A new continent NIIICCEE. The flight was actually very short (8h) cause I was able to sleep on the plane which I usually can t. This time though I had two seats and so i missed out on all the nice movies. After my arrival I went to buy an Australien SIM card, to be able to call Fabian, then I booked a busticket from the airport in Brisbane to Hervey Bay where I would meet Fabian.
Eventhough I slept on the plane I was still quite tired, so i slept most of the time during the busride. Everything just worked out very fine. As you know I had prolonged my stay in Lombok, but Fabian hadn t, so he had been in Australia for already 10 days. During these days he managed to recruit two German guys who rented together with him a van to drive up to Cairns. The had rented a so called „wicked van“. Those vans are in comparison rather low costs and they look totally like a van out of the 70s, full of slogans and painting. Inside there are 3 mattresses and some cooking equipment. To be honest there is hardly enough space for 3 people but definitely not enough for four. Therefore we started taking turns who had to sleep on the front seats.
In Australia it is forbidden to sleep in your car which is a little bit stupid, cause if you are tired you better sleep in your car than continue to drive. I guess this kind of backpackers like us, just got annoying and thats why the introduced that law. So officially we cannot sleep somewhere in our van, but we simply don t care and the police knows that. So once in a while the police might bang your door in the very moring to wake you up, and make you go away. They do that cause asking to pay a fine usually ends up that the backpackers prefer to spend a day in jail than to pay 200 ASD, which the police tries to avoid.
Therefore every night we try to find a nice parking space which is not too obvious where we spend the night. The only disadvantage of wild camping is the lack of toilet and shower. Okay toilet is easily solved, as nature is abundant and there are always showers at the beach. As we are driving up the coast, we just stop once in a while at a beach for a swim and a shower.
On my second day we went to Bundaberg where we visited a rum distillery. Very interesting to see how they make rum and of course the tour included rum tasting... even better! My favourite one is the 10 year old mixed with cream,.. tastes basically like Bali's...
After that we continued until 1770 and spend the night there. Yes 1770 is the name of the place. Obviously in 1770 Sr. Cook arrived precisely at this point and decided to start a town here, called 1770. Not too creative I would say.
Already at the distillery and again in 1770 we met Bill. Bill recently retired and decided that he would like to see Australia. He has never traveled much in Australia before (even though he is Australian)... so slowly he is making his way through Australia in a van like ours (little less hippie though). We had some interesting discussions... and I have to admit I like the way you spend your time Bill :-)
After half a day on the beach in 1770 we continued to Malborough where we simply spent the night on aparking space next to the highway. He had to keep driving as we hardly had gotten forward (in terms of distance) so far. Next day was just driving and driving until Airlie Beach. This place is famous for its great whitesunday cruises and great beaches. This is precicely what we want to do here. Unfortunately it turned out that Fabi had gotten ill. So he spent most of the time in the back of the van sleeping, trying to get better as soon as possible. This evening we treated ourselves with a stay on a camp site!!! Hot shower and a camp kitchen + electricity!!!! Nice!! We charged everything that could be charged. Moreover we found ourselves a good deal for the cruise, that included a night in a hostel!!! YYEAAHHH more luxury!!!!
The way of travelling in Australia is just much more budget than in Asia but still it is very nice!!! Next blog will be about the cruise.
Kisses from Airlie Beach
Astrid
Cool
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