Crash pictures

No, I didn't have another one, just received the pictures that were taken by the police after the crash... As you can see, we seriously demolished that van... and were lucky to get out of there alive...

Back in Sydney - parents visiting

I'm just over halfway of my year of travelling, a good time to see my parents again... They flew over to Sydney, and I did the same... the first two days, they got a bit unlucky with the weather ( i could feel it as well, came from 37 degrees in Darwin), but it was definitely nice to see them again after all these months... After letting them get over their jetlag on wednesdsay , thursday i took 'em around my favourite city and went to wildlife world in darling harbour, friday we went to royal national park and bundeena and in the evening had dinner in bondi. I'll meet up with them in Brisbane in about a week, when we visit the Dunn family... and in the mean time the weather got a lot better... sunny days in Sydney, although it's fall here... After Brisbane, I'm heading up to Airlie, Whitsundays, Cairns and Port Douglas...

Flight over Kakadu

As my time to get around the national parks in the Northern Territory was restricted to the weekend ( saturday afternoon and sunday), and Kakadu National Park is huge... i opted to see it from the air... which was a great way to see it (some of the park roads were still closed, and I got to sit in front...). Here's some pics from the flight... and a walk afterwards...

Crocodile farm and Litchfield

Besides running the Darwin TAB branch, I was also there to see a bit of what the Top End has to offer... So each weekend tried to get around and see some of the wildlife and the national parks around there... Here's some pictures from the crocodile farm (the largest white croc in the world - and the crocodile that featured in Crocodile Dundee) and some of Litchfield National Park ( waterfalls, rock pools, bushfires, termite mounds). And a little video, called ' i feel like chicken tonight'.

The article

As mentioned before... our crash made it to page two of the Daily Mercury...the local newspaper from Mackay... they do call me dutch in there, but hey... after what happened, even an insult like that is very relative... anyway... Maaike's back in Holland in the mean time, gonna need some more surgery, and it will take a long time to recover from that one disastrous moment... wish her all the strenght in the world...

Now in Darwin

To avoid confusion... I'm in Darwin now... changed my flight Cairns-Darwin to Mackay-Darwin.
Am taking over the branch from my colleague Ian, who' going... on a world trip... Hopefully I'll be able to see a bit of the top end between the work... And I will definitely go to Cairns and around at some later stage... didn't make it there as planned, but never too late... And got some positive news yesterday (after all that accident stuff, very welcome...) - I'm gonna be an uncle (and my sister a mommy, my parents becoming grand, and grandma grandgrand...). Congrats to the parents-to-be! (Sorry for spreading the news through this mass-medium ;o))

The crash

After Frasier, we drove up to Rockhampton, slept in the van on a carvan park, and had a nice barbeque. The next day, we were driving towards Airlie Beach, where i would drop off the girls to go on their Whitsundays tour, and drive further up to Cairns myself. We didn't actually get there - just after noon, Kalyani veerwed a bit off the road( due to road damage), into the grass. She tried to correct the manoeuvre, but the van started swirving, and we ended up rolling over the Bruce highway. We were driving around 90km/h so it was quite an impressive crash. The van ended up on it's left side, and Maaike had her arm stuck under it. Me and Kalyani managed to lift it off there, and i contacted the emergency services. Some people who stopped by in the mean time (they didn't really have a choice, our van blocked the entire road), helped me to explain our exact location (on the Bruce Highway, near Carmila, about 160km south of Mackay).
It took about 20 minutes before the first ambulance came, but Maaike was already being helped a bit by a nurse, and some other people with a first aid kit. Maaike was the only one with severe injuries, me and Kalyani had nothing appart from some scratches and small cuts... quite surprising if you see the state of the van... this could've been a lot worse... some 20 more minutes another ambulance and a police car came by, and the helicopter was called in. The girls were transported to the hospital in Mackay by the RACQ-CQ, and I followed the van on the tow-truck don't think it 'll ever drive again) in the police car. After we arranged the police report, i got our luggage out of the wreck, and the people in Carmila arranged a lift for me to Mackay hospital. There, got a small medical checkup ( didn't have more than a bruised hand from blocking myself to the roof during the crash and some cuts on my feet from running around in the glass on bare feet afterwards). Maaike was to have her first surgery - mainly having a lot of glass removed, and a assesment of the damage. Me and Kaly could stay in the red cross emergency accomodation next to the hospital... Maaike got another operation to days after, and was then transported by the flying doctors to Townsville, where better hand-doctors are available... Appart from a broken arm, and fractures in her fingers, there is also some damage in the nerves of her hands, and this requires very precise surgery... All in all, we're all lucky to be still alive, Maaike's the one who suffered the most, still has a lot of pain, and it will take a while until she entirely recovers... I wish her a lot of strenght in the next few weeks...
Pictures - impressive ones, but not on my camera, cause that's the only thing appart from the van that didn't survive the crash - and newspaper article - page two of the Daily Mercury - will follow later (when i get the pics from the girls, and find a scanner for the article).

Frasier Island

We had a three day trip on the island, basically a self-drive, where you shared the large Land Cruiser with ten people, made your way accross the island, and camped for two nights in Base camp. We had a fun group, did some fun driving (not always comfortable, but hey otherwise, you're not really 4Wd'ing)... saw some amazing places, lakes, lookout points, the shipwreck on the beach, drove over the beach, saw quite a few dingo's, a small shark, and some guanas... Good trip, really a place to recommend... especially lake McKenzie, and the Champagne Pools...

Life after Sydney

On the 15 of March, I finally managed to leave Sydney... my stay there has been extended a bit more than expected... as expected... After saying goodbye to roommates ( a week before), friends, colleagues and the city itself, time to see a bit of the east coast... We - me, Maaike, Kalyani, and Phil- first drove up to the Blue Mountains (again , I know - but conveniently close), and had a bit less than a week to drive up to Brisbane. We camped along the way, and had some stops other stops in Coffs Harbour, Surfer's Paradise, and a short stay in Brisbane... We also camped in a great National Park along the way, where the roos were hopping in between the tents and caravans, and in the morning, another animal visitor walked by our tent... a varane... pretty cool spot! In Brisbane, we said goodbye to Phil with a night out, after exchanging the car for a van, and then made our way further up the coast... Went to Maroochydore and Noosa, where we booked a Frasier trip. Met back up with Phil, and went to see the wild dolphins in Tin Can Bay. Oh, and for those complaining there's only me and girls on the pictures, here's some animals...