Flinders Ranges

I left Min's house on Tuesday (8/10/2009) morning and after I sent another bunch of CouchSurfing requests to people in Alice Springs I finally got to a good hitch-hiking spot at the beginning of Princes Highway at the north border of North Adelaide.

I decided to try out another method of hitching - with a big sign with the name of the destination city written on it. I really felt like it was the right time and right place for it. So I wrote "Port Augusta" on the sign and started hitching. Unfortunately, it wasn't a good idea at all! I kept waiting for four hours before a bus arrived and I gave up and just jumped on it. It was quite expensive but I was fed up with waiting. I think the problem was that Port Augusta is quite far from Adelaide and not so many people were going all the way there. And those that would have given me a lift just for a couple of kilometres didn't stop when they saw the sign. Well, that's a common drawback of hitching with signs - you can get a lift all the way to your destination city but you generally have to wait longer. I prefer (and have better experience with) usign just my thumb a being happy for every kilometer I get closer to my target.

The travel by bus took ages and I got to Port Augusta around 9pm. I had no clue where to go to stay over night but luckily I noticed a taxi driver waiting on the parking place so I asked him where I can find a camp ground. He gave me a tip and after about an hour of walking to the other side of the town, I finally pitched my tent and went to sleep.

Next morning, I asked in an Information centre how to get to Wilpena, which is a small town in the middle of Flinders Ranges and the last town on sealed road. They told me that there is a bus service going there every thursday and coming back every friday, hehe. Very handy! Moreover it was really expensive and I would have had to book it in advance. So I had no other choice than hitching and even though I was a bit afraid that it might be hard I was quite happy I wouldn't have to pay for a bus again.

A friendly local taxi driver (not having a shift at that moment) started talking to me at the street and later on, when he was passing by, gave me a lift to the turn-off to Quorn, which helped me a lot. After that I could try to catch every car going to Flinders Ranges!

I was waiting for a ride and because I was quite bored, I finally started training juggling. Although time flies like crazy for me when I'm waiting on the road, I like to use it somehow, especially when the traffic is low. So sometimes I juggle, sometimes I read a book...

After about two hours I got a lift by a local guy that was very happy to tell me everything about the area and he took me all the way to Hawker. He also told me that he used to hitch around Oz too when he was young and that once he had to wait three and a half days somewhere in the middle of Queensland before somebody picked him up. Nasty!

Another hour and a half waiting in Hawker and I was finally picked up. This time by a german traveller Matthias heading directly to Wilpena. He told me he was also traveling around Australia and right then he was on his way from Adelaide to Flinders Ranges for two or three days of hiking. Since it was exactly the same plan as I had, we decided to share petrol costs and do the hiking together.

We arrived to Wilpena (which is just a camp ground, information centre and a petrol station) and climbed up on St Mary Peak. We wanted to sleep there but we didn't make it to the summit before sunset so we camped just below it. It was awesome!

Next morning we finally reached the peak. The views were amazing - you can see the mountains going to the north and to the south as well as Wilpena pound which is a kind of ring of mountains - like a huge crater. It's really interesting and absolutely charming. We walked back to Wilpena across the pound but it was a bit too long and monotonous track.

We took a shower in the campground and moved about 30 kilometers on gravel road to the north to Bunyeroo Gorge. I didn't enjoy the walk that much because it was bloody hot, no wind and milions of flies. But we saw an emu from perhaps 5 metres and that was fantastic. Also the end of the gorge is worth reaching - you can climb up on some of the rocky hills around and enjoy amazing view over the border of the national park - the end of the range and the beginning of flat desert.

We found a nice place for camping, just near the end of the gorge. I fell asleep looking at the stars...

Next morning was a bit cloudy and later on that day even started to rain. So we just quickly visited Wilpena Solar Powerplant and Arkaroo rock paintings. I was really curious about the power plant because it's supposed to be the largest one in Australia. What a disappointment! It's just a few solar panels...

