AUS road trip

With only a few weeks in Australia we knew we couldn’t go too far... and we also know ourselves well enough to know we couldn’t wander too far from the ocean. 

Our first few nights were spent hopping between NSW National park campgrounds and slowly working our way up the coast.  

Fair to say that the water (and weather in general) is well colder than we're used to - and some adapting was needed from the tropical temps we’ve grown so used to for the last 6years sailing.  But between Wildling and settling back into life on the road things felt very “normal” indeed, at least for a couple who had just packed up their entire life and flew away from their floating home with only two carry-ons in tow.

Even a week in we started to realize/understand that differences between our past vanlife/overlanding days (in North and Central America) and here in AUS.  Our old habits of simply finding an old forestry/mining road to turn down or a beach to park on to get lost for a few days (or weeks) offroad isn’t really possible here.  Instead, we found ourselves being forced to hunt for established campgrounds and paying for a grassy spot to park and a bag of firewood. 

Don’t get me wrong, these campground prices are extremely reasonable, the beaches they sit next to are absolutely stunning, and we did have a lovely time… but we also weren’t able to park and look out at the ocean without a bit of a walk (except for one extraordinary site that we also timed with a massive swell, which made for some excellent surf-watching).

The first week and a half was also almost constant rainy/stormy weather, which meant being holed up inside the van quite a bit - but it worked for us.  As you all know, we're no stranger to being in small places together 24/7 , and being “stuck” inside the van meant a bit of much needed downtime as we transitioned/adjusted and tried to figure out what's next for us.

A week or so camping between places near the ocean and/or deep in a rainy jungle and looking out at the swamps and/or hiking up the sand dunes in pockets of time between rain to stare out at the ocean.  Staring at Roos and the sweet local birds took up most of our non-driving time and we quickly settled in.

We slowly meandered north staying near the ocean at night and exploring a few small towns in the day.  It was quickly apparent how easily we could slip into the the lifestyle here.  The people are awesome and every small town we happened into felt like some version of a small almost-hippy coastal town with incredible shops, health food stores and food/drink. 

The best part... even along main street, completely normal for people to be walking around barefoot - whether on the sidewalk or inside the store.  Seriously, the less time in foot prisons the better, and that's never been more apparent and front-of-mind then right now.

We finally arrived in Byron Bay, maybe our favorite of the towns since we left Sydney and met up with Char again. The street here are filled with epic shopping (though we have no space to add to whats in our luggage) and every place we ate at was idyllic.  We also found our first Koalas just outside of town... checking another Oz wildlife must-see off our list.

Unfortunately, our last several nights had been spent at incredibly busy campgrounds, so we decided to head inland and see if we could find more remote and quiet options further from the ocean.  We hopped on Hipcamp and found a few great options - the best of which was an epic individual hilltop site overlooking an incredibly lush valley.  Not for families or large groups, but if you're a couple looking for a remote/quiet spot this place was incredible.

By the time we made it to Brisbane and dropped off the van, we had stayed everywhere from a public park that typically houses most of the regions homeless/transient workers to incredible private campgrounds and wineries. 