Little Big Talent

Australia

Our Story about Australia

Hello everyone. My friend Ploy and I are travelling together through Australia.
Well you probably have to excuse my english skills because i am still learning it.

We started the Journey on the 17th of october 2005. We flew from Frankfurt to Singapore
and then to Sydney with 500 Euros in our pockets. We planned to work and travel. But first
of all we shot out our money for sightseeing tours with buses, trains and taxis.
Here are some pictures of Sydney.

Out of the Sydney Tower


Sydney


After one week of new expieriences we flew down to Melbourne to visit my aunt and uncle.
They have a nice House in the middle of nothing, somewhere in the bush around Melbourne.
We took some pictures there too.

This is the House of my aunt and uncle. Me in the foreground.


One night (01.11.05 after the big Melbourne cup (Horse racing)) we had a huge spider in our bedroom.
And we don't like spiders... ;-)


After one month in the boring bush of Melbourne, we decided to fly to Brisbane. We arrived in
Brisbane on the 5th of November 2005.It was very late and we couldn't find a hotel in Brisbane
so we took the train to the Gold Coast. Then we found late at night a very cheap and good
accommodation in Surfers Paradise. The heart of the whole East Coast.

Out of the Q1 in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast.
The highest building in Australia and the highest residential Building in the World.


After we had a lot of fun and bad jobs we ran out of money. So we decided to invest in a car.
This way we could save the accommodation costs and sleep in the car. We bought a 1984 Ford
Falcon XF. The car seller wanted 1400 AU$ for it and we couldn't withdraw more than $500 per
day of our bank account. So we had to wait two days. We only had $1600 left on our bank. So
we slept on the beach and in a park... :-(

Me on the Beach (Mike)


And in the Park


On the third day we could pay for the car. We were very happy,
because we finally made it to be able to drive around rather then paying for bus or train.


Since then everything seemed to become very lucky. We got a job at a tomato farm near Bundaberg.
It is a very hard job because you have to stand on the tomato field for 10 to 12 hours a day and
pick tomatoes. The temprature burns your skin off and cooks the 5 litre water bottle you have to
carry around with you. We were staying in Bargara, where we took this wonderfull picture.

Bargara


Bundaberg is also the city where the famous Bundaberg Rum comes from.

"Bundy"


We saved a few dollar and drove down to the Gold Coast again to celebrate new year. The bad
thing about this was that we took a friend with us. She was a very strange person. Friendly but strange.
On new years eve we went to the big beach party and I had a argument about something little with her.
I took my friend a few meters away from her to talk about the situation and to wish him a great new year.
After probably two minutes we came back and she was gone. Sadly she had our passports,
car keys and our money bags in her handbag because we had no pockets for them. At 00:03 we ran
straight back to where our car was parked. But no girl and no valuables. :-( But the car was still there.
Ploy suddenly pulled out one of our spare keys and we sat inside the car to wait for her. We didn't
think that she would do something with our things, but we didn't trust her either. Of course we knew
her quite a bit before we took her with us. But anyway we waited in the car till the next morning.
At 9:34 she came to the car. She was totaly surprised that we didn't go out to have fun and she
said that she forgot about our things in her Handbag. Whatever, we were very mad at her but also
happy to have our things back.

After we drove back to Bundaberg we dropped her off and started the real travel. We drove all the
way up to Bowen. And then we were stuck again. No money... Stupid young thinking all the time... :-)

Because of all the moscitos we couldn't sleep in the car, so we drove to the Kings Beach half a mile
out of Bowen. Another boring week began...


Because of the environment we couldn't find much wood to make a fire so it took us the whole
day to find leaves, branches and pieces of trunks. At the end we had a nice fire on the beach...