Arkaroo rock paintings are aboriginal paintings on the walls of a big cave. The cave is in a big boulder and there is actualy a few more beautiful boulders around. Oh well, I respect the cultural significance of the place but the climber inside me cries how nice bouldering area it could be, hehe.

Matthias dropped me off in Port Augusta on his way back to Adelaide and I visited an exposition in Wadlata Outback Centre. You have to pay around $10 entry fee but it's very well made and definitely worth visiting. It explains the history of the region from three different perspectives (in three parts of the exposition) - the geological history, aboriginal Dreamtime stories and european colonization. It's really big so you'd better allow two to three hours to see it all.

I spent my last night in the town at the camp site again. I met an interesting spanish couple there - they had been on their bike tour around the world. They'd started in Argentina 15 months ago and right then they were on their way from Adelaide to Darwin. Nuts! Although it would be nice to do some big bike trip somewhere in the world, I guess.

Adelaide

I'd found a CouchSurfing host for my stay in Adelaide a couple of days before I arrived here. Her name is Min, she's a chef (very handy) and she lives with three other young people, all musicians. Oh and there are also two lovely cats in the house! The house is just a minute walk from the beach. So it's all perfect. Moreover there is another couch surfer staying in the house, Victor. He's a Dutch guy, hehe. The funny thing is that I already was in contact with him back in Melbourne when we both planned to go to Adelaide through Great Ocean Road. It didn't work out due to different timing but funny is that we eventually ended up in the same house.

I spent my week here mostly with wandering in the CBD, running on the beach, answering emails, planning my next steps, drinking, eating, going to concerts with my hosts etc.

Yesterday (tue, 6/10/2009), I went to Victor Harbour with Victor :-) and James (one of my hosts), it was lovely trip - we walked around Granite Island (where we saw two seals, fairy pinguins and huge lizzards apparently called blue tongues), drank some nice local wine and even did a bit of bodyboarding, woohoo (although we were freezing so we couldn't stay in the water too long)! At the beach we also saw a whale (unfortunately it was quite far)! After the trip I made some czech bramboraky (potato pancakes) for dinner and got wasted with cider...

As for Adelaide itself, there is not many things to see here, although it has pretty good location - between nice hills and the sea, in the area of famous wineries.

I'm leaving tomorrow, I want to hitch to Port Augusta and a bit further to Flinders Range, do some bush walking there for a couple of days and then hitch to Coober Pedy, probably spend a night there and after that hitch to Uluru and Alice Springs.

Grampians

Beautiful rock formations in the famous climbing area!

Day one: Halls Gap to Lakeview Lookout

So I got to Halls Gap on Tuesday (29/09/2009) around noon and after a quick preparation (buying a map, planning the 2-day hike, refilling water bottle and obtaining a camping permit) I started yet another hike. This time it was very nice sunny weather and the hiking paths were full of tourists. I walked to the Pinnacle (spectacular view) through Grand Canyon (really interesting rock formations) and then continued further down to the south until I reached Lakeview Lookout where I decided to stay over night. It was wonderful place - no people, great view for dinner, tent sheltered from wind by a rock, simply perfect.

I was really fascinated by the regeneration power of the forest all the time. There was a bush fire in Grampians a couple of years ago and all the trees have completely black burned trunks. But they also have green leaves growing directly from the black branches! Amazing!

Day two: Lakeview Lookout to Borough Huts Campground

I woke up to a beautiful warm sunny day. I descended down to Rosea Carpark and then walked along Stoney Creek Road to a place called Bundaleer. It's a climbing spot and even though it's not so easy to find it's worth visiting (especially for climbers). I was hoping I'd bump into some climbers there and perhaps join them but there was nobody. So at least I did a bit of bouldering there (even though taking on my new climbing shoes was real agony) and took a lot of pics of the routes. There is lots of easy traditional routes and a couple of bolted really hard ones. Pity I couldn't try anything but I think I'll try to organize some climbing trip to Grampians or even better to Mt Arapilles when I get back to Melbourne.

