Aussie Christmas in Polish style

This Christmas, even though far away from home and family, we have experienced warmth, love and happiness, which helped us to reduce the feeling of homesickness. Because Polish tradition plays such a significant role to me during this time of the year, I have decided to prepare a real Polish Christmas in Aussie Land ;-) The preparation to this big event took us a while. Carla and I spent long hours in the Kitchen to prepare Bigos, Pierogi with Barszcz, sledzik, rybka po grecku, pieczen, saladja jarzynowa and view other AWESOME polish food!

 

And Here are are our awesome friends: Chris, Carla, Juan and his brother Daniel and Marcela 

And the best of the best ........ WYBOROWA was on the table as welllllllll

According to the Polish tradition, we do not eat meet on the Christmas eve. All the dishes with meat usually are served on the next day. This means there is even more awesome food a day after Christmas eve! But the best aspect about the Aussie/Polish/German/Colombian/New Zealand Christmas in Australia is that we are in Australia! and it is hot! The sun is Shining! and it is AWESOME!

Thank you very much guys, it was an awesome christmas and a LOT of fun!!!

There was a lack of family-members but our australian family filled the wholes quite well :)

Good night and good luck!

3000 Km/2 Weeks - Step 5: Platypus-Bushcamp & Finch Hatton Gorge

On our trip back, we decided to take a little detour to the mountains. As you can see, the view from the top was breathtaking, .

We walked a little through the jungle, admiring the variety of plants, gigantic trees and wildlife.

In a mountain river we were impatiently waiting for some wild-living platypus to show up, unfortunately we saw only lazy turtles for the first half hour.

A couple of mosquite-bites later and actually just when we decided to give up, suddenly we saw the treacherous oval-shaped ripples in the water. The information-signs about the indegenous wildlife instructed us that these were made by the distinctive beak of the furry, egg-laying memmal.

AND HERE IT IS: The probably weirdest animal in the southern hemisphere: EL PLATYPUSO

Feeling like good ol' Steve I. back in the days, we continued our journey to the borders of our maps.

Bewunia :)

The water in the Finch-Hatton-Gorge was freezing cold, but crystal clear and rrrrrrefreshing :)

Last picture before we headed home. A monument in Yeppoon

3000 Km/2 Weeks - Step 4: The Whitsunday Islands

On the 21st of November, we finally reached our destination. The Prima, a 13-people two mast sailboat was our house for the next 3 days, while sailing through the Whitsunday Islands.

Unfortunately, the people on the boat were not the most social ones, which led to us hanging out with the crew most of the time.

Again, no swimming without a full-body-condom because of the stingers.

Nothing more relaxing than lying in the sun after a good snorkeltrip through the reef.

Yes we were a little drunk ;) but without a boat-license to lose anyway.

On the second day we arrived Whitehaven Beach. Apparently the most beautiful beach in the world. The sand is so white and thin that it sticks on you like powdered sugar.

There were baby sharks and huuuuge stingrays everywhere in the shallow water. this one was about 1 meter wide.

Bewunia very happy to be able to walk on solid ground after two days on a boat.

Ladies and gentlemen, please hold on and cherish this moment of jealousy :) WE WERE THERE

BTW this smile was permanent!

It was just too bright!

Awesomeness: Check

Luckily we didn't take any stinger suits - so we couldn't go in the water.. Check out the shadow in the water above me. We just noticed it on the actual picture.

A viewpoint on top of the hill from which you could overlook the beach

Two kinds of natural beauty :)

Funny story: On the evening of that day, this guy 'Josh' came over in his dingi (sideboat) in order to bring us some tuna he caught.

He lives on a boat since he was 3 weeks old and is a parttime skipper for the company the Prima belongs to. On the third and last day on the Prima (we were already on the way to the harbor), he docked on and announced that he can take two more people on his boat for free for two more days.

There wasn't much hesitation between Ewa and myself. So we threw our bags in the dingi and drove off before any other guest even said something. They were more than lame anyway..

The result was very relaxing :)

Travelling the islands on a private boat had many advantages. You could get on any island you want.

This small island had aboriginal caves and drawings in them.

Let me introduce to you, the real owner of the boat. Sharkbait: The cat lives on the boat and only left it twice in three years to see a vet. And it got seasick once ;)

Unfortunately the spear-fishing wasn't successful enough for dinner. That's why we waited for the sun to go down to...

use THIS BADBOY TO CATCH SOME SHARK ;)

Small but spiky!

And the tail kept on wiggling for about half an hour after we cut his head off.. Creepy animals with a fascinating skin.

Okey we got bored and decided to kill some more. So we shone a light on the water and after a couple of seconds, so many calamaris appeared.





This fisherwoman caught them faster than Josh and I could kill and prepare them for breakfast on the next day.

On the way to the harbor we hissed every sail the boat possessed and couldn't wait to get onto solid ground and take a decent shower.

In the harbor, Josh's younger brother Seb came over and we had a chat before leaving the boat.
from left to right (Ben, Ewa, Jan, Josh and Lena)

Same same but with Seb instead of Ewa

These five days in the south pacific were peppered with awesome memories. Hopefully we'll get there again soon. Luckily we've got contact to the guys so that we can avoid the touristic trips the next time completely!

Thank you!