AUSTRALIA - IMPRESSIONS

If someone asked me what I thought Australia would look like, I always imagined Australia being red and orange desert sand with huge rock formations (probably because we learnt about the Ayers Rock at Uluru in our geography lessons at school) and just vast open land with no people for miles and miles. You say "Australia" - and I immediately think of the Outback in Australia. Secondly, I imagined a colourful sea bed with dangerous marine life and dangerous snakes and spiders. I had heard a lot of this massive island from family and friends and always had it on my list to visit one day.
So I made it! We have rented a car and are on route all the way from Sydney up to Cairns. Basically, we will be covering 3100 km in 12 days. So far we have stopped in Tea Gardens near Myall Lakes, Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise, Brisbane, Hervey Bay, Fraser Island, Airlie Beach and now on Magnetic Island, 20 min from Townsville. Tomorrow we drive to our last destination by car to Cairns, where we will stay a few days (before we fly to Darwin for our Kakadu National Park bush camp experience.) It is a lot of driving and we could have done with another 3-5 days. We have seen a lot already!
It is a proper road trip - we would have gone for a camper van but it was pricy, so we got a car - a silver grey Nissan Pulsar (with lots of scratches - I think it has been around a lot!). We try to stay only at backpackers hostels but sometimes they are fully booked and sometimes it is a lot cheaper staying in a motel or hotel. It does not make sense. Surely, a backpackers place should be cheaper. Well, we do spend a bit of time going from place to place to check out the rooms and get a good deal. Sometimes, it is nice to just have it all booked online - but everything takes time. We have still not stayed in a cabin in a caravan park - but maybe we will get the opportunity before we leave Australia. We tend to make our own breakfast, lunch or dinner. It all depends on the facilities that our hostels or hotels have. If we get a hostel with a kitchen - well, then we will be in there cooking. (It is amazing how much you can save by cooking yourself when you are on a budget). After returning our car in Cairns on the 31 May, we will spend a few days in Darwin (yeah it is too far to drive with our limited number of days, so we will fly).

Now that I am here - if you ask me what is it like, I would say it is a bit of everything. City life and the most remote life and then the in-betweens. Does that make sense? At first when I landed in Sydney, it was like being in Northern Europe (culturally - an English person would feel very at home - even the prices are the same!). It felt like being a London, just cleaner, and the water ways/ harbour prettier. (And the Indian food here tastes a lot more home made than in England. It is good.) I noticed the non-existence of old, historic buildings. In some areas, I could say "right now I am walking at Liverpool Street, and right now I am in Moorgate and in the Bank area." Then we started our road trip, and you realise that motor accidents are big over here. And it seems that most of these are caused my sleepy drivers. On various spots on the highways you see huge signs warning against tiredness. Some signs say "REST or R.I.P", "a tired driver is a dead driver", "stop revive survive", "survive this drive" etc etc. Each year about 6000 people get killed in road accidents over here, 1 person killed by a shark and 1 person being killed by a bee sting. So I am not so scared anymore of dangerous snakes and spiders - though you often get told that there are so many things that can kill you in Australia. Two songs that have been played to us on a bus tour say it all. One started "Come to Australia, you might accidentally get killed" and "We are all gonna die some day my lord". That is Australian humour for you - an yes we were laughing all the way on the bumpy roads on Fraser Island. ; )

Our road trip covered going into national parks with lakes, bush, rain forest, beaches, cliffs, and spotting wild life. Australia has a wild life you cannot find anywhere else in the world - the land of the kangaroos, wombats (looks like a giant guinea pig - bigger then a cat, is fat and has a face like a guinea pig), wallabys (looks like a kangaroo and jumps like one but are smaller - I did not know of these before), the super soft koala - a marsupiel that is nocturnal and very lazy), and the land with the most dangerous spiders and snakes in the world and the colourful, rich marine life. Australia has a lot to offer. It is even a place I would consider moving to, if it was not so far away from my family and the rest of the world (I actually think New Zealand is the perfect place - again if it was not so far from everything.) If Australia was on the cards, then Sydney would be the right place for a career, but to live, I would much prefer Queensland. It is so beautiful and scenic there. My favourite spots are really on the route from Brisbane to Cairns.
Like any other country, Australia do have its problems. Many don't know this, but the Aboriginals - the original inhabitants of the Australian land, were up until 1967 considered part of "Flora and Fauna", they were not considered humans. This is hugely difficult for me to understand. Up until 1976, a child who was half caucasian and half Aboriginal, was taken away from his/her Aboriginal parent to work in the cities. Our guide on the Kakadu bush camp (who is half Aboriginal and half caucasian, and grew up in Arnhem Land in an Aboriginal community) and an Australian girl who works in "reconciliation" between the Aboriginals and the Australians explained that there were integration problems and a huge lack of understanding and communication between both sides. It is very sad. I only know, what I have been told - I know very little about these issues.

With all my impressions, I have only been to a fraction of Australia (only the East Coast) and I am told that Western Australia and South Australia is completely different. So those places for another visit.
For you who have not been here - a visit is recommended. If you have limited time, I would concentrate on Queensland. Next time I come to Australia (wonder when that would be!), I would definitely like to see Perth, Ayers Rock, Alice Springs and spend more time on some of the islands. If you plan to go to the Outback, driving from the West to the East - it will take you 4 weeks solid and you will be out in nowhere. We were tempted but its better being a larger group than 2.