After I got back to Rosea Carpark, I continued up to Mt Rosea and then down to the Borough Huts Campground. There was a surprise waiting for me there again. At the end of the hiking track just at the edge of the campground is yet another creek crossing the track. And again, no bridge... (the water was freaking cold!)

At the campsite I joined a group of european students (studying in Melbourne) for bbq and drinks. One of them, a russian guy named Victor, really appreciated my slivovica, hehe. I just loved how slowly and with such pleasure he drank it!

Day three: Borough Huts to Adelaide

In the morning, those guys took me to the Halls Gap where I started hitching to Adelaide. It was much easier than I'd expected! It took me about 2 minutes to get a lift to Stawell and after I got there and stood at the Western Highway (going from Melbourne to Adelaide), I didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes to get another lift to Adelaide! And it was such a nice ride - young guy named Paul, a dog and an old VW van. Awesome company! They had to drop me off about 50 km before Adelaide which was a bit pain in the arse because I happened to be at a highway exit (I couldn't hitch on the highway) which wasn't busy at all. But I was very grateful I got so far so easily! And just another 30 minutes and I got a ride to the train station in Adelaide CBD by a funny Pakistani guy just finishing his shift (working for some delivery service company).

Great Ocean Walk

Awesome 105 km of walking in beautiful nature with spectacular views over cliffs.

After two weeks in Melbourne, it was about the time to get out of there. I finally got organized, so I left Bernadett's house on Wednesday (23/09/2009) around 3pm. Unfortunately it turned out to be way too optimistic that I could hitch to Apollo Bay (the beginning of GOW) before it gets dark. I got stuck already in a petrol station in Melbourne.

I was getting a bit desperate but I was more lucky than smart that day. Asking drivers for a lift to Geelong, I bumped into a girl named Bronwyn that just really wanted to help me even though she was heading somewhere else. So she offered me a lift to a train station, convincing me that I'd better jump on a train that regularly goes to Geelong. I agreed. Later on in the car, she told me that she's going to Geelong next day and that if I have no place to sleep, I could stay over at her house and she'd take me to Geelong next morning. I was amazed. She knew me only for a couple of minutes and she provided me with such hospitality and willingness to help!

I realized I had zero chance to get to Apollo Bay that evening, so I agreed.

It took me whole day to get to my destination. I got 7 other lifts, usually for very short distance but always by a very nice person. I eventually got where I wanted, even before 5pm, so I could drop by an information centre to plan the whole hiking route. Then just buying some food and water and camp in one of the local camp grounds.

Day one: Apollo Bay to Cape Otway, 35 km, 9 hours

I started my walk fresh and enthusiastic, although my 20kg backpack (including 4.5 litres of water) wasn't really encouraging. Later on I found out that I carried the water for no reason. There is enough camp sites along the whole route that provide tank (rain) water. Despite the signs claiming that the water is not drinkable, apparently it's absolutely ok. Overall, a great part of aussie population lives on the tank water.

Once I reached the coast I stayed there staring at the sea for a good couple of minutes. It was so rough! Very strong wind, dark grey sky and huge waves (the biggest I'd seen so far - I'd say good 4 or 5 meters high) made the atmosphere incredibly magical.

As soon as I got to the Otway rain forest, it started to rain. Surprisingly. The shit thing was that it kept raining until the end of the day. Moreover, not so far from my destination camp, there is a river called Parker river that goes directly to the sea. The problem is that there is no bridge so unless it's low tide you have to take your shoes off and wade. And if it's raining at the same time... Anyway, I eventually got to the camp and there was nobody! In fact, I hadn't met anybody along the way at all! So I just pitched my tiny tent under the wooden shelter that normally serves as common kitchen/dining room/living room, checked out my feet covered with blisters and went to sleep.

