Wednesday 22/11/2006
Singapore - Belgium

We arrived at 05h05 (local time, so the time difference with Belgium is only 1 hour).
I was waiting for my baggage but it wasn't there !
Somebody from Quantas came to me and asked for the papers with the baggage info.
He told me that my baggage will be in Brussels (hopefully) but that's not what they told me in Alice Springs.
Then via the train from Terminal 4 to Terminal 1.
I checked in with my 2 bags but it was not allowed !
They told me that I could put everything in 1 bag (allthough the weight would be much more than the maximum allowed, talking about international rules/procedures).
But my sleeping bag didn't fit in it and I had to put it as normal baggage (hopefully I don't forget this at the baggage reclaim in Brussels).
There was a 20 minutes delay on my last flight.
I have all my baggage.At 11h19 I took the train to Diest where my wife picked me up at 12h35.
So, back home after 55 days, it feels (very) good.
Within a few months I will update my website (www.rudyvansingel.com) with a more detailed log (and more photo's) of this unbelievable trip(s).

Tuesday 21/11/2006
Alice Springs - Belgium

I woke up at 05h30 and took a taxi to the airport at 06h00.
This because the shuttle service only came at 08h20.
I arrived at the airport at 06h20 and it is still closed.
The taxi driver told me that it opens at 06h30.
My flight is at 09h40 (Belgium time 01h10), so I have plenty of time, no stress (yet).
I will arrive in Belgium on Wednesday 22/11/2006 at 10h30.
So it will take me 33h20 !
I did my baggage check at 08h30.
This was also the first time that I was checked for explosives.
Boarding only starts at 09h25.
They told me that I only need to check out (and check in) my baggage at in London.
There was no delay or a problem with the flight.
I had to adjust the time with 1.5 hours so the time differens with Belgium is now 7 hours.
I arrived at Terminal 2 (Domestic) in Perth and had to go to Terminal 1 (International).
This takes +/- 10 minutes with a bus.
Now I fly from Perth to Singapore.
When I checked in, I had too much hand baggage (+/- 11 kg in one bag and +/- 3 kg in the other one and 7 kg is the maximum).
And the woman told me that she was not kidding, I had to go to the Quantas Service Desk to get a clearance.
We switched some stuff from one bag to the other and now I have got my clearance.
They told me that I will probably have the same problem in Singapore but we will see then how we solve this.
The flight was Ok, no delay.
Now I will fly from Singapore to London.
I didn't had a problem with the checkin in Singapore.

Monday 20/11/2006
Kings Creek Station - Alice Springs (250 km)

I woke up at 04h40 and only had a coffee.
We left at 05h45.At 06h10 I started the "Kings Canyon Rim Walk".
It's a 6 km loop walk.I did an extra 600 m lookout walk and a walk to the "Garden of Eden".
It was beautiful.
I was back at 08h10.
We left there at 09h35.
Now straight (via a shortcut and bad roads) to Alice Springs.
Planning is that we are there at +/- 14h00.
We saw wild horses.
At 11h00 we stopped at a place where Sharon had to leave her (old, but very good, broken) trailer a few weeks ago.
It was too expensive to pick it up later (+/- 6000 AUD).
At 12h30 we had lunch near the house of an aboriginal painter (European style).
Then we drove trough Hermannsburg.
We where in Alice Springs at 15h00.
I went into town and had dinner at 19h00 (a 400 gr. steak) and went to sleep at 21h00.

Sunday 19/11/2006
Uluru - Kings Creek Station (280 km).

I woke up at 03h55 (I had put my alarm on) and woke up everybody at 04h00.
We had breakfest and left at 05h00 to see the sunrise (it was better than the previous time).
At 06h10 we started the base walk (9.4 km) and I finished it at 09h00.
At the start, no climbing was allowd because it was too windy.
At the end, still no climbing but now because of high temperatures (> 36 degrees).
We went to the visitor center for 1 hour.
We had lunch at 11h30.
Then we stopped at a lookout point to Mount Connor and on the other side of the road there was a salt lake.
At 14h00 we arrived at the Kings Creek camping.
Today we will sleep in swags because it is too hot in the tents.
We went all to the pool ( a small one) and had dinner at 19h00.
I went to sleep at 22h00.

