Back in Albury

Hey,

yes, it's true. I am back in Albury/Wodonga :-( On the one hand I am quite happy to be back and live a normal life again (with proper bed and shelter), on the other hand, I ll have to start working on Monday again. Won't be easy after 4 weeks of holidays.

I couldn't upload this vid during the trip, but that's a "short" 3 trailer roadtrain, approx. 55m in lenght. Three trailers are maximum size in the Northern Territory. If you want to see bigger ones, only in Western Australia, those "monster road trains" are allowed.



In Alice we encountered some heavy thunder storms, too.



And just as we were driving on a dirt road. Timing couldn't be worse. But I was confident all the time I could manage to get us out of the mud and clay. No worries, mate! Patrick in his elements!

We left Alice Springs and headed down south again. On your way down we drove through a very smoky area. Later some guys at a servo told me, there is a bushfire 150kms east... Strange Australia, floods and fires at once ...

Compare those two. The second image was shot just 20 minutes later after we escaped the fumes. We camped at Cooper Pedy the way back, awesome sunset this time there. And some very good pizza. The guy was Italian ... Actually the best pizza I had for ages.

In Adelaide, we did the usual sightseeing, also there wasn't much to see in my opinion. Walked through the city visited some building and sites, nothing special compared to the other towns I have been during my trip. Well, you were allowed to take a seat in the "boss" chair in the South Australian parliament on the guided tour.

"King in the castle. King in the castle. I have a chair. I have a chair."

Sorry, das passt aber zu gut, um es einfach nicht zu bringen :-D

Anyway, after two nights in Adelaide, we visited the village of Hahndorf, just some ks out of the city. Many German refugees came here. Don t ask me when, I was more interested in the good German beer and food they offer in the Hahndorf Inn. Maybe that was my last chance to get that stuff before flying back!

But gross, 12$ for Münchner Weisen ...

After this nice stop, we continued driving home. Adelaide - Wodonga is roughly 900ks ... We did it in one go, took us some hours, and we arrived by 3am in the morning. Actually, it was our first time we drove during the night. Wasn't too bad after all. Just the flooding was a bit adventurous during the night.

Flooded road during daylight are too easy, especially if it's just 10 cm or less and you see where you are driving. Plenty of other trucks around, no worries. One of the spots we encountered during the trip:

 

Well, too easy. But now: pitchdark, no cars around, 30cms of water over the road and a strong current flowing there. Did I mention, you didn't see the road ? Just GPS to verify your position. Thanks to Patrick we could take that road.