Travel on M&M

The Mighty Canning Stock Route

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 11:30:10 +0000

Four years ago on our first Simpson Crossing the topic of the Canning Stock Route (CSR) first came up in conversations with Ed, Bill, Megan and Julie. Back then it wasn't really something we had every considered doing or felt the need to do, since it was meant to be nothing but 2000km of the worst corrugations in all of Australia.

Fast forward to May 2024 and to an email from Ed suggesting August 2025 as travel date for the CSR, since Angus and Teja would then be on the road for their honeymoon and could join us.

Back to Lembeh

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 18:44:50 +0000

2025 was the year of Martina's 50 birthday and also our 25th wedding anniversary. We had wanted to do something special but couldn't decide on what. Going to Japan was a strong contender, but so was a relaxing beach holiday.

In the end we did neither and decided to go back to Lembeh for diving - or rather back to the Lembeh Resort for diving.

We only went for 7 days plus two travel days but still managed to have a relaxing holiday.

Diving in North Sulawesi

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 18:10:26 +0000

For years we talked about going to Lembeh muck diving. The first time it became slightly more concrete, we ended up going back to Raja Ampat with Thierry. The second time we started planning, Covid came along and delayed our plans. So this time nothing was going to derail our plans.

Initially we had only wanted to go to the Lembeh Straight, stay in a cheaper resort for a week and then splurge for a few days at Lembeh Resort. But Markus found the Murex Resorts which partner with Lembeh Resort for a combined "Passport to paradise" experience and we decided to basically follow that.
So we booked three days at Murex Manadao, three days at Murex Bangka and then 5 days at Lembeh Resort.

Simpson Desert via Madigan Line

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 19:52:00 +0000

We made good on our promise to return to the Simpson Desert with Ed and Karen whom we met on the trip last year. We had started planning late last year but realised three weeks before leaving that due to the unexpected amounts of rain we had to redo some of our plans. There were another few hickups like Markus injuring his back a week before leaving and two of the other couples that meant to join us pulling out on the last day.

Crossing the Simpson Desert

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 19:51:06 +0000

The last year saw us make very little use of our car and we started thinking about selling her. On top of that she had turned 11 and various bits and pieces had started to break down and needed repairs. Given that Martina couldn't bear to sell her, we decided to instead make more use of her. This was aided by the fact that we were very limited in where we could travel to and there were still a lot of empty patches on our Australia map.

Raja Ampat 2018

Sun, 08 Apr 2018 19:56:28 +0000

Because Thierry turned 40 this year and changed his mind about going to Lembeh and because a lot of other things happened, we ended up booking another 11 day liveaboard trip on the MSY Seahorse where we stayed also with Thierry in 2014.

To our big surprise Daniel - who had been the second dive director the first time round - was still there, which contributed to this trip being a lot better than we expected.

Vienna and Paris

Sat, 08 Jul 2017 19:49:18 +0000

Markus had for the longest time wanted to go to Paris. But whenever we fly back to Austria for a visit, there is never enough time to go anywhere else. So this year, since it was shortly after our 20th anniversary, we booked the trip with three days in Paris at the end.

We ended up renting electric bikes in Paris to get around more easily and where therefore able to do a fair bit of sightseeing whilst also being able to visit the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay and go up onto the Eiffel Tower at sunset.

Tubbataha Reef and Palawan

Wed, 12 Apr 2017 19:42:35 +0000

After talking about it for years, we finally went to Tubbataha and Palawan. It did not turn out to be the amazing trip we had hoped for, since we had bad luck with the weather conditions for the first part of the trip. But it was nonetheless enjoyable for the most part. And we met Erik again whom we first met in Thailand on a liveaboard and hadn't had any contact since. What are the odds!

Closing the Loop

Sun, 14 Aug 2016 18:02:57 +0000

In the past ten years of us living here we have been slowly filling up our map of Australia. But there was always this top left corner that was too far away and too remote to do in a single short holiday.
For a while now we have been planning on maybe doing it in two separate loop drives. But then we ended up doing the upper part of NT last year when Markus' brother was here.
And really - why do we own a big 4WD, if we don't use it for trips like this?

Myall Lakes weekend

Wed, 09 Mar 2016 07:37:57 +0000

Another great weekend in the Myall Lakes National Park with our new roof top tent.