Saturday 18/11/2006

Great Victoria Desert - Uluru (256 km)

I woke up at 06h00 and had breakfest.

We left at 07h15.

At 07h45 we stopped at "Tjunti - Lasseter's Cave".

At 09h15 we saw "The Olgs" or "Kata Tjuta" but still 40 km to go.

We arrived there at 09h45 and we did the 1 hour walk.

Now we have again bitumen roads.

At 11h11 we see Uluru !At 11h35 we arrived at the "Ayers Rock Resort" camping.

We had lunch at 12h00.

I took the shuttle bus to the shopping center at 13h30 and was back at 14h15.

It is now 45 degrees !

Almost nobody at the camping, too hat !

We have now free time until 18h30 and then we go to see the sun set at Uluru.

We saw the sunset and had dinner at 21h00.

Tomorrow we will leave at 04h00 to see the sunrise.

I went to sleep at 23h00.

Friday 17/11/2006
Great Victoria Desert (650 km).

I woke up at 05h00 and had breakfest.
We left at 06h15.
At 08h50 we saw somebody with a motorcycle !
At 09h10 we stopped at the "Warburton Roadhouse" for a refuel.
It is now 37 degrees.
We saw a lot of (wild) camels.
At 10h30 we saw 2 trucks with an exceptional load, guarded by  a 4WD police car.
The average fuel usage of our truck is 25 l/ 100 km.
At 10h50 we've made a toilet stop (with 1 real toilet !).
At 11h00 we stopped because there was an aboriginal family that had a problem with theit 4WD.
They had a flat tyre and no spare one, so we couldn't help them.
At 11h55 we stopped again for an aboriginal family (Man with his wife, 2 daughters and 1 baby of +/- 1 year) that had a flat tyre.
Sharon helped them to change it.
One of the girls was looking for Goana's.
At 12h45 we had lunch at the "Warrakurna Roadhouse".
At 13h30 we had a time change to 15h00 so the time difference with Belgium is again 08h30.
We crossed again the boarder with the Northern Territory.
We then went to  the "Giles Weather Station", very interesting.
We let a weather balloon up !.
We left there at 15h45.
At 16h00 we've made a stop to collect some wood for the camp fire.
We arrived at 17h00 at our bush camp.
It's not really a bush camp because we have 2 toilets and 1 shower.
This place it called "Docca River".
We saw that we lost our spare wheel of our trailer.
We went back and found it after a few kilometers.
We had dinner at 20h00 and I went to sleep at 23h00.

Thursday 16/11/2006
Goldfields - Great Victoria Desert (580 km)

I woke up at 05h15 and had (a little bit) breakfest.
I'm feeling better now.
We left at 06h45.
At 08h19 we stopped at a ghost town called Gwalia.
At 09h00 we stopped at a Shell station with a shop in a place called Leonora.
Sharon advised us to buy here stuff we need because in the next roadhouses it is much more expensive.
Now we are heading for the real desert.
At 10h15 we saw a few of Australia's biggest birds (no pictures of them because we were driving) : "Wedge Tail Eagle".
At 10h30 we stopped at a roadsign : only 1587 km's to Alice Springs !
End of civilisation.
No bitumen roads anymore.
Now sandy, bumpy roads and Sharon said it would be worse.
At 11h30 we stopped (earlier than planned) for our lunch because Sharon is very tired and needs a nap.
We left at 13h30 and the only thing we did was driving.
At 14h45 we made a refuel stop at Tjukyrla Roadhouse and (because of the rain forecast) Sharon decided to sleep here (we also have a kitchen here).
Everybody took a shower.
So, no bushcamp today.
We had dinner at 19h00.
Tomorrow we have breakfest at 05h45.
I went to sleep at 20h30.

Wednesday 15/11/2006
Perth - Goldfields (830 km)

I woke up at 05h15 and went to the Ibis hotel at 06h00.
There was a delay with the pickup, it was 07h30.
We are with 7 (2 boys and 5 girls).
Joker told me that the maximum was 6 persons but it is 15.
We have (again) a female trekleader called Sharon.
We have persons from : England (Sarah and Chris), Switzerland (Carmen and Manuela), Germany (Andrea) and Belgium (me and Ode).
Ode is from Doornik.
We had lunch at 13h00 in a place called "Southern Cross".
At 16h30 we stopped at "The superpit", a very big goldmine.
It is the richest mile  in the world.
And probably one of the top 5 biggest in the world.
At 16h30 we arrived at our bush camp (Historic Tour Site Comet Vale).
We mad a camping fire and started to put up the tents.
Dinner was ready at 19h00 but I skipped it because I was not feeling well and I went to sleep at 19h30.
Hopefully I am feeling better tomorrow.

