Melbourne & Our Road Trip!

Life on the Road 

We flew into Melbourne at around 1am December 3rd and blearily found our way towards our hostel, and more importantly, our beds. After three long months of living the employed Perth dream and saving up all that we could, it was finally time to don the faithful Havaianas and reclaim our rightful role as frugal, noodle eating backpackers. The lifestyle came back to us pretty quickly, and within just a few hours the next day we were back in the shorts and vests and roaming around make-up free without a job related care in the world. 

We spent the next few days in central Melbourne, making full use of the free trams and taking advantage of the huge H&M that we had discovered - the first one we’ve come across in nine months - long story short, money was spent. 
It was then the day we had been waiting for - day one of our mini road trip! We left early to pick up our luminous green and purple Jucy camper-van, and after a quick stop off for the essentials - petrol, food and cider etc, it was time to hit the road. After a few hours we made it onto The Great Ocean Road, and after stopping for a necessary ‘we made it!’ photo, we headed onto our first stop for the night. What I may have failed to mention, is that it had already started pouring at this point, and so suddenly the idea of having to live, sleep and cook in this one vehicle wasn’t so appealing anymore…

The End of the East Coast

After two long months on the road, with nothing but a suitcase, backpack and a gradually decreasing bank account, our backpacking journey of the East Coast in Australia has come to an end. There’ll be no more weary morning checkouts, or sixteen-bed room shares - no more noodle dinners, chocolate biscuit breakfasts or McDonald lunches. No longer will we have to sleep curled up in the seat of a Greyhound bus for thirteen hours, or drag all of our worldly belongings behind us as we race to the bus station. But don’t let that put you off, because it’s safe to say that these have been the greatest two months of my life (cliché, sorry!) 

After quitting my job, saying goodbye to family and friends and moving myself over to the other side of the planet, I was soon doing things I could have only imagined. I’ve jet boated around Sydney Harbour and seen where Russell Crow lives. I’ve had surfing lessons from the best instructors in Australia, Mojo Surf, and I’ve hiked through the Blue Mountains with a friend of Steve Irwin. I’ve had a top-notch dinner at the top of Westfield Tower and been able to watch so many incredible sunsets in so many different, beautiful places. I’ve visited Steve Irwin’s zoo in Brisbane, canoed around the everglades in Noosa, and gone camping on the amazing Fraser Island. I’ve sailed around the Whitsunday Islands, slept under the Milkyway on a racing boat, visited the third most beautiful beach in the world and gone snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef itself. Last week I even jumped out of a plane at 14,000ft and did my first bungee jump. So yes, it’s been a pretty great couple of months!

Fraser Island (And a Little Bit of Rainbow Beach)

Driving on Fraser Island

Rainbow Beach…a beautiful, sometimes sunny and ridiculously boring place to be. That pretty much sums up the five days that we spent at Fraser’s On Rainbow, after having to extend our stay before our weekend trip to Fraser Island. After arriving on the Monday and coming to the conclusion that there was next to nothing to do, the realisation that we were stuck there for the next week hit us hard. Luckily, the amazingly speedy wifi soon perked us up, and within the hour we were happily downloading movies and catching up with the latest How I Met Your Mother in no time (Finally got to see the ending!) 
To be fair, we did eventually manage to find some things to keep us entertained. For $30 on Thursday morning we headed over on the ferry to Tin Can Bay, where we were able to see a group of wild dolphins coming in for their breakfast. For another $5 we were actually able to get in the water with them and hand feed them, which was an amazing experience - despite the fact I had a slimy dead fish in my hands and the woman told me off for wearing my flip-flops near the edge (apparently dolphins are well known for their dislike of Havaianas) 
That afternoon we also did the hostel’s daily sunset walk, which took us up to the Caloola sand dunes where we went sand-boarding and, you guessed it, watched the sunset. That was definitely one of those ‘I can’t quite believe this is my life’ moments, as we sat together in silence and took in the beautiful view, with only one woman’s ukulele to be heard. 

Backpacking Tips & Tricks

The more people you eat with, the cheaper it'll be.

1 - I’ve mentioned it before, but don’t assume that because you’re backpacking, you must have a backpack. I came out with a 120L capacity backpack and within just a few room changes I was ready to dump it and leave all my worldly possessions behind. A suitcase will become your best friend - easy to move, easy to pack, and most of all - easy to see where the hell all your stuff is! There is nothing more frustrating than trying to find a specific item of clothing and looking like a vet with his arm inside a cow - trust me, wheels are best.

