Month: November 2018

4WD camper and Pinnacles

After a short introduction (in German) about our 4WD campervan, the long-awaited road trip to the north could start. One of the first things of each camper vacation: stocking up with food, drinks and other camping utilities. On the way to Westfield shopping mall we could already get used to the left-hand traffic. Our camper had manual transmission (common for 4WD), but we also managed that quite well. Pedals are identical to our cars at home, but more than once we hit the windscreen wipers instead of the direction indicators.

Early evening, we reached Nambung National Park, famous for its thousands of limestone needles (pinnacles), some of them up to 3.5m in height. Scientists still have multiple theories about their formation. Oh, and we also spotted our first “real” kangaroos there.

Rottnest Island – cuuute Quokkas

Our pre-booked tour to Rottnest Island started at a bay in Perth; a really fast boat sent us to “Rotto”, home of the quokkas, cute little animals of the kangaroo family. We could explore the 11 x 4 km island by bike on our own pace. Almost obviously, the first 30 minutes were disappointing to us, as we couldn’t detect a single quokka at any of the quokka “hot spots”. But then – hopping out of the shadow – cuteness alert!

After this encounter they seemed to be everywhere – almost annoying… but still cute!

After lunch we explored the other side of the island for good snorkeling spots, which we also found and tried. Nice idea: they have installed underwater information signs about the reef’s flora and fauna. Another plus point for snorkeling: you could avoid the strong winds.

G’day, Australia, g’day, Perth!

Soil on your trekking shoes and not declaring that? Could result in a AUD 12’000 fine according to the friendly information movie before landing in Perth. Didn’t want to risk that, so we put the cross at the corresponding YES checkbox. So, we have been guided to the Hall of Shame exit, but the staff were very friendly and it turned out our shoes were clean enough. G’day, Australia!

Perth is quite an isolated city, but modern and still booming. They offer free bus services – which we never used, as all points of interest are in walking distance (at least to our standards, of course!). Swan Bells, Kings Park, Hay Street, Barrack Street – all done till late afternoon, but with nice impressions.

Singapore to Perth

Steffi: “Gerry, what time does your watch show?”

Gerry: “(Yawn) It is… oh, damn, it’s almost 11 AM. Damn, we missed the breakfast! Damn, we need to check-out!”

This is how our last day in Singapore started. So we had brunch at “STPI”s, a coffee at Starbuck in a shopping mall and another walk back to the hotel. It was raining, so we couldn’t do much more anyway and we left quite early to the airport, doing the early-check-in for our Qantas flight to Perth, Australia.

Singapore – long walks and nice gardens

We cancelled our initial plans using a hop-on, hop-off bus tour, due to not-so transparent prices and schedules and walked to the bay area again, today under a shining sun (would be resulting a light sunburn in the evening). We checked out the famous Gardens by the bay by daylight and planned to return later again to watch another light show. We were quite lucky to get the time slot for the skywalk at 7:40 PM – 5 minutes before the start of the stunning light show which we could enjoy within the artificial trees.

Afterwards we walked to another place to watch the Marina Bay Sands lightshow again from a different perspective. Being quite tired we went back to the hotel – by foot, of course.

Singapore – Light Show at Marina Bay Sands

After checking out hotel Furama RiverFront, a bit outside of the city center, we explored the city. We walked along the river to the bay, which was quite nice to do – not much traffic, pedestrian zones, fancy bars along the way and quite pleasant weather (cloudy but not raining at roughly 28°C). From the bay you have a great view to Singapore’s skyline and to the iconic hotel Marina Bay Sands.

We decided to do the touristy stuff and went up to the scenic platform on 56th floor before dusk and to stay for a while to see and enjoy the spectacular view during daylight, sunset and after sunset. At 8 PM the light show “Spectra” was happening, which most of the people enjoy from a different perspective, but it was a unique experience nevertheless.

On the way back to our hotel we stopped at a very nice bar at the river, only to realize after seating to be in a German bar called “Hans im Glück”, serving German food and beer. We enjoyed it nevertheless.

T minus 10 hours

It was amazing how many friends came to have a drink with us before our leave. We actually planned to have just a “Glühwein” (hot wine – it was cold at home in late November), but we had such a great time (and a nice surprise present – thanks, guys!), so we just couldn’t walk away easily.

Every travel guide like this:

  • Sleep long enough before boarding!
  • Avoid alcohol before a long flight!

We like this, in a club at 03.56 AM:

Next morning it was obviously a bit tough to get up and travel to the airport. Fortunately, we had a great parental taxi service. Big thanks to our parents (-in-law). After a heartful goodbye our world trip finally started.