Why Austrlia stole my heart, Part 2

As we arrived in Broome we checked in an campground close to Cable Beach. It felt like starting holidays in your holiday. We didn't knew exactly what we wanted to do next. Our road trip was over for now. We had booked a flight to the Philippines as we still were in Perth. Our flight was from Darwin to Manila in 3 weeks. We loved Broome and we had some problems with our car so we had to fix it first.  As we met a couple from the hostel in Perth on the same campground, we decided to stay in Broome for 2 weeks and then going on to Darwin.

This 2 weeks were wonderful, we met amazing people which helped us with our car. They didn't expect anything from us and worked a couple of days on our car in the Australian heat, just to help some strangers so that we could go on with our journey. Beautiful humans, I will never forgot these people and I'm so sad that I have neither contact details nor I remember their names. But I will always have my memories.
They were two couples, an older couple from Melbourne and a couple around their thirties with, I think, an 4year old girl. They were from Brisbane and the woman was French or had french relatives, I'm not sure anymore. Beside that this two families were so friendly and helpful, the younger couple inspired me a lot how they choosed to live. Since the daugther was 1, they went on traveling. They had a big camper and drove through the country. If they liked it somewhere they stayed until they wanted to leave. If they needed money, they did some jobs, nothing specifical, just the job they got. The daugther was so cute and was totally happy. She had everything she needed you could see it. Not a lot of toys but a free childhood. To the question what the family want to do if the daughter has to go to school, they answered, they will go back to Brisbane but until now they don't think about tommorow.

Would be really interesting where they are now and what they are doing. I think this is one of the best things while you are traveling. For me other people fascinates me pretty much. There are so many different characters and they can enrich your life. I really like to think back to all  this wonderful humans on my way and I'm so excited who will join in.

Broome also is a beautiful small town. We rented a scooter to drive into the city, so it was more easy to go shopping or to made some excursions.

Between March and October, you can see 2-3 days a month the staircase to the moon. We watched this phenomenon on it's last day at the 'Mangrove Resort Hotel'. I can really recommend this place for watching. You have a pretty good view, they had a life band and everything you need for a good night out. In addition to that I learned what a sand flie is and I'm almost sure I will never forget.

This stupid flies are biting you all the time and you can't see them because they are too small. But what you really see are all the red stitches next day which itches so badly. From now on I never forgot my mosquito spray. In the Australian north it's your best friend besides sun milk and water, lots of water.

Staircase to the moon in Broome, WA

We left Broome reluctanty but we went on with our next road trip. This time we drove together with the couple from the hostel in Perth. We crossed together the border to the Northern Territory, slept in some dubious areas, swam with crocodiles (well that's what the sign at the river said) and jumped into the hot springs in Katherine. I think I'm the only person which made it to end up in the water first with my back. My boyfriend still laugh about me. Canada? I will never jump into your water, I promise!

'Road Stop' with our travel mates in the Outback

The lake with the alleged crocodiles

Border to the Northern Territory, Western Australia

Hot Springs in Katherine, NT

After Katherine we headed to Darwin while our friends went on to Cairns.

I can't tell you much about Darwin. Altogether we stayed there for 3 days. We arrived in the evening, checked in an hostel and slept the night. Next day we walked through the small city center and relaxed a bit. In contrast to a lot of other tourists, I liked it here. It wasn't busy and everything seemed really nice. If you want to party, Darwin has a lot of bars and clubs which are open the whole week and it seemed that you can go out every night.

In our hostel we met coincidental some guys from the hostel in Perth which invited us to an Irish Pub one night. It was a good night, especially to meet each other again. Some of them left the hostel earlier, some later. But all of us choosed the same hostel in Darwin too. Typical Australia. I loved that.

Next day we drove to the airport, left our car there and took the plane to the Philippines.

I will tell you more about this beautiful country in an other post.

We stayed a week after we arrived in Darwin again. We had some immigration problems because my boyfriend had just a tourist visa and they thought he worked ilegal in Australia just because I had a Work and Travel Visa. It was a pretty nerve- racking and I don't like to think back at this so I hope you understand why I don't want to repeat it.

We took our car and left Darwin ASAP.

We had a small road trip through the Northern Territory and Queensland. From humidity to extremly dryness. That's Australia, you got everything there, even snow in the south. You don't need to travel an other country. You can choose between desert, jungle, forest, mountains, beaches or the city.

We drove through a bush fire, which was pretty scary and I'm glad that it doesn't went out badly for us. On one point we had to choose to go on to Cairns or drive 2000 km to the Uluru (Ayers Rock) and 2000 km back and then heading to Cairns. We had not much money for the fuel and our time in Australia wasn't that long anymore. So we went on to Cairns with a pretty heavy heart.