Tuesday 14/11/2006
Perth (0 km)

I woke up at 06h15.
At 07h45 I went to the harbour town city shopping center.
There I had my breakfest at a "Subway".
Then at 09h00 I went to some shops there (I didn't bought anything !)
I was back at 10h00 and found an internet cafe where I can do myphoto uploads.
Today, I don't have any plans.
It's a good time to recuperat (a little bit ?) before of the start of the 6 day 4WD "Desert Explorer".
It's again a lot warmer here (+/- 30 degrees at 10h15).
I went (again) to the Ibis hotel to see at what time the welcome drink is this evening and at what time we are leaving tomorrow morning.
There seems to be no welcome drink and "Let's Trek Australia" will contact the Ibis hotel (where I was first booked".
Believe it or not : I found (by accident) the "Belgian Beer Cafe" and ordered a dark Leffe.
Mmmmmmmm, that tastes good after 6 weeks !
I'll think that I will spend my evening there (and get drunk ?).
I hope that you (all) enjoyed my updates (and pictures), it took me a lot of extra time to keep you informed but it was worth doing it.
For the next trip I will not be able to to updates I think but I will do them when I'm back in Belgium.
At 15h30 I got news about the "Desert Explorer" trip.
There is no welcome drink.
I need to be at the Ibis hotel at 06h50.
It is the company "Western Exposure" that is doing the trip.
I saw also an intimidation of 5 kids to a couple, a woman came in between !
At 17h00 I had dinner (no, not Mc Donalds) a ta place called "Hong Kong Chinese" and I ordered their "combination with everything".
It was very big and very good.
Then at 18h15 I went to the "Regent Cinemas" and watched the movie "The wrong man" with Bruce Willis.
It was very good.
Before the movie there was an advertising movie about Stella Artois !I went to sleep at 21h15.
I think I'm ready for the "Desert Explorer" trip.

Monday 13/11/2006
Sydney - Perth (+/- 4000 km ?)

I woke up at 05h00.
The airport shuttle picked me up at 05h55 and I arrived at the airport at 06h25.
My flight is at 10h10, so I have time enough, no stress (what's that ?) at all.
I started with 18 kg bagage, now I have 27 kg and the maximum is 20 kg, so this will cost me extra money I think.
I had breakfest at the airport at "Hungry Jack's".
It was 6.25 AUD and I gave 10.25 AUD.
You are not going to believe this but it is true : the girl behind the desk took her calculator to see what the change was !
My flight was Ok, no delays, no problems (and I didn't have to pay any extra !).
I had (again) to adjust the time 3 hours back, so the time difference with Belgium is now (only) 7 hours.
At 12h45 I took the shuttle bus to the hotel.
I am staying at the Royal Hotel and the tour starts Wednesday at the Ibis hotel but it is reachable in walking distance (10 minutes).
I did a small walk in the neighbourhood and found allready a cinema and a Mc Donalds.
Later I did a longer walk in the city.
I had dinner at 18h00 and went to the cinema at 19h00.
I saw "Crank" (with the guy that played in the 2 "The Transporter" movies).
I went to sleep at 21h15 because I was very tired.

Sunday 12/11/2006
Sydney (0 km)

I woke up at 07h15 and I left for a walk to Darling Harbour at 08h00.
At 09h30 I got my cruise ticket for my voucher and I stopped at the Opera House for a guided tour.
Hilde and Korina were also there.
I was impressive.
Then I completed the cruise and took the monorail to go to the Sydney Tower (250 m).
It was beautiful, there was also a movie where the seats were moving and 5 short animated movies on a turning platform.
I took the monorail back to Darling Harbour at started at 14h00 the full Hop Off/Hop on tour (1.5 hours).
After that (16h15) dinner (again Mc Donalds).
And then I went to the IMAX theater to see Deep Blue Sea 3D (WOW).
They have a 12000 watt sound installation and a screen with a height of 40 m (or more).
At 19h00 I said goodbye to Steve, Korina and Hilde because they went out for a dinner together and I went (again) to the IMAX theater to see the movie "Extreme" at 20h00.
It was even more impressive.
When I went back, I saw Steve, Korina and Hilde and we went to a pub for a last drink.
Then I went to the internet cafe and went to sleep at 22h45.