Day two: Cape Otway to Johanna Beach, 25 km, 8 hours

The second day was the hardest for me. Not that the walk was harder or anything but just my feet were extremely sore from my (a bit too tight and new) shoes.

The day started with rain. Actually not only with rain but also with hail. And very strong wind. It was really full on. So I kept on sleeping until it seemed it was going to get better. But of course, as soon as I got up and packed everything, the new wave of hail started straight away. So I decided to get to the lighthouse at the end of the cape (you have to pay for entrance), climb it up, take a couple of pics and get a nice cup of coffee in the light station cafe.

As soon as the weather seemed to decide to stop playing with me, I started walking again. I took an extra few km of beach walk to see Rainbow falls but it wasn't worth the effort. The falls are nothing special. I actually had troubles with recognizing the exact place where the waterfall was. So if you ever do the walk, you won't miss anything if you skip the falls.

After I passed about a half of my day route, it stopped raining and I could even enjoy a few sun rays for a little while. So I eventually got pretty much dry and I was happy that I wouldn't have to take on wet clothes next morning. But I was happy prematurely. Just about one km before the campsite, right at the end of Johanna Beach, there is yet another creek crossing the beach. But this one looked really shallow and it seemed like every time the waves went away, there was only a thin layer of water left on the sand. And since it was already pretty dark and it started hailing again, I decided to just run through it at the right moment instead of taking off my shoes and wading. But that was a terrible mistake! I ran into water about 30 cm deep so my shoes and jeans got completely wet. How stupid! I was so pissed off!

But again, my anger didn't last too long - every time you're deep in some shit, something nice happens to you (and vice versa, hehe). I reached first campsite (a free one) and there was this crazy-looking old hippie with loooong white dreadlocks and loooong white beard staring at me from his van. I waved at him and we started a conversation and soon after he invited me to his van for a cup of coffee! Man, there was nothing better that could have happened to me at that moment! I was so grateful! It turned out that he'd been traveling around australia together with his wife and their 5! kids in that van (not so big) for over six months already! Lovely! He was also pretty convincing while advertising a red pawpaw. For some reason neither people, nor animals eat it but apparently it's sooooo delicious! Much more than its yellow version which is very common. So as soon as I come across a red pawpaw, I'll let you know if it's true or not!

Soon after I left that lovely company, I reached my destination campsite where I spent a nice evening with two other campers and I decided to sleep just on the bench under the wooden shelter. I didn't feel like pitching my tent. And it was perfect!

Day three: Johanna Beach to Devil's Kitchen, 30 km, 9 hours

This was objectively most difficult part - the middle section of the route (Milanesia beach to Moonlight Head) is considered to be hard and yep, it's true that the path (full of mud and slippery) is going up pretty steep slopes and then down again and so on. But because my feet recovered a bit, it wasn't that painful as the previous day. And it was awesome!

I left the camp early in the gray morning, hoping i'd see sun at least for a while during the day but the day remained as gray as the morning till the end. But at least it didn't rain. I really wanted to get to the Devil's Kitchen before evening and I knew it would be tough so I planned to skip the Wreck Beach and take the high-tide inland route instead (it's the last section of the route, not far from my destination camp ground). But after I passed the hard section, I came across this countryside hotel called Moonlight Retreat and I dropped by for a cup of coffee. While drinking the coffee the owner of the hotel told me that the Wreck Beach is definitely worth seeing and that the tide should be low enough to pass by the time I'd get there. So I took her advice and went through the Wreck Beach. And it really was worth! Well, as for the shipwrecks, there is no such thing like a whole shipwreck lying on the beach - the only reminders of the rich history of ship crashes are two anchors! But that didn't disappoint me at all at that time because I had lots of excitement due to the still enough high tide, strong wind and pretty rough sea with huge waves. It was about four hours after the high tide when I arrived to the beach and there were a few spots where the water was still reaching the steep shore above the beach and I thought I couldn't pass. So I had heaps of fun with running away from waves, climbing over places fully covered with sea etc. All in very strong wind and under a thick cover of gray clouds. Magical! It was definitely the most exciting part of the whole walk!

