Our Thoughts On Australia

We tried to do this at the end of the Asian section and it was easy to write a summary for Asia as we only spent 1 month there. It seems like an impossible task though to sum up 7 months in Australia but we will do our best....

We really can't believe that we have been here so long as it doesn't seem that long ago that we arrived in Cairns, the tropical North East of Australia. The highlights here have to be skydiving, Hartleys Creek Crocodile Farm and buying the van as well as the free dinners in the restaurants for backpackers.

From here we started to travel South with our maps and guidebooks through the Atherton Tablelands ending up in Tully for a spot of white water rafting. A short drive later we were in Townsville and decided to head for the outback and Uluru, Kings Canyon and the Olgas. This took a week to get there due to the problems with the van. In this time in the outback we came across millions of wildlife including kangaroos, dingos, camels, snakes, spiders and birds of prey. We also learned about the Aboriginal people, the hatred that exists between them and the white settlers, and the way that they still choose to live to this day without developing.

From the outback it was back to the East Coast and we travelled from Townsville down to Brisbane. Some of the highlights were Airlie Beach, Rockhampton (the steak capital of Australia), whale watching in Hervey Bay and our 3 night trip to Fraser Island, followed by a trip to Australia zoo.

After 2 or 3 months of travelling around Australia it was time to turn our attention to finding work and after 2 weeks job searching around Brisbane we picked up our job on the lettuce farm in Warwick. Here we spent almost 2 months of early starts at 5:30am or 6am, 6 days per week weeding, hand cutting lettuce and harvesting salad with a tractor. The time was passed with our free dvd rentals via our library membership and cheap Tuesdays where the cinema and pizza shop offered cut price deals, we were really living it up in style! We also took in a rodeo one weekend and a drag race event another weekend. All this while still sleeping in the back of a van and sneaking into a campsite each morning for showers.

Eventually we left work as it became unbearable in the 40C+ heat and swarms of flies attacking you and it was onto the theme parks just south of Brisbane. The theme parks were a great way of getting back into the holiday mood and it was then onto the Gold Coast. We also explored the Gold Coast Hinterland and spent a good few days up in the mountains learning about the volcanoes that created much of the landscape around here.

Sydney was then in our sights and we headed towards it stopping off at some interesting places including New Italy and Australias Scottish town MacLean.

We spent an unsuccesful week in Sydney trying to sell the van before deciding to head for Tasmania which was one of our best decisions as we both loved the place. It has a more Scottish like climate, amazing green scenery everywhere and has the history of Port Arthur, one of the most infamous convict settlements in Australia. Hobart is also the home to Cadbury Australia's main factory where we took a tour to sample the chocolates on offer.

It was then back to the mainland and Melbourne where we managed to sell the van to Igor the Italian and spent a week not really doing much as the weather was rubbish and it pretty much rained all the time.

From here we were unsure what to do as it was coming up for Christmas and New Year and we had intended being back in Sydney but it was too expensive. We ended up getting a cheap car rental relocation to Adelaide which enabled us to drive the Great Ocean Road before spending the most un-Christmasy Christmas in Adelaide, living on pot noodles and having a Chinese for Christmas dinner.

A quick check of the finances and budget airline websites allowed us to book up some flights. First stop was Perth for New Year where we went to Fremantle prison, hung about the nice beaches and parks and hired out a car to travel the South West coast taking in Margaret River, Denmark and some more fantastic beaches.

Darwin was next on the list and the highlight of this was the Cage of Death where we cage dived with huge salt water crocodiles.

It was then back to Sydney to take in the sights of the Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Botanic Gardens and beaches.

We feel that we have managed to cover everything that we wanted to see which was beyond our expectations at the start so we are delighted with that. Now it is onto New Zealand!!