Arrival in Australia!

The start of our roadtrip - setting off in Sydney
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Hello everyone.  Sorry we haven't written much for a while.  Things have been pretty busy!  Well, as most of you have already seen from our photos on FlickR, we have arrived in Australia.  I usually write these blog things with all the time in the world on our little Palm handheld malarkey gizmo, but today I'm bashing this out ad lib in a net cafe...

We'd joked about Sydney being "full" before we arrived.  The joke turned against us.  Sydney was indeed full.  Yes, can you believe it?  A city as big as this?  A few circumstances had conspired against us:

It was like the Jerry Springer show had gone on tour - a horrible family with uniform mullets.

BOP! Take that Skippy! And keep your eyes off my missus!
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- It was a Saturday

- The final of "Australian Idol" was playing on the steps of Sydney Opera House

- It was some football final too

- If the above wasn't enough, Elton John was having a concert

Vic waits for the water to boil for a nice cuppa
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So all the hotels, hostels, brothels, you name it, were full.  We finally managed to get a room at an airport hotel where we collapsed for a few glorious hours of sleep after the long flight from Bangkok.

That evening we traveled to Glebe, an inner-west residential area of Sydney to take a look around.  Was this going to be our new home for the next few months?   We sorted out temporary accommodation at Glebe Village backpacker hostel for the following night.

Glebe must have more cafés and restaurants per square mile than anywhere I've ever been.  It all looked quite chique and trendy at first, the locals sipping their frothy coffees on the pavement amidst enticing wafts of garlic from pizzarias.  It reminded me of a slightly busier Poncanna... (a pretty suburb of Cardiff, Wales)

An aerial shot of Dan taking a ... rest
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Whilst the staff at Glebe Village Backpackers Hostel were fine the other guests were, without exception, complete tossers.  We tried to be sociable on the Friday night as the hostel was organising a "free barbeque".  Vic and I popped down the local off-license to sample some Australian red.  We sat down at a random table after making sure we weren't taking anybody's seat.  I said hello to everyone and they kind of looked a bit uneasy.  The boldest (who also happened to be the baldest) English bloke lent over to me with a sort of mock intensity in his eyes and said, "And how are you?" in a sort of psuedo-counsellor way.

It's pouring with rain, but we've found a shelter!
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"I'm fine.  How are you?" I replied unphased and holding his stare.

"Oh ..... ok I suppose ....", he mused, he sort of drew his words out and paused, looking upwards, as if contemplating just how to convey whatever philosophical profundities were perculating within .... he continued ... "the clouds kind of made me feel a bit different today ... you know ...?"

All I knew was that I could instantly recognise a complete wanker.

As a potential opener I charitably commented that we were still trying to catch up on our sleep after our flight.  The sappy girl next to me said, in a sort of verbal equivalent of a reflex reaction, "Oh you NEVER catch up on your sleep!" What was she on about?  I looked at her bemused. The group of girls and boys then turned in on themselves once again as they talked about .... what did they talk about .... utter shit ... I have no idea .... whether Madonna should still be on tour .... kleenex verses wet wipes ... gripping stuff whatever it was ... Vic and I turned to each other and poured ourselves some wine.  There was a certain frostyness in the air.  Then I noticed the other wine drinkers in the crowd were drinking their wine from cartons.  Ahhhh perhaps it was bottle-envy?  Hehehe.  Then we saw the quality of the dogfood sausages on offer, realised why the barbaque was being offered for free, and left the table with no apologies or goodbyes.  As soon as Vic and I were safely out of earshot we shared a look... what a bunch of morons.  Fresh off the plane from Heathrow and spending their days barely venturing from a crappy little hostel in Sydney playing table tennis and talking about home.... but unable to just say "hello" to any newcomers outside of their little gang.  Sydney's Australian residents on the other hand are some of the friendliest people I've ever had the pleasure to come across.

Ok, so perhaps pitching our tent underneath the campsite cafeteria wasn't exactly embracing the true outdoor spirit of camping ...
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Anyway ... enough of all that ... Sydney was alright.  Good for a weekend I guess.  But Vic and I could quickly see that it wasn't for us.  For starters it was full of unimaginative "backpackers" who were intent on becoming "stuck in Sydney" - most likely socialising exclusively with people exactly like them from back home .... we saw several ads on the net for flat/houseshare which began:

2 IRISH GIRLS LOOKING FOR HOUSE SHARE IN ..... AREA OF SYDNEY ....

Why do they include their nationality?

Dan and Vic and the Sydney Opera House attempt a self-portrait
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Do they think that their "Irishness" makes them more appealing as a potential housemate?

We didn't want to become just another pair of Brits working in Sydney - it just seemed everyone else had already had that original idea.  And Sydney was really really expensive.  We had no idea where our money was going but it was going there fast.  We needed to make an escape plan.

After toying with the idea of renting a car for a few weeks and heading up to Brisbane, we decided to bite the bullet and buy one.  We found a bargain too.  A 2.2 Litre Subaru Liberty - we love her.  We piled a load of top notch camping equipment into her boot and got on the road.

It felt great to be:

i)   leaving Sydney and its hordes of horrorible immigrants

ii)  travelling independently - not relying on buses

iii) not spending loads on accommodation - many times we camped for free!

We pootled up the coast, sometimes meandering inland, and saw national park after national park.  Our first night's camping was a nightmare.  It was a weekend and we were not that far our of Sydney.  The campsite was little more than a carpark.  On one side of our tent we had a bunch of teenage girls who didn't realise how loudly they were shrieking and singing along to Britney Spears after one beer each, and on the other we had the Australian equivalent of "Shameless" - it was like the Jerry Springer show had gone on tour - a horrible family with uniform mullets, a mother screaming and beating her two sons, and the sons, in turn, calling their mother a "whore" til the early hours of the morning.  Delightful.  Oh, and all this to very loud "blues" music being pumped out of their stereo at highly unsociable volumes.  Needless to say we left first thing the following morning.

After a week we've made it the 1001 kilometres up to Brisbane (although our route took more like 1700) - On the campsites we met some great people like Cathy and Ben from Newcastle - it was great to meet some chilled out REAL people who were easy to relax with.  They were so enthusiastic about our trip and took time to point out places of interest further North.  And the insects and wildlife gets even more weird of course.

So now we are in Brisbane with the same question in our minds.

Could we live here?  At least for a three months or so?  If we head further North at the moment we are going to be in deep tropics and the rainy season.  It would be sensible to hold back a bit (and earn some extra cash!)

Well that's us pretty much up to date I think.  Thanks for stopping by.  Don't forget to leave your comments or send us an email you miserable buggers :-)