Australia - a SEA backpackers nightmare

A few days before leaving Southeast Asia (SEA) behind, right in the heart of the beauty of Bali and four month into my journey around the globe, my ways crossed a third time with a full beard French guy. "Hey, still around ... where are you heading to? Probably we meet next in Australia." "Oh no, too expensive, I'm heading straight to New Zealand" he replied with a smile of an experienced globetrotter. Well, two weeks into my trip from Adelaide to Brisbane, I rescheduled my departure: one week less. Let's hope prices are a bit less in nominal value, in addition to a better exchange rate; not only to contributing staying within an envisaged overall monthly budget of 1000 USD, but in first place having joy on such a big road trip.

 

I should have been warned. I am not even comparing with my journey 20 years ago. Just look at the Lonely Planet Guide from the Sydney 2000 Olympics of the millennium year: backpacker dorms were listed between 12-15 Australian Dollars, trading well below the USD. Today you pay at least 25-32 AD for a bunk bed shared with up to 20 other guys, and placing my own tent on one of the private camper grounds starts from 22-27 AD - without electricity on your plot, just next the luxurious camper vans with TV and own shower. Even beer - to be bought in so-called "liquor stores" - costs twice as much as the good old original Budweiser!

It happened that I finally rented a small car for eight days, traveling independently for the costs of a dorm bed up from Melbourne for my departure in Brisbane, "surviving" on selfmade sandwiches and some "clandestine" nights in inviting rest areas along the endless roads through awsome wilderness and scenic landscapes.

But let me start at the beginning: Down Under +20. No wonder that I went straight upon arrival to some kind of labor camp at Kangaroo Island. Don't worry, not because I got already taken out of the arrival's lane at the airport to be intercepted by a sniffing dog for drugs and other stuff. Nor after cutting myself my hairs - again taken off the visitor's lane - resulting in a smear test for explosives for a simple visit of the viewing platform on top of the centrally located parliament in Canberra. That's what Australia is by now: highly convenient and regulated. That implies costs. Oh, and a population enjoying the first and obeying the latter.

The "Outback" is no longer - at least not there where neat and tidy human settlements continue or grow in glass towers into the sky. 

To lift the secret: I joined the Conservation Volunteers for a project to maintain the natural habitat of the little Penguins breeding along the cost of Kangaroo Island. And to be clear, I am not talking about Australia as a continent inhabited by Kangaroos, which eventually I saw only in numbers dead along the highways - killed by traffic. No, Kangaroo Island is the third largest island just off Adelaide. And volunteering means coordinated work, like pulling off stinging thorn bushes, while paying for your own expanses. However, 250 AD for 5 days and doing something good appealed to me more than paying 500 AD for any 3-day adventure trip. The penguins I saw later - probably as a reward for the bravery with the thorn bushes without any native habitat - along the famous Golden Ocean Drive close to the World Heritage site of the "Twelve Apostles".

Missing out the Aboriginal heartland around their sacred red rock named "Uluru", I decided to take a not so common route for visiting tourists through the coastal hinterland: from Melbourne up to Canberra, crossing the Snowy Mountains and cattle feeding farmland as wide as one would imagine the "Wild West".

During that old days "Aussies" - mostly settlers and gold-rush guys - were somewhat fearless people, but one thing they run away too: bush fires. In 2003 the Snowy Mountains were hit by a severe bush fire, affecting 1.2 million square kilometers, or one and a half times the size of Mozambique (with Mozambique being ten times the size of Austria). And just on one hot summer day during my stay on Kangaroo Island, the dry farm and bush land of South Australia was exposed to more than 30,000 lightnings, some of them causing local bush fires. No wonder that all radio stations provide regular information on fire danger and bush fires: once out of control in gusty winds, even a car might not be secure bet for escape.

However, the mountainous road trip was rewarding. And reaching the Blue Mountains, bypassing Sydney, my legs rediscovered the difference between mountains and canyons. Hiking a mountain means the track first leads up, feeling your tired legs all the way down. Canyons are the opposite, you start downwards. Well, in line with that theory, the Blue Mountains are a bit confusing: they are a canyon.

Nevertheless, they gave me the first opportunity to get used to my new Merrell hiking shoes. Indeed, with all regrets and sorrow I dropped my old trekking boots after nearly two decades of service. Eventually I decided already during my trekking tours in Southeast Asia to find a new pair of shoes for my long journey. It is a fact that new materials and technology provides more comfort than heavy leather boots, but what to do with the old pair? No way to throw them away. In Africa they still would find some thankful feet. But carrying 2 pairs? No way either.

Sometimes you just need to follow the signs! Entering Victoria state, driving along wide green farmland, suddenly a fence with hundreds of pairs of shoes of all kind showed up along the highway. How strange, but it took me a few seconds to "read and link" the sign: the right place of company for my old trekking boots!

This is Australia!

Links to the first pictures along my road trip through Australia:
Princess Highway - The Golden Ocean Road

Roadtrip through the mountains of Australia