Vlado in Australia 2006 - All Image Descriptions

My second trip to Australia, six weeks this time. It was great to meet friends from the 2003 study abroad year again! I also went on a second Bicycle Victoria bike ride, like the Summit to Sea ride in 2003, but in WA this time. So by now I've been to every single Australian state (except for the neglectable Capital City Territory).

	Düsseldorf Airport Cold, wet, and grim: the perfect weather for leaving home.
	Dubai This time I wanted to see Dubai as well, not just the airport.
	Big Money Dubai is rich because of the oil, and it is growing rapidly... still I do not think of it as a pleasant place to live.
	Historical Village There is hardly anything older than 30 years left in Dubai - this historical building with its wind towers is a reconstruction.
	Dubai Museum The Dubai Museum in the old Al Fahidi Fort was well worth seeing.
	Tranquility in Singapore The Merlion (mermaid lion) on Sentosa Island (sentosa is Malay for tranquility).
	Little India An interesting building, because of the way people dry their clothes on poles, and the nearest MRT station (Mass Rapid Transit) from my hostel.
	Vegetarian Restaurant In Little India there were several places for tasty, affordable vegetarian meals.
	Familiar Place Not much has changed here.
	Colourful Temple
	Container Terminal This photo has been taken from inside the cable car (see next photo).
	Cable Car Photo taken from Mount Faber.
	Extreme Population Density
	Moving on
	Back to Watsonia Some subtle changes have taken place... probably there are not much more buses than before, but there are new bus signs, at least.
	Train in the Rain I was waiting for a train to Ballarat, on Melbourne's new Southern Cross Station (formerly Spencer Street)... and a third of that whole February's rain poured down in a few minutes.
	Lookout near Ballarat Supporting PBS radio...
	At a Bird Park
	RRR Home My favourite radio station in the world! From this day on, 01-03-2006, I'm a full RRR subscriber for another year.
	Kebab House
	St. Kilda Luna Park and The Palace in what is still my favourite suburb in Melbourne.
	Pay Here (or die) I have been here before too.
	Cockatoos Back to LaTrobe University, still very familiar.
	Melbourne CBD Central Business District
	Flinders Street Station There is a new sky scraper behind the station.
	Another New Building
	Kite Surfing
	Down Under!
	Ballarat Victoria's largest inland city, former gold mining town, new home to Jon and Asha.
	Renewable Energy
	A Wind Farm
	Dry, Wide Land
	Grampians National Park A beautiful park... and if you want to know more about it or see more than just my ten photos, you might start by looking into Wikipedia.
	After the Fire According to Parks Victoria approximately 130.000 hectares of land have been burned in the January fire, just two months ago, including 47% of this national park.
	Walking Track
	On Top
	Triumph
	Rock Wall This reminded me of Kings Canyon.
	Dirt Road
	Regrowth
	Grass Trees
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	Emu Defense Jon shows me how to behave if an Emu attacked me.
	Two Emus This is in the Tower Hill State Game Reserve, 15 kms north-west of Warrnambool, where we had spend the night at a friend's place.
	Climbing Koala
	Feeding Koala
	Koala in the Wild This was such a great day for wildlife spotting: several Emus and two Koalas, both awake, moving, and on low enough trees for good photos.
	A Secluded Beach Somewhere near Warrnambool, just off the Great Ocean Road.
	Jon Enjoys a Swim
	Beach Walk
	The Queen’s Baton The baton (a kind of olympic torch) is carried from Buckingham Palace to the Commonwealth Games' opening ceremony.
	Radical Spirit The young students with the Eureka Flags are somehow (accidentally) supporting the protesters against the Queen‘s Baton on the ‘sacred ground’ of the Eureka Rebellion. Today's protesters repeated the uprising miners' oath: “We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties.”
	Defacing the Flag Against the “Union Jack”, the symbol of dependence from Great Britain, in the Australian Flag.
	“Radical” Students
	Dawn in Adelaide On my way to WA I took the train via Adelaide, so I have been there for the third time.
	Glenelg
	The Ghan This is the “legendary Ghan”, the recently (in 2004) reestablished train from Adelaide to Darwin. ‘Ghan’ is short for ‘Afghan’ and refers to the main means of transport to central Australia before the advent of the train.
	Ghost Town According to the information I read on the train Cook once had a population of 120, a school, and a hospital... not much of which is left today, where the official population is 2.