At the end of the beach I could see a little roof on top of the cliff above and I suspected it from being a toilet in the camp ground I was heading to. And I really didn't like how far (and high) it was. Fortunately it wasn't as far as it seemed to be at the end and I arrived there reasonably soon. And yep, it was the roof of the camp toilet! What surprised me though, was a number of people sitting in the shelter and drinking all sorts of very nicely smelling warm drinks. After I told them what I'd walked, I immediately got a mug of hot chocolate :-) Delicious! It turned out that there were two groups - a group of five moms from Queensland and a guy called Malcolm with his two kids. It was lovely to talk to them after all-day walking. I ate my piece of bread with peanut butter for dinner and after it got dark I went to sleep on the shelter bench again.

Day four: Devil's Kitchen to Twelve Apostles, 15 km, 3 hours

For the last day I only had to walk around 15 km in easy terrain to reach the stunning Twelve Apostles and eventually hitch to Halls Gap in the middle of Grampians. I reached the end of the walk, which is still a few kilometers before the Apostles and started to walk on the road while a car stopped right in front of me. It turned out to be Malcolm with kids! He waved at me asking whether I didn't need a ride. Awesome! He took me to 12 Apostles and even further to Loch Ard Gorge and did a walking tour around with me! By the way 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and further to the west London Bridge and Bay of Islands are definitely worth seeing! Basically they are very special cliff formations and they make such a great end of the whole walk! You can look forward to them all trip long and you absolutely won't be disappointed!

Malcolm took me to Port Campbell, a near town that was on his way back to Melbourne. I dropped by an information centre there and found out that there is a bus going to Warrnambool and there is also a regular coach going from Warrnambool directly to Halls Gap. And the coach was departing next morning. Since it was already afternoon and I really didn't feel like hitching I decided to go to Warrnambool, spend a night in a campsite there and then take the coach to Halls Gap. Again, it turned out to be a very good decision because there were awesome hot showers in the campsite! I was so happy when I found them! I also washed my very muddy jeans to increase chances to get a lift.

Animals

As for the typical Australian wild life, I'd seen the most typical ones during the walk: kangaroos, wallabies (small kangaroos), an echidna (big hedgehog), koalas. Even though they are the most typical ones, I was alway happy as a kid when I saw them. It's really a great experience to see them in their natural environment!

A few practical advices

Even though I didn't enjoy the rain during the walk, for number of reasons I'd say it was pretty good time to do it. First there were very few people out there, so I could fully enjoy the wilderness, then the full on weather together with rough sea prepared very special atmosphere and last but not least I didn't have to pay for any campsite and plan in advance where exactly I'd sleep each night because they were all empty. Speaking about campsites, this is way more organized than I'd prefer. If you wanna do the walk in busier season (and sleep in provided GOW hike-in campsites), you can't just start and see where you end up at the end of the day, just like I did. In fact, you have to book spots for your tent in the campsites you choose and pay for them at latest TWO! weeks before you start the walk. That sucks. You can still camp at free campsites (i.e. drive-in campsites) though but there are not that many of them along the walk and rather concentrated at the first half. Check out the picture of the map I've attached for better understanding of what I mean.

Be prepared to wade two or three times along the whole walk depending on the time you get to the creeks.

As for the food and water, as I said at the beginning, you don't have to worry too much about water unless you really don't want to drink the tank water. On the other hand you have to take food for the whole trip because basically the only place you can get something (like a pie or a croissant) is the cafe at the Cape Otway.


Oh and here you can find more information about the walk: http://www.greatoceanwalk.com.au/

Little Desert National Park pics

Little Desert National Park

Melbourne pics

Melbourne 2009

How the hell have I ended up in Oz!?

