| After the tree thing, we drove to a dam. The colours of aussieland were so beautiful... the warm brown, the deep red... but they didn't show on my pictures the way I saw them... At the dam we parked and then it was time for some real aussie entertainement: aussie barbie and billy tea ! Nope, I'm not talking about the latest toy of Mattel. In Australia you find means to have a bbq just about everywhere. You park the car and you can have a bbq ! You bring your own food and stuff of course, and you can start baking. Just a pity that doggies aren't aloud to get out of the car though. And billy tea. Well, you get a pot and put in water and tea, make it boil, and there you go ! Lovely tea met groezels. It really was a great day. Very relaxed. Almost as if I was on vacation ! I got to meet Jake and Jes and Margaret.The two J's even deciding we were more interesting than the Simsons after a while. Margaret for a relaxed lunch in the sun. Aaah the beautiful sun and the wonderful beaches of Rockingham. Just sitting there and feeling the warmth on your skin and not having to go anywhere... I so enjoyed that. Oh, and at night, Richard thought me to find the Southern Cross ! A skill I won't be able to use now that I'm home, cos you can't see it here. But I saw it and I can find it real easy ! Flying back to Sydney... Getting off the plane I did a stupid thing : I left my favorite scraf on the plane. Ok so I didn't do many stupid things in Aussieland, but of all the stupid things I could do, I wish I picked another one. Getting the rental car in Sydney took way longer than I thought. The problem was that I couldn't show them my ticket to fly home with. I left that at Louise. So the silly woman made me write down my adress and phonenumber in Belgium. As if that would make any difference if I really would be up to no good. It was a good thing I had some practice driving at the wrong side of the road with Fairy's car, cos now I was driving a manual - yes... the rental people couldn't believe I prefered a manual... well duh ! it was the cheapest one ! I only had to drive out of the airport twice to get myself going in the right direction. And off I went, destination Albury. There was a CD player in the car, so I could play the CD we bought at the Umoja show. That felt good ! Driving along the freeway, I decided I didn't want to keep doing that all day. So when I saw a sign "Wombeyan Caves" and "touristic drive" I decided to go for it. This was much better. At least I got to see some scenery right...? After a while I got to some road works. And then the road works ended... just some sandy road. I like it at first. But then it started to get smaller and smaller, and having more and more curves, and going up and going down. I found myself in some national park, no signs at all, just driving and turning. I was really happy it hadn't rained for a while, because there were these places in the road that would have been floaded if it had, and there I was driving my little manual city car through the mountains, on a dusty road that allowed only one car at the time... After an hour I got so tired and didn't think it was funny at all anymore. I was convinced I took some wrong turn or missed a sign somewhere and as totally lost. Then I came to a bridge, and the road went back to normal right behind it. I stopped the car for a while and relaxed. Then I started again, took a turn... and... back to dusty curvy roads ... I was driving for almost two hours on those roads now, and I was starting to be a bit desperate. I turned off the CD and forced myself to sing : "ten green bottles...." and "en den boom stond op den berg..." And suddenly ! A huge sign : Wombeyan Caves ! I was so angry at those caves ! I started swearing at them and telling them I was not going to visit them. No way ! Who did they think they were ! But I had to go to the loo, and the lady of the Caves was sooo happy there was actually a visitor and she convinced me to take the "self guided tour" A self guided tour... I payed and received a token. Then I had to take a walk through the mountains... and then I arrived at a door.... (please notice that the woman in the picture I found on the net isn't alone there, cos somebody took her picture, I was there all by myself...) As you can see a big iron door... I had to put the token in next to it, open the door and go in, the door closed behind me with a bang, and there I was, in the caves... The idea was that when I moved the lights went on and sometimes a tape started to give me some explanations... I must admit I didn't feel totally comfy there... not all the lights worked... Well, the lady said it would take me about an hour, and I did it in 40 minutes... and I only started taking pictures when I could see the exit ! |
| I'll end it with that adventure. I just drove the rest of the day, and the next as well. And then the next I just spent on an airplane. I loved my trip to Aussieland. And I also loved the traveling alone. Even though I didn't spend much time alone of course. If you would like to see my pictures, just give me a ring some time and drop by ! |
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