Australia - Love at first sight

Do you know it when people tell you that not having a plan is the best plan? That sounds really stupid, but it often turns out to be true. Like in our case...

In December, seven years ago, we set foot on the Australian continent for the first time and immediately fell in love with it. It was never our plan to stop here on our trip through Southeast Asia. In fact, I don't remember how we came up with the idea to fly to Australia, but we did and it changed our lives.

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Until that day everything was more or less planned. Bali, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, these are all destinations we have planned to visit and did. After the Bangkok visit, which wasn't our first, we probably had enough of Asia and needed a break. So we booked flights and made our way to Sydney.

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I immediately liked this city.I immediately liked this city and felt welcome, safe and happy. It didn't feel strange at all and from that moment on I knew that we wouldn't be here for the last time. This city has so much to offer that we were totally overwhelmed by it.

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We had 3 months, enough money to stay there for a whole year but no plan where we wanted to go. We were told that we have to visit the Blue Mountains. A couple of days later we went there by train. That was our first time we stayed in a Hostel, as usually we stayed in Hotels or Airbnbs.

It was such a cool experience, meeting new people, go hiking together in one of the most amazing National Parks and playing cards and drinking wine at night.

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We had a Greyhound Bus ticket, a hop an hop off kind of ticket, that was valid from Sydney to Cairns. But first we had to take the train again to go from the Blue Mountains to Newcastle. During our first Bus Ride from Newcastle to Port Macquarie we realised that we are going to miss out on a lot of cool things if we travel like this.

Within a day we spontaneously decided to simply forget the bus ticket and buy our own car instead. And while we're at it, why not get a van in which we can spend the night. With a little help from our Airbnb host Carla, a 70 year old single lady, we bought the first van we visited the next day. From here on it should be one of our most beautiful and at the same time an unforgettable trip.

That´s the couple we bought the Van from

New Year on a Camp Ground in Maroochydore. We had no idea what a big part this place would play in our lives

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From this moment on we were as free as one can be. We did not plan our stops ahead, we just stopped when we liked it somewhere and stayed there for a while. This led us to places like South West Rocks, Woolgoolga, Dorrigo Nationalpark and finally to one of our all time favourites that we still like to visit today...Byron Bay.

Going to Byron for the first time was like..."why did no one tell me about this before?"

Never before had I enjoyed my life as much as I did at that time

At this time we did not know how much time we would spend on this bench in the coming years...

...with that view

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Fast forward to Bundaberg, more than 500km north of Byron Bay. At this place we realised that it might be a good Idea to plan things...just sometimes...especially in countries where a coastline stretches a few thousand Kilometers.

Traveling further north from here would have led us to the tropics, which are not the best place in summer. So we decided to turn around and go full throttle back, past Sydney and drive along the coast to Melbourne.

One of the places on the way to Melbourne that i will never forget in my life is the Wilsons Promontory Nationalpark. This place is unique in this world and breathtakingly beautiful.

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And it was just getting better and better. Melbourne was such an awesome city we´ve spent way too less time at during the coming years. Street Art, Street Food, Rooftop Cinemas and thousands of cool bars.

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From here we went on one of the most scenic roads in Australia if not the whole world, the Great Ocean Road that stretches 240km from Torquay to Allansford. t is almost impossible that you get bored during these 240km. To cover this distance in a day or two would be just stupid, because you would like to stop every 10km. Apart from the Twelve Apostles, there is a lot to see and discover here. Not only on the coast, the hinterland also has a lot to offer.

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One of our last big stops before we headed back to Melbourne to sell our beloved van was Mount Gambier and the Grampians Nationalpark. These days were once again full of events that our brain could not process in such a short time and today, 7 years later, I still partly live on them.

That Lake in Mount Gambier, the Mountains in the Nationalpark and all the animals everywhere you go...just incredible.

I know, wild haircut! Haven´t been to a hairdresser for the whole 8 month trip :)

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Although this whole 3 month Australia trip was followed by a few more month island hopping in Thailand, I was thinking of Australia every day. Since that trip we´ve been there uncountable times.

If covid ever ends and Ethereum is going to 10.000 $, don´t wake me up and let me dream, I´m going to buy a big Van and do it all again!

But until then I will have to be satisfied with pictures and memories.