there. There were crocodiles supposedly. We saw a small kangaroo on the shore. We rented a boat to view this gorge. The boat was self service and it went really slowly. When the wind came, we got blown away, because the motor couldn't take on the wind.

Emma Gorge Waterfall

Emma Gorge was really interesting, I thought. The surrounding started out as a savanna and burned trees everywhere, but then changed to a magical rain forest. It was really cool. We kept on following blue ribbons which led up a river. We didn't walk through the river, but we did go across twice. My brother fell on the way, and kept saying how ugly this gorge was. But in fact it was really nice, and he knew that. My dad and I went swimming in the freezing water at the end. It was really fun to go under the waterfall. At the left side was another tiny waterfall with warm water. It was a so called thermal waterfall or something like that. It was warm like in a bathtub. My brother was there the whole time and I joined him after a while. When it was time to go, I kept complaining. But it was no use. We left.

We ended up at HVS. It was a really nice camp with a horse stable, a pool, playground and a restaurant. We ate kangaroo for dinner. My brother kept on threatening me. Saying that we're eating a kangaroo. Just because I like kangaroos. Of coarse it didn't bother me much. Most of the other things he says and does bother me a lot.

The Bungles to Doon Doon

We made a hike to cathedral Gorge (3km return), Domes walk (1km return), and Piccaniny Creek Lookout.

Cathedral Gorge was a cathedral made up of rock, with a green pool in the middle. My brother and I kept on throwing rocks inside. The algae that has formed on the top separated and connected again. It looked pretty cool.

Icky green pool at Cathedral Gorge

Domes walk went past a couple of little mountains. Like the ones in the video game "Tiny Wings". Except that these were not connected to each other like in the game.

Me walking the 'Domes Walk'

Piccaniny Creek Lookout was too much for my brother to walk. I went up to it and saw the whole area (All of the domes). There was wind up there, which felt really good after spending some time walking in the heat.

On our way to Piccaniny Creek - Can you spot my brother sitting there?

Then we drove on to a Helicopter flight. We could see the whole Bungle ranges from up here. The wind up there messed my hair up, but I brushed it afterwards. It wasn't easy, but I managed somehow.

View from Helicopter onto the Bungles

On our way to the Chasm

Echidna Chasm was like a cave with an open roof. My brother didn't feel like walking again, so we left him in the car. It was really cool. There were loads of butterflies. I have no idea where they came from, but they were nice. We also met some bees on the way. I'm kind of used to bees, since my grandmother own some. The trick is to keep calm and not hurt them.  We had to scramble over rocks to get to the end. The heat was becoming unbearable. The walk was 2km return only.

We were meant to end up at El Questro, but we didn't make it that far. We stopped at a free campsite near a shop/tank station called Doon Doon. The area seemed nice in the dark. That was also when we realized that we were now only left with 1 mug and 2 glasses. The others had all been broken.

Fitzroy Crossing to Bungle Bungle

We were driving most of the time. Except that we stopped at Hall Creek. It's a town where there used to be Gold Miners. We ate our lunch at a restaurant there. I ordered beef with rice. The beef had some kind of sauce on it. It was really good. There was a school nearby called Shire of Hall Creek. I found it really surprising that they had a school in a small town like this one. I found a sign on the bathroom door saying "Under maintenance because of vandalism". I found it pretty interesting. Usually they just say "out of order" or "under maintenance", but they never say the reason for it. This time it said the reason. Because of vandalism.

A wall with aboriginal art on it in Hall Creek

Statue of the Gold Miners

A rocky road brought us to the Bungles. The road was so rough that we had 1 whole liter of milk spilled on the floor afterwards. It was a disaster. The night at a camp ground there was fine. We discovered some broken mugs. 2 to be exact. We didn't want to waste our water from the tank, so we just used our hose to spray each other with some water from a drain provided.

Derby to Fitzroy Crossing

Today we did a 7km hike at Windjana Gorge. It was pretty tiring, especially to carry a water bottle with you the whole way. The bottle kept on slipping out of my hands and I didn't even want to drink. Not to mention the heat over here. We saw a lot of freshwater crocodiles. They are meant to be harmless unless you try to pet them or pick them up. We also spotted a kangaroo, that I didn't feel like chasing. It looked too sweet and adorable to chase. My brother just kept on talking about eating the kangaroo.

We went to Tunnel Creek after that. It was on;y 200 meters to the entrance. We had to take our flashlights because it was a 1km long tunnel that was all dark inside. We wadded through water in the tunnel and I ended up getting my shorts wet, because of the deep  water. There were bats in there too.

Drawing from the art center

We slept on the side of the road this night. There were cars and trucks passing by, but rarely. We took a shower in the open, but dark, on the side of the road. It was weird. But since nobody was passing, it was fine. (The shower is part of the RV)

Broome to Derby

Everywhere I looked, I saw boab trees, which is the same thing as the baobab trees in Africa, except that they have a slightly different name here in Australia. Sand was everywhere to. We went on driving and driving. We stopped to shop at Woolworth. We ate some wonderful chicken outside on the parking lot.

Our next stop was an art center. They had nice painting, but they were really expensive. A stray dog greeted us right when we stepped out of the car.He kept on jumping on me and licking my face. He was so adorable.