WARNING: this post is ego-centric rubbish describing my poor life during past 2 years. It's even sentimental sometimes! Not recommended for "tough guys"!

As our frog-eating friends say: "Cherchez la femme". But let's start from the beginning.

Delft - the place where it all started

Delft is a beautiful little university town in The Netherlands - right between Rotterdam and Den Haag. It has charming downtown part with dozens of old dutch houses and hundreds of grachts (canals). There is also a big technical university, TU Delft, which became my alma mater for one semester back in 2007. The uni is pretty good and the interesting thing about it is that almost 50% of all students are foreigners.

That semester started a big period of my life (that is still going on) full of changes and new experiences. I met lots of people from all around the world and I learned so much from them and about them. If you ever have a chance for exchange study, please don't waste it! It's absolutely priceless experience!

I also met one crazy wild cat there and we stayed together for the rest of the year. She opened my eyes in many ways. She's an Aussie (I'll call her Laura for the rest of the post). Now you can already guess that she's the very beginning of my current Australian adventure.

If you're an exchange student, the best way to make friends is to make trips with them. Go to as many parties as possible, meet people, collect contacts and then invite them for trips. That way you get to know them much better. Another good way is to meet people through common interests (hobby, sport). I started climbing in Delft again and soon I formed very nice group with other climbers. We made couple of trips (Fontainebleau, Rocher de Freyr) and they were always the best moments from the whole year.

After the semester, I decided to stay in The Netherlands for another half a year but for a change me and my very good friend (and climber) Alex moved to Den Haag. I didn't want to go back to Czech Republic and of course I wanted to be close to Laura as long as possible. So I was working (mostly in very good Den Haag city library) on my master project and thesis for my home uni and Alex on his final project. It was a nice life there, we lived just in the middle between the city centre and the beach. We also spent lots of time in Delft and I can't forget the biking there and back (around 10 km) in cold, rain and strong wind.

When that lovely period finished, me and Laura went for our goodbye trip. We flew to Sardegna to visit her friend Federica, we spent awesome days traveling in a van and kayaking around Golfo di Orosei with Fede's friend Massi, then we flew to Rome to wander around its charming streets for a few days, after that we visited Nico and Dani (from the Delft climbing group) in Lille and at the end we chilled out in Paris. Finally we said good bye to each other and Laura flew down to Australia and I flew back to Czech Republic.

End of lazy student life

So back home I somehow managed to hand in my thesis and pass the final state exam. But at the beginning of September, I was already back in The Netherlands, hunting for a job. Diego (another friend-climber) kindly allowed me to stay with him until I found something. It took me 3 weeks and I ended up working for Tieto Enator (What an irony! There is a big development centre of TE in Ostrava, only about 5 min away from my house!) in Amersfoort. Amersfoort is a little town, perhaps little bit too quiet but it has just amazing town centre. Very compact with a ring of medieval houses, city wall and canals around it.

My climbing urge brought me to a local bouldering gym Hangplek, very friendly and cosy place run by a few friends. I started to train a lot and we all together made a couple of climbing trips throughout the year (Freyr - BE, Kottenheim - D, Berdorf - L). It was great! They are wonderful persons and I really enjoyed the time with them. I hope we'll climb together again once I'm back in Europe! Unfortunately the Hangplek is closed now because the building had to be demolished.

Soon after I started working for TE, I realized that it wasn't a place for me. I didn't enjoy the work itself at all and it didn't seem I'd start doing what I wanted (Java development). Moreover the environment was a bit too corporate but that was just a detail. Fortunately I got an offer from another company, M2Mobi. A bunch of cool young guys doing mobile development. I didn't waste the opportunity and despite they offered me less money that I was earning in TE, I took the job. I started working there in december and I stayed until the end of my stay in The Netherlands (august).

