Australia – the first stop on my adventures into the big unknown. The worlds sixth largest country by area and the land down under! You never realise how big, vast and different Australia really is until you are presentented with some strange facts about the place.
Flying from Sydney to Perth takes around 4 hours. 90% of Australians live within 10km of the coast. Probably as over 1/3 of Australia is desert which also accounts for the fact that it has the worlds largest population of dromedary (one – humped) camel which they actually sell to the middle east. Sheep outnumber Aussies by 5 : 1, that puts the sheep in at about 100m. They have the worlds largest organic structure in the world – the Great Barrier reef. It has the worlds deadliest jellyfish along its coastline. In fact in some regions it is illegal to go diving without a stinger suit. Taking of dangerous animals, Australia boasts 20 of the worlds top 25 deadliest snakes. A huge difference to the peaceful, quaint UK. It’s like a country that has its ecology on steroids.
So here it all begins the first stop on the travels. The idea was to start in Melbourne, head a little south to the Great Ocean Road and then travel up the East coast towards Cairns on buses, vans trains and cars. The East coast is a well traveled route so I would certainly meet up with fellow travellers en-route. An easy way to test my navigation and social skills, time planning and how I would feel aout life on the road before I hit harder routes in SE Asia. The only problem with Australia was it felt more like a holiday than traveling. In the end though, I met many great friends, had some great nights out and had some great experiences.