Watching the Sunset from the pier

We visited the pier after this, where the difference between high and low tides was 11 meters. It's impressive, I know. We ate dinner at a restaurant there and then went to Kimberly Caravan Park which was really close to the pier. The night there was nice. We got some power and everything was working perfectly.

Welcome to Australia

I thought we would never arrive. We had to spend some time in Singapore, so we decided to go shopping (my absolute favorite). Or actually, my brother and mom decided to go shopping. My dad and I had to follow. It was really boring. After that the flight continued to Perth. We spent 6 hours at the airport there, waiting for our next flight to Broome. It wasn't that bad, since it was at 1 o'clock in the night, I didn't care. I slept on a couch in a cafe safely and soundly. In the morning, we continued to Broome. The flight wasn't that bad. I didn't feel as dizzy as I usually do during and after flights. The Broome airport was a small airport surrounded by sand, orange sand.

I felt home for once. Even if I'm not from Australia or have ever lived there. I just felt home among all that sand.

We rented a 4WD RV. We've had a RV 3 times before, and the last time we visited we had a 4WD car with a tent on the roof and another tent to put on the ground.

Even if we had to wake up at 4 AM to get here, I bet it will be worth it. I've just missed Australia since our last visit 2 years ago. LET THE NEW ADVENTURES BEGIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have arrived to Slovakia!!!

This time during our summer holidays my brother and I got o fly alone. Since both of my parents still had to work. It was pretty exciting, at first. But then once the day that we had to fly came I thought that it is not that special and exciting. The good part was that we got to fly with Turkish Airlines. We used to fly with Lufthansa. I hate Lufthansa. I do not know why but I just do not like it.

My grandma from my mother side came to Vienna to pick us up. Then we kept going to Slovakia with the car. Once we got to Slovakia I got so excited. Especially since my grandma has a Labrador Retriever,
Benny, that I could play with. I just love summer. We
also went to get ice cream, it was really good.

My brother is really obsessed with basketball so of coarse we went to play at my grandmas friends house that lives on the same street as my grandma. I got bored of basketball so I went cherry picking. There were so many cherries. I couldn't stop eating. They were really addicting.

And of coarse once we got home I went to play with Benny. I think that I will talk a lot about Benny in the next couple of posts. He has so many toys. Okay maybe not that many but still quite a lot.

Note- This thing is out of order. The Ice Cream eating actually came after the basketball playing.

My birthday's coming up!!!

I am so... exited. my birthday is coming up. I think I might have a party this year unlike last years boring family birthday. All we did was open presents and eat cake. It was really boring. That's maybe why I'm not that exited about it. Last year just kind of ruined it. But anyway, who cares about last year? Not me. This year it's going to hopefully be so much better. I still don't have a plan for it, but I hope it's gonna be cool. I might tell you about the party a little later.

Oops. I didn't even mention when my birthday was. It's on the 2nd March. It's less than a week from now. My fathers birthday is on the 1st of March, which is why me and my father refer me to a late birthday present almost 13 years ago.

My holidays

I know that I haven't written during my holidays. I just had no time to.

O.K. First I went to Austria to go skiing just like last year. Except that my mom couldn't join us. so basically my father, brother and I went skiing for a week or so. It was really fun (like all the time). We spent the 24th at a restaurant in the hotel and then at home. We stayed in this kind of apartment. The food was really good. And once we were stuffed we went into the apartment and started opening presents. I got a WII and some two shirts and pants. The best part still was the WII. The bad thing is, that my brother always wants to play it and then I don't get a chance. Even if the WII is MINE, not OURS. But he won't listen. Oh well. I guess I'll just live with it.

On Saturday we went to Vienna with the train. That day we rent a car at about midnight. The next day we went to the Czech Republic with that car to visit my grandparents on my father's side. We just got some more presents, stayed there for 2 nights and then went to Slovakia. But the problem was that we couldn't get out of the garage, because at the gate, where we had to go out, it went up. But there was snow everywhere. We couldn't get up because the car could not get up the slippery road. Then we realized that it's no use of trying even more. My grandmother then thought of sand. We could put sand on the road so it wouldn't be that slippery and we could get up. There was some sand across the road, but it was covered in snow. We found the sand at last and put it on the slippery road. Then the car could easily get out of the garage and we were ready to go.

At my other grandmothers new house, we first had put apart and put together some shelves and wardrobes. My grandmothers new puppy Benny, that is about 5 months old, was trying to get us to play with him. But there was no time. We mostly did moving business. But there was some fun as well. We went ice skating, sledding and visit my great aunt. Benny is a white, energetic and playful Labrador. I think it was kind of hard to let go of him. But I some how managed.

Then we went back to Jakarta, Where I first met my dog. Have I ever talked about my dog Chia? (By the way, my brother gave her that name). Well we got her from JAAN and JAAN got her from Bali. She has this hazel color and is very sweet and trained. I like both Benny and Chia. I was also glad to see my cat Maxi again. I think I already talked about her, have I? It was a great holiday.

Now we all are back where we belong, home.

I'll start blogging again

I know that I haven't been posting for long, but I guess it's because I forgot about my blog. I'll try to start again from now.