Erwin and Dorits' Endless Summer

Clic on Reef Tattoo

or

Clic on this Reef Tattoo

After 2 weeks in Bali we feel quite settled and think we could stay here for the next three months without getting bored. Erwin has adjusted to the traffic and somtimes drives even worse than the Balinese.

Every morning we have been to one of the surfspots around Kuta. The last few days we had to stop or take a detour when going to the beach, because the Hindu’s first had a celebration and pilgered to the beach.

It was quite impressive to see so many people so we went for a stroll along the beach and enjoyed some local food.

@ Bigi&Chris: no, of course it was not Sponge Bob’s birthday party….;o)

We had to stay in our hotel a couple of nights longer, because on the 16th the Hindu’s celebrate Nyepi. It celebrates the end of the old year and the start of the new year based on the lunar cycle. The day before locals offer gifts of food and flowers to the ogho-ogho, a huge monster doll. The day of Neypi is one of complete inactivity, so that when the evil spirits do descend, they decide that Bali is uninhabited and therefor leave the island alone for another year.

Everything on Bali was closed and we were not allowed to leave our hotel for 24 hours. They closed everything, even windows from the outside and officially you were not even allowed to turn on your light.

Exhaustet from driving a distance which could have been from Aachen to Lissabon in two days we were craving for some nice beaches,crowded promenades with little cafes. We headed straight to Streaky Bay. Everything else but what we wanted, so we kept driving heading to Adelaide. Another warm overnight stop on a carpark alongside the road, 150 km north of Adelaide near a place called “Snowtown”…;o)

The next morning we arrived in Adelaide and got blown away by a heat wave. 39 degrees in the city, we headed straight for the beach. The sea was as plane as a lake, but refreshing anyway. After one hot night we decided any tourist activities in Adelaide were pointless regarding our pace of a turtle which we adjusted to the heat.

We headed down south, to some mellow waves as the surf guide calls it. We drove 80 km through beautiful landscape and arrived in Goolwa. The waves seemd good, two surfers in the water, hot, we took our boards straight away. To our surprise even the water was warm and the first time we weren’t the only persons surfing in shorty’s and boardshorts.

To our exicitement of surfing after being in the car for ages, two dolphines joined us. They were playing around us not even a meter away from us. They were diving underneath our surfboards, droping in on our waves and made us forget all our previous days in the car.

Unfortunaltly the next day the swell was gone. We stayed one more day and decided to drive further to the south. Yesterday evening we arrived in Portland, and were shocked by the fact that it was cold and clowdy. We had forgotten the fact that we had driven for 600 km and weather might be different, even though you are still in the same country.

So today we prepaired ourself for a walk to a seal colony at Cape Bridgewater. We wore our long jeans and jumpers, but as we were walking for 30 minutes it got warmer and warmer and it turned out to be a beautiful day, luckily not as hot as in Adelaide.

Did our insurence-things, did our moving-things, did our appartment-things, sold a car. We worked realy hard and we had long exhausting days .. A few days before take off it was time to thank all friends, say good bye and throw a party. In our appartment – already empty – the final thing to do was get some beer and music.

A lot of good friends from Germany, Holland and Belgium/Austria  showed up and we had an awesome night! Great beats from Markus did their work, and in our opinion they weren’t too loud. Police showed up just 3 times and we ended up in a bar on „southstreet“ early in the morning.  A evening to remember with friends who we will not forget! Aachen rocked!