This is Australia
A walk in the park
A walk in the park in Sydney in early February 2020 with my Danish friend Jonas. I had just finished the bartender course and I had to leave the hostel that belonged to the bartender school. I found another reasonable hostel in Potts Point and that’s where I met Jonas. I was very surprised when I heard that Jonas did exactly the same course when he was in Thailand a few months earlier. And he showed me the exact same workbook that I had.
My friend Kevin would come down from Cairns to convert the van, which I had bought two weeks prior, into a campervan. Then we were going to leave Sydney and make our way to Perth, about 5000 km east. But Kevin didn’t arrive yet so I had to wait, and decided to go for a walk, in the park.
Through the Capitol
At last! Kevin has Arrived.
The first thing we did after I picked Kevin up from the airport was go to Bunnings (the main DIY store in Australia) to buy materials and tools for converting the van. We did all that in the sheltered parking lot that was available to us where we were allowed to use some of the tools of a very friendly vanlifer and photographer (link below) named Antony, who was also doing some maintenance on his van.
From Sydney we drove straight to Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The forest fires that were raging around that time prevented us from making any detours, but the road was still as pretty as can be.
In Canberra, we just spent one day, where I was playing with the settings of my newly bought camera before we continued our way to Melbourne.
On the road, we visited small, picturesque, Australian villages and enjoyed our freedom. No deadlines, no restrictions, just us the van and the nature around us.
Many meetings
On our way to Melbs, Kevin told me about a few friends we were going to meet upon arrival who’d like to tag along with us. Lisanne and Anne are two women from the Netherlands who worked with Kevin on the farm in Cairns. After a bit of citytripping in “artsy fartsy” Melbourne, the 4 of us met up and did a few more visits in Melbourne, like St Kilda, where the girls were staying in a hostel. We were offered to have a shower there ~ a luxury one not always have while travelling with a van ~ so we gladly accepted.
In one of the backpacker’s pages on Facebook, I saw a post from a Swiss woman, Kysha, who was looking to join other travellers and she had a friend, Aymeric from France with her. We agreed to meet up in a bar in Melbourne to see if it would work out. And yes, we were optimistic. So, now we were 6, or so we thought…
Before we left the pub, Aymeric told us about another friend, Eric from Canada, who would like to join, the new convoy. He was added to the group chat we made because he was unable to meet us in Melbourne. For good practice 4 other people were added to the group chat, Igor, from the Netherlands; Naomi from the UK; and Nici and Kay, both from Germany. We agreed to have many meetings right outside of Adelaide. First stop with the newly formed fellowship: the Flinders Ranges.
The Flinders Ranges is a large mountain range in South Australia with a semi-arid environment, meaning it is quite dry and not that much green. We definitely were able to feel that as the day of our hike got hotter and hotter. With little to no spots of shade to rest or water to find for refreshment we our only option was to continue the hike until we were at the top. And every time we stopped to take a breath the flies found our faces, nostrils and lips to torment. Eventually we reached the top, and luckily we were rewarded with amazing views of the landscape.
Standstill
After camping for 2 nights at the Flinders ranges we continued our trip southward toward the south coast and the Nullarbor Plain. These were the days we let hour cars and vans consume the most kilometres, topping at around 750 in a day.
We stopped only a few times before we reached to border of South and West Australia and enjoyed the landscapes as we drove past them. And even after crossing the border, we didn’t find much reason to stop before we reached the region of Esperance which is where we were heading.
As we entered the Nullarbor Plain many of us, if not everyone lost reception at some point. And we were unaware of the changes that were happening in the world…
Then the first messages started rolling into our inboxes. Australia is in lockdown! And every state closed its borders with WA’s being the most strictly controlled. COVID19 arrived. We really slipped through the eye of the needle. This was in the beginning of March 2020.
Many of us started to worry, making plans for returning home or trying to figure out what to do next. As the near future didn’t seem so certain anymore. Would we be able to return? Would there still be flights, would they let us back into our home country? Would we have a place to stay after this road trip was over? Hostels and hotels are starting to shut their doors.
I wasn’t so worried. I was very happy I had my van, in which I could sleep and grateful was my attitude as we drove freely from one picturesque spot to the next while the rest of the world was getting to a standstill.
Breaking of the fellowship
We arrived in Perth on March 17th with a group of 9 people (Kay and Nici had left the group a bit earlier) Hostels weren’t accepting any new tenants, so we resorted to Airbnb. We rented a big house for a few days. We tried to experience the city as best as we could, going on little sight seeing trips. One was Rottnest island where you can spot the Quokka, A small marsupial that can only be seen in a few places.
After just a couple of days Aymeric and Kysha also decided to return home. So we had to find a smaller house to rent. And after, again a few days, Lisanne and Anne were also returning home. In the meantime I stayed in touch with a friend from Belgium who was staying in an hostel in Perth, but the hostel was going to shut its doors soon. So, Shana joined the group when we moved to our next house.
The Western Australian Government had announced that the different regions of WA would go into lockdown in the night of 31st of March to the 1st of April 2020. This meant it would be impossible to cross the borders without good reason. Everyone started to make plans of their own and the companionship was now, truly, falling apart. Me and Shana figured we didn’t want to stay in the greater Perth region as this had the highest population density. So we found a volunteering Job in Denmark, south of Perth. This is when my friend Kevin, also decided to return home. Igor, Naomi and Eric wanted to travel more north, up the west coast.
On the day of leaving (March 31st) , we didn’t leave the city yet or my car broke down. The engine overheated because all the cooling fluid escaped. So, after the engine cooled off. we went to a mechanic, and after a few tests he said I would have te replace the radiator which would cost me about $1500, and he could do it the next day earliest. We had to get out on that day or we would be stuck! So I took my chances, bought new cooling fluid and some DIY repairing materials and we took off. The next 600 km went without trouble. Turns out the liquid was able to escape because of a worn out plastic mouthpiece. which I could buy for 50 dollars.