2 - Never be afraid to ask for the odd cheeky discount. When buying my suitcase it was $199, a little over my budget. But after a simple question of ‘do you do backpackers discount…?’ I had managed to work $80 off - bargains! 

3 - Suncream suncream suncream. I can’t stress this enough - anything under SPF 50 and you will burn. To be honest, even with SPF 50 you’ll still have the odd lobster day. The ozone layer is a lot thinner in Australia, making it deceivingly difficult to guess when you need to apply. Simple solution - buy the aerosol kind and top up regularly, no stickiness, no greasy hands and you’ll be covered within 20 seconds. 

Packing 101

48 hours to go and counting! 

If you know me, you'll know how much I hate packing. Like, really hate packing. I could be off on a fantastically exotic holiday, or just popping down to Canterbury for the weekend, and I'll still loath the task just the same. There's always that worry you'll forget something drastically important, or end up with too much stuff that your bag suddenly becomes a health hazard when trying to manoeuvre yourself down a crowded train carriage. These are both things that seem to occur for me on a regular basis - and let's not forget the time I packed in such a rush that when I went to pull my headphones out of my bag, my underwear that had become tangled also came flying out into the middle of the plane isle. Faaaantastic. 

For this trip I've purchased a 120L Karabar backpack (£20 from Amazon, what a snip) and just a regular, what I call, school backpack, for hand luggage. Knowing full well what I'm like, I decided to make a packing list in advance, and have been ticking off and adding as I go along - leaving no room for last minute knickers to come flying out mid-journey. It's been a hard task, with some emotional goodbyes said to my favourite boots, hoodies and oversized handbags, which have no place in an Ozzy Backpackers life...

So here it is, every little item I'm taking with me, helpfully split into sub-headings for your own...enjoyment? 

We've Booked!

'Come fly with me...'

So happy to finally say that after what feels like months and months of planning and talking about what we were going to do, Jack and myself FINALLY got around to putting our deposits down with OzIntro, applied for our work visas and booked our flights. It’s been a tricky process, with a ton of e-mails, phone calls and ‘reconvening’ Facetime sessions in-between, but thanks to the ridiculously helpful people at Gap Year Travel, we managed to find a changeable return flight with Emirates for just £900 and a discounted ten-night voucher for Base Backpackers Hostels, which are situated all over Australia. Admittedly, the pain for my bank account is far from over, as we still need to buy our travel insurance and pay off the rest of the package costs with OzIntro, but in all honesty I’m just excited to start thinking about the real issues - like what do I wear on the plane?!

No Longer an Ink Virgin

'Wanderlust - A Great desire or impulse to travel the world and rove about.' 

Snaphappy

The Canon PowerShot SX500 IS

I'm the first to admit that I don't know the first thing when it comes to cameras. If they take a photo, they're usually pretty fine by me. But the one thing I've been told the most, is that a good camera is vital when exploring another country. But where do you even begin? It's all megapixels this, and optical zoom that, and for someone like myself, it might as well all be written in French. For me the specifications were simple: small and light enough to move around with, good quality photos and videos, a Li-lon battery and most importantly - reasonably affordable! 

I didn’t get very far when I looked online, as everything that looked remotely like I wanted was all £250+. Then as if by magic, during one Sunday evening’s viewing of Downton Abbey, I saw the Canon PowerShot SX500 IS advertised from Argos, for a beautifully eye-catching £139. 16MP, 30x optical zoom and with a three-inch LCD screen, this camera is not only up there with the best technology wise, but also small, light and compact enough to make travelling with considerably easier. 

Bit by the Travelling Bug

Well, okay, not literally. For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to travel. Even going back ten years as to when I started Secondary School, I can still remember that first ‘introduce yourself to the class’ session that every eleven-year-old child dreads. 

“Hi...I’m Chloe. I like to write and I want to travel the world someday.”

To be fair, eleven-year-old me knew what she was on about. Seven years on I chose my degree of Multimedia Journalism at Canterbury Christ Church University and so began my future of writing in a new place. Of course, Canterbury was hardly Timbuktu, and although my halls of residence were certainly questionable at times, I was hardly slumming it backpackers-style in a hostel somewhere. Nevertheless, those three years I spent away from home provided me with both the life and professional experience needed in order to one day make that big move abroad.