The biggest problem on their way to the waterfall was the car park. Sofia needed a full minute to find a position that made it very easy for her to leave the space without turning. The waterfall had a lookout next to the car park, but both made the decision to walk down a little path with a lot of steps, to be down in front of the waterfall.

After a few photos they climbed back up the stairs and went on with their joyride.

The next stop was next to the Great Ocean Road. A campground and a little snack bar where they got some fries, a hot dog for Sofia and a salad for Sara. The food wasn't the reason why they stopped here. Around a hundred yards away from the snack bar, behind the campground was a path up to the mountains through a eucalyptus wood. And in these trees were koalas.

"My tour book doesn't say anything about this stop." Sara browsed in her book.

"That's why Karen wrote it down for us. Look, there is one!" Sofia stopped and pointed up a tree next to them. The difficult thing was to see koalas high up in the trees. They didn't really move, the made no sound and their gray color matched pretty good to the trees.

"Aren't they cute? I want to cuddle one."

"As far as I know they've got sharp claws, you should think about that." Sara warned.

"First of all they are too high up in the trees. You think we'll find a place where we can touch them?"

"I don't know. Maybe in a zoo."

"After I won't see the Great Barrier Reef I want at last contact to one Australian animal."

"We could have taken the road up north to the Great Barrier Reef, you didn't want that."

"I saw your guide book, it's too much tourism up there, I want some real Australian feeling. We can do the Reef another time, if I like the country I want to come back. So far it's great and I really look forward to see the outback. Do you think it will be like the desert? I mean, it's a desert too, there shouldn't be so many differences."

"On the pictures the ground is very red, I haven't seen it that red at home. And the distances are much bigger. We'll see."

"Yeah. Another one." Sofia got her camera and tried to zoom the koala in.

"How long do we have to drive from here to the Twelve Apostle?" Sofia asked.

"Around an hour."

"We've got two more hours until sunset. I've some chopped fruits in the cooler bag, we can have them and a can of coke. I'd like to eat and drink something while we're there. Sitting on a bench with you, watching these rocks and the sun going down in the ocean. It was amazing in Waikiki, let's see if…where are we…?"

"Victoria."

"Victoria can beat that. So far the coast looks great, it reminds a little bit of a part of the south east of Oahu when we had the day trip with the girls."

"Yes, that's right."

"Okay, we saw half a dozen koalas, let's go, I'm sure there are a few lookouts on our way and we'll want to stop there for photos."

"And we shouldn't be too late at the Twelve Apostle to get a good space for our caravan and a good place for us to look at the sunset."

"You said caravan, you start to talk in strange English."

"We should try to use their words, makes it easier for a conversation."

"They like conversations." Sofia grinned. She had a conversation with an elderly woman at their last stop. The woman was from Perth, the biggest city in Western Australia, and she and Sofia had a few laughs about the different English and the misunderstands that could appear through that.

"They do. They see you, don't know you and instead of going on like it is in most countries, they stop and start talking to you. Very friendly people, we could learn from them."

"There are only twenty million of them in this huge country. That's less than in California. Imagine you walk through New York and talk to every stranger who looks like a tourist and has a funny accent."

"You'd never leave Broadway." Sara laughed.

They made it on time to the Twelve Apostles. With food and two cans of coke they got themselves a place on the railing. Before they got there they had a stop at London Bridge or London Arch, a rock formation, that looked like the famous London Bridge until a part of it collapsed in 1990.

"Okay, tell me your story about these two people." Sofia said. Sara had wanted to tell her a story about two people when they were at London Arch but Sofia had stopped her so that could make it in time to the Twelve Apostles.

"The two survivors stranded in the Loch Ard Gorge is named after the clipper ship Loch Ard that ran aground in 1878 after it's three months trip from England to Melbourne. From the fifty-one people on board only two survived, Tom Pearce, a ship's apprentice, and Eva Carmichael, an Irishwoman who wanted to immigrate to Australia with her family. Both were only eighteen at that time…"

"That's sounds like stuff for a movie."

"I know. They filmed "'the Journey to the center of the earth" there in 1999 and some other movies. The arch nearby collapsed 2009, now the two rocks are called Tom and Eva after these two young people."

"Things like to collapse here quite often."

"The sea is rough. Australia lost a prime minister down here when he went out for a swim on Cheviot Beach in 1967 and drowned. Harold Holt was the seventeenth prime minister of this country and the only one that ever drowned. I don't think any other prime minister in any other country drowned."

"An unusual country."

"It is. It's amazing."

"So are you. Why do you know all these things?"

"I started to look up the Great Ocean Road, looked for some stories about it and found these two. It's interesting to learn things you don't read in every tour guide book."

