Preparations

Only one week to go and then we are leaving for Australia! (the 28th)
We just came back from a really nice week in The Netherlands and now it feels like a short break before we go on our next adventure :-)

The journey (by air plane) to The Netherlands went really well with the kids, we took our time and explained every step for them. We have confidence now that the (BIG!) journey to Australia will also go well and even when we encounter some problems that we can solve them.

We will fly from Copenhagen to Singapore (takes 12 hours), then we will be in Singapore the whole next day (14 hours) and continue our journey by flying to Brisbane (takes 8 hours) and from Brisbane to Townsville (takes 2 hours).
So the whole thing takes 48 hours(!!)
I have prepared the trip by checking the airports where we will transfer; what entertainment do they have and is there a place where we can relax. At Singapore airport for example they have gardens and playgrounds, and we can even go on a guided tour through the city, sounds great!

Furthermore I have collected and bought some small toys, games, creative materials and small presents for the children to keep them entertained (besides watching movies..) on the air plane.
And hopefully they will sleep some time during the flights, we will see!

Eventually the most important thing is to go with the flow, stay calm, see what happens and try to adjust to that, be flexible and open minded, take care of our selves (food and rest) so that we can see the needs of Nils and Fleur and can take care of them.

This counts not even for the journey to Australia but also for the three months we are going to stay there. We will be staying at the research facility AIMS where Ronald will do his research on the starfishes (who live on and eat the Great Barrier Reef) . They have accommodation for people like us, but I actually have no idea what kind of accommodation, I think it will be a small house with two bedrooms, but that's all I know. We will see!
AIMS is an hour driving from the city Townsville, so that means that we have a rental car and that we have to drive a lot if we want to do other things. But that's normal there, the distances are enormous!

One thing we already planned is to go to Cairns, a big city north of Townsville where we can go on a boat tour to see the Great Barrier Reef and we want to take a special train through the tropical rainforest to Kuranda.

That's another interesting thing; it's a tropical climate there. This means that it will be the end of the wet season, followed by the dry season (= kind of winter) and it will be around 25 - 30 °C. We will see to it to always wear a hat, sun cream, long sleeves and sunglasses, because the sun, next to the currents of the sea is the biggest danger of Australia.
And of course there is a time difference; it's 8 hours later.

This whole adventure feels exactly as it says; one big adventure! We can and want to prepare for it up to a certain level and after that we are most of all curious about what we will encounter!

Australia; we will stay in Townsville (in the black circle)