The Great Barrier Reef

One of the most famous reef systems in the world, the Great Barrier Reef is world-renowned for an abundance of marine life and world-class diving opportunities. When I was there, I saw turtles, sharks, vibrant coral, beautiful fish, and even a fish poop (which was as weird as it sounds). It was everything it was cracked up to be. You can spend a day or a few days diving this reef. Though everyone leaves from Cairns, leaving from Port Douglas or will get you to less crowded dive spots.

Sydney

Known for its famed opera house and harbor, Sydney also boasts an incredible bridge, great parks, delicious food, lots of free stuff to do, and amazing surfing. Whether you go to Manly Beach or hang out with everyone else in Bondi, Sydney is a place to relax in the sun and enjoy the water. Darling Harbor has a number of good restaurants, great entrainment venues, and the Chinese Garden is quite relaxing. For a night out on the town with colorful locals, there’s nothing like King’s Cross too.

Uluru

You wouldn’t think that a giant round rock covering 8 km of land would be breathtaking, but it is. The wind blown cuts throughout the rock makes it look like a wave of sand climbing over the desert. The iron in the rock produces amazing shades of red and orange during sunrise and sunset. While you can climb Uluru, be forewarned that it is a sacred area to the people of this area. Oddly enough, they allow visitors to scale the rock, but they don’t like it. You can take tours here from nearby Alice Springs.

BBQ

Aussies do a lot of things well and one of the best is throwing a barbecue. The Aussie BBQ is a serious tradition, and most parks and public areas have at least three BBQ pits. In fact, I don’t know what Australia would be without a barbecue. There’s nothing better than a beautiful warm night, a few good beers, and some grilled up Kangaroo to make you love this place.

Wine

Australia has some great wine regions that include Margaret River near Perth, the Barossa Valley near Melbourne, and the Hunter Valley near Sydney. There’s a lot of good wine to be tried while in Australia, especially Australian Shiraz and Pinot Noir. You can take day trips to any of the wine areas from the nearby major cities or simply take a trip to the wine store and get drunk in the park…while having a BBQ.

Western Australia

This is my favorite part of Australia. It’s truly beautiful with its large expanses of outback and white sand beaches that stretch for miles without a soul in sight. I’m glad a lot of people don’t visit Western Australia; otherwise it could end up like the East coast – crowded and overbuilt. Karijini National Park puts Kakadu and Litchfield to shame and Coral Bay and the Ningaloo Reef is even better than Cairns the Great Barrier Reef. I love it here.

Perth

Sydney and Melbourne get all the attention, but Perth can hold its own against these two heavyweights. There are great beaches, one of the world’s largest city parks, surfing, and nearby Fremantle where you can have Australia’s best beer (Little Creatures). Perth is a city filled with young people and has the vibe of a city in motion, just coming into its own. Don’t forget to Sunday drinking sessions at the famous Cottesloe Hotel.

Surfing

Australia may not have invented surfing but they might as well have given how ingrained it is in Australian culture. The best surfing is on the East Coast and there are a million places where you can catch a good wave. You can head to Sydney and places like Bondi beach but I find the best surfing is up in Queensland. I personally think Noosa is one of the best places to surf because there are waves for professionals and beginners.

Beautiful Beaches

With over 50,000km of coastline there’s no way this country could exist without beautiful beaches. The ones on the East Coast are far busier than one deserted beaches on Australia’s western coastline. But with so much coastline, you’ll always find a spot to relax by yourself. My favorites include Coral Bay, Cable Beach, Noosa, Manly, and any beach in Perth.

Lush Jungles

One day I’m going to settle down and when I do it will be in some lush tropical place. Maybe Queensland will be that place. Here you’ll find one of the oldest continuous tropical rainforests in the world (it dates back to the age of dinosaurs!). There are great places to go hiking, tons of wildlife and birds (watch out for crocodiles though, and some really nice rivers and swimming holes to cool off in. If you really want to get away from it all, head far north to Cape Tribulation where it is you, the jungle, and some ocean.

