We were still in the south of Aussie in the middle of summer here. Next stop: The Grampians.
The Grampians is a national park and lies a little further inland from the south. You can imagine beautiful hikes, view points and plenty of waterfalls. So when we were planning our 2 days here we decided to do everything! So, on the first day, we went to an undeniably beautiful viewpoint and we swam at a waterfall.
At the end of the day we had to find a good place to sleep again. The campsites were way too expensive ($ 90 a night!!) so we did it the illegal way and stood next to the campsite with a bunch of bushes where Sabien could set her tent.
We woke up at 4 o'clock (yes you read it well... 4 o'clock) because we wanted to see a nice sunrise. Sabien's tent was still safe in the bushes and we slept like roses in our van.
We woke up Sabien and it turned out she had a whole story!
We had some wine earlier that night and she woke up at half past 12 with a VERY dry mouth. The solution for this was in our van and so she came out of her hiding spot. At that moment she sees 2 boys walking her way, she immediately thought it was the police. So she jumped back into the bushes.
Those guys heard twigs in the bushes and went for a look and saw Sabien there!
'Did you just come out of the bush over there?'
'No'
'What are you doing?'
'Nothing'
'Huh... Were you peeing?'
'No'
'Is there a kangaroo?'
'Uhm... I don't know... don't think so'
'But you just came out of the bush'
*And still Sabien was afraid it was police.... *
The boys did not understand anything at all. After a while she finally said:
'Ok guys, I thought you were from the police, but I'm sleeping in my tent right there and my friends locked me out. I'm sooooooo thirsty! '
The boys never saw the tent. They immediately offered a drink at their tent, because they were at the campsite.
At the end of the story, Madame Sabien sat at a campfire until 1AM with a couple of English guys and a glass of water. She told them about her plans the next morning with us, well next morning... just say 3 hours later... And the boys immediately said: We want to join!
So the first question Sabien asked us that morning was whether we were OK with that... Of course, after she assured us she didn't dream this whole story, we said yes and she was going to get them.
Long story short, we were very happy that they went with us because we would have gotten lost on that mountain! At 4 o'clock at night (and therefore pitch dark) it was quite difficult to follow the yellow arrows.
In the end, we were on time for a great sunrise which we enjoyed with just the 5 of us cause nobody was crazy enough to get up that early!
After this we drove to Phillip Island to see the smallest penguins in the world.
After 1.5 hours waiting in the cold those little ones were finally launched on the beach. Sometimes not far enough and it became a struggle for some to not be taken away with the waves again. It was nice to watch for a while.
The next day, it was time to deliver our Sabien to her new family. We drove into a villa district and yes... one of them was Sabien's new home for 4 months where she will be working as an au-pair. We were immediately invited to eat and have a Corona. We had dinner in the garden, of course with kangaroos around us.
'Do you want to use the shower tonight?'
Of course! And if we wanted another corona? Uhm YES! But then we cannot drive anymore... Well then we had to stay over! Luckily, we did not have to say goodbye to our sweet third musketeer.
The next day we drove off without plan, without a destination and without Sabien ...
'Let's get some patrol first. It's so cheap here ...'
'Yes, let's just do that'
And then something happened at the patrol station... A man came to Nik and said:
'Do not ask why, but I'm going to pay for your patrol'
In our next report there's more about this! And we will write about another country soon as well! ;-)