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12/17/2002: We leave Perth and head to the South. We drive on the coast that surprises us often: At first we can swim with dolphins! Just laying on the beach we see some dolphins coming into the bay. Vanessa jumps in the water and swims to them. They come to her very curious and all of them seem to enjoy swimming together for a very special minute... In Dunsborough, we dive at the Swan. It is a beautiful wreck (a former river class destroyer), sunk in 1997 as an artificial reef just for diving. Good idea! Now the fishes are living inside and marine life is growing.

12/10/2002: Our car arrives! After 24 days on different vessels, the container is unpacked in the port of Fremantle. The car successfully passes the inspection of customs and quarantine and is now allowed to enter into Australia. The adventure goes on!

12/08/2002: Some kilometres west of Perth the small island Rottnest is a day-tip-paradise for Australians and Aliens. We take two days to find out what makes this small piece of land so special: The first day we take our bikes with us on the ferry that carries us within 30 minutes to the island and we cycle around the whole 11 km long and 4.5 km wide island. We find white sandy beaches in lonely bays, hiking trails over green hills and paved streets with more bicycles than cars on them. Quokkas - Pocket-size-Kangaroos - show up between shady trees and parrots fly over our heads. And finally we see at least 15 dolphins in one of the lonely bays playing. What a pity that we don't have enough time to spend bathing here - we have to get the last ferry back to the mainland! The next day we choose a different point of view: diving in the waters around the island. We start again on a boat out of the harbour in Fremantle. Unfortunately the wind is stronger, the waves higher an the boat smaller than yesterday - a combination that is not very good for our stomachs. After a nearly too long drive, we kit up and jump into the 19 degree "warm" water. We don't find as much corals as in Mozambique, but much more plants. Also quite a lot of small fish show up, and we are lucky to discover a Port-Jackson-Shark two times! After two dives through small tunnels, over fields of water-plants and under little overhangs, we have to return to Fremantle, knowing that there are still many other nice dive-spots around Rottnest.

12/04/2002: A special encounter: today there is a solar eclipse visible in Southern Africa and Australia! Unfortunately where we are the moon covers the sun only up to 80% - but without our car it would had been a bit too difficult to go the 2,000 kilometres to the small city where many people met to view the total eclipse for exact 32 seconds. And what is even worse: here nobody knows that this special event takes place today! So we also were not able to get the necessary protective glasses to have a closer view ... But we keep on trying and find a nice spot on the beach where we settle for the announced interstellar meeting. A T-shirt, stretched to a certain degree and moved quickly helps out as a filter; a magnifying glass and dark paper uses as a projector and so we are able to see, how something black moves in front of the sun ... and out again. At least we see enough to say: we have been there!

11/28/2002: To be a bit more independent, we buy two used bicycles with which we explore Perth and its surroundings. In a short time, we cycle a lot of kilometres: we visit Fremantle, the harbour near Perth to get an idea where our car will arrive and we have the opportunity to enjoy the "Fremantle Festival" where artists and bands show what they can under the open sky and the streets are crowded with happy people dancing and laughing. Also Perth is explored by bike and we find out that this capital lacks the stress of most other big towns we have seen: The people seem to be much more relaxed and more friendly than in other large cities, in the many green parks people meet and enjoy the sun and the blue sky. But when we most enjoy the city is during sunset, when the skyline glows in the light of the disappearing sun.

11/21/2002: Today we leave Africa! After seven months of travelling, exploring and adventuring the good-bye to this continent is not easy. How will it be in the "New World"? After eighteen hours flight (with short stopover in Dubai) we land in Perth, western Australia! We are a bit nervous, what the smallest of all continents will bring, the only continent no one of us has been to before. But at first, we have to say hello to the "Quarantine and Pest Control": Our cookies and our tent-poles are inspected very detailed but finally everything is clean enough we are welcome in Australia, the biggest island in the world!

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