The first day, we had to pick up our car. A wonderful Nissan Dualis (one could nearly say an SUV). We had even a car passenger for the first day, a finish guy called Mikey. Yes, you heard it correctly, neither German (50 % of all backpackers in Australia) nor French (48 %), but Finish, they are apparently in Australia as well. He only wanted to come until Noosa, where we brought him and went on a lookout to have a great view above Noosa. But we anyway wanted to see Noosa in the end, as we found there a couchsurfer, so the visit stayed quite short.

Afterwards, we went on to Maryborough, to Brandon and Amanda, our first couchsurfer on this trip. To make it short, we spent probably more time with them than sightseeing in Maryborough (a small colonial city with a nice market but otherwise not much to see). They had THREE border collis. One of them was a 9-months old puppy. The three were so active, but also really well educated, wherefore we spent the whole evening playing with the dogs and chatting to Brandon and Amanda.

After we had a walk through Maryborough the next morning, we went on to Stephen, our next couchsurfer in Gladstone. But this is another story…

Noosa von Oben / Noosa from uphill

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The overnight train was very comfy as we both could sleep almost without any interruptions. That’s definitely a recommendation whoever want to do this trip in the future. While we were sitting in the bus to our accommodation, we experienced what it means to be in the middle of the summer in Queensland. We were welcomed by a very heavy rain shower! Since the north of Australia has a sub-tropical climate and therefore has a rainy season, you always have to expect short heavy showers if you walk around. When we arrived almost dry we had a bit of a rest to recover the 5 days of camping and train. Our hosts, 2 people from Singapore, living in Australia for 8 years, were both very nice and helpful.

In the next days there were two things on the schedule: exploring Brisbane and planning our trip at the northern east coast.

Let’s start with Brisbane: as we both were not really excited about Sydney (not even ask about Perth and Adelaide) there was the next bigger city of Australia. While thinking “things can only get better” we started exploring and we were pleasantly surprised. Of course Brisbane is not as big and busy as Sydney, but smaller with a lot of charm and some very nice sports. Southbank is one example for such a spot. It’s something like a park area directly close to the river (which remembered us a bit of the Thames in London). The park was built for the EXPO 1988 and one can walk through a little rainforest path to a Nepalese temple. Or you can walk through arches surrounded by flower. Or you take a swim in the free swimming pool directly next to the river. At the other end of Southbank, next to the museums and the theatre, one can see the BRISBANE sign, which became famous during the G20 in November. The CBD is a mixture of older buildings and modern architecture that is situated very beautiful along the snaky river. Additionally, there are a couple of beautiful bridges with lookouts on Southbank and the city. One thing was always a highlight when visiting an Australian city: each of them had a nice botanic garden and so does Brisbane. However, the one in Brisbane has an outstanding feature, as it is the habitat of a special kind of animal: the Australian Waterdragon. There were so many of them, that we even had to be careful not to step on one of them. Last but not least we indulged a visit in the cinema. “The Hobbit” finally arrived in the southern hemisphere.

So let’s have a look on our further plans:

We had some ideas, what we wanted to do. The two highlights of the east coast, Fraser Island and Whitsundays, were definitely part of it. The big question was, however, if we wanted to go until Cairns (only 1700km north of Brisbane) or not. Cairns is something like the Mekka of all backpackers at the east coast, mostly because of its countless offers for tours to the Great Barrier Reef (incl. skydiving, helicopter etc.), but it’s also famous for the Daintree rainforest. Besides that, it’s almost twice as far away from Brisbane as the Whitsundays, which makes it expensive for both, time and money. That’s why we shelved the plan, but still had a bad feeling because of it until Tobi got a weird call. He posted on several pages that we need a lift to Cairns and an Indian called him and offered us a completely FREE ride (he just searched for some company for the long drive). After we met him we almost wanted to confirm, but the plan had two problems. First he wanted to drive to Cairns within 5 days, so we could have seen only 1-2 attractions and would have to rent a car to see everything we wanted to see on the way back. Due to the one-way fees, that would have been more expensive than renting a car Brisbane-Cairns-Brisbane, including the money for the fuel. That’s why we declined the offer and decided to give Cairns a miss.

