1 month of Alaska = 1 month of Adventure

Alaska was always a dream destination for me, though I never had an answer for people when they asked me for the "why". 
Having been to Alaska now for 1 month just confirmed that Alaska for me is one of the most wonderful places on earth. Though it is still hard for me to pin down the exact reasons - Is it the mountains and lakes? The climate? The wildlife? The people? The shere size of the 50. state of the US? I guess it is the combination.

On the day I arrived in Anchorage I met some local people through couch-surfing (check it out on couchsurfing.com it is a great concept), who took me on a 3 day trail-hike the next day and with that the Alaska adventure had a kicked off and it basically didn't stop until the day I flew out on which I still did a 6 hour trail hike :-).

The program and highlights for Alaska were as following:
- 3 day back-country trail hike in Denali State Park, with a rocking group of 7 people, stunning views, loads of rain and a continuos 13 hour hike through the night, because we didn't want to pitch a tent in the rain anymore.
- Mountain-bike tour around Anchorage and accidentally running into a mother Moose with her young child about 5 meters away from me. Luckily the Moose was totally relaxed :-)
- 3 day sea-kayaking to Bear Glacier, with 8 hours straight paddling, pitching tents without shelter and firewood, pulling two of my fellow kayakers up the river, cruising through a lagoon of glacier water in between of broken off pieces of ice
- 3 day back-country hike in Denali National Park which started of with hitchhiking 300 miles, then once hiking seeing 4 bears up close, a river crossing which we had to abort as it nearly swamped me away, a 11 hour hike up to and on a glacier
- Chilled hiking around Cordova where I ate one of my best Burritos in my life (Salmon Burrito :-))
- 7 days of a roadtrip on the Alaska Highway System which leads through stunning nature. The highlights certainly were: Ice climbing in the Wrangler National Park, Getting up to the Arctic Circle and driving the Denali Highway.
- Several day hikes, such as Exit Glacier, Jumbo Mine or Bird Ridge.

A big thanks goes out to Katharina, we teamed up for four weeks to explore Alaska together, she is a grand travel-mate and took all these awesome pictures... have a look for yourself!!

Alaska: one big playground

I haven't been writing anything since I arrived in Alaska, cause the day I landed here I hit the ground "running". With loads of hiking, camping, kayaking in a stunning nature and as I am taking it in as much as possible, I will be writing once I left this stunning place. But to give you an impression, enclosed a couple of pictures from a kayaking trip 1.5 weeks ago

That's a wrap Australia!

This country and continent is truly blessed with a stunning nature, laid-back people and I had a great time over here. Spent time with friends, meet tons of new people, saw stunning nature and was able to relax properly.
Unfortunately one overpowering impression is appearend about Australia: It is expensive, to expensive.
While I am officially 1 year unemployed I never really worried about money on this trip so far as the cost of living was quite cheap (sometimes even cheaper than living at home). Not so in Australia. Every day you spend about 30$ on food + an average of 60$ on transportation and accommodation.
That said you still won't have anything special other than toast, pasta and be living in a Campervan... if you then want to see special places (e.g. Fraser Island, Whitsundays, Great Barrier Reef, etc.) you easily spend another 150$ per day for organized tours. Which makes an average day on vacation in Australia around 100$ and you haven't lived it up with that. Well well, you only life once I guess, but certainly can say you enjoy life and traveling much more in South-America or South-East Asia if you are not particularly a millionaire :-)


I know that this sounds very whiny while I had a great time here, but I would go as far as recommending to not come here for now and wait till either the exchange rates will get better or prices here in Australia are slowing down as you will enjoy this place even more.
That said, I hope you enjoy the pictures from my Whale-watching trip and clear star nights. Next stop is Alaska, where I arrived just a couple of hours ago :-)

7 weeks in Australia or 1 year unemployed :-)

I had to look up my visa to figure how long I am actually in Australia by now as it seems quite a long time... well it has only been 7 weeks. I am saying only, because I meet tons of other travelers who spend one year or even longer on this continent and I can relate to why.

Though being unlucky with the weather throughout my trip here ( I guess it is the payback for the past 11 months where I have always been lucky ) the nature still "WOWs" me. Today I arrived at the northernmost point of my journey: Cooktown, where Lieutenant Cook, had to settle down for some days to fix his boat before returning to the "known world".

