Ingrid and Marcel World Journey

We also socialised with the guy from the airport, Ben, who turned out to be a dive instructor also here to see the underwater, and a super friendly guy, despite being German. J Wer haette es gedacht? Das gibt’s! (pour les francophones qui me croient raciste, detrompez-vous, mais c’est trop long d’expliquer la relation suisse-allemande….)

So the next morning we were picked up at 8h00 and taken to the dive shop to prepare the equipment and sign the usual forms (“if you die no one can sue us” type of thing) and drove the couple kilometers to the USS Coolidge dive site. This american boat used to be a luxury liner and was transformed into a troop ship during WWII, before it sank just off the shore of Luganville. It’s supposed to be the most accessible and biggest wreck in the world. On the 1^st dive we were taken on a general tour of the outside top part of the boat and saw some funny items like a gun, helmets, a gas mask. On the 2^nd dive we went inside the wreck to see one of the statue from the ball room, also saw a line of toilets (?). Funny that before going down I thought a wreck would give me the creeps, but once underwater it didn’t feel that way, even inside the boat it was not really freaky. However I realised that wreck diving is not my thing, it mostly seems to me like just old rusty metal covered by corals. With exception of the night dive, this was special: there are gazillion of little fishies living in the wreck which light up at night, some bacteria in their cheeks or something that makes like a stroboscope. That was impressive to see, tons of little light flashes in an otherwise pitch dark environment.

We also dove at a site called Million Dollar point, which is basically a huge pile of american equipment: bulldozers, wheels, tanks, crates of Coke, etc. They say after WWII it was all offered to the local government who declined, and instead of carrying all back home it was just thrown into the ocean. Go figure.

Since no more people are gessing, im telling you.

The first scale showed 89kg and the second 88kg. The average is 88.5kg pretty cool ha.

So Rony is actually closer then Carmela.

?By the way: we are now Santo and are going to dive the biggest wreck in the world tomorrow. My first wreck dive (Boden lake doesn’t count)….wahh!

On the road again….

Back to the roots: we transferred our wondervan to the new owners today and found ourselves with a bag on the side of the street! Funny feeling….silly as it is we’d grown attached to our van and it was sad to say goodbye to it. Although we were happy the emptying out, cleaning and preparing was over. Since 10 days went by between showing the car and transferring it we ended up doing a lot of cleaning twice. But now it’s all over, we’re basically spending time in Perth (8-10 hours) before catching the first flight for this journey.

Australia has been great. Traveling in the van for these 5 months was definitely not boring! I wouldn’t have thought we’d stay so long, but somehow once you have the van and are on the road you just get used to this way of life and always find something else you’d like to visit, and it so happens that things are often thousands of kilometers away in Australia! If we were to do this trip again we’d probably schedule it differently, flying some sections instead of driving the whole way. But then again, afterwards one is always smarter, and these long drives were part of the adventure.

So in about 24 hours we’ll be landing in Port Vila. After 3 flights and I forget how many waiting hours at airports we’ll be bagged for sure, but we already reserved a room (the 1st time we made a reservation since we left Zurich!) at a cute little guest house where a real bed is awaiting us. What a treat!

I wonder how we will find it to land in a country like Vanuatu after being here for so long, but to be honest I’m not too worried. From what we’ve heard and read, it looks like paradise.

Our campervan is sold!

After only 1 day on internet we had our first interested buyer e-mail us. We called him back right away, he said he needed to talk to his wife and he’d contact us again. We hoped non-stop for 36 hours, then the next evening he phoned again and we suggested to drive to their place to show them the van. At 10h the next morning the deal was closed by a handshake. And at a darn good price too!

You see 5 months ago when we were looking for a van we realised there was a lot of the backpacker category: beat up vans selling for around 4000$, dating 1982 to 1987, not upkept, with loads of mileage on them, sometimes a 2^nd engine, and probably a mechanical trouble down the road. So when we saw our van at Jim and Evie’s, we knew it was ours. We also knew we were paying a good price for it (but there was this other couple on their way to seeing it, we had to get it, otherwise they would have for sure), but we were in love.

