Merry Xmas !

We'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009!

 
Arjan, Rocky, Hans, Milo
and our home-baked 'kerststol'

Fencing

We happened to have an unused flight to Melbourne, so we decided to give Aukje and the family another visit! Since they hadn't  had any good weather for a while, we packed some with us.

Arjan and Arthur making fences for the horses.	Cheers!
Hibiscus flower in our champagne	The girls anxiously waiting with their kinder-bubbles.
We cooked a Snapper in a salt-crust
Hans making pavlova for desert.	Tjits almost eating the pavlova before we could serve it.

Unfortunately only a very short weekend, but again very relaxing!

Sand !

Our first big trip with our Nissan Patrol... Fraser Island. Fraser is a top destination for 4WD'ers, its considered to be the largest sand island in the world at 1840 km². It is located 300km north of Brisbane and only accessible by 4WD. There are no sealed roads on the island and although the tides make it necessary for some roads to be inland, most of the driving happens on the beach. The speed-limit on the beach is 80km/hr, but only on the hard patches that is actually achievable.

We took a week leave before the big holiday season and drove up to Queensland. We had a stop in Taree, 2 nights in Byron Bay, then 4 nights on Fraser Island. On the way back we stopped over in Surfers Paradise and Port Macquarie.

The best way to experience the island is by camping, so we bought a tent and some gear, loaded everything in the Patrol and took off. Unfortunately we had 3 days of rain, but after that it was all sunshine.

 

Pitching the tent

The inland roads are hard to drive on	Driving on the beach
Wild Dingo	The wreck of the Maheno
Big monitor lizard (1m)	Ely Creek, the famous and most beautiful creek on the island.
Bogged !	Champagne pools
Hans cooking pineapple burgers on the Barbie
Whoo hoo
Back on the ferry to the mainland	Scrubbing all the salty dirt off and ready for the trip back.

 

The whole trip was 3000km and 300liters of Diesel.

 

 

Offroad

Since we bought our 4WD, we haven't really taken it offroad. We wanted to learn some more about proper offroading, driving techniques and recovery procedures. So we booked ourselves on a 2 day 4WD training. This course is given in the vicinity of Newcastle and consists of theory, driving in the bush, on the beach and sand dunes and a little exam. We got up at 5am in order to be on time for the first day.

After the introductions and 2 hours of theory we set off to Freemans Waterhole where a little driving range is set up. We did a lot of exercises driving up really steep rocks, driving down even steeper rocks, how to use all the gears, how not to get stuck and much more. Amazing what a vehicle actually can do if you know how to do it.

Unfortunately the day ended with a flat tire in the middle of heavy rain, so we were soaked after changing it.

The quarry with our group	Very hard work
	No wet feet (yet)!

We stayed overnight in a hotel in Newcastle and had to wake up early again for day 2. This took us to the sand dunes and beaches near Stockton, where we were taught again different techniques for driving is soft terrain. We did some descends that were 46degrees, very steep!

The convoy, ready to go

What goes up, must come down
The Patrol bogged to serve as an example for a recovering exercise	The wreck of the Sygna, stranded in 1974
I didn't quite make it in 1 go up there	Yes, I got stuck all the way up there! Help!
Our instructor to the rescue	The community of Tin City

 

This training covers the Australian National Training Authority Units of Competence:

SRO DRV 001B - Drive and recover a four wheel drive vehicle
SRO OPS 001B - Implement minimal environmental impact practices.
SRO ODR 002A - Plan outdoor recreation activities.
TDTB 497B - Carry out vehicle inspection

Summer Time, BBQ Time

With the weather getting better and better it was time to test out our new car-fridge which we got for the trips we plan to be making. What better way to do that than with a real Aussie Barbie.

We picked up some nice fresh fish from the Sydney Fishmarkets, bought some steak, chicken, bread and dips and we set off for the Royal National Park. We met up with Tijn and Diane there, who brought the wine and salad.

First we took a 2 hour walk along the coastline of the National Park. About halfway down we spotted some Whales on their trek south, back to the Antarctic (on our Whale watching tip in June they were migrating north). This time we saw a mother with her calf, and the young fellow was clearly enjoying himself, jumping out of the water the whole time. They where swimming really close to the shoreline, usually the southbound trip takes them a lot further out.

Hans, Tijn, Diane	Nice rock formation
Mum and Son	Jump!
	Rolling over

After the walk we set up the BBQ, the chairs and table on the lawn at Wattamolla and we enjoyed the rest of the day till the sun was setting.

Cooking the Prawn

Resting in the evening sun