So far I traveled 5736 km all the way from Sydney along Coastlines, the "Hinterland" and Outback up to here and most my time I spent out in the nature with some great jungle hiking, chilling at beautiful beaches and spotting amazing wildlife.
Three of the highlights in the past two weeks were:
- Getting up for the sunrise and breakfast at Trinity Bay and after a workout at the beach I took a dip in the Ocean to cool off when I saw two Dolphins passing by about 150 meters away from me.
- In the middle of nowhere at Cape Tribulation a group of us found a crystal-clear waterhole which was just stunning and refreshing.
- Celebrating my "1 year unemployment".... and what a great year it has been! I guess I can honestly recommend anybody who ever had the wish to go away and see the world to do it... there is nothing to regret about it :-) You only life once and I promise you, you won't wish later in life that you have "worked more" :-)

P.S.: Don't ask me about the picture arranging, this blog tool is driving me crazy !!

The camping experience....

... as mentioned in the last blog-post I never really in my life was a big camping person and except the one or two summer-camps when I was a child I never really camped.

Well this now is not really a 100% camping either as I am not putting up a tent everytime I stop, but it comes quite close to it. I am basically touring Australia in a camper which in the back can be made to a bed. Has a ultra small "kitchen" (gascooker, a prep area and a cooler-box) as well as an even smaller "bathoom" (sink which can be part of the kitchen as well) and thats avout it... A 5  sqm studio so to say.

While I needed the first couple of days to adjust to my new living "situation", which was accompanied by many walks back and forth between camper-vans and campsite- bathrooms and -kitchens (as I had forgotten something about every time I made the trip) it now has grown on me and I am enjoying it. You stop where you fancy. You enjoy views and the weather from the warm inside the camper while outside it is fresh... you are much more flexible in what you are doing.

Helping with camping in general is, that Australia certainly caters to camping people with all their national park camp grounds, rest areas, designated beach areas, etc. I would even go so far to say, Australia is THE "Camping Nation". Even though before I always thought the dutch can't be beaten counting the thousands of camping-trailers on German Autobahns while dutch holidays are on. Well when you pay attention to the camping-vans, camping trailers and offroaders with tents attached on the road here, the dutch are easily outnumbered :-).

As I am going on with camping here are some facts which makes me wonder...

- Why do always gas-station operators know where the best food in town is (they really do, compared to any other establishments like shops, bakeries, police-officers, etc.)

- Why are in every country you travel only the news- and the classic-music stations the ones you can receive everywhere, even in the wildest outback :-) 

- Who the heck invented driving on the left side of the road and why are countries still sticking to it :-)

Enclosed a couple of more snapshots from the diversity of this continent/country. I made my way from Byron Bay, over the "Hinterland", up to Hervey Bay and Fraser Island, then Emerald in the Outback to now arrive in the Whitsundays, which are supposingly stunning white sand beaches... well I have been unlucky with the weather, it is raining today but hopefully clears up tomorrow...

Cruising through Australia

Personally Australia was always just a big, red, dry continent which never appealed to me as a major travel destination. 
Working in London with tons of "Ozzis" and "Kiwis" though made me wonder what it is about this part of the world, that they are all so laid back. Well and as I had to stage time until it is summer in Alaska, my ultimate travel destination, I thought I give Australia a shot. 

Man was I wrong about this Continent !!!

In the first week visiting Australia, Thomas and Poonam showed me a totally different side of it. Beaches, beautiful coastline, stunning country side and loads of more nature... Which made me change my mind about Australia right away and I decided to stay longer than initially planned.

After a week in the suburbs and surroundings of Sydney I than visited Nat and Ben who live "bang on" in Sydney and right next to Harbor Bridge to encounter the city a bit more. The first impression... this city just has the right balance of nature and big city atmosphere/convinience/diversity there should be... downside a minimal 24 hour travel back home.

After the week and Bens birthday I than moved on to Brisbane, where I picked up my "home" for the next 36 days - a camper van. This shall also be a new experience for me as I never in my life was a big camper and maybe camped 2 or 3 times in my life before.

So far so good :-) I am now 5 days on the road and am enjoying it a lot my first stop was Byron Bay and surfing classes. I have to say surfing is not rocket science, means I will keep it up over the next couple of weeks while cruising from Beach to Beach :-)

As of now I am on my way to the Glasshouse Mountains for some hiking before going back to the coast-line. I will keep you up to date on my camping and surfing experience of the next couple of weeks but also wanted to use this blog entry to say a big THANK YOU to my last three hosting "Families"

- Mat and Tash with Charlie and Thomas who I stayed with in Singapore and who showed me the city from a different side and were super patient with me as a guest

- Thomas and Poonam with Shaan and Mahii who included me right of the first minute into their family life and showed me the surroundings of Sydney

- Nat and Ben who were perfect hosts in Sydney and spent tons of time with me....

You guys equally rock and made me feel super comfortable over the past weeks, also you  changed my perceptions of your home cities! Having hosted tons of guests over the past years myself I can honestly say all you guys a grand hosts but out of it all I enjoyed most just spending time with you guys and your families: It was great to see where and how you live!