Australia has way more to offer than just these 10 things. One could probably think of 365 reasons to visit Australia (Vegemite not being one of them!). But we get drawn to countries for certain reasons and this is what draws me back again and again to the wonderful land down under.

For more information on Australia, visit my country and city guide to Australia travel.

Coral Bay is my paradise. In Coral Bay, on one side, the land is barren and arid cattle country, where sheep roam and truckers try to avoid hitting kangaroo. On the other side, is blue water, sandy beaches, and the Ningaloo reef with its abundance of marine life.

I love the beach and everything in this town revolves around one giant white sand beach with turquoise blue water that stretches until infinity and a reef system so close to the land you can swim to it. There are so many turtles, fish, and stingrays it’s too much to handle. When I was there in 2007, I woke up everyday, swam with turtles, relaxed on the beach, and worked on my tan. At night, the setting sun would light up the sky in fiery tones of red and orange while I cooled off with cold beer and good friends.

Life in Coral Bay is perfection and my time there went way to fast. I could have stayed for weeks and I longed to go back and visit. A quiet beach town is all I want in life. When Tourism Australia invited me to Australia last month, I declined their offer at first. After all, I just went to Australia at the beginning of the year. But, when they told me I could go back to Coral Bay, I jumped at the chance.

I wondered what the town would look after three years. Tourism in western Australia has grown in recent years and I wondered if this sleepy town had been spoiled. Would I return to my one road paradise to find multiple roads, more hotels, and more restaurants.

Whatever Coral Bay looked liked now, this visit I planned on doing more than just sitting on the beach. To begin with, it was off to explore the outback that surrounds Coral Bay. While in the countryside, Kangaroos jumped all around, eagles and other birds flew in the air, and there was wildlife everywhere. Then we went down to the beach and spotted parrotfish jumping in the shallows and reef sharks circling for food.

After seeing the land, it was time to see the water. Snorkeling and swimming around the reef for a second time, I realized this is the best reef in Australia. The Great Barrier Reef gets all the attention, but the Ningaloo Reef is much better. There’s more wildlife; whale sharks, turtles, dolphins, and brighter coral. It hasn’t been spoiled by overdevelopment or overfishing. While the Great Barrier Reefs looks amazing from the air, it is what we see underwater that matters, and I see far more underwater here than I do on the Great Barrier Reef.

During March and April, whales sharks migrate up the coast, and large manta rays can be found around the reef. But being off season, I had to settle for Manta Rays. I took half day snorkeling trip around the reef and about an hour outside of Coral Bay, we spotted some large Manta Rays. These creatures were huge! It was amazing to swim with them and watch them glide effortlessly through the water. I never realized how big these creatures were. In my mind, they were as big as a person. In real life, they are as big as three.

After three years away, I left happy. I was glad to see the town was still quiet and peaceful. Coral Bay isn’t an easy place to get to. It’s in the middle of the western coast, the closest airport is two hours away, and it’s a few days drive from Perth and a solid day drive from Broome. It’s that isolation that probably keeps most tourists away. (And also makes things fairly expensive here.) You mostly find Australians who have rented campervans or the few intrepid backpackers who paid to get out this far.

There is nothing in eastern Australia that equals the beauty of Coral Bay. Forget Cairns, Noosa, Magnetic Island, or Bondi Beach. If you want to experience the beaches you see in ads for Australia, you come to Coral Bay. Part of me wants you to go there, and part of me wants it all to myself. Paradises are all eventually lost, but I want to hold onto mine just bit longer. If you make it there, you’ll see what I mean. You’ll want to tell others but you want really want to tell others. Then again maybe you will find the sign pointing your way here has suddenly disappeared and I can keep my version of heaven just a bit longer.

For more information on Australia, visit my country and city guide to Australia travel.

Editor’s Note: While I paid for my trip to Coral Bay in 2007, this trip was paid for by Tourism Australia.