So the final plan was as follows: We wanted to drive up to the Whitsundays and make a nice tour with the car in between. So we rented a car for 2 weeks, this time one which could be used to sleep in it in order to avoid too many camping grounds. Additionally, we tried to find couchsurfers on the way, which worked out so good that we spent only 4 of 14 nights on camping grounds, but more details will come up later 🙂

Brisbane Downtown - Brisbane Stadtzentrum

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The event company for which we already worked a couple of times in Perth, was looking for staff for the 3-day music festival Lost Paradise in Glenworth Valley (30/12-01/01), around 100km north of Sydney. We wanted to use this chance and applied for all possible positions. We got both rosters for 40h as bartender. Additionally, we were allowed to camp for free meaning we had an accommodation for free over New Years Eve, we got a bit more pocket money and if we won’t have to work (what happens not often during a roster of 40h in three days), we would be allowed to go for free to the festival. All these facts convinced us why we made our way from Sydney to Glenworth Valley the 29^th. But it wasn’t that easy without a car: by train, a 30 minute taxi drive and a spontaneous lift from the festival entry to the actual camp ground (a 15 minute downhill drive over hedge and ditch), we reached finally the destination, together with another German guy working behind the bar as well. Arrived, we built up our tent in the nowhere. Cause Glenworth Valley is a national park and in the valley a huge even ground comprising the festival area and camping grounds. The first day we went quite early to bed ehm tent, these three days were supposed to be quite hard work. As we bought the cheapest 2-3 person tent we could find (no idea how three people should fit in there), we couldn’t expect a lot: it was freezing cold in the night and in the morning, when the first sunbeam shined on the tent it became immediately unbelievable hot. However, we didn’t get much sleep during these days.

The first day in the bar was quite comfortable: our job as bartender was to sell beer, spirits, softdrinks and other in cans. Wine and champagne were filled in glasses and only one mix drink had to be prepared. After 1-2 hours of work, one knew all the drinks, where they are and what works in which way. It figured out quite fast that our boss hired too much staff. Usually 20-30 % of staff confirming their roster just don’t show up. This time EVERYONE came and so there was way too much staff. In addition, the festival guests have to bear up a 3-day festival for three days, and don’t drink without hesitation directly in the beginning (like it was at Stereosonic in Perth). Fully occupied bar and no guests! However, the first day we were allowed to work our whole roster until the end, meaning Kerstin 15.5 and Tobi 12h.

The second day, New Years Eve, the cliché was approved (sorry to all ‘Stralians reading this): Australians drink a lot! We have the feeling that all the laws to reduce alcohol consume do not work. E.g. it is not allowed to sell alcohol in supermarkets, but in special bottle shops comprising certain certificates. Additionally, everyone who sells alcohol (inclusive us) needs to have an RSA certificate (Responsible Service of Alcohol). To get it, you have to answer stupid questions in the internet and pay 12$. In the end, you just have to know that you are ACTUALLY not allowed to sell alcohol to drunk people. To get back to the topic, Australians drink a lot. To explain a bit, I should mention that I am not talking about festival guests, no, there was still nothing going on. All the bartenders drank so much. When Kerstin worked together with a 19 year old Australian girl (you remember: too much staff and therefore one is at the register and the other one serves the drinks), she said she is currently drinking her 5^th Smirnoff. Unfortunately, everyone did it like that. Except of two other girls and the both of us, everyone got drunk. Anyway, somehow it was after 12h (another year without fireworks, but somehow understandable considering the high temperatures) and with it the new year. Everyone of the bar staff got „officially” a shot and a small pseudo-party, while only the sober people were working. Our lovely manager wanted to kick us out at 12am, but Tobi was complaining so we worked until 1am (instead until 2am).

The third and last day, there was absolutely nothing going on at the bar, so we both got kicked out after 3 and 5 hours working, respectively (instead of 12 and 14h). This really sucked, because the 1^st of January is a public holiday in Australia as well, why we earned 38.50$/h (instead of 21.30$). Of course complaining didn’t make any difference, so we had to leave and spend the rest of new years day on the festival with a very bad feeling together with to other annoyed barkeepers who got kicked out as well.

The next day the atmosphere was still down, we did all of our luggage and the journey went on direction north because we booked a night train to Brisbane (so we could save the accommodation for an additional 5^th night). However one question remained unanswered, how we should reach the small train station in the city we arrived from Sydney to the festival. We didn’t want to take a taxi again as it was just a bit expensive and there had to be someone who wanted to go the same way from the festival. Unfortunately, all the people we asked wanted to go to Sydney, which was the opposite way we wanted to take. After we asked a couple of people we found a group of campers who would take us to the exit of the Valley back to the highway exit in direction north and we started our first trial of hitchhiking. After only 10-15 minutes we found a lift who took us directly to the train station. Additionally we had a very nice talk during the around 30 minute journey! It couldn’t have been worked out much better.

The train was an hour late, but when we finally sit inside we still had to organize the accommodation for the next days, since nobody replied positive on our couchsurfing requests. Therefore we booked a cheap room on AirBnB for the next three days. Couchsurfing doesn’t work really well in the big cities of the east coast….

