18 November 2008

Fraser Island















3 days, 2 nights sailing around the Whitsundays Islands

One of the most beautiful beach in the world: Whitsundays Island
L'une des plus belle plage au monde: Les iles Withsundays

On the sailing boat
Le voilier






Cairns and Green Island

While I was in Cairns I didn't do much. I was quiet tired from the trip road between Alice and Darwin and especially the flight from Darwin to Cairns via Brisbane :s therefore I had a quiet time there.

The only things I've done were rafting on the Tully River and visiting the Green Island.


Lagoon in Cairns because there's no way to swim in the Ocean with the stingers and crocodiles
Laggon a Cairns car impossible de se baigner dans l'Ocean a cause des meduses et crocodiles


Cairns' Lagoon

Rafting funtime!
The Great Team

Rafting funtime!
The Great Team

Me on Green Island

Green Island

3 November 2008

Alice to Darwin in a camper van :-)

On Oct 22nd with Philip we started our fun drive between Alice Springs and Darwin. We rented a camper for 4 days, so we had plenty of time. The day before leaving Rob (my footy mate) gave me about 40 sausages!! Philip cooked them all and for 4 days we ate sausages cold, watm, in sauce, etc.. By Sunday we were sick ot it!! Lol. Leaving Alice was a bit difficult for me. I made really good friends there and it felt like home. We actually left Heaven twice (the backpacker I was staying + working) because I'd forgotten to say goodbye to a few of them the first time. We finally left around 11am and headed north. Our first stop was the Devil Marbles. Basically it's rocks in the middle of the desert. It's incredible, you could think that they've been put there on purpose on the top of each other. According to scientists, the 'marbles' are the rounded remains of molten lava eroded over aerons. That was nice and not crowded so perfect to look around. For our first night we stayed next to the Tourism Office in Tennant Creek. I'm not sure we were actually allowed to but we did anyway. We watched a nice sunset and had sausages for dinner!! Lol. The first day we drove ...kms.
After a good night sleep and a nice breky (Oz word for breakfast) we hit the road again. We wanted to stay in Mataranca for the second night. Mataranca is known for its crystal-clear Rainbow Springs thermal pool shrouded in rainforest. It sounded like a good plan after a day driving. On our way we stopped in the Daly Waters Pub where all good backpackers have to stop. The walls are covered by foreign currency, t-shirts, underwear..pretty much everything except wallpaper. It was a cool place to stop and get a nice rafreshing drink. We were also "lucky" to see a controlled fire on the side of the road. Basically the lands are being set on fire regularly to allow the nature to survive better with the environment. That was impressive and a bit scary!
We finally arrived in Mataranca just before sunset and that was so nice to cool down in the thermal pool sourounded by rainforest.

On the 3rd day we drove to Katherine where we firstly stopped at its hot springs. Then we went to an 2hours cruise on the Katherine River. That was very nice. The rainy season hadn't started yet so the river was low but I enjoyed it anyway. After the cruise we quickly drove to Pine Creek where we wanted to stay overnight. On our way we stopped to Edith Falls for the sunset, very nice! Nothing special was in Pine Creek, only a good location to stop before doing the Kakadu National Park the following day.
The next day we got up early and started to drive through Kakadu. A bit dissappointed we couldn't do much apart from looking things from the car cause we didn't have a 4WD to access the best place. But, well that was all fine anyway. The waterfalls wouldn't have been great anyway because of the hot season, so no big deal. We stayed overnight in Humpty Doo - close location to the Crocodile Jumping that we had planned to do on Sunday morning before heading to Darwin and end our nice road trip.
We then went to the Crocodile Jumping on Sunday and I have to say it was impressive!! But I don't know what most hillarious.. the crocodile jumping to get some meat or the birds stealing the crocodiles' meat!!?!! lol
We finally drove to Darwin where we dropped the camper van and had a rest for a few days before flying to Cairns.
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Sign just out of Alice
Panneau a la sortie d'Alice
Our camper van
Notre camper van

Devil's Marbles

Devil's Marbles

Devil's Marbles
Sign at the Daly Waters Pub :-)
Panneau au Daly Waters Pub :-)
Lands on fire
Terres en feu

Katherine's Gorge

Katherine's Gorge

Natural Rock in the Katherine's Gorge
Formation naturelle d'une roche dans les Gorges Katherine

Sunset on Edith Falls
Coucher de soleil a Edith Cascade

Jumping Crocodile Show


Hungry crocodile
Outside the Croco Jumping Place


Sign in Darwin - lol, very funny!

19 October 2008

3 days Safari in the desert

I decided to go on tour for 2,5 days doing the touristy things which are around: Ayers Rock, Kings Canyon and the Olgas. Philip, my friend from Melbourne was in Alice and we did the tour together.

That probably doesn't mean anything to you but looking at the pictures I'm sure that you will know what I'm talking about.

I came back from the tour only on Saturday 18th. I LOVED it!! That was huper cool. Great weather, nice group, wicked tour guide and loads of fun.

I can't wait to do another tour around Australia and visit a lot more.

We were a small group, only 15 people. That was nice.

The first day we drove to the Kings Canyon and stayed overnight in a camp. That was cool. I really had a wicked time.