One third of Australia is desert.

Australia has the lowest precipitation of the world’s inhabited continents.

There are 1,500 species of Australian spiders.

Australia has over 6,000 species of flies, about 4,000 species of ants, and about 350 species of termites.

Australia has the world’s largest population of wild single hump camels.

There are more than 100 million sheep in Australia.

Australia only has 20 million people.

Australia has the world’s largest cattle ranch and at 30,028 square kilometers, it is almost the same size as Belgium.

90% of Australians live on the coast.

Australians from Queensland are called “banana benders.”

People from Western Australia are called “sand gropers.”

People from New South Wales are called “cockroaches.”

The Australian Alps, or Snowy Mountains as they are also known, receive more snow than Switzerland.

Melbourne has the second largest Greek population in the world.

The roof of the Sydney Opera House weighs more than 161,000 tons.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest organic construction on earth.

Yulara, the Aboriginal name of the Ayers Rock Resort, means ‘weeping.’ (Which, given their history with whites, is not surprising!)

Kangaroo is Aborginee for, “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

Eric Bana is Australian.

So is the guy that plays Jason Stackhouse in True Blood.

Australia has the lowest population density in the world at two people per square kilometer.

Australia’s coastline stretches almost 50,000 kilometers and has over 10,000 beaches.

Australia is the only nation to govern an entire continent.

Australia produces 95 per cent of the world’s precious opals and 99 per cent of its black opals.

With 25.4 million heads of cattle, Australia is the world’s largest exporter of beef.

There are an estimated 40 million kangaroos in Australia.

Kangaroo is delicious, just don’t overcook it!

Scientists think Aboriginal people have lived in Australia for more than 50,000 years.

No one is really sure how Aborigines came to Australia. It was most likely via boat from Indonesia.

Aborigines have no concept of time like in the West. There is their “Dreamtime” and now. “Now” has sort of just always have been.

Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth. The only continent drier is Antarctica.

Australia was founded by English convicts.

Aborigines, the indigenous people, now only make up 1.5 % of the population.

There are no Tasmanian full-blooded aboriginals left.

It used to be legal to hunt and kill Aborigines.

Sydney is the largest city with over 4 million people, while the capital city of Canberra only has around 300,000.

Melbourne has the largest remaining tram public transport system in the world.

Australia is three times larger than the largest island (Greenland) in the world.

The first meeting of the Australian Labor Party was held under a gum tree in Queensland.

Uluru (Ayers Rock) is over 8 kilometers in circumference.

Australians call the English ‘pommies’ from the initials POME on convicts’ uniforms, which stood for “Prisoner of Mother England.”

The name ‘Kylie’ is from the Aborigine word for boomerang.

Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared in 1967. No one really knows what happened to him but most people think he drowned while swimming.

The first Australian born governor general was Jewish.

So was the commander of Australian troops in World War One.

Out of the top 25 deadliest snakes in the world, 20 are found in Australia.

The deadliest jellyfish in the world is found off the Australia coast.

The Sydney Funnelweb spider is considered to be the world’s most deadly spider. It can kill you in less than 2 hours. The only animals without immunity to the Funnelweb’s venom are humans and monkeys.

Vegemite is made from yeast extract and is common around Australia. It is also one of the grossest things I’ve ever eaten in my entire life.

For more information on Australia, visit my country and city guide to Australia travel.

Wake Up! (Sydney)

Wake Up! is, in many ways, like a backpacker hotel (a la many Base locations). With its eight floors, hyper trendy and clean look, and small common areas, you might think it would be hard to meet people. It seems like that outside your dormmates, people are just ships passing in the night here. But that is only half true. The large size does make it sort of hard to meet people outside the common areas or your room but the big bar down stairs (biggest night is Monday) let’s you meet all the people you see coming and going. I really liked my time there and I especially enjoyed the high water pressure in the showers and uncreaky beds.

