Backpacking Australia

A travel journal to Australia by Wouter Kloos

Adelaide Shores Caravan ResortMore Photos

After a year of travelling through Australia, I came home to write this journal.

  • 8 reviews
  • 2 stories/tips
  • 9 photos
Well... The highlights of Australia? All? Well, there is the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, the Crown Casino, kangaroos... The best thing though is to get in your car, start the engine and drive away from this all right into the Outback to experience complete freedom.

Quick Tips:

If you want to see a bit Australia, don't try to do this in just four weeks. Take at least 2 months, otherwise you won't even have time to experience the real easy-going Australia.

Best Way To Get Around:

The best way to get around Australia is by car. Depending on the time you want to spend (and the quality of the car you want) you can either buy one or hire one. In my opinion though buying one gives you much more freedom, since you don't have to bring it back at a certain time and place. If you got a bit more money to spend upgrade your car to a 4WD camper. This gets you to all the national parks without any trouble.
Adelaide Shores Caravan Resort
We staid in an on-site caravan. For 50 Australian dollars per night we had this van with 1 double bed and 4 bunks, a sitting area and a kitchen. All very well maintained. The facilities were just 50m away and very clean. They're part of Big 4 Holiday Parks.

Website
  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by Wouter Kloos on August 21, 2002

The Harborside InnBest of IgoUgo

Hotel | "Big 4, Port Augusta BIG 4 Holiday Park"

Port Augusta BIG 4 Holiday Park
We staid in an on-site caravan. For 50 Australian dollars per night we had this van with 1 double bed and 4 bunks, a sitting area and a kitchen. All very well maintained. The facilities were just 50m away and very clean. They're part of Big 4 Holiday Parks.

Website
  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by Wouter Kloos on August 21, 2002

The Harborside Inn
3 S Water Street Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts

Village Resort (#1486)Best of IgoUgo

Hotel | "Big 4, Plantation Caravan Park"

Plantation Caravan Park
At this caravan park we camped for two nights. The whole area around Carvarvon is pretty run down and not well maintained. The caravan park itself was not too bad, but it could have been better. Although the facilities were clean, they were pretty old. And what was missing for us was the camp kitchen. Still, there was a very relaxed atmosphere in the park which made up for the lacking kitchen.

Website
  • Member Rating 2 out of 5 by Wouter Kloos on August 21, 2002

Village Resort (#1486)
288 Hastings River Drive Port MacQuarie, Australia
(65) 83-5544

Barrier Island StationBest of IgoUgo

Hotel | "Big 4, Middleton Beach Holiday Park"

Middleton Beach Holiday Park
At this caravan park we camped for two nights. The park itself is iddylicly situated at the beach. It's a bit far from the town centre, but very rustic. The sites are big and so are the facilities. And everything is very clean.

Website
  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by Wouter Kloos on August 21, 2002

Barrier Island Station
1245 Duck Road Outer Banks, North Carolina
(252) 261-4610

Hilton CraigendarrochBest of IgoUgo

Hotel | "Globetrotters Lodge"

Globetrotters Lodge
This place is the cheapest hostel in Darwin. It's big and has it's own bar. During the day everybody gathers around the big pool and the atmosphere is quite good. The rooms are not bad either. They all have ensuite and there are never more than 8 beds in a dorm. They have a tour desk to book tours to almost everywhere in the Northern Territory. It's located about 10 minutes walk from the city centre.

Website
  • Member Rating 3 out of 5 by Wouter Kloos on August 21, 2002

Hilton Craigendarroch
Braemar Road Ballater, Scotland
+44 13397 55858

Crown CasinoBest of IgoUgo

Attraction

The largest casino in the Southern Hemisphere. And large it is. When you walk through one of the many entrance doors you find yourself in a paradise of mirrors, poker machines, card games and jackpots, all sprinkled with a nice ambience of soft light. If you take a minute to look around you, it seems that the casino goes on forever. No mather what direction you look in, glitter, glamour and money everywhere.

After walking around for ten minutes we sit down at one of the many bars. Everything looks alike, and yet so different. In one of the corners of the bar a huge red Lexus is displayed, with the possibility to win this beast.

When we decide to try our luck on the poker machines, one of the employees of Crown Casino comes to ask us if we want to become a member. Why should we? Well, because than we get 5 dollars poker machine credit and 10 dollars of free drinks. And all this free of charge. So before even spending a cent of our own money, we already won fifteen dollars each. At the end of the evening we go home with an empty membership card, but twelve dollars in our pocket. That's more than we came in with.

Website
  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by Wouter Kloos on August 21, 2002
There it is, the sign on the main road that points us onto a sealed road into the park. That's good, a sealed road, since we are travelling with an old Ford Falcon. Near the information centre it's over with that luxury and we have to conquer 10 k's of gravel before we reach our destination. Fortunately the road has just been graded.

When we get to the parking place at Dales Gorge we see nothing. No sign of any gorge, that is. Well, nothing to do but follow the arrows than. And right until the very moment you get to the stairs that take you down into the gorge you wouldn't know what you were walking towards. Did I say stairs? I mean a natural one. The first three steps are man made, and mother nature's done the rest.

Once at the bottom of the gorge we can go either left or right. Since right will take us to the exit, we turn left, to the dead end of the gorge. A tiny river makes it's way down the walking track. All the way at the end we are stunned by the sight of what is called the Circular Pool. The water looks so swimmable and yet it's so cold...

After we make our way back to the stairs we follow the track in the other direction. We are suprised by the many different sights. The track eventually takes us to Fortescue Falls at the other end of the gorge, and yet again, swimming is a must.

When all clothes are dry again we take the stairs on this side of the gorge and make our way back up to the carpark. It was a beautiful day.

  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by Wouter Kloos on August 21, 2002

New Year in SydneyBest of IgoUgo

Story/Tip

The only thing I had planned before going to Australia was spending New Years Eve in Sydney. It was said to be the most spectacular New Years I would ever have. I don't know about that, but I know it was the most spectacular New Years I ever had so far.

The fun started at about 6pm. We were going to celebrate with everybody in the hostel. Everybody who was working that day came home and we went to the bottleshop to get everybody a bottle of champagne. At 9pm there would be fireworks for the kids, so we went to a hill in the nearby park to have a good look at this show. After the fireworks were over we joined the crowds that were moving themselves towards the Botanic Gardens. From here we would have a good view of the Harbour Bridge as the fireworks would be set off there at midnight.

The closer we got to the Gardens the more crowded the streets grew. Finally we reached our destination at a few minutes past 11pm. There was still a bit of room on the rocks for us to have a nice view of the Harbour Bridge and Circular Quay.

The closer the clock got to midnight the atmosphere grew more festive. Everybody was expecting a good show, and that is just what we had.

At 12 sharp the button got pushed and the show started. I can't describe what it looked like, but it was like the whole Bridge was on fire. The show took about half an hour, but it seemed to be much shorter than that. It was so spectacular that everybody was quiet. Finally a silhoutte of Ayers Rock appeared on the Bridge. The end of the show. Everybody started shouting and clapping like crazy. Satisfied with the start of 2002 everybody wandered back into the city, to Hyde Park, where a band was entertaining the crowds, or to one of the many pubs in Kings Cross or on Oxford Street.

Just before sunrise we were back at the hostel. We went back to the hill where we started the night of and sat waiting for the sun to shed it's light over Sydney for the first time in 2002. This indeed was a New Years Eve to remember.

About the Writer

Wouter Kloos
Wouter Kloos
Eindhoven, Netherlands

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