All that to say, we thought we may lose a bit on the selling….. Of course you’ll get less money after 18000km, but there are a lot of vans for sale in Perth at the moment, and someone scrolling through the ads doesn’t know the good condition of our car.

Anyway: we lead a good life!! The people buying from us are not backpackers but a local couple close to retirement, so they do appreciate the reliability and well….are paying for it J All the cleaning, polishing and washing was worth it!

So now we’re getting a good price for the car, we have money to keep travelling for a little while. And on the way to Canada, what better stop over then visiting a couple islands in the south Pacific? He he….

On Wednesday morning (so early it should actually still be called Tuesday) we are flying off to Vanuatu. What is Vanuatu? A very small country….they probably do have a delegation of 2 or 3 people at the Olympic games parade along with all those small countries like Tonga, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. Where is that? It’s a group of islands neighbouring New Caledonia, somewhere north east of Cairns in the South Pacific. This is actually where the New Zealander who invented bungee jumping got the idea from: every year young men jump from a tower made of bamboo and lianes with only their feet tied to a self made rope, it’s a part of their initiation. And guess what? This event takes place in April and May each year….so we may even get to see it.

Message special for Mom: no worries, canibalism officially ended in 1887 there, we’ll be fine.

One of the other special things about Vanuatu is the diving. It seems there are wonderful corals and numerous wrecks, one of them being the biggest in the world, called SS Coolidge.

After Vanuatu we’ll be heading to Fiji. Re-he he…. And after that to Honolulu.

La vie est dure….

After I polished the whole car (sweating a lot and as a treat after that we went to Hungry Jack/Burger King and I ate two Whoppers with fries and 5dl Coke) I tought it would be time to check.

So we went right after to a store Target and checked on two scales.

He guys watch out I passed for sure Vojti and Juerg, but I‘m on the passing lane and driving fast!!! J

Maybe I passed already Mike or even Rene and if I don‘t watch (slow down) soon even Roger.

The last time I weighted anywhere close to that I was 14 (except a short while in the Military Service)

I was thinking what ist the reason for that.

Hang around at the beach,drink more alcohol then used to, eat still quite more then Ingrid and lose and lose…

You pour souls at home’s guess is as good as mine.

Who can guess my weight at the moment?

The closest will get a hug J

Au menu ce soir pour souper il y avait les fameux hamburgers de boeuf Angus de chez Cole’s cuits sur le BBQ. Ah le BBQ….pratiquement une facon de vivre ici! Dans tous les parcs publics, les aires de pique-nique, les campings, plusieurs haltes routieres, il y a des BBQ publics gratuits. Et dans 95% des cas entretenus et propres avec ca. Inutile de dire, les Australiens sont les rois du “barbie” (pas LA barbie, LE barbie).

On mange donc les dits burgers, avec ca de la salade de concombres pour Marcel et de la salade de tomates pour moi. A l’apero on avait le choix entre vin blanc ou rouge (entre 14$ et 18$ le 4 litres, et c’est pas de la piquette) et des cacahuetes.

En fin d’avant-midi on est alles visiter le marche du dimanche a Freemantle. On a achete plein de croquettes indiennes (genre Samosa mais toutes differentes avec des gouts incroyables) et Marcel a meme eu son quota de piquant, les yeux dans l’eau, le nez qui coule, la langue qui brule; rare. Le monsieur l’avait dit: extra very hot!

De retour au camping on est alles sur la plage vers 14h30-15h. Lecture sous le parasol, marche sur le bord de l‘ocean ou j’ai vu un drole de crabe et une mignonne etoile de mer verte de 4 cm de diametre. Pour terminer baignade raffraichissante dans l’eau salee.

Comme activite en soiree on a le choix entre: lire un livre, jouer au Yatzee ou ecouter un film sur notre ordi.

Apres dodo sous notre duvet chaud.

C’est pas la belle vie ca?

You know someone talking about Oz??

You know someone who knows someone coming to Australia?

You know someone who knows someone who may know someone who wants to buy a campervan?

We have the wondervan!! Tell everyone about it!

TOYOTA HIACE Campervan, 2.4L, Pop-top, 5 SEATER!

12,500$ neg.

