Australia 1999 – part 2

Visited: February to May 1999

Duration of visit: 98 days (1999 – 85 days; 2023 – 13 days)

Capital city: Canberra

Population: 26.6 million (2023)

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

• A laid-back and easygoing way of life.
• Excellent camping facilities where occasional visitors are minorities.
• Well-planned capital Canberra, whish lacks of people and traffic.
• Captivating Sydney with some of the best-known landmarks worldwide.

In 1999, Asia was the main destination and somehow, I added Australia, because it was not far, offered a good opportunity for quick money earning and it sounded very exotic at that time. Therefore, Australia was the starting point of the 15-months long Big Asian Tour from Australia, through South-Eastern Asia and China to India. I visited most of the countries in the Southeast Asia and spent almost three months travelling and working around Australia.

In this article I describe the second part of my trip to Australia in 1999: driving motorhome for free, the contrasts of Canberra and Sydney, searching for Blue Mountains in the fog, chasing kangaroos and magnificent drive along the Ocean Road. More articles about Australian adventures are available here:

When I was doing a research to travel from Alice Springs to Adelaide, I found an option of so-called drive-away. I had already used this system to cross the USA four years before. At a car rental agency, I got a motorhome, which had to be moved to Adelaide in three days. I paid only 7 AUD per day and they even reimbursed expenses for the petrol. Thus, driving over 1,500 kilometers costed me only 20 AUD; also enjoying the great luxury of free sleeping, mobile kitchen and flexibility.

The only inconvenience of driving with a rented mobile home was a blockade of the speed pedal, which allowed the maximum pace at 90 kilometers per hour. Wide, flat road with hardly any traffic would have been suitable for much faster drive without exposing me to any risk.

In 1913 Canberra was named the new capital of Australia, mainly because it was situated at the middle point between Sydney and Melbourne. It is only three-hour drive from Sydney these days.

This well-planned city is built according to the exact plan of the architects, so everything is beautifully arranged, with extensive green areas, an artificial lake, wide roads, no air polluting manufacturing factories, etc. Even at the time of rush hour, when everyone is returning home from work, there is no special congestion on the roads and the city center looks deserted in the late afternoon. At first, I had a bit of a weird feeling, but after a few days, I felt that Canberra could actually be a good place to live.

in 1988, the permanent new Parliament House was officially opened high on the Capitol Hill. Usually, government buildings are the most protected areas in a country and off the limits for regular citizens. Not in Australia! Australian Parliament House offers daily guided tours, providing the chance to explore its unique architecture, art collections and behind-the-scenes for a special experience.

I settled in a camp on the outskirts of the city and was riding on metropolitan buses to visit museums, parks and the parliament in Canberra. The last day before leaving, it was raining heavily, so I decided to move to the always empty kitchen. I would sleep under roof and put my completely soaked tent to dry. I loaded my tent in a dryer, together with the rest of my laundry and set it to a medium temperature.

Half an hour later, I almost cried when pulling out the clothes from drying machine. The plastic bottom of my tent, which in its original state measured 180×215 centimeters, during the heat shrank to 50×50 centimeters and became hard as stone. All attempts to extend it back to original size were hopeless. I had to cut off the bottom and use it as it was – with walls only – until I bought a new one a week later.

Despite of high standard of living and expensive lifestyle in Sydney, I managed to reduce costs to an acceptable level with the help of proven travel tricks. I settled in a rundown camp nearby the city center, bought a one-week subway ticket with a student discount, found cheap restaurants in Chinatown and purchased unbranded food at supermarkets.

Camping facilities were by far the worst in all of Australia: the kitchen was full of cockroaches, unappealing smell of mold was filling the air, toilets were like in a prison. The biggest attraction was the camp administrator – the manager.

A medium-sized heavyweight tough guy in his fifties let me know at the reception who the absolute master of this area was. He walked around shirtless so he could show everyone his tattooed chest and back, not carrying about anything else but collecting 15 AUD for every night I stayed in his neglected campground.