Surf N Sun Hostel (Surfer’s Paradise Gold Coast)

Located in the Gold Coast, you’ll get both surf and sun at this place. A converted motel, this hostel has really friendly staff, a pool, a central location, and is right across from the beach. All good things. Plus they offer a free pick up from the bus station. The owners are these old backpackers who hang out in the hostel once in awhile and are really friendly. Another plus: at the time I was there, it was the only hostel in Surfer’s Paradise that didn’t have bed bugs. They often have free drinks and BBQs for guest too. I ended up staying an extra week there simply because I was having such a good time.

Tinbillys (Brisbane)

This place has a great location- right across from the Brisbane train station. There’s nothing that really makes this hostel AMAZING. In fact, it’s not even in my top favorite hostels of the world list. But I did find the staff friendly, the location in Brisbane great, the facilities were good, and the bar had great specials that even attracted locals. Bunk hostel is also nice but their lack of a common room just doesn’t do it for me. Tinbilly’s is the only place I stay in Brisbane.

The Kimberly Klub (Broome)

This hostel is amazing. They have an enormous pool, a huge outdoor area, a gigantic kitchen, it’s close to the beach, the bar is small and cozy, and you can order great meals from there. Moreover, when the heat of Broome really gets to you, there are hammocks to lay on. They offer shuttle service to the famous Cable Beach for free and the hostel is a close walk to town. What I really love is the huge kitchen. Even during peak time cooking time, you have plenty of room to move around. I hate cooking dinner because there is never space and you are always bumping into other people cooking. Not here. I wish all hostel kitchens were this big.

Witch’s Hat (Perth)

The Witch’s Hat is located near the main party area in Perth, Northbridge, as well as near many good restaurants. The staff is really friendly and can really help you with any travel bookings or related questions. There is a great kitchen and common room here also. There’s an outdoor BBQ area, comfortable dorms, and a very social atmosphere.

These six are my favorite hostels in Australia but I’ve stayed in other hostels that I found good and enjoyed. Good runners up include Base Magnetic Island (ugly hostel but amazing pool, outdoor area, and location), Nomads Noosa (friendly staff, lively nightclub, big pool), and Calypso (great staff, decent pool, and good food though a little far from town) in Cairns.

When in Australia, I highly recommend you stay at these hostels. For me a good hostel has all the amenities a budget traveler needs, friendly staff, a good interactive environment, and nice comfortable beds. These hostels meet all these requirements. That’s probably why they are always so full!

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Flying

By far, this is the most expensive but easiest way to get around Australia. Limited competition among airlines means that flights stay very expensive. While there are some minor airlines that serve out of the way destinations, Qantas (and its subsidiary Jetstar) and Virgin are the big airlines that service most of the country’s destinations. With so few carriers servicing the major cities, the high ticket prices come as no surprise. If you book early, you can save on fares and Virgin often offers some good promotions.

Backpacker Buses

There are two big backpacker buses in Australia: Oz Experience and Easyrider Tours. Oz Experience mostly operates along the east coast and the center of the country. Easyrider Tours operates on the west coast. I like Easyrider Tours. They are very cost competitive with the bus system, they have cool drivers, and provide a lot of activities. It’s good value for your money. The Oz Experience is a different story. Unlike the Kiwi Experience, I didn’t really like them, despite both companies trying to do the same thing. While the Kiwi Experience took a lot of time to introduce people to each other and offer free activities, the OZ experience didn’t do that. Granted, Australia is a lot bigger than New Zealand but if the Oz Experience is just a more expensive Greyhound (and a few drivers told me this too!) then what’s the point of taking them? Not once on my journey did any driver make an attempt to get people to talk to each other. We didn’t have any free stops or walks. I didn’t like the Oz experience. Just as many, if not more, travelers take the Greyhound Bus. I say take the Greyhound, save some money, and learn to say hi to strangers on buses.

