So we left our home, the pub, to eexplore the east coast of Australia and so far we have realised that we perhaps are the worst campers in the whole country. Before we got to the pub we actually bought a car so we could travel from Gold Coast to Tomingley. The car is now working as our transport and our home and we have so far managed to drive all the way from Dubbo NSW up to Cairns and then the coastline down to Fraiser Islands.
A lot of people that’s traveling on the coast are actually taking the bus which surprised me a lot, my dream has always been to drive and make the traveling a little more spontaneous. Especially now when the high season starts and apparently everything is booked out, I have seen so many people that’s taking the bus having problem with finding spots at hostels and tours. The great thing for us is that we can travel on if it’s full somewhere and we always have the car to sleep in if we can’t find anywhere to live.
The first two days we had no clue what we were doing and tried to find camping grounds at truck stops. Which works for a couple of nights but it’s usually no toilets at those places since it’s just a rest area for the people who have been driving to long or a place to sleep for truckies. But then when we stopped to fill up gas in the middle of nowhere in the Australian inland we met some other backpackers who helped us to get an app so we can se exactly where you can make a stop for the night. It will show you free, cheap or expensive places to stay and you can also use it to find molars to refil drinking water and public showers, something you always look for when you are camping for weeks.
Since then we camped in Arlie Beach behind a bar and in the middle of nowhere with snakes and crocodiles. And that’s my friends where the worst campers in Australia comes in. Since we don’t know much about the animals here in Australia we just made it really simple and decided that all of them are dangerous. Everything from birds to reptiles and spiders are something we try to stay away from and as soon as we see any of them we simply just sleep in the car instead of putting up the tent we usually have.
Three nights ago we where at a camping ground in the middle of nowhere when a storm came in over the place, it was a place right next to the sea but it took us 15 minutes on dirt roads to find it. The place was fenced in and right before sunset an old man who apparently owned the ground showed up, he was so nice and checked so all of us where okay and that we had enough water. The night we stayed at this place it was about 15 people there. Later on when we were talking to some germans, a storm came closer.
The wind picked up and as we sat there we realiased that our tent wasn’t secured to the ground. Simple reason for that is that the sticks you usually use wasn’t in the car when we got it and we have been a little bit to lazy to get some. So I think you can guess what happened after that. The tent with all of our stuff was about to leave the camping when I got there (I’m kind of happy for the fence).
We thought about just entering the tent and sleep in it so it wouldn’t disappear but by this time the tent almost went flat to the ground and I thought it would break any minute so we just took everything and threw it in the car. Poor Germans, first we told them that we where afraid of everything and seconds later our tent is leaving us behind, I’ve never seen them again and perhaps that’s not an coincidence.
Camping in Australia is pretty easy with the free camp spots almost everywhere among the road and if they belong to the government you pay around 2-6 dollar online to stay overnight. In bigger cities we try to stay in payed camping grounds wich still is much cheaper than buying a bed in a dorm. It has it’s ups and downs with the camping of course but I think we are having a more relaxed trip without prebooking everything.