Well Ayers Rock is still on my bucket list but I wouldn't regret if I never made it. This rock is sacred for the Aborigines and the white people made a tourist attraction out of it, let the people climb on it and leave their rubbish there. That's pretty sad. If I ever go there I only would watch the sunset around this sacred rock. We should respect it.

So we left the Uluru behind us and arrived in Cairns a couple of days later, after I drove our good old Henry through the craziest street I ever drove in Australia. The Kennedy Highway is always up and down, right, left, up, down...

My boyfriend thought I would kill us but  I wanted to prove that I can drive, too. First we were back in Germany I admit that I died the whole track.

Bush fire on the road to Cairns

 Border to Queensland

As we arrived in Cairns we stayed in a pretty nice hostel, one of the 'Nomads'. This time we rent a double room to have some privacy and time to think about how we would go on. We hadn't much money at this moment and I tried to get a job as a waitress again. Had a trial in an italian restaurant, but somehow we didn't want to stay the short time we still got in Australia.

So we decided to sale our good old Henry and travel the east coast with the money we got for our car.  It was important to me to see the Australian east as well because I didn't know when I would come back. Also I had to see Sydney. 

Pretty fast we found an other german backpakcer who bought the oldtimer. This was quite hard for us. We loved that car and shared so many good moments with it.

After we sold Henry, we went to 'Peterpans', a really good travel agency for backpackers in Australia. We had a nice woman who prepared for us the perfect hop- on, hop- off bus tour which started the next day.

Normally a lot of backpackers travel with 'Greyhound' buses. We took the cheaper variant with 'Premiere' buses. Our route started from Cairns to Airlie Beach, Rainbow Beach, Noosa, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Byron Bay and at least Sydney. Mostly we stayed in a hostel for 2- 3 days at one place.

Cairns, Queensland, Australia

Big tree in the city center of Cairns

I really enjoyed the Rainbow Beach with the biggest sand dune I ever saw. I felt so small in this giant setting. Noosa Heads was also nice, we walked a whole day through the Noosa National Park and I realized the first time how different the Australian east was in opposite to the west.

Unfortunately the east coast seemed a bit overrun with tourists and backpackers. Most of the time I spoke german than english. I couldn't catch the Australian spirit that much.

I should mention Byron Bay, it's a small surfer town and it totally felt cozy to walk through the streets or hanging around at the beach. It still has an hippie atmosphere and that made this town so special.

We decided to do a trip to Nimbin as well. An old hippie commune which is still allowed to exist with their own rules. It was really funny to see how different this people live and pretty interesting.

Airlie Beach, Queensland

Green Tree Ants at Airlie Beach

Airlie Beach, Queensland 

Giant Sand Dune, Rainbow Beach, Queensland

Me at the giant sand dune

Rainbow Beach, Queensland

Noosa Heads, Queensland

Noosa National Park 

Noosa National Park

Jellyfish at Noosa Beach

Noosa National Park

Brisbane, Queensland 

Skyline of the Gold Coast

Byron Bay, New South Wales

Nimbin hippie commune

Nimbin Art

The nature around Byron Bay

Kind of rainforest

Well our final stop was Sydney which I was looking forward since we arrived in Australia and the city didn't disappoint me. I really love it. I loved the architecture, the old between the new buildings, everything was so clean and as well the Harbour Bridge as the Opera House was truly impressive. Also recommendable is the Botanical Garden in Sydney. It's wonderful, with so many plants and flowers I never saw before.

We stayed in the suburb King's Cross which is good for backpackers who want to party and have the city close.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Opera House

Sydney, New South Wales

Saint Maary's Cathedral, Sydney

Flower at Sydney Botanical Garden

SydneyTower

Sydney City

Sydney Opera House

We said goodbye to Australia at Kirribilli with a beautiful sunset view to the bridge and the opera. The perfect ending for our Australia adventure. Next day we took our flight to New Zealand.

But I always knew that Australia won't release me. It utterly stole my heart.

Sydney Skyline

Sunset at Harbour Bridge

Sydney Skyline

Sydney Opera House by night

Thanks for reading this long Post. Hopefully I could explain a bit what Australia did with me. But to understand completely, you have to go and see Australia by yourself.

If you still got some questions I willingly will answer everything you want to know.

Last view of Sydney

I nearly finished with sorting out the apartment. I made a lot this week and tonight I will start my weekend. Hope you got a beautiful one too.

See you soon.