"My dad would have loved to have you around as a child. I'm sure you'd have appreciated the holidays at civil war places."

"I'm not into war, I'm more interested in peace. But it's a part of our history, there were a lot of mistakes made and we should learn from them and the best to learn is to know."

"Yes, he would have loved you there."

"Do you love to have me here?" Sara smiled.

"Absolutely. It's more interesting to listen to your stories than to his. Sitting here, watching the sunset is better than walking over a field for hours. Any stories you want to tell me about the Twelve Apostle?"

"Sure. This area was first called 'Sow and piglets', Muttonbird Island near Loch Ard Gorge was 'Sow' and the small rocks here 'Piglets'. They changed it in the fifties of the last century for tourist reasons; of course. Twelve Apostles sounds much better than sow and piglets.

One apostle collapsed in July 2005, it was fifty meter tall…" Sara got Sofia's look. "…that should be around fifty five yards, I guess…"

"Thanks."

"You're not stupid, you're a smart woman, you can convert that yourself."

"Yeah but I'm on holiday I prefer to think less."

"No wonder you're not a CSI anymore."

"You want to say a lieutenant can be stupid?"

"No, they are smart too but a scientist never stops thinking. Anyway, one less since 2005 and in 2009 one of the three sisters collapsed."

"I thought they are in the Blue Mountains."

"They used this name for three smaller rocks here too."

"Why do people always use the same name for different things?"

"Some names are simply famous. Back to the Twelve Apostle, only eight of them are still here."

"There are more than eight rocks here."

"Yeah, but not all of them are Apostles."

"This is getting too complicated and spoils the fun. I call them all Apostle, if that's fine with you."

"It is."

"Great. And after food and information I think we should have a little walk around take some more photos. No matter if eight or twelve or twenty, they look stunning in the evening sun."

"They do." Sara agreed.

"You know it's a pity you're a vegetarian." Sofia took a big bite from her dinner.

"I used to eat fish but it's an animal too. Eating fish would be betraying the reason why I stopped eating meat."

"Most people say fish isn't meat."

"I know but it's an animal. But I can tell you, it looks good."

"It tastes good." Sofia had ordered snapper with potatoes and fresh mixed vegetables while Sara had a big salad and some fresh bread. They sat in a restaurant in Port Fairy, happy to be that their final destination for the day. It had been dark when they arrived here because they had used every second of the daylight for the Twelve Apostles. So far the most amazing and beautiful thing they had seen on their Australia trip.

It's a shame we don't have more time." Sara sighed. "There are so many national parks in the hinterland and we have to hurry to see everything. Tomorrow to Adelaide, the day after tomorrow the flight to Uluru, the two days there and at Kings Canyon, back to Adelaide, through the outback back to Sydney."

"We quit our job and have all the time in the world."

"And no money after a few weeks"

"That's the other side of the story."

The restaurant wasn't far away from their campground and with a bottle of wine they walked back to their trailer. It was after nine, they were tired but not ready to go to bed.

Snuggled in a blanket and with the wine they sat in front of their trailer and watched a group of young people around fifty yards away. They had made a fire and had a little party.

"Did you do that when you were young? Leaving home with a bunch of friends for a long weekend somewhere else?" Sofia asked.

"I didn't really have friends when I was in high school. Foster kids are not that popular."

"What about college? People are a little bit smarter when they get older; some."

"No, I was too busy studying. I wanted to keep my stipendium and needed certain marks for that."

"I'm sure you had them all."

"Yes." Sara chuckled. Her marks were barely under an A and if that had happened she made sure it wouldn't happen again.

"What about you?"

"I was more into parties, not traveling. To go on a trip cost too much money, you can spend your money with parties in your hometown, no need to go anywhere else. The benefit when you grow up close to Vegas, there's everything a good party needs."

"Close to the captain."

"That was the only down side. I can tell you, my mother could be a pain in the ass."

"I'm sure she said the same about you."

"She did. But I was, she still is."

"Why's that?"

"She wants to see me married. The last time we met she wanted to set me up with a colleague of hers. Do I look like I want my mom to pick out my partner?"

"No." Sara laughed.

"I swear the next time she starts with this topic I'll make up a story to shut her up. I'll tell her we're a couple, that should make her shut up."

"You want me killed?"

"She won't kill you, stop saying that. She likes you."

"At least as long as she thought I'm only a colleague."

"She knows you're my best friend."

"There's a difference between best friend and lover."

"Yeah a best friend is reliable."

"Thanks."

"In that case you'd be perfect, as a lover and best friend."

"Do you try to talk me into a relationship with you?" Sara cocked her head and looked amused to Sofia.

"I don't have to, in two years you're mine anyway. The wedding deal."

"I don't plan to be the next two years single."