The second day we got up at 5am, had a quick brekki and left for the Kings Canyon. There we walked around for 3hours. That was amazing and impressive!! Even if we started the walk at 7am, by the time we finished it it was really really hot!! about 40degres..
Once we finished the walk we drove to Uluru or Ayers Rock if you prefer. Nat our guide was cool, always playing good music.

Arrived there we decided that we had enough time to see the Olgas mountains before seeing the sunset on Uluru.

That was cool but we couldn't do the whole walk around for 2 reasons. Firstly because we needed to be on time to watch the sunset on Uluru and also because it was way to hot to walk for 1 hour in the heat.. But overall that was good.

We then drove to Ayers Rock and headed to see the sunset on Uluru. That was great. The colors on the rock at night are amazing. We even had a glass of fake Champagne.. sparkling wine. That was nice. Thanks to Philip I had 2 glasses cause he doesn't drink :p

Once the sunset was finished, we drove back to the camp and cooked dinner. We didn't do much at night as everyone was tired and also because we had to get up at 4am the following day to see the sunrise on Uluru.

It was a bit difficult to get up the second morning but we all knew that it was worth doing it so that was cool.

The sunrise was ok. I prefered a lot more the sunset. The colors were more impressive and it might have helped that we were drinking sparkling wine.. lol

After the sunset we all had a lazy day doing not much really. We headed back to the camp where we had some lunch and then Nat drove us back to Alice Springs.. about 500kms.

I loved this experience. Australia is such an amazing place to live, travel, have fun and meet people. That's great!! I am so pleased to have made the decision to come over here and travel :D

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Une fois bien travaille a Alice pendant 1 mois, j'ai decide de me payer un safari tour de 2,5 jours. Les principales attractions du coin sont Ayers Rock (ou Uluru), les Kings Canyon et les montagnes Olgas. Mon ami Philip, rencontre a Melbourne faisait egalement parti du trajet.

Cela ne vous dit peut etre pas grand chose mais je suis sure qu'en regardant les photos cela vous aidera.

Je suis revenue de mon tour le Samedi 18 Oct. J'ai adore!! C'etait vraiment super et une toute nouvelle aventure pour moi avec pleins de sensations avec des gens tres agreables, un guide (Nat) excellente et beaucoup de bonne humeur.

Nous etions un petit groupe de 15 personnes. C'etait bien.

Le premier jour Nat nous a conduit proche des Kings Canyon et nous avons campes tout proche.

Le deuxieme jour apres s'etre leves a 5h et avec un rapide petit dej, nous sommes partis pour les Kings Canyon. Nous avons marche pendant environ 3hrs. C'etait vraiment impressionnant et immence. Meme si nous avons commence la marche a 7h, il faisait vraiment chaud (environ 40 degres) lorsque nous avons fini la marche...

Parce qu'il nous restait du temps nous sommes alles aux montagnes Olgas avant d'assister au coucher de soleil sur Ayers Rock. Nat etait excellente et jouait toujours de la bonne musique dans le bus.

Les montagnes Olgas sont impressionnantes mais malheureusement nous n'avons pas pu faire la marche entierement du a la haute temperature et l'absence d'ombre, mais c'etait quand meme super :-)

Ensuite en route pour le coucher de soleil sur Ayers Rock, vraiment bien. Les couleurs sont tellement jolies et changent selon l'inclinaison du soleil. Une superbe experience. Tout cela orcheste par le vin mousseux que nous avons deguste. C'etait simple mais genial. 2 verres pour moi vu que Philip ne boit pas :p

Apres le coucher de soleil nous sommes alles a notre campement; des petite hutes, un vrai bonheur.

Nous sommes restes assez calme pendant le veillee sachant qu'il fallait se lever a 4h le lendemain puisque nous allions voir le lever de soleil sur Ayers Rock.

C'etait un peu difficile de se lever mais nous savions que cela vallait le coup. Le lever de soleil etait bien meme si j'ai largement prefere le coucher de soleil. Les couleurs sont plus impressionnantes et aussi peut etre parce que nous avions du vin mousseux!! lol

Ensuite nous avons eu une journee assez cool. Nous sommes retournes au campement manger un bout et nous apres apres pris la route du retour.. 500kms a faire mais ce ne fut pas long grace aux jeux et la bonne musique dans le bus.

J'ai vraiment adore cette experience et je suis si heureuse d'avoir pris la decision de venir ici et de faire quelque chose de tellement different de ce que je faisais en France ou Angleterre. Le retour sera dur dur..



Kings Canyon


Me at Kings Canyon


Kings Canyon


The group at Kings Canyon


Eden's Garden at Kings Canyon
Le jardin d'Adam aux Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon

The Olgas
Les Montagnes Olgas

The Olgas

Me at The Olgas

Sunset on Uluru
Coucher de soleil sur Uluru


Sunrise on Uluru and the Olgas on the right
Soleil levant sur Uluru et les Olgas sur la droite


Sunrise and me on Uluru


Ayers Rock - Uluru


Ayers Rock - Uluru



Ayers Rock - Uluru


Ayers Rock - Uluru


1/2 of the group arriving in Alice
1/2 group arrivant a Alice


Nat and me.. lol


Yes! I like that :-)