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…a short stopover
3 June felt particularly long for us; the flight from Sydney took us via Hawaii and across the International Date Line to Vancouver. We only got a few hours’ sleep, even though we were in the air for over 14 hours. Going through immigration in Canada was just like leaving Sydney; we could practically walk straight through. After completing the electronic registration, all we had to do was slot our passports in and the gate to this vast country swung open. Nobody wanted to check our luggage. Read More

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… a dream or an torture?
Let’s get this out of the way straight away: many people dream of this continent and would love to stay there for good, whilst others see no reason to travel to Australia. It wasn’t much different for us either; for Tom, it had always been a dream, whereas Chantal, on the other hand, couldn’t see the appeal of the endless expanses. We’re also asked time and again where we liked it best; a question we can never answer straight away or with any certainty. In such a vast country, there are countless corners and regions that completely captivated us. That’s why we’ve always had to – and still have to – pass on giving a definitive answer. Read More

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…the last few kilometres around Sydney
Yes, on the Liverpool Range we were able to acclimatise to the new weather conditions; after intense heat and almost unbearable temperatures, it was suddenly cool. At night, temperatures had already dropped into the low single figures. The icing on the cake was the various bad-weather fronts coming in from the east, which brought quite a bit of moisture. One day of sunshine was followed by three days of thick clouds and rain. Read More

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…from Western Australia to New South Wales
We set off from Halls Creek heading east with great enthusiasm. We didn’t have particularly high expectations of the route in this direction, as it involved many flat kilometres through the Australian outback and farmland. But the decision was now final! For me (Tom), not ‘driving’ the Gibb River Road was a bit of a disappointment, as I would have liked to have explored the Kimberley a bit more. But what isn’t now may well be another time. Instead, we were looking forward to the Blue Mountains in the far east of Australia. Read More

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…from Halls Creek via Darwin back to Halls Creek
The road west of Halls Creek was officially closed. Feeling rather uncertain, we carried on anyway; it would probably be fine – the information we’d received was very contradictory. With a touch of nervousness, we continued eastwards. Up to the border between Western Australia and the Northern Territory, the route took us over many hills, and with every change of direction came a new view of the landscape stretching into the distance or down into the next valley. Read More

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…and stopped by Cyclone Narelle!
After our stopover in south-western Western Australia and another visit to the BackpackerCars workshop in Perth, we set off for Darwin for the second time. Our Toyota had to go back to the garage again because the ball joints in the steering had significant play. Although you could drive around Australia like that, the car’s straight-line stability was anything but reliable. And, as is often the case, the car was in the garage for one technical problem, which was sorted out, but it ended up with two new problems. No idea what went wrong during that repair. Perhaps it has something to do with the age of the Toyota; as soon as you tinker with something, the next problem crops up. Read More

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…and back in a holding pattern
After having our car serviced at Backpacker Cars in Perth, we set off northwards with renewed vigour. Although the list of faults on our Toyota was a bit longer again, we trusted the mechanic’s assurance that everything would be fine for the next 10,000 km and that the minor issues were of little consequence. We checked the weather forecasts and hoped it wouldn’t get as hot as the two-week forecast suggested. Read More

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…from Albany to Perth
The repairs in Albany took a little longer than we had planned, and in the end we were somewhat disappointed with the garage. Or was it more our “mechanic warranty”, which we had purchased for a lot of money from our car supplier in Sydney? I still don’t fully understand the warranty system, which excludes pretty much everything. Oil seals and electrical connections are excluded, and we soon wondered whether this insurance was just window dressing for the customer. Read More

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…from Esperance via Kalgoorlie-Boulder to Albany
“Yes, we too wanted to take a look into the deep hole, and perhaps we would have been as lucky as those men who triggered a gold rush north of Esperance over a hundred years ago.”
But here too, the distances were long; very long. Read More