After we tried for a long time to get a couchsurfer in Sydney and didn’t succeed (understandable cause it was Christmas), we booked a room in an apartment through AirBnb (was indeed cheaper than the worst hostel in Sydney). The apartment was quite central (10min to the CBD) and our hosts also very friendly. They didn’t live in the same apartment as expected, but had an own apartment on the other side of the floor. We realized that it is an apartment with three bedrooms and the renters own the apartment only to make money via AirBnb. Well…

After the first evening at Sydney Harbour and a half crossing of the Harbour Bridge, we fell exhausted to bed. Yeah, a BED, the first real bed since 3 weeks. The next day, the next guests arrived, Irene and Pier from Italy who spent the last 20 months in New Zealand and plan to stay for one year in Australia. We immediately became friends and gave each other hints for Australia and New Zealand, respectively. Additionally we planned to prepare a Christmas dinner together. The next two days we continued exploring Sydney: the Opera House, the Botanic Garden with the Mrs Macquaries Point from which one has a great view on Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Additionally, we participated in an interesting free guided tour in the CBD of Sydney. It turned out again that Australians (generally, but mainly historical interested people) are so proud of their Australian history. The voice of our guide almost cracked when she proudly told us about the oldest still existing building from the colonial days. Believe it or not, it is 150 years old. After we saw a couple of European cities (e.g. churches in Rome being around 2000 years old), we only could smile a bit about her.

Christmas arrived! But nobody of us had a Christmas feeling: Christmas in summer, horrible colourful blinking decoration and NO hot wine… So we decided to prepare Fondue together with Irene and Pier to get at least a bit of a Christmas feeling (in Germany, we always have Fondue for Christmas or NYE). After the necessary big shopping (at Aldi) we decided to make the most out of the rainy weather and went to the cinema before having Christmas dinner. Actually we planned to watch “The Hobbit”, but the release date in Australia was boxing day (26^th), so instead we watched “Hunger Games”. The fondue in the evening was the same way as it is in Germany: dangerous but delicious :-). Our kitchen had not the right equipment to prepare a proper fondue, why our Italians bought a cheap fondue set in a second hand shop. Unfortunately it was for chocolate out of ceramic with a candle which is apparently not the best choice if you want to cook with boiling oil… Here a short summary: The oil was either too hot or too cold, why we always re-boiled it on the stove. That means we had to refill the cold oil from the ceramic pot to a regular pot and reversed with the boiled oil. It worked twice before the table caught fire… Ok that’s a joke, but we had boiling oil on the wooden table. That was the point it became a bit too dangerous for our opinions, why we just fried the meat on the stove. Anyway it was delicious as we had different sauces and salad. Additionally, we had wine and listened to Christmas songs. Almost perfect 😉

Finally the weather became a bit better, why we stayed the following two days at the beach. For Australian/American Christmas day (25^th December) we went to the world famous Bondi beach. Since we saw all the beautiful beaches at the west and south coast, we were a bit disappointed (maybe we just expected too much). The beach was very active (incl. some Australians dressed up as Santa Claus), but we’re still wondering why it is that famous… Bondi is a city beach, with hotels and all the typical tourist stuff in the background. Even surfer might only come there due to its proximity to the city, because it’s so crowded that it has to be difficult to catch a good wave (However, the waves looked quite well). For the Boxing Day we decided to go to Manly Beach. Some Australians told us before it’s the nicer one of these two. To cut the story short, definitely better than Bondi, but not comparable to Lucky Bay in Esperance as an example. Maybe the best part of Manly is the drive on the ferry through the Harbour in order to reach the beach.

We spent our last two days in Sydney with some organisational things for the NYE festival (buying a tent, organising the drive and the next travels, but have a look on the next chapter). We were also able to watch a firework in Darling Harbour, which takes place every week for the 6 weeks before Christmas. Australians have some weird ideas, but on the other hand Sydney is just too crowded during that time of the year. Every evening another cruiser is arriving, flooding the Harbour and the city with thousands of people (most of them are Chinese, of course). One has to entertain this crowd… Anyway, we were quite happy that we didn’t “have to” stay in Sydney for NYE, even though we missed the world famous firework.

Once again we could experience the kindness of Australians: On our last day we crossed the Harbour Bridge completely in order to enjoy the view on the Opera House from a park on the other side. Soon after we arrived there were 3 Australians and a black-whited Collie (!!!) choosing the bench next to us. Of course, Tobi couldn’t resist to ask them if it was a Collie, even though we haven’t seen this coloration before and we started an almost 1 hour conversation with them. Two of them were twins working as stewardesses and the other one works as a consultant for perfume. Not to forget the ten years old deaf collie. We had so much fun even though we were completely stranger for each other…

Last but not least, we tried to meet our want for some cultural activity, why we planned to visit some of the museums. We gave the idea a miss after the visit of the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was apparently written as one of Sydney’s highlights in our tourist guide. To say it calm, absolutely not spectacular. In order to do a first short summarize: Australia is absolutely beautiful, the Australians are super nice and fun but the cities are definitely not the highlights of the country. Whoever may plan a visit to Australia, don’t spend too much time in the cities, it’s definitely enough to visit them only a couple of days!

The world-known Opera House - Das weltberühmte Opera House

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