An honest account of backpacking down Australia’s East Coast
Me and my friend have been travelling down Australia’s East Coast for the last few weeks now and I thought it was time for some reflection. Australia is probably one of the most stunning and picturesque countries that I’ve ever been too and I feel so grateful to be able to travel in this beautiful country on the other side of the world: It’s expensive to get here, expensive to travel and to travel properly here, it takes time. Not everyone is able to do this.
I’ve had a lot of once in a lifetime experiences, adventures and a fair few stories already from this trip: Camper van road trips, sailing through the Whitsundays on a yacht and driving on the beach in Fraser Island however despite all this, I still feel like I haven’t got the same connection to the country that I’ve had in other regions like Asia.
Australia is a western country. Sure there are differences to life back home in the UK, but it’s an english speaking country and it’s lacking in chaos, craziness and spirituality that I crave from travel. Don’t get me wrong, I am really enjoying it but for a county so far away, it sometimes feels so close to home.
Not being able to go with the flow
One of the biggest problems that I’ve got about travelling down the East Coast is that you aren’t able to just go with the flow. This is due to a number of factors, primarily: You have to be organised as trips, hostels and buses get booked up, it’s expensive and you’ll probably have to work and because everyone has pre booked tours on certain days, they already have their schedule, meaning it a lot harder to meet people who you can travel long-term with.
It can feel like you’re just ticking things off
Whenever I meet people or eavesdrop on other traveller’s conversation, the thing that I find so funny is that we are all doing the same things: Whitsundays yacht trip, Fraser then Brisbane and Byron Bay, you get the picture. On one hand this is great because it makes Australia so easy to travel in, however for those of us who have travelled before and as someone looking for unique travel experiences, it makes it a bit less exciting. I quite like the unknown.
A great place to work
In terms of working, Australia is fantastic. There are loads of opportunities, the climate is a billion times better than that in the UK and Canada where most the working holidayers come from and on top of that, the wages are fantastic. This means that it’s so much easier to save up money quickly here and it makes an exciting change from working back home. For a working holiday there could be no better place, but as a country simply to travel in: There are better, more culturally different countries to visit.
I am so excited to explore the rest of what Australia has to offer and to actually start working in a new country. When I work here, wherever and doing whatever that may be, I’ll have a whole new perspective, but at the moment Australia has been really nice: Not life changing, not spiritual, not challenging, but just plain and simply nice, and I’m totally ok with that too.
Passport Please 