Fast forward jump to Brisbane
Last of the Australian states capitals before the final destiation of Byron Bay. Days of travelling are counted, for some time.
Hohohooo, a new means of transport in use! No relocation. No campervan bukake. No bus. We flew!
Hell yeah, we upgraded! From now on we will travel in style.
Truth be told, we flew to Brisbane because it was the cheapest way how to get to Byron Bay. Buses from Sydney to Byron are expensive (much more than the flight!), relocations non-existents, and people who travel in campervans and are looking for travel partners all justifiably wanna stop in all the places between Sydney and Byron Bay which we both have seen before, and even if we decided to take this lengthy option we would end up paying almost as much money on petrol sharing as for the flight. Also, Brisbane is just around the corner from Noosa, where I was going to pick my long lost baby, Canon 5D.
In Brisbane we met… yes, again… another Irene’s friend from the hostel in Edinburgh, Hannah. And her boyfriend. For me this was the second visit to Brisbane, for Irene’s the first.
It’s really ridiculous that when we started from Bali we said we would go to Byron Bay, but we ended up going through Darwin, the capital of Northern Territory, through Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, Canberra, the capital of Australian Capital Territory and of Australia as such, Sydney, the capital of New South Wales and finally through Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. Amazing, we managed to sweep through almost capital of almost every Australian state, the only exceptions being Perth (Western Australia) and Hobart (Tasmania), because those would be really way of out of way. Our route Bali – Byron Bay could hardly be called “shortcut”, that’s for sure.
As with all second visits of all Australian town, not too much sightseeing happened, although at least some, as Irene was here for the first time, but Brisbane confirmed its good ranking in my eyes. Again I had a nice relaxed feeling from the town, and again in some ways I found it actually more pleasurable than Melbourne or Sydney. Sure, there’s not too much going on or too much to see, but its slow pace, like that of the river flowing through its center, is charming.
Hannah and her boyfriend find it less charming, and they can’t wait to get out of there and move to Canada sometime in March :-)
Thanks to hospitality of Irene’s friends from the Edinburgh hostel – Ryan and Hannah, CouchSurfing hosts - Amanda, Sam and Tom, and Nik’s family, and thanks to all the nights in the campervans and tents on the rest areas of Australian high-ways we managed to get half-way around Australia from Darwin to Brisbane with paying for proper accommodation (hostel) only twice and for campground only twice. In almost 2 months we spent 81 AUD (55 EUR) on accommodation per person! WOW, now that’s how to travel cheaply. And thanks to all the relocations we spent almost no money on the transport either. Suddenly even India seems like a very expensive destination, and that’s quite remarkable achievement as Australia is by far the most expensive country I have ever been to.