Looking for a comfortable and reliable campervan?

This impeccable van seats 5 people (seatbelts on cosy back seat) and comes with quickly mounted annex, ideal to provide shade on sunny days and protect from rain.

Bring only your clothes! The van is completely equipped and ready to go

Lovingly looked after (purchased from original owner, an older couple who took extra care, we did the same)

Oil changed every 10,000 km & Religiously serviced (service booklet & complete paperwork )

Very practical layout: bed easy to make (no taking the car apart morning and evening), seat is comfy sofa, stove top unit can be taken out to cook outside, complete stove cabinet also mobile, well ventilated, big shelves under the pop-top roof.

Lots of easily accessible storage (cupboards with shelves, underseat compartments, big trunk space)

AM/FM radio with CD player and AUX plug-in for MP3

Separate l2V battery for interior lighting and fridge

2 x 12V and 4 x 240V plugs

Spacious and practical cooking area includes:

·       2 burner gas stove with grill

·       Sink with 50L water tank (foot pump)

·       Engel fridge (12V & 240V)

·       All cooking utensils

·       Coffee percolator

·       Thermos bottle

Includes also:

·       Beach umbrella

·       4 x 3 m heavy duty tarpaulin

·       Bed sheets with duvet and blanket

·       Fan

·       Seat covers

·       2 gas bottles 2kg

·       10L petrol jerry can

·       Basic tools

·       Small shovel, axe

·       Camping chairs

·       Side table & stool

 Ingrid & Marcel   Tel. in Oz: 0431559108, or CH: +41 79 644 3360, or inglar1@yahoo.fr

Too bad we’re a bit too early here. In a few weeks whale sharks (the biggest fish on earth) will arrive in the area and spend the fall and winter months. Also in about 3 weeks there will be the coral spawning (about 10 days after the March full moon) on the reef, which is for sure an amazing sight. I’m not complaining though, the marine national park surrounding the peninsula where we are includes some 265 km of coral reef….enough to socialize with lots of fish. And boy did we ever see cool ones yesterday! We dove at an old navy pier where we saw a few dolphins swim by before we even entered the water. And then we saw big cods, schools of yellow striped fish, morray eels, green stars, a stone fish, black sailfin catfish, funny dudes with globule eyes, a huge whatever-his-name-fish having his teeth cleaned out by small vacuum fish and even white tip sharks! There were no corals but so many fish, it was really amazing. Tomorrow the plan is to go snorkeling on the west side of the peninsula (open to sea), it should be very different but for sure beautiful.

Talking about diving, we never said much about the great barrier reef, nor about Cairns.

First thing, we had an unusual experience in Cairns: we slept in a real bed for a whole week! A friend of my brother-in-law whom I met shortly about 10 years ago lives there, he and his wife were so nice as to invite us to stay at their place for a week. They also showed us the city, took us for a BBQ downtown, to the beach, to the National Park behind their house for a hike in the rainforest and a swim in a cool creek, etc. We had a really good time with them and did enjoy being in a house for a few days. Then we headed north to Port Douglas where we re-read the whole dive theory book and made a refresher in a pool with an instructor before going to the reef the next day. Being off-season has advantages: the boat was only half full and we were alone with the instructor to dive. And guess what? I met Nemo!! And also his dad and Dora (or is it Dory?). There were so many colourful fish, it was like being in a fish tank at the pet shop, but a million times better! The sky was cloudy on that day so I guess we missed the colours on the reef, but the shapes and sizes and movements of the corals made up for it. Marcel had imagined that the great barrier reef is one huge barrier or corals stuck together, so he was kind of surprised it’s actually loads of corals close to each other, but not necessarily attached. It’s more like “hills” or banks of corals very close together. There are also huge mussels (40cm) that clam up if you move some water in front of them, and funny anemones and nudibranches (sort of colourful water slug), and and and…. Needless to say we loved the dives! After that we went up to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree, and once back in Cairns we figured we’d go diving again on a sunny day, in the hope of seeing some colour on the reef. Again it was a superb diving day, but since there had been some cyclones at sea the visibility was not the best, so no colours. Still it was worth it, you can’t get enough of this amazing marine life.