	Indian Pacific The train I took from Adelaide to Perth, the Indian Pacific. In Cook there is a crossing loop, so that trains can pass each other. The fright train here in the photo was 1.5 km long, according to the announcement made in our train.
	Luxury Travelling An old car from the “Gold Kangaroo Service” (first class) had been made available for daytime usage by “Red Kangaroo” travellers. I enjoyed the sun because unfortunately Australians tend to over-use air conditioning and it was quite chilly in the train.
	Perth There are some fantastic, clean bike paths around the Swan River.
	Indian Ocean
	School Ruin
	Kings Park
	Rush Hour I'm watching the traffic from the quiet of Kings Park.
	Pre-Ride Camping I would have liked to spend more time in Victoria, but because the train just ran twice a week I had to come to WA a few days before the beginning of the ride, which at least turned out do be some rather pleasant and relaxed days.
	Albany “City of Albany welcomes Great Western Australian Bike Ride” For places like Albany, with a population of 30,000, and even more so for smaller towns, the arrival of about 2000 cyclists was a major event.
	Atatürk Monument “Peace at home, peace in the world.”
	A Lizard
	Whaling Museum Scary, for a vegetarian Greenpeace supporter, to visit Whale World, where they talk about whales being ‘taken’ and tanks holding ‘the equivalent of so-and-so-many whales’...
	Whale Skeleton This blue whale allegedly just beached itself. Only Humpback and Sperm Whales were killed by the men from Albany.
	Bad Publicity How about a swim in the Salmon Holes? Or maybe spend a day at Misery Beach?
	Historical Ship
	Mail Eater
	Tree Top Walk The highlight of the 73 km trip from Denmark to Walpole, the Tree Top Walk.
	Peak at 40 Metres
	Late Summer Afternoon
	Birds A seagull and some rosellas (?).
	Trek of Cyclists
	Rain in Manjimup The ride's first rest day was in Manjimup.
	Campground with Puddle I don't think I have experienced anything like this before, in Australia: three overcast days in a row, with constantly wet ground.
	Gimme Shelter
	One Teacher School Manjimup has a nice open air museum on logging and on the lives of the early settlers in WA. The following information was given on this school: This is an original Group Settlement School from Banksiadale near Serpentine which opened in 1920 and closed in 1963. Schools such as this catered for children aged 5 to 12 years. Children walked or rode to school on horseback. As well as educating children the teacher was responsible for cleaning, maintenance and emptying the toilets. They usually boarded with a farm family.
	Entry to Augusta
	Water Truck
	Forest Scene
	A Winery This estate has been built around 2001, in an old Dutch/ South African style. An impressive “lunch spot”.
	Margaret River In Margaret River we had two more rest days.
	Surfing Competition Elsewhere on the web you find (or found) more, and better photos of the Margaret River Pro 2006.
	Surfer’s Car
	Modified Free Bike Everyone who signed up early for this event got a “free bike”... not a very good bike, as one had to expect, so that many riders chose to change the seat and/ or the handle bar. I brought my handle bar all the way from home and bought a new (still not very good) saddle in Melbourne.
	Bird Park
	Mammoth Cave This cave got its name because of its size, no mammoth ever lived in Australia, only giant wombats and the like.
	A Tiny Frog
	An Oasis of Beer This was my longest ride day, although it was just 66 km from Margaret River to Busselton. How could that be? Because I had joined a group of Aussies, mainly from Brisbane (Queensland), and we stopped at about every winery on the route. At (this) brewery too. The beer was expensive but good.
	Our Police Escort
	Aaarrgghh! No, I really don't like off-road 4WDs (‘Toorak tractors’) on my road...
	The Longest Ride This is after the 108 km ride on day 13, from Bunbury to Pinjarra.
	Sleep Easy Tents Some riders paid an extra fee to have tents provided. In the back we see some of the numerous shower and toilet trucks.
	Back to Perth
	Löwenzahn This looks like a dent-de-lion (French for Lion’s tooth, Löwenzahn in German)... a plant that is certainly more popular in Germany than in Australia and additionally famous through a 25 year old tv series for children that started in 1979 (according to Wikipedia).
	Perth Skyline
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	Old Car
	Dubai Airport My return flight was Perth - Dubai, Dubai - Düsseldorf, and it only took from late Sunday evening till Monday noon, thanks to the time difference.
	A Turbine