BACKPACKING IN AUSTRALIA FOR TWO MONTHS ON A BUDGET
Our story of hugging kangaroos, swimming with sharks and dining with the 12 Apostles !!
Sydney Harbour
This post is a preamble and a synopsis of our backpacking journey in Australia.
How does an Asian couple, on an Asian budget manage to travel across Australia for nearly two months? Well, my wife Ambika and I set out on this journey trying to find out exactly that. All we had going for us was our zest for adventure, a keenness to explore a foreign land on our own terms and at our own pace and a jolly good amount of time in between quitting our present jobs and finding new ones!!
We started out with absolutely no international backpacking experience, a single guide book for research and an absolute belief that the roads would open up as we walked along!
Our intention was to explore as much of the country as possible on an average budget of about 100 dollars per person per day without backtracking and seeing as much as we possibly could.
Whitehaven beach, Whitsundays, Queensland
A few of the exciting things we have done have been – snorkeling in a fish tank with sharks at the Sunshine Coast, taking a trip in a private chartered seaplane to one of the most exotic beaches at Whitsundays in the Great Barrier Reef and flying in a chopper over the 12 Apostles at the Great Ocean Road.
12 Apostles, Great Ocean Road
We had kept our plans flexible and had initially thought that we would cover most of the major cities. It was only when we actually started our planning at the start of our trip out of Brisbane that we realised how massive this country really was.
Did you know that the distance between Perth to Brisbane is 4338 Kilometers (2700 miles)!!
Australia
We finally ended up backpacking the East and South Coast only, covering the area from Cape Tribulation in the north all the way down to Melbourne and up to Port Campbell at the western end of the Great Ocean Road in the South.
Our travel route has been:
Brisbane – Sunshine Coast – Mackay – Whitsundays (Great Barrier Reef) – Cairns –Atherton Tablelands (Milla Milla, Bebinda Boulder-Fig Tree Circuit)- Port Douglas – – Mossman Gorge – Cape Tribulation –Townsville – Melbourne – Great Ocean Road – 12 Apostles – Port Campbell – Yarra Valley (Melbourne) – Canberra – Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves – Sydney- Brisbane
12 Apostles, Port Campbell
Queensland Rail
It has been an amazing journey throughout. We have travelled by buses, trains, rental cars and airplanes. We stayed in AirBnB accommodation, with friends and relatives as well as in backpacker dorms.
I intend to share each segment of our journey with our experiences and practical tips to help fellow travelers and backpackers maximize their travels in Australia.
I hope you guys enjoy the posts and are inspired to come Down Under to experience this amazing country first hand.
Towards the end of our journey, I daresay, we have managed to get a bit of the Red Earth brushed off on us and the country has left us with a deep sense of respect for it’s people and culture, a exhilarating sense of adventure and a deep desire to do this all over again with bigger adventures and even brighter memories.
Please feel free to add your comments and contact me for any tips or advice on travelling in Australia.
Cairns – Rusty’s Markets
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