Australia 1999 – part 2

My Australia travel 1999 (part 2) summary:

Visited: February 1999

Duration of this visit: 85 days (total Australia: 101 days)

Capital city: Canberra

Population: 26.6 million (2023)

Australia travel blog 1999 reading time (part 2) : 7 minutes

• A laid-back and easygoing way of life.
• Excellent camping facilities where occasional visitors are in the minority.
• Well-planned capital Canberra with few people and little traffic.
• Captivating Sydney with some of the best-known landmarks worldwide.
• Foggy Blue Mountains National Park.
• The Great Ocean Road, koalas and kangaroos.

In 1999, Australia became the starting point of my 15-month Asian Big Tour – a journey through South-Eastern Asia and China to India.

In this article I describe the second part of Australia travel adventure in 1999, where I spent almost three months travelling and working: free motorhome travel, the contrasts of Canberra and Sydney, fog in the Blue Mountains, kangaroo chasing, and enjoying the Ocean Road drive.

More articles about Australia travel adventures are available here:

While planning my trip from Alice Springs to Adelaide, I found an option called drive-away.

I had already used this system to cross the USA four years earlier. At a car rental agency, I picked up a motorhome that needed to be moved to Adelaide within three days. I paid only 7 AUD per day, and they even refunded the petrol costs. In the end, 1,500 kilometers costed me only 20 AUD, including transport, free accommodation, a mobile kitchen, and total flexibility.

The only inconvenience was a speed limiter that kept the motorhome below 90 kilometers per hour. The wide, flat roads were empty and felt safe enough for faster driving.

In 1913, Canberra became the new capital of Australia, mainly because it sits between Sydney and Melbourne. Today, it is only a three-hour drive from Sydney.

The city was built to a perfect plan, with wide roads, large green spaces, and an artificial lake. There are no major polluting factories, traffic is light even at rush hour, and I found the downtown quiet by late afternoon. Even during rush hour, the roads were not crowded.

At first, it felt a little strange, but after a few days, I could see Canberra as 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 stayed in a camp on the outskirts of the city and used public buses to visit museums, parks, the parliament and other landmarks in Canberra. On my last day, it was raining heavily, so I moved into the empty kitchen area to sleep under a roof and dry my soaked tent.

I put the tent in a dryer with my laundry on a medium setting. Half an hour later, I was almost in tears when I took it out. The plastic base of my tent had shrunk from 180 × 215 cm to about 50 × 50 cm and become as hard as stone. It couldn’t be stretched back to its original size. I cut off the bottom of the tent and used it as a shelter with only the walls. I kept using it that way until I bought a new tent a week later.

Despite the high cost of living in Sydney, I reduced my expenses using simple travel tricks. I chose a rundown camp near the city center, bought a one-week subway ticket with a student discount, ate in cheap Chinatown restaurants, and bought unbranded food at supermarkets.

The camping facilities were among the worst in my entire Australia travel adventure. The kitchen was full of cockroaches, the air smelled strongly of mould, and the toilets were in very poor condition. The main attraction was the camp administrator, the manager.

A medium-sized, tough man in his fifties worked at reception and made it clear he was in charge. He walked around shirtless to show his tattooed chest and back. Apparently, he only cared about collecting 15 AUD per night from each temporary resident.

The Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge are the main places to visit in Sydney, and strongly associated with the city’s identity.

I am not a big fan of classical music, so I skipped tours and events to save money. I observed the famous for its sail-like roof design of the Opera House from different parts of the city. It stands on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbor and is one of the most photographed landmarks in the world. 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 I appreciated in Sydney was IMAX, which was considered the largest cinema in the world at the time.

It has a massive screen measuring 25 by 35 meters, where high-quality films with advanced graphics and sound are shown. IMAX technology combines several innovations, including specially designed theatres with steep seating and carefully selected, expensive-to-produce films.

When I watched a movie, it felt like sitting very close to a huge TV with maximum volume. The experience was very different from television, especially with 3D glasses that made actors seem right in front of me.

During my Australia travel adventure in 1999, Sydney was preparing for the 2000 Olympic Games. The city was renovating old buildings, constructing new hotels, improving parks and roads, and promoting the major sporting event.

Just two hours by train from Sydney, the Blue Mountains National Park offers a peaceful escape from the city’s chaos.

The Blue Mountains are named after the blue haze that appears over the region when seen from a distance.

At first, I was not convinced when I observed it from a viewpoint.

I only encountered dense fog. The visibility was about 10 to 15 meters, which made it impossible to spot the famous landmark – the Three Sisters. This unusual rock formation represents 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 clear. The town was rather dull, and the only exciting thing to do was shopping at the Coles supermarket.

The main reason I extended my stay in Katoomba was two local architects who offered me work restoring an old villa. Fog and rain no longer mattered as I spent my days removing old paint from doors and windows.

What a relief after a hard time picking grapes and pears. The fixed hourly payment allowed a steady rhythm. Friendly architects Bruce and Mark often provided sweets, while my financial situation improved. Even the clouds over the Blue Mountains parted, and the sunlight painted the forest a soft blue in the distance.

After three months of my Australia travel adventure, and just one day before flying out, it was time to drive along the Great Ocean Road. National parks, protected areas, and dramatic coastal scenery made the journey unforgettable.

I watched huge waves crash against the cliffs, saw surfers in the ocean, and spotted kangaroos and koalas in their natural environment. It became a perfect final experience that completed my trip.

Although millions of kangaroos and many koalas live in Australia, tourists often do not see them in the wild.

Zoos or shelters always offer a backup option, but it is not the same as seeing animals in their natural habitat. I was lucky to stop at a golf course during the trip. About 100 kangaroos calmly watched us, showing no fear and almost posing as we were excited to see them.

A kangaroo’s comfortable hopping speed is around 25 km/h, but it can reach up to 70 km/h over short distances. Kangaroos eat grasses, herbs, and shrubs, need very little water, and can survive for months without drinking. A newborn joey is only about 2.5 centimeters long.

In the nearby forest, high in the canopy of eucalyptus trees, we found one of the laziest animals in the world – koalas. Although they are a national symbol of Australia’s wildlife, koalas are found only in the wild in southeastern and eastern regions.

Koalas feed almost exclusively on low-calorie eucalyptus leaves, so they sleep about 18 hours a day and move very slowly. They can eat up to a kilogram of leaves daily, but because the food has so few nutrients, they need long periods of rest to save energy. Observing koalas is like a slow-motion film and a unique thing to do in nature.