After we recieved a little financial help from Ploys dad we could go on.
We went to Townsville. A nice and big city on the Eastern Coast of Australia. We couldn't find a
place to legaly park the car and sleep in it so we thoght we take the most visited place in Townsville
to stay overnight. The Castle Hill. It is directly centred in Townsville and it had room for almost 16 cars
on the top. A very small area. On the powersource for the little toilet we found a power plug that
we used for our laptops. That was one of the funniest things that ever happend to us. We slept
with the most preciuos view over Townsville and its beach with wind (so we had no moscitos around us)
a power plug and absolutly darkness and silence. At the most visited place in Townsville.
And the best thing was, it didn't cost us one single cent! That was really cool!

The carpark is on the right and Townsville on the left


After one week in that 5 star deluxe parking area we went on towards cairns. When we arrived at cairns
we didn't see much of it because it was night. We decided not to stay so we drove towards the inland.
Towards Normanton, a very little town at the end of the world.

Here you can see our route. We first slept in Ravenshoe. It is in that bubble left next to cairns.
On the next morning and with almost 50 moscito bites we drove further to Georgetown. We slept there again.
After that we went all the way to Croydon which is on left next to the folding of the page.
And after that we finally made it to Normanton. It is half Aboriginal and half white people.

The Map


Rest area, 1km before Normanton


We drove into Normanton and decided to move on towards Darwin. Actually Darwin was the main
destination we wanted to go. Ten minutes after we packed our food together it began to rain.
It was mid of January and in the Nothern area of Australia it means rainy season. We dumb idiots of course
didn't know... :-( We thought we can go a short cut. The Burktown road. It is on the Map if you look at
the dashed line going away from Normanton towards Burktown. Dashed means gravel and in the rainy season,
gravel means mud and mud means death of car...
The rain got heavier and thunder began. We drove this road. I was tearing the stearing wheel around and
we were sliding along the way. Water everywhere. The whole road was under water, just mud and dirt.
Ploy said that we should turn around. So I did. But on the way back the Engine suddenly stopped.
We were standing somewhere between Normanton and Burktown with a broken car. Probably 710 km away
from Normanton. It was nonstop raining and we didn't see a single car for hours. After a few hours it
suddenly stopped raining.




I thoght that we just wet the electric in the engine. But even after we dried every part of them the
car didnt's start. The Battery got more and more flat because of trying to start the engine all the time.
Like a mirracle, a car came by. It was a very heavy 4WD. He said that he has to drop something of in
Normanton. But he promised to come back and help us. Alright we waited another 3 hours. Then he
came. He tow us all the way back to Normanton. The rope tore several times because of the mud and
the aggressive driving of our helper. At the End he tow us at the front of the Golfland Motel. That motel
was owned by a very unfriendly and desperate old women. It was sunday so no one could help us.
We had to sleep in the car (for $16 Dollars) in the front of the motel. At this point we didn't know that
we will stay 5 weeks in Normanton. During the first week everyone out of this town tried to help us.
No one could find the problem. Then we took the car to "Normanton Car Repairs" a very small and old
looking shed. The owner was also very unfriendly. He took the car in to give us a report about what
could be wrong with it. One of the people who tried to help us took us with him and we could stay at
his very very old caravan in his backyard.

The 22. of January, one day after my 19th birthday. I thoght we will never come out of this...


On the next Day we got a call from the car mechanic. He said that the engine is f****** and we
would have to put a new one in. It would cost us a minimum of $1700. We only had $1836.66 left.
So we decided not to do it and to find a way to fix it ourselves. The car mechanic said, that he will
not take the car in anymore after we tried to fix it. So we faced a very bad risk. I said that we can
make it. Ploy didn't believe me. But anyway we had no other choice because of the money.
2 days later we talked to that women of the motel. We asked her, if we could stay at one of her
caravans for free, if we work for her in return. After a lot of asking she finally said yes.


Since then we started our search for a new engine. We found an old wreck place, just a dump area.
In the middle of nothing. But it wasn't owned by someone. just a piece of gravel on the side of
the road where all the old cars get parked. Just like that... ;-/


We made a lot of pictures of the engine of our car so we could remember where all these hoses and cables go


And then we discovered the best thing that could have happend to us. The same car, the same
model and the same engine. Like a dream. It is the yellow one behind Ploy the picture above this one.
It looked a bit crappy but then we had a look at the engine.


