Roadtrip with Sven and Roeland - Melbourne

The 4-day roadtrip has ended... Sven, Roeland and me started of in Leeton where they picked me up. We decided were we would go to just minutes before departure, that's the way to do it. On our first day we brought a short visit to Adelaide and the Australian national Museum. We stayed the night in a cosy old hotel along the way heading for the Saphire Coast.

The next day we got up early for breakfast. Back on the road we drove to Merimbula, the center of the Saphire coast. Once we arrived we walked trough the towns centre and booked ourselves a whale-watching tour for the next morning. In the afternoon we hired some surfboards and wetsuits and went surfing. Eventough we where wearing wetsuits the water was still a little bit to chilly for me. It didn't bother Sven. He just kept on trying and ended up catching some waves. I was only able to catch one wave, bit dissapointing, but the main-thing is we had fun. That night we stepped into the Merimbula-nightlife. We formed a small group with 2 Aussie-girls and 2 other Belgian guys we met in the hostel. Too bad the Merimbula-nightlife isn't really a nightlife, especially not on a wednesday. But again we had fun.

The next morning the whales where waiting for us. It took a fair while before we actually spotted a whale, even the captain was getting a bit nervous. He promised us our money back if we wouldn't spot any whales. But after 1,5 hour they appeared in the distance. It was amazing to see these big creatures of the underwater world. They came so close I could almost touch them. It was magical. After about 30 minutes we had to let them go to return to the harbour. For lunch we met the 2 Aussie-girls again. The 5 of use went to a local oyster-farm. Man those oysters where good. It was time to head on, the girls decided to join us. Next stop Lakes entrance.

On our arrival in Lakes entrance we bought some liquor and food to have a party that evening. We talked, we laughed, ... the next morning we woke up with a slight hangover. But we needed to keep going, melbourne was close.

I slept most of the ride to Melbourne, on arrival I said goodbye to the girls and Sven and roeland. They headed to Philip island. I stayed in Melbourne to follow the AFL grand-final on a big-screen on Federation Square. The games was played between Saint Kilda and Collingwood. Fed-square was packed for this match of the year. When the game starts, life in Melbourne stops. I was cheering for St. Kilda. The atmosphere was good, the match was close. So close even it ended in a draw. Only for the 3rd time in AFL-history, the last time was in 1977. Meaning a replay wil be played next saturday.

So now I'm sitting here in Melbourne waiting for next saturday to see another grand-final and offcourse don't forget the world championship cycling on sunday. In the meantime I took the time to visit the Tim Burton exhibition, for the people who don't know who that is, Tim Burton is the director of great movies as Edward Scissorhands and the latest Alice in wonderland. He was also the director of some of the earlier Batman-movies. The exhibition was awesome. I saw the original custome of Edward Scissorhands and a pair of his scissorhands, the Batmobile, customes of Alice in wonderland, sketches, ...

That's it for now, pics will follow.
If you can't wait, I posted some photos on facebook, no whales yet tough.

Greets Hans

Leeton

One week has past since I left Belgium. I've been at the fruitshack in Leeton for the past 6 days. We had a nice party on wednesday. It was a goodbye-party for the 3 Norwegian girls. I only knew them for 2 days but I'll miss them. They where good fun. The good news is I'll probably see them again around christmas-time in Sydney.
Besides the party not much happened this week. The weather wasn't really good, no work available. So it's been a lazy week for me, wich was no too bad because of the jetlag. In the meantime my 2 new Belgian friends, Sven and Roland, invited me for a little roadtrip. I was happy to accept their invitation and join them on their trip. One week of riding trough the Australian country-side, sounds good to me. Afterwards we head for Melbourne to prepare for the world championship cycling, GO Gilbert...
Another point on my agenda this week is to contact the people in Sydney concerning the job in the Belgium beer cafe. So  I will keep you all up-to-date about the roadtrip and offcourse the job-application.

Greets Hans

The eagle has landed

I just arrived in my hostel in Melbourne after a long trip. the flight from Abu dhabi to Melbourne took 13 hours. We landed almost 40 minutes before schedule. Everything went well and I'm feeling fine. Already made some new friends, 2 guys from Belgium. I'll be seeing them again here in Melbourne in a couple of weeks for the UCI world cycling championships on the road. We're planning on renting race-bikes for ourselves and ride on the track from Melbourne to Geelong. But that's still a couple of weeks away. For now I'll try to get some sleep, got another exhausting day ahead tomorrow.

Hans

Bye bye Belgium

As most of you now I'll be leaving Belgium in a few days. On sunday at 11.20am local time, to be exactly, my plane will take off in brussels heading for Abu Dhabi. From where I will get on another plane that will bring me to Melbourne. Arrival is expected on Monday 13th at 18.15pm local time. The next day I will take the train and bus to Leeton where my journey really begins.

I can't tell how long I'll be away from home, I got a lot of destinations in mind wich will bring me all around the world. Australia, Bali, Canada, USA, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, ... to name a few. There are some people that I'm leaving behind who will not like the sound of this, like my mom, but they're all proud of me and support me eventually.
During this trip I will try to blog once a week. To keep you al up-to-date about my adventures.

Hopefully you will all enjoy reading them and react to them once in a while.

Hans