A wedding in Thailand

Sun, 08 Feb 2015 12:20:28 +0000

Last April we went to Thailand to attend the wedding of Jason and Shirley. As such things are not done on a wimp, we got the invitations about 10 months before the actual event which was to be held on the Anzac long weekend.
The initial thought of flying there just for the weekend was dropped quickly when we realised that Easter fell just on the weekend before. So with only three days annual leave we could take 10 days off.
The obvious answer to the question of what to do with those extra days in Thailand was of course scuba diving. And so after weeks of research we ended up booking two different liveaboards to both go up to the Similan Islands as well as east towards Phi Phi Islands and then up to Railay/Krabi for the wedding.

No Customer Satisfaction with Austrian Airlines

Thu, 11 Dec 2014 22:48:06 +0000

On our last Austria visit Austrian Airlines were snide when they made us re-pack first five then one kilogram of checked-in luggage even though our total luggage weight was well below our tickets’ allowance. When I asked them what they gain from that they decided not to respond.

Diving at Sipadan

Sat, 17 May 2014 14:32:07 +0000

Our dive trip to Mabul and Sipadan now seems like a lifetime away. But we keep thinking that Sipadan was probably the best dive trip so far. The abundance and diversity of marine life we encountered there was simply stunning.

Traveling to Sipadan

Sat, 06 Jul 2013 11:40:41 +0000

This is our first travel review on our site in about 10 years of sporadic blogging. But visiting both the great Seaventures Dive Rig as well as the mediocre but overpriced Sipadan Water Village left both great as well as negative impressions which we felt we should share.

WA 2012

Wed, 02 May 2012 12:53:56 +0000

The highlights were the Karijini National Park, the Millstream Chichester National Park, Cape Range National Park (Exmouth) , Francois Peron National Park and lots of other stuff (Coral Bay, Kalbarri NP, Pinnacles, beaches, lookouts).

The old image gallery versions (works in IE and all other browsers): Sydney to Exmouth Exmouth to Perth

The new version works under Firefox and Chrome: Sydney to Exmouth Exmouth to Perth

Lake Eyre

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:47:43 +0000

For the last three years the fact that Lake Eyre had water was luring us there. This time we actually made it there.

Here is the interactive map with the pictures. And here is the normal gallery .

SYD-BNE-SYD

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:43:59 +0000

We decided to use up all our frequent flyer miles, all our credit card award points as well as a little bit of our savings to do a different kind of trip.

GBR or as Markus likes to call it the Red Barrier Reef

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:23:08 +0000

We were back. For the last three years Martina thought that I was wrong. She always thinks that I am wrong about something, and since I actually am wrong about some things, she thinks that she is right about most things.

Central NT

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 04:46:18 +0000

We spent 11 awesome days in May with Barbara and Matthias driving around in central Northern Territory starting and ending in Alice Springs.

Cairns to Alice Springs

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 08:25:35 +0000

Rather spontaneously we had decided 3 weeks before Easter to try and cover another bit of our Australia map. So we took 3 days off and combined them with the long Easter weekend and drove all the way from Cairns to Alice Springs. This time it only took about 2 weeks to get the picture galleries online AND a travel log written.

10 days in Vienna

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:40:32 +0000

We spent 10 action packed days back home in Vienna where we actually managed to meet up with nearly everybody though the schedule was tight and we did not spend nearly enough time with each of our friends and family.

Check out the picture from the trip we have put online.

SA to WA trip galleries online

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:39:01 +0000

It’s done. I have finally managed to put pictures from the trip online. The travel log will still have to wait a while. But I’ll get there eventually.

Adelaide to Perth

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:41:34 +0000

We covered another part of Australia’s cost. Another 3000km closer to finishing the long drive around the country.

Planning a Trip

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:27:18 +0000

Yes! We are really going to drive from Adelaide to Perth in October. Martina can finally put another route on their map.

Fiji pictures

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:50:53 +0000

After a month has passed we finally put the Fiji holiday pictures online. This is a short story about the trip and additional explanation to the pictures.

Fiji!

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:18:02 +0000

Another 25 minutes and we are off to the Fijis for 9 days.

Diving at the Great Barrier Reef

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:12:06 +0000

Wir waren mit einigen anderen APEC Flüchtlingen auf einem 3-Tages Live-Aboard Dive Boat Trip am Great Barrier Reef auf der Höhe von Cairns. Tauchen in einem riesigen Aquarium!

Juhu, Urlaub!

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:00:23 +0000

Die APEC findet heuer in Sydney statt und fÃ¼hrt damit zu einem regelrechten Lock-down der Innenstadt.