We left Darwin, the very northern part of Australia, and traveled around 5,000 kms all the way down the west coast to Perth. Guess how many maps we needed...none! We literally used the basic australia map in the back of our Lonely Planet Australia guide book. That was it! Mind you I cannot get 200 miles from Salem to Miami of Ohio without printing out a map quest...but I made it around half of Australia just fine!
The first few days of traveling we were still in Northern Territory in an area they call the Kimberleys. It was too bad we did not have 4WD because the Kimberleys consist of high mountain ranges, deep gorges, etc. So it was very treacherous driving that we were not willing to risk in our van. Speaking of our van, It was decorated with an aboriginal painting down the sides. I think it was a painting of a lizard. On the back of our van it read, "If you can't race it or take it to bed, it's not worth having". The van company insists on writing these dumb sayings on the back of all the vans, but based on comparisons with other vans, we were lucky to have that saying! We had lots of stares from people on the road, probably because they were so envious... My favorite thing would be when we were hanging out in our van, and someone outside would start taking pictures of our van, not knowing we were in their watching them. Note: the van had very tinted windows. Overall I loved the van! But back to the basics, we had to pass by the Kimberleys (only 4wd accessible) so we drove straight for the first few days to get to Western Australia, WA!
Oh yes, on our second day driving we ran out of gas on the highway! Woops! We were still getting used to the Australian highways and figured they were similar to America where there is gas, excuse me petrol, every 100 miles atleast. But here in Australia everytime you see a petrol station you pretty much need to fill up. Especially if you are at half a tank or less! Well again did not get the memo so we do end up running out of gas. It was so painLESS! We flagged a car down who said we should look for caravans, or people towing boats or mobile homes because they usually travel with extra petrol. Oh he also said "you have to fill up in this country"... Oh gee thanks, sir, for that hot tip. But he was right because after flagging down about 6 more people, who all pulled over so easily because everyone in Australia loves helping out, they also like getting all the details..."Where are you headed? Where are you from? How long you here?" Etc. But a man pulled over, he was towing a dirt bike, and he had just enough petrol to allow us to cross into WA and find a petrol station. Success!
Throughout the 3/4 weeks we slept mostly in our car and sometimes in our tent. By the end of the trip we were pros in setting up our tent and making our car bed...we got into quite a routine. Where did we sleep? Where did we park our van overnight? The answer is so vast and various! It depended on whether or not we were still on the highway, in a town, close to our destination, etc. But sometimes we slept in designated Parking/Camping areas which were along the highway. Other times in caravan parks, residential areas, or even in a few front yards of people we met along the way. Traveling is so common in Australia, not only among foreigners/ backpackers (like us) but with retired couples. The Aistralians call them "grey nomads". These grey nomads trade in their house for a mobile home/caravan which comes with a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, tv room, etc. I only ever peeked inside these homes, but they were set up! So due to all the travelers, along the highway as well in towns, people cater to our needs. They even offer free coffee for the driver in many gas stations!
We were on a strict eating and sleeping schedule as well. Basically sun goes down, we go to bed, sun comes up, we are awake. When driving we would have to pull over and find our sleeping spot at around 4:30/5 because we would need to make dinner while the sun was still up! Sometimes that plan didn't always work but luckily we each had a head lamp that we all could use to get dinner prepared.
Note: When I say dinner, I mean a mix of dry food options because we did not have a refrigerator in our van. Just a cooler, or as they say here, an esky. So food consisted of noodles, canned soup, tuna, canned chicken (surprisingly good!), fruit, peanut butter and jelly, and granola bars! Yeah I know, I was roughing it!
So there are the basic details of my trip. However the best details are the sights we saw and the people we met as we traveled the 5,000 ks. We saw beautiful beaches, endless red dirt, remote national parks, tiny one street towns, and again lots of red dirt. We met travelers as well as locals, and everyone had great tips on places to go and things to do. My stories won't do these places justice so I will be posting pictures soon to share! Stay tuned! Love and miss you all!