Saturday 11/11/2006
Canberra - Sydney (300 km)

I woke up at 06h00.I had a 1 hour chat with my suns (and my neighbour Swa who hasn't read my blog yet !!!)
Then I made a little walk until 07h15.
Yesterday I ordered a Continental Breakfest for today.
I had breakfest at 07h30.
Then I went to a shopping center (again) and I was back at 09h45.
At 10h30 we left to the War Memorial Center.
We saw the ceremony at 11h00 which was impressive.
One of the soldiers collapsed because of the heat.
We saw also a movie about the bombing of Berlin.
We left there at 12h30.
We also crossed the boarder with New South Wales (no time change).
At 13h15 we had our last lunch at the "Bushraner Hotel".
I ordered a Bushburger.
We left there at 14h45 and arrived at 18h00 at the "Travelodge Wnetworth" hotel.
It's strange coming back (home) after 42 amazing days.
I made a walk to Darling Harbour and also checked my flight to Perth for Monday (it is still at 10h10).
Again dinner at Mc Donalds (yes, I like it).
When I came back to the hotel I arranged my shuttle bus to the airport for Monday morning.
I also booked for tomorrow a City Hop Off/Hop On tour with 4 highlights included : Sydney Tower, Sydney Opera House, Harbour Cruise and Sydney Monorail.
At 21h00 we went out for a drink with some of the people of the tour.
I was back at 22h45 and went to sleep at 23h15.

Friday 10/11/2006
Lakes Entrance - Canberra (420 km)

I woke up at 05h00 (thanks to Joris) and had breakfest.
Normally we left at 07h00 but we had a problem with the brake lights of our van.
This was fixed (bad contact) and we left at 07h30.
At 08h00 we crossed the border with New South Wales (no time change).
We made a stop at 10h15 at a place called Bombala.
We drove 10 minutes back to a platypus reserve but it was too late in the morning to see one.
I went down to the river and suddenly I was eye to eye with a brown 1m25 snake !
I was (a little ?) bit scared because I didn't know if it was a dangerous snake or not.
Carrie came to see the snake and then she left.
Later we checked a book of Ann : "Australia's MOST Dangerous spiders, snakes and marine creatures" and she was in it !
We think that it was a common tiger snake !
At 12h30 we had lunch in a place called Cooma (capital of snowy mountains).
At 14h05 we entered ACT (Australian Capital Territory).
At 15h00 we visited the parliament house.
The security to get in was like the one on an airport !
It was a very interesting guided tour of 1 hour.
We left there at 16h30.
We arrived at 17h00 at our hostel.
At 18h00 we went out for dinner.
I had "The Cork Classic", a succulent grain fed fillet steak topped with a selection of fresh seafood, served with baked potatoes and a garden salad.
At 20h00 I came back to do some blog updates.
Tomorrow it's the last day of my (first) trip.
I don't know when I can do any further updates because the second trip will be all (bush) camping and totally no signal for cell phones and surely no internet connection.
But when it is possible, I will keep on doing the updates.

Thursday 09/11/2006
Torquay - Lakes Entrance (440 km)

I slept very well and woke up at 07h00, had breakfest and we brought the 4 people to their surfing lesson.
We stayed there for half an hour.
Then we shopped (again) from 09h00 until 11h00.
At 12h00 we took the ferry from Queenscliff to Sorreto.
We arrived at Sorreto at 12h45.
We had lunch at a place called Hastings at 13h30.
We arrived at 19h30 at the Riviera YHA.
At 19h30 we went to a lookout point to see the sunset.
We had dinner at 21h00 and I went to sleep at 21h30.

