Is there anything better than a road trip? The answer of course is yes, and there are many things better. But is anything better than the first twenty minutes of a road-trip? That's tough. After several nights of being (ridiculously generously) hosted by Dave's cousins in Cairns, we hopped into a campervan, and set off down the East coast of Australia.
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| Eyes on the road? nah... |
As I said, the first twenty minutes are glorious. Amazing sunshine, blasting tunes out of the radio, an immense feeling of freedom. But then as night grows nearer, and you head further south, the rain, the cold, the lack of radio through the country, and the stopping every half an hour to fill up turns things slightly sour. However the sourness is only that - slight. Driving in a campervan for 2,500+ kilometres down Australia was awesome, though we're not complaining about sleeping back in beds.
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| Bedtime |
Our first stop off down the coast was Airlie Beach, gateway to the Whitsundays. We didn't even go to the Whitsundays so instead have a picture of Rolf Harris:
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| The Australian Chuckle Brother |
As some may know, Australia is expensive. Really expensive. You can get by just about. We survived on $1 value bread, and $3 plastic cheese slices. mmm… Delicious! As a consequence, wages are high. Want to stand by road works on the highway and flip a 'Stop' and 'Go' sign at cars? Have $40 per hour, with double on Sundays! Do YOU think you could sweep up in the mines? Well have $120,000 per year then! It's ridiculous. In fact, Australia is so expensive that Dave had to cut Myles' hair for him as barbers cost too much.
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| Also the haircut was done in a rainy carpark |
As a treat, we splashed out and booked a tour to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is simply immense and the three days we spent there rank among the best of the trip. Often with stuff like this, it's the people you meet who make it either a good trip or a bad trip, and this was the case here.
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| Our brilliant TEAM B |
Despite having several dodgy drivers in our team (one girl hit a tree and she wasn't even close to the worst), powering through the beaches and forests in a massive 4x4 was fantastic. Dingos were plentiful, we saw a whale (but it was beached and died a few days later ;_; ), and even met a couple guys who went to Wilmslow High School. Small world.
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| DINGO |
The closing week or so in Australia was sadly punctured slightly from the weather. 'Torrential rain' is an understatement. Still, we managed to spend a fun morning with Adam Stewart (bosslord) who showed us some wallabies just hopping down some posh residential roads...
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| boing, boing, boing |
We even outshone Kelly Slater on our surfboards in Byron Bay…
And we then met up with Mike Kingdon (check out his awesome blog HERE) in Sydney. Sadly we only had time for one night out in Sydney with Mike, but we will be going back next month. For those who haven't been to Sydney, check out Kings Cross - walking down the streets is a competition to see if you see more prostitutes or more homeless people.
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| We saw the Opera House but sadly not Harold Bishop! |
And that just about wraps up Australia. Coming from Asia we were slightly unprepared for the sheer cost of everything, and as a consequence, McDonalds $2 double cheeseburgers probably saw too much action. Also we probably shouldn't have come in the winter since the rain and cold were pretty lame. Despite that though, Australia rocked, the road trip rocked, this song rocks, and if you read all the way to the end, you rock.
