After the Outback trip I was realy happy to trade the tent for a bed in my own room in a real house, I lived with Jimmy, Kelly, Abby, Jack and 3 dogs for about 5 weeks in Townsville again. Besides a bit of Babysitting I didn’t do much work. I just enjoyed the beautiful city on the beach with over 300 days of sunshine a year. I definitey fell in love with the capital of Norh Queensland and it is for sure that I’ll spend more than just holiday time at this place. But since I’m here for travel AND work I had to stop being lazy…After about 2 month of traveling/holidays it was time to do some work again.

And where would it be easier to make some money than back in good old Tully…so I went back to the Bananas for a month. I couldn’t make up my mind where to go next, I still wanted to see the West and South of Australia but I was just not ready to leave the Tropics yet. I decides to go back to Townsville for a few weeks. I got a job as a kitchen hand, I met really nice people and I liked Townsville more and more. But it is to early to settle so I needed to keep going…

Destiny led me to Magnetic Island, a beautiful tropical island just 20 minutes from the Townsville coast. I’ ve been there quite a few times before, for diving, Full Moon Partys and things like that but I never thought about looking for a job over there. Well it just happened that they were looking for a kitchen hand/waitress and housekeeper at Bungalow Bay Koala Village (http://www.bungalowbay.com.au/). It was just perfect! I lived in paradise for the next 5 weeks. My bungalow in the middle of a tropcal garden with palm trees, lorikeets, koalas, cockatoos, wallabies, swimming pool, hammocks, Reggae music and just the most chilled out atmosphere. I did three hours housekeeping in the mornings for free accommodation, food and drinks and night shifts in the restaurant for saving money. I hardly had any expenses but a great lifestyle. I dreamed about spending Christmas and New Years in the sun at the beach all my life and finally after 26 years I made it happen! It was just great. I love the people I worked with, we were like a big family, I didn’t feel lonely during the holidays (what I was a littel bit afraid of) even though of course I miss my family and friends in Germany!

It was so hard to leave Paradise but again Australia is a big country, I had to keep going if I wanted to see it all. My New Years resolution was to make a plan for the rest of my time over here. And I did, after 9 month of living from one day to another I actually planned the last 3 month. And the plan is: Tully for one more month (…money…), Cairns for a couple of days to catch up with friends, flying to Perth (West Coast) on February 17th where I meet my friend Daniela who’s coming over from Germany and then we have 2 month to travel along the south coast from Perth to Sydney. Depending on how much time we spend in Perth, Adeleide, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and all the other places in between and how much money we have left in the end we might do some more travelling to other countries/islands before we fly back to Germany mid of April. If I manage to fulfil my plan by the end of my trip I’ve seen all four coasts, the center, all six territories, all big cities, all kinds of seasons, climates and weather and then I will be ready to come home…