Wednesday 08/11/2006
Melbourne - Torquay (420 km)

I woke up at 05h00 and had breakfest.
We left at 06h00.
At 09h45 we were driving on the Great Ocean road.
We stopped at several lookout points, and saw also the "London Bridge", it was all so beatiful.
At 10h45 some of us were hungry ( because they didn't had breakfest) and we stopped for half an hour in Port Campbell.
We also stopped later at the "Loch And Gorge" lookout.
At 12h30 I did my 3rd helicopter flight.
It was a 15 minutes one over the "12 Apostles".
It was amazing !
We had lunch at Apollo Bay at 15h00.
We were for hours on the Great Ocean road.
It would be great to do it with my Honda Pan European 1300 !!
We arrived at 18h15 at our (last) camping of the trip at 18h15.

Tuesday 07/11/2006
Melbourne (0 km)

I woke up at 06h00 and for the first time on this trip I didn't had a breakfest.
They picked me up at 07h40.
The busdriver was from Austria.
He told me that he will return to Austria when he retires (he is missing all the green and the mountains, not the snow).
His father was a Siemens engineer and came to Australia.
We made a stop at the Fitzroy and Roay Botanic gardens who where beautiful.
There was also a war memorial center.
We also saw a lot of sport complexes : cricket stadium (109000 places), Rod Laver tennis stadion, ...
We were back at 12h00, I had lunch at Mc Donalds and "boarded" onto the bus at 13h15.
First we went to a little cattle station where we cood feed the kangoroos, there was also a wombat.
Then we went to a koala park.
This was very beautiful.
We saw active koala's !
I also saw the Phillip Island race circuit (sorry Mitchell).
In the place where we stopped for dinner was a shop with a lot of MotoGP merchandising.
They had a signed helmet of Valentino Rossi for (only) 4500 AUD !
From there we went to a beautiful lookout at the coastline, we saw also a lot of rock wallabies.
We arrived at 19h00 at the place where we would see the penguin parade.
We saw the first 3 (of a lot) penguins at 20h35.
It was so beautiful (and freezing cold) !
We stayed there until 21h30.
Then back to Melbourne.I arrived at the hotel at 23h45 and went to sleep at 00h00.

Monday 06/11/2006
Adelaide - Melbourne (750 km)

Until now we did almost 12000 km !
I woke up at 04h11 (thanks to Korina), had breakfest and we left at 06h00.
At 09h44 we crossed the boarder with Victoria.
We had to adjust our watches to 10h14 so the time difference with Belgium is now 10h00.
We had also a flat tire on the trailer.
We arrived at 17h30 at our hotel at Melbourne.
At 19h00 we took the tram to Soutbank.
Melbourne has a nice skyline (at night).
We had dinner (swordfish which was very delicious) at "Bistro Vite"
We went back to our hotel at 21h30 and I went to sleep at 22h00.
For tomorrow I'm booked for a morning city tour from 08h45 to 12h15 and a tour to Phillip Island to see a penguins parade late in the evening (13h30 - 23h30) with APT (Australian Pacific Tours).

Sunday 05/11/2006
Mount Remarkable - Adelaide (300 km).

I woke up at 07h00 (wow , a sleep in) and I had breakfest.
We left at 09h00.
We had a toilet stop at 10h15 at a place called Yacka.
At 11h15 we arrived at the "Tim Adams" winery.
From there we went to the "Sevenhill" winery.
Ann called this one a few days ago and we were not welcome because we were with a van full with 14 backpackers.
So we wanted to go there and to split us up in smaller groups.
I was in the "family" group.
Me (dad), Korina (my wife) and our 3 children (Hilde, Nina and Isabelle).
They didn't noticed anything, a big success !
We also had lunch there and we left there at 13h25.
We arrived at 15h30 at our hostel in Adelaide.
At 18h00 we had a free BBQ from the hostel.
Then we went into town and I went to sleep at 21h00.

Saturday 04/11/2006
Coober Pedy - Mount Remarkable ((575 km)

I woke up at 06h00, had breakfest and we left at 07h15.At 11h15 we stopped at Lake Gaindner.
It's a big salt lake that was used by NASA and also is/was used for tests with bombs.
At 12h15 we had lunch at at place called Pimba.
There are only 40 permanent residents.At 14h45 we did a foodshopping at Woolworths in Port Augustine.
At 16h30 we arrived at the camping and at 17h00 we started a 3 hour "Sugar Gum Lookout" hike.
The lookout was not worth the 3 hour walk at all.
We had dinner at 21h00 and I went to sleep at 22h00.