Public Buses

On the east coast, this will be your cheapest option. On the west coast, buses are surprisingly expensive. There’s not many people moving up and down that coast and there’s limited competition. It’s often easier and cheaper to fly out in Western Australia. However, on the east coast, you can find really cheap bus tickets, especially if you book in advance. Greyhound Australia is the biggest company in Australia though there is also Premier and McCafferty. All three companies sometimes offer $1 fares but, for the most part, the buses ticket prices are around $30 dollars (Night buses are usually around $60-70 dollars). From Melbourne to Cairns, a Greyhound pass will cost you $500 AUD.

Trains

Trains cover much of Australia but their use isn’t that widespread. In fact, most of the trains are very expensive to travel on. There are very scenic routes through Queensland and the Outback though that make for a beautiful ride. But train travel is really expensive and outside the very scenic Ghan train ride through the outback (I highly recommend taking this trip!), it’s really not worth the cost. There are cheaper ways to get around Australia.

Car Share

If you really want to save money and travel cheap, find some other friends, rent a car or campervan, and drive around the country. This will allow you to share the costs with others (and if you rent a campervan, give you a place to sleep). It will be much, much cheaper than any other travel option. You can look on hostel bulletin boards to see who is looking for people to join their roadtrip. You’ll always find someone and it’s a great way to make new friends.

When you plan to travel Australia, make sure you budget for transportation wisely. Outside the busy eastern corridor between Melbourne and Brisbane, travel is expensive. You will pay a lot more than you think you will. In sum, if you want to save a lot of money, car share. Otherwise, your best bet is bus travel on the east coast and backpacker or flying in the middle or west coast.

For more information on Australia, visit my country and city guide to Australia travel.

Disclaimer: OzExperience gave me 50% off my Brisbane to Cairns bus pass.

Moreover, Australia’s strong dollar means you don’t even get any advantage when exchanging money. It’s virtually on par with the American dollar and the weak Euro and Pound has even given Europeans less value for their money.

While I was in Australia this year, I spent $3,400 USD in 33 days. That total includes all my day to day expenses, flights, transport, tours, and anything I bought. Averaging roughly $100 dollars a day, it would have been a lot more had I not been able to stay with friends and get discounted tours. I ate a lot at expensive restaurants, flew a few places, and spent a lot of money using the internet on my phone. If it wasn’t for my friends and the discounts I got, I would have spent about $150 USD per day.

When you travel Australia, your typical costs tend to look like this:

• Hostels: In northern Queensland, you can find hostel prices for about $20 AUD per night. On the west coast, it’s about $24 but from Noosa down to Melbourne (the densely populated east coast), expect to pay $27-$35 per night. The smaller the dorm, the higher the cost. Private rooms range between $65-100 AUD per night.
• Food: Your average meal in Australia will run you about $15-20 AUD. A good meal at a nice restaurant will run you about $40. Even McDonald’s is expensive – a value meal is about $8 dollars.
• Drinking: For a country of drinkers, they make it very difficult to do it. Beers will cost around $8. Happy hours and backpacker bars tend to have cheap drinks and you can usually find a pint of something for $4-5 AUD.
• Tours: Tours in Australia are a lot cheaper than in New Zealand and there’s also a lot less of them to spend your money on. A typical multi-day tour will cost around $200 AUD. Most day trips can be found for $100.
• Transportation:You can find cheap transportation in Australia if you look hard enough. But, outside of the heavily populated and highly competitive east coast, it is not always that easy. Because of limited competition, flying is very expensive except on the west coast. It’s often cheaper to fly than get a bus out there. If you can get a deal on a tourist bus, that can be cheaper than Greyhound and flying. On the east coast, Greyhound offers many good value passes and I would take them over any other transportation. The Cairns to Melbourne pass is $485.