Despite the organization of the company (it's a bit chaotic) I really enjoyed working for them and I learned a lot. The environment was just awesome - absolutely informal, relaxed, with only very young people (lots of interns), beers in the office every friday evening, lunches together... After I finished a small java (j2me) project I started iPhone development. I was working on quite a big app called Nulaz, which is an iPhone client for the Nulaz network (a social network with location based services). Thanks to the company, I could also move to Amsterdam in June (it's really hard to get a room there; i tried to get one on my own for half a year and then I just gave up).

As for my relationship with Laura during that time... I needed a bit of freedom and I wanted to be alone for a while. I felt it very strongly and it also made sense since each of us was on the other side of the world. So we technically weren't together. Although I needed it like that, it was very hard and painful for both of us.

Cherchez la femme

I planned to stay in nl until the end of 2009. Then I wanted to travel. I wanted to do a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela first but my great plan was to travel across asia. From Czech Republic to Soutch-East Asia (and then either back or to Australia or who knows) over the land, no planes, preferably hitch-hiking. I kept saving for this trip all the time when I was working.

But as we say in Czech Republic: "Člověk míní, život mění" (it means more or less that we keep planning our lives but our lives keep changing our plans). Laura came to Europe again for two months (June-July) so it was a good opportunity to sort out our relationship and decide what to do next. It turned out that she wanted to be with me but I kept saying that I still needed my freedom and that I wasn't ready for her yet. So she closed the whole thing because it was not going to go anywhere soon and she naturally didn't wanna spend another year or two half-living. After I lost her, I realized how important she was for me. How big part of my life she was. I felt like I've had enough of freedom and I just wanted to be with her again.

So I changed my plans a bit and decided to fly to Australia. We weren't in contact at that time anymore, so I decided to surprise her and not to tell her in advance. I knew she closed the whole thing but I hoped that it wasn't all lost yet and that if we could be near each other we could start again. I was hoping I could still save the relationship. But I was as well aware of the fact that it might not work out, so in that case I was planning to travel around Australia, New Zealand and then do my great plan and travel across Asia. Only the other way round.

The 30-hour flight with stop-over in Hong-Kong wasn't as terrible as I expected. I found a nice CouchSurfing host in Melboune so I had a place to stay before I'd meet Laura and see what to do next. I visited her house 2 times before I caught her. It was really frustrating. But then we met and obviously she was really surprised but as many of you already know, it didn't work out with her at all. I was too late. I made up my mind too late. She doesn't love me as a partner anymore. And she needs a lot of space and time to deal with it all, so we are not in contact again. We only saw each other one day and since then, I've been here in Melbourne, so close to her but yet so far, trying to recover a bit and plan what to do next.

Australia is a beautiful place and Melbourne is a great city. I haven't found it that interesting from a tourist point of view but it's definitely wonderful for living. There is so many things to do, wonderful restaurants, great food, it's amazingly multicultural, beautiful nature around, great climbing spots close by... I definitely wouldn't mind living here for a while. The problem is that in my head, there is a very strong connection Melbourne = Laura. And the same holds for Australia. So I decided to travel around hoping I can break that connection and get over her.

I have a tourist visa so I can stay in Oz for 3 months. My plan is to make a loop Adelaide, Uluru, Alice Springs, Darwin, Cairns, whole east coast, Sydney and back to Melbourne. I want to hitch wherever possible. Hope I can make it in my time, if there is some time left, I'd love to visit Tasmania too. After that I'll probably fly to New Zealand, if possible also work there a bit and then, as I already said, across Asia back to Czech Republic. It will take some time and I intend to keep you updated about my adventures through this blog. My very next steps head to Great Ocean Road, then Grampians (i've bought new pair of climbing shoes yesterday, this time Mad Rock, hehe) and then Adelaide.

I still miss Laura and I hate it ended up like it did but what can I do... I hope the amount of traveling that is ahead of me right now will help me forget.