It looks bad, okay it was bad. But it was a chance. so we bought us some tools at the local
(very expensive) hardware store for 50 bugs. Chinese tools. That was all they had. Every morning
we worked for that old lady 3-5 hours. Then we walked 6km at 55 degrees to that wreck place.
We did that 14 days in a row. Everey f****** day. then we were finished stripping that old engine.
now we had to strip our car. It took also 4 days. It wasn't that rusty... ;-)


Then we combined the two engines. We took all the good parts. We worked out how we have to
put it back together. After 3 days fiddeling arround we finally had the "new" engine back under the
hood of our car. Then the moment of trying came. We prayed. And we prayed a lot! I turned the key.
It cranked over but it didn't start. At least we had the batterie wirering correct. I turned the
distributer a little. Then i rashed back to the key. I turned it. I was so excited about the engine working,
that I couldn't sit. An then the engine started! It just started. Just like that! That moment was so great.
After all these sweating hours and long walks and hope, it worked! And by the way, we didn't know a
thing about cars. The only Problem we had was that the engine got hot. very hot. We weren't quite
sure if the temperature sensor was stuffed or somthing was wrong with the radiator. anyway, we took
a test drive. It was the first time since the Burktown road that we drove again. The funniest came then.
The guy who let us stay in his backyard caravan came after he found out, that we are back on wheels
again and said that the engine we took was his. He wanted $150 for it. We didn't give him the money,
but we promised it. In the night after this very mad conversation with him, we took off.
We just had enought of Normanton. We drove 450 km with a very hot engine in the middle of the night
towards Cloncurry. After 250 km we had a transmission liquid leak. Lucky we had 2 Liters of
Transmission liquid with us. We fixed the Problem in the middle of a huge caravan of cows at 3:00 in the
morning. After then we got to Cloncurry. We bought a new Temp Sensor and that fixed the Problem.
It was just stuffed up. We still wanted to go to Darwin. We drove towards Tennant Creek. But we didn't
reach it because we had two flat Tyres after ech other. But only one spare tyre. So a very friendly
Israely helped us. But we had to drive back to Cloncurry with him because he could only borrow us the tyre.
So we drove 2 1/2 days back to Cloncurry. Then we changed the tyre and gave it back to him.
But we had enought of al this sh** all the time so we drove down south to Emerald.
We found work in the minig industry and found our "Australian Family". We met a family here.
Such a wonderfull friendship with them. Then we founded our company together.
Now we are Business partners and Company owners. That was a change... :-)



We are still in Australia and still in Emerald. Since 7 Months now. We plan to stay till march and
work on our company. Then we will fly back to Germany after 1 1/2 Years of stress, fun and expierence.

We hope that you could enjoy this Story and it maybe gave you a little idea of what you could do in the world.

It is an amazing feeling to read and to write this. While i was writing I got all the memories of all the
little things back in my mind. I am so glad that I am doing this Journey and I want you to have a look at this.
And to expierence it with us!
If you are intressted in more stuff, we have over 2600 pictures and over 700 videos. Just contact us under
mike1050@gmx.de

In the following pages I sorted out some very nice pictures of our trip. Not one of them is edited with any program.
We took them with the Casio Exilim 5 M/P (Digital)

Enjoy!



This is somewhere in the Nothern Territory. One of the endless roads.


The sky in these flat lands.


The sea and the sky on the eastern coast.


Two of the twelve apostels on the south coast near Melbourne.


Mountains in the southwest of Queensland.


Someones letterbox...


Mountain road in the Nothern Territory.


An exotic insect.




One of the luxury hotels on the Gold Coast.


That is me (mike) and my friend Ploy (right)


We hope you enjoyed the story and the shots!

Mike and Ploy