How to save money in Australia:

• Cook. Cooking your meals can save you a lot of money. I cooked for a week with pasta, a few meats, ready meals and I only spent $60 dollars.
• Drink Less. Alcohol causes all good budgets to die. A 6 pack of beer is $14 AUD. If you want to save money, drink less. Or drink goon (boxed wine). Goon is the perennial favorite of travelers. It’s $16 dollars for 4 liters of wine. Actually, it’s not wine. It’s fish, dairy, and milk products- no grapes here. It gives you a killer hangover but also the most bang for your buck.
• Couchsurf. Couchsurf with locals, stay at their place, and save on accommodation. Every night out of the hostel is more money for activities. This is also a great way to meet locals and get involved with the local culture.
• Buy Packages. Buying tours together can save you money. In Australia, it’s cheaper to go to a hostel tour desk or places like Tribal and book your activities all together. You’ll save more money than booking on your own. Surprising I know.

On the absolute minimum budget, I think a traveler could get by on $77 AUD per day. Most people travel Australia for about a month. If you did the Melbourne to Cairns route, your costs would be $810 for hostels (average price of $27 per night), $500 for food (mixing cooking and eating out), $500 for tours, and $500 for your bus ticket. That budget doesn’t cover any drinking or additional expenses that might occur.  If you couchsurfed for 5 nights and bought all your own food, you could (in theory) lower your budget to $64 per day. (Excluding drinking or other random expenses.)

However, we all know budgets, no matter how well we plan, get broken. So to cover all your costs and have a little extra, I’d budget $100 AUD per day. You never know what might happen. Maybe you will have a big night out or maybe you’ll break your camera. It’s always better to leave a country with extra money than overspend.

For more information on Australia, visit my country and city guide to Australia travel.

I went with a company called OzSail. Heading out on a cloudy Sunday, we boarded our boat, Freight train. Freight Train’s an old boat. Built in the 1980s as a German racing boat, the boat is quite small. It fits 18 people in the berth plus three crew. If it was up to me, I would have picked a bigger boat. While there is nothing really wrong with the boat, it’s fine- if you want a typical “sailboat”, Freight Train is a fine good option. I just hate being small boats. But you go where your friends are and my friends were there. I took the boat because my friend Phil was on it. Turned out, my friend Caitlin and two Swedish girls I met in Noosa were also on it. It’s a small world huh?

The Whitsunday Islands are beautiful, but unfortunately I had the misfortune of visiting the islands during Queensland’s wet season. Except for a few hours of sun, the whole three days was filled with clouds and thunderstorms. Every time I was getting ready to get some color, the rain came pouring down.

Because the boats leave mid day on the first day, you only have enough time for one snorkel trip before you tie up anchor at night. Because of the weather and rain, the snorkeling wasn’t great. The water was murky and there wasn’t a lot of fish. But nothing could be done about that and we moved on, anchored up for the night, ate and drink until…well, about 10 o’clock. A funny thing about being out on the water- your perception of time changes. After the sun goes down and you spend hours out on the deck, you begin to think it’s really late. “It must be like 1 a.m!” someone would say. Nope, it’s 10 p.m. and time for bed. It’s probably the only time backpackers go to bed that early.

The second day was a lot better. We headed to the famous Whitehaven beach for a swim. Whitehaven is what you see on all the magazines and postcards of the Whitsundays. It’s a long, pure white beach that is stunning. It was beautiful but soon the rain came, spoiled the moment, and we headed back toward the boat. We sailed around for a bit to find a bay to stop and snorkel in. Because of the time of year, there were only a few places to go and, according to our captain, the bay we stopped in might see only boats 10 days a year, making the fish and reef system a lot better. I opted to dive instead of snorkel. The coral was beautiful, we saw a lot of fish, and I found a turtle. That was really the highlight. We followed the turtle around for awhile and then, realizing we needed to surface, waved good bye and came to to surface. Seeing the turtle was the highlight of my trip.

Sailing the Whitsunday’s is pretty straight forward. You can book direct with any of the big companies. However, the best way to save money is to book with a tourist office or hostel. You’ll end up saving a lot more money as they get better rates and deals. Everything on the boat is provided for you except snacks and alcohol. Make sure you stock up on them before you leave. Additionally, try to find a boat that leaves early on the first day or late on the third day so you get more time out on the islands.

