SEGMENT 2
Driving west we camped at a rest stop and took the first picture of our truck in Australias nature :-) (pic01).
Saturday, March 4: The Blue Mountains derive their name from the blue haze created by the eucalyptus oil which hangs over the dense forests. The region is popular with hikers and nature lovers and offers countless lookouts, waterfalls, caves and trails. When we arrived here, the weather was gloomy and the cloud cover hid all the marvelous views from us. We had some coffee in a local café to give the skies a chance to clear up. Later we ran into a Swiss couple in a great 4x4 camper truck and exchanged experiences and travel stories. In the meantime the clouds had lifted and we were rewarded for our patience with spectacular scenery at the overlooks. We visited the Three Sisters and drove along the cliff drive with plenty of lookouts and waterfalls.

As we continued south, we spent a night at a friend's farm in the Goulburn area. It was a wonderful treat and we enjoyed the peace and quiet on his beautiful, large property.

We have noticed that Jeeps are not very common here and Toyotas and Nissans are much more popular. Also, rigs are built up more for long-distance travel and not so much for hard-core 4wheeling. Needless to say, our Jeep really stuck out and we were stopped many times with curious questions.

Through 4wdtrips.net, a 4x4travel online forum, we had met Mark and Grace from Canada and had been in email contact with them for a while. We finally managed to meet up in Canberra (pic02); since they had been traveling through Australia for eight months they had plenty of good tips for our journey ahead. We talked for hours and enjoyed the interchange and shared interests.

We cut south through the marvelous Namadgi National Forest on a windy unsealed mountain road and continued towards the coast. We marvelled upon the breathtaking scenery of Lakes Entrance before we reached the Ninety Mile Beach (pic03) where we made camp in one of the amazingly beautiful free campsites.

March 8: Further along the coast we visited Tarra-Bulga National Park, a dense rain forest with huge ferns which dwarfed even our vehicle.
Wilsons Promontory is the southernmost point of mainland Australia and is a georgeous wilderness area with forests, mountains and marvelous beaches. We spent the night in the Tidal River campground and shot a picture of the XXXpedition rig on the sothernmost point accessible by car (pic04). The truly southermost point can only be reached via a 19-km hike (one-way).

Continuing to Melburn we stopped at Phillip Island and watched the Penguin Parade. Every night the fairy penguins, the smallest of their kind, come on land in groups to run across the beach in the safety of numbers. They tend to their burrows and their young and return to sea early in the morning to feed. This spectacle has become very touristy over the years and photography is not allowed to protect the animals, but in the visitor center we could look into some burrows and took pictures through the glass (pic05).
From here we made our way to Melbourne and met up with our sponsor ARB where we got a tour through their facility. It was fascinating to see how different parts of their products are manufactured.

We spent the next few days in Melbourne (pic06) and stayed with a wonderful friend who spoiled us rotten. On Saturday, we walked around the Central Business District with its many old buildings, arcades and alleys, buzzing with cafes and restaurants. We also explored some of the suburbs. Melbourne was gearing up for the Commonwealth Games about to start next week.

Sunday, March 12: We were invited to the annual Jeepfest just west of the city, a gathering of Jeep enthusiasts at a 4x4 testing ground sponsored by a local Jeep dealer. Our rig drew a lot of interest: A left-hand-drive vehicle with some components unusual for Oz, an aggressive setup with big tires (in Australia most trucks are built up for touring, not hard-core trails). The secretary of the club put it well: "Had you charged everybody that looked at your vehicle today, you could have paid for the entire trip." We enjoyed the company of experienced Outback travelers and soaked in their stories of lands yet to be discovered by us.

After some debate we decided to skip Tasmania. The customs debacle had cost us too much additional money to justify the almost $700 for the ferry ride. We left Melbourne and headed west.

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