"Oh, who is it? Who caught your attention? Do I know him?"

"He doesn't exist – yet. But I plan to meet him."

"We'll go out a little bit more when we're back in Vegas. Two gorgeous women like us, there must be two decent guys who want us."

"I hope." Sara took a sip of her wine. She started to miss a relationship. It had been a while that she and Grissom split, she wanted somebody new in her life. It wasn't like she was desperately looking for somebody but she would like to find somebody in the near future.

"Can I ask you something personal?"

"If not you, who could?" Sara laughed.

"Nobody?"

"Exactly. What is it?"

"I'm still a little bit stuck with my idea to tell my mom that we're a couple so that she leaves me alone…"

"If you want to tell her that, go ahead, I don't mind. But think if you really want to lie to her. If it's worth."

"Probably not. Did you ever sleep with a woman?"

"Are you coming after me?" Sara giggled.

"No…no even if it would be difficult to get somebody better than you."

"Thanks, likewise. Did you?"

"No. There were so many men around me all the time, they got my attention. If a woman was interested they were…I don't know, too harsh, too much like male machos and I don't like machos. I like men who know what they want but if they are arrogant and think they're god's gift to women, they can stay wherever they are. I don't mind a macho as long as there's a sensitive spot inside."

"Like with you, very smug from the outside, very sensitive from the inside."

"Yeah, I want another me." Sofia smiled.

"What an awful thought, two Sofias…"

"You'd probably fall for this guy because he's like me."

"You think? No, I live without arrogant people around me. You are enough."

"That's not the nicest thing to say."

"The truth isn't always nice."

"I know." Sofia cocked her head. "You owe me an answer. Or was it too personal?"

"No." Sara laughed. "I don't think there's anything we can't talk about, at least I can't imagine a topic I don't want to talk with you about.

Yes, I did sleep with a woman. Once. When I was in college. We were friends, drunk, I've no idea how got this idea, but we tried it."

"Is it different than with men? I mean, it should, it's a woman…"

"The men I slept with I was in love with, you know I'm not into affairs. I tried it, it didn't work for me. This woman was a one night stand, so it wasn't that good. I don't blame her, I don't blame it on the fact that she was a woman. We were drunk, we weren't that close, there were no feelings, it was more like…yeah like a science project. It has nothing to do with making love."

"That means if I end up married with you, the bar isn't that high." Sofia laughed.

"Not, the bar is really low."

"I promise I'll try to be better than her."

"I'm sure you would be."

"Are you?" Sofia raised an eyebrow.

"Don't look like that. It has nothing to do with being good in bed. We are close, even if we would sleep together not because we feel like lovers, we're very close friends, we know the other one, I know how you react to certain things, you know how I react. We wouldn't wake up with a hangover, wouldn't see it as a kind of science project. You are close, closer than I was too most of my boyfriends."

"I know what you mean." Sofia took Sara's hand. "There's trust and respect in our relationship. I trust you boundless."

"So do I to you."

"No high bar for our wedding night, that's something to look forward to."

"There won't be a wedding night, not one for the two of us, Sofia. You'll find your smug sensitive man and become a mother and I'll get my man who isn't emotional unavailable."

"Sounds like a good plan. You think we'll the right men here in Australia? Could you imagine to marry an Aussie?"

"Why not?" Sara giggled. "All we need is somebody who gets his wrong English into right English. I saw a few really cute guys here and they were all nice and polite. I hope you come over twice a year to visit me."

"Of course I'll drag my family around the world to see you and your roo rooter."

"I beg your pardon?"

Sofia's grin was wide. "I met this Kiwi, New Zealand guy, when I was taking photos of the Twelve Apostles and he told me, Australians are roo rooter. Must be the revenge for the sheep shagger. When I told him, we wouldn't use 'root' in that context he laughed and said, he knows we root for a team and people here are wondering with whom of the team and how often. We need to go to a local pub, I want to learn more of these funny things we say and they understand something else. Like ass and arse…if I tell them I'll kick their ass they might tell me, they don't have a donkey."

"It would be an interesting marriage, yes. A challenge."

"We find you a cute farmer, enough space for my family and me when we come over for a few weeks. And you come back to Vegas twice a year so that you don't forget how civilization looks like."

"That's a deal we can try to work on tomorrow. Come on, lieutenant, time to go to bed. There are six hundred kilometer waiting for us tomorrow."

"Tell me again in miles."

"Around 370 miles."

"Okay, we'll need a few hours for that."

"Yes."

"Breakfast at eight, leaving at nine?"

"Latest."

"Okay, fast breakfast at half seven, what means getting up at seven for a shower and leaving at eight?"

"Better."

"And they call that holidays." Sofia sighed. She hoped there'd be a day they could sleep in. At least one day.