The main symbols of Sydney – the Opera House and the Harbor bridge – are strategically positioned in the central harbor, which attracts visitors from all over the world and is the center of events.

Since I’m not the biggest fan of the classical music performances that take place in opera houses, I preferred to save some money not taking guided tour or attending events. I appreciated the Sydney Opera House, one of the most famous and distinctive buildings of 20^th century, from different angles of the city. Opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1973 with 10 years delay from original plan and exceeding budget by 14 times, Sydney Opera house receives over 10 million visitors every year.

Another attraction that I appreciated in Sydney was the largest cinema in the world at the time – lMAX. In fact, it is the largest screen in the size of 25 x 35 meters, where movies of the highest graphics and sound quality are projected. IMAX technology combines a variety of technological innovations, specially-designed theatres with steeply raked seating and selected movies that could be very costly to make.

When I arrived to the theater, I felt as if I was sitting at home half a meter from the TV with the volume to the maximum. Obviously sitting in front of a big screen is not comparable to television watching; I put on special glasses that allowed me to watch the movie in 3D and allegedly mingled with the main actors walking in front of me.

Sydney, Australian largest city, lives for the 2000 Olympic games. Renovating old buildings, raising new hotels, arranging parks, repairing roads and inviting people to buy souvenirs with the symbol of the most important sport event in the world.

Just two hours by train from Sydney, the Blue Mountains National Park offers a pleasant break from the city’s chaos. Blue Mountains are apparently named after the blue haze that blankets the region when viewed from a distance. At first sight from one of the viewpoints, I was not convinced that this was true.

Namely, as I stood at the viewpoint and looked into the distance, the only visible thing was the dense fog. Visibility of about 10 to 15 meters impeded me from seeing the famous park’s landmark called Three sisters – unusual rock formation representing three sisters, who according to Aboriginal legend, were turned to stone.

Disappointed, I returned to the nearby town of Katoomba and waited two days for the sky to open. This rather boring town, with the only attraction in the form of a large supermarket, Coles chain – open 24 hours a day, turned into my second home for three weeks. The main reason being two locally recognized architects, who offered me work on the restoration of an old villa. Foggy and rainy weather was no longer important, as I spent day after day with abrasive paper and chemical compounds in my hand, cleaning the old paint from doors and windows.

What a relief after a hard time picking-up grapes and pears. Fix hourly payment allowed me a moderate rhythm, friendly employers – architects Bruce and Mark – continually supplied me with sweets and my financial situation substantially improved. Even the clouds over the Blue Mountains parted and the sunshine colored the forest in a light blue at the distance.

After three months in Australia and only a day before flying to Indonesia, it was time to drive along the Great Ocean Road on south-eastern coast of Victoria. National parks, protected territories, big waves, surfers, many kangaroos and koalas in the natural environment made an unforgettable day.

Despite the fact that millions of kangaroos and many koalas live in Australia, it is not uncommon for tourists to never see these two Aussie symbols in their natural environment.

Zoos or shelters always offer a back-up solution, but it is not the same as seeing them in their natural habitat. We stopped at a golf course, where about 100 kangaroos started to watch strangers with cameras without fear and posing as excited as we were about them.

A comfortable hopping speed of a kangaroo is around 25 kilometers per hour, however they can move up to 70 kilometers per hour over shorter distances. Kangaroos like to chew on grasses, herbs and shrubs, need very little water to survive and are capable of going for months without drinking at all. A newborn joey is only about 2.5 centimeters tall; they travel through their mothers’ thick fur to the safety of the pouch.

In the nearby forest, high in the canopy of eucalyptus trees, we found one of the laziest animals in the world – koalas. While koalas are a national symbol of Australian unique wildlife, they can only be found in the wild on the southeast and eastern sides of the continent.

Because they feed exclusively on low-calorie eucalyptus leaves, they sleep 18 hours a day or mostly move slowly. They can eat up to a kilogram of leaves per day! The leaves are so low in nutrients that koalas need more sleep than most animals which basically helps them to conserve energy. Observing koalas is like watching a slow-motion movie.