I can only imagine how the islands would look if it was beautiful and sunny everyday. When the weather was nice, you could see the appeal of the place. Sailing on the water, stopping for a swim, exploring a few islands- it’s the perfect way to spend a few days. But I wouldn’t spend longer. While beautiful, there are more amazing places in Australia to visit. If you are short on money and time, I would save both and head right up towards Cairns to do activities up there.

For more information on Australia, visit my country and city guide to Australia travel.

Disclaimer: OzSail gave me the tour at the media rate of 50% off. They offer good tours and I enjoyed the staff on my boat. They were cool and came to our after-sailing dinner.

Somewhere right outside a small mining community in Western Australia, our bus had enough and it wanted us to know. So with an explosion and plume of smoke, the bus came to a crashing halt.

It was the end of a long journey that began back in Perth. During our first stop, on the outskirts of Perth, our problems began. The bus wouldn’t start. Our driver tried again, looked under the hood, did something, and said “ok, we’re ready to go.” But not that ready. The bus still didn’t go. We were going to have to push.

Down the hill we pushed and the bus came to life. The bus was moving, all was right in the world, and we wouldn’t have to go back to Perth. Our wise driver tried not to turn the bus off during the trip for fear of this happening again. It was a well-founded fear because soon, at the Pinnacles, our bus turned off. Out we went again, pushing as hard as we could, getting our bus moving and continuing up the west coast.

In the town of Geraldton, our driver stopped to work on the bus and assured us it was fixed. I wasn’t sure what the problem was and, when he explained it in car lingo, my unmechanical ears couldn’t decipher what he was saying. I was just happy the bus was moving. I didn’t feel like going back to Perth.

Pretty soon, our air conditioner stopped working and we were forced to drive in a sauna, the bus amplifying the 100-degree desert heat. This wasn’t what I had expected, though I dealt with it better than some of my fellow riders. Having experienced worse in Asia, I wasn’t too bothered by this. I had learned to expect the unexpected. I was still in Australia after all, about to spend 2 months traveling – nothing could be that bad.

Our bus always seemed to be on its last leg and, finally, that leg gave out with a large bang. The bus clicked and clacked, grinding sounds were made, and the stick shift bounced up. Smoke and dust filled the front of the bus. We all knew what had happened, though none dared say. The driver pushed the bus for a bit longer, but eventually resigned himself to the fact that we weren’t going to reach the next town.

The problem with breaking down in the Outback is that there aren’t many people around. And, if you break down too far from the last town, you might be without cellphone reception and stuck there for hours. Unfortunately, that was our case. We were stuck there until a passing car  stopped to help.

It was early afternoon when we broke down. We entertained ourselves by drinking, playing trivia games, and playing the occasional game of frisbee. Hours passed and the sun moved further down in the sky. We were getting anxious.

After a few hours, a car finally drove by. Our driver flagged it down, explained the situation, and told us he was going to get help in the previous town. We would be out here for an hour by ourselves. Visions of the horror movie Wolf Creek suddenly jumped though my head. This was going to be a long hour.

Luckily, we still had plenty of beer.

True to his word, an hour later, our driver returned with a tow truck. Half our problem was solved. The half we still needed to solve was how we were going to continue on with no bus. We were told that the earliest we could get our bus back was on Tuesday. Not a big deal if it wasn’t Thursday. I wouldn’t mind spending a night in this sleepy mining town, but not five.

None of the other passengers were keen on the idea either and, after some phone calls, our driver found a four-wheel-drive that we six would have to cram into. A difficult task, as the car was meant for five people – five people without luggage. It was going to be a squished trip up to Broome, but at least we were on our way now.

And we still managed to save a few beers.

For more information on Australia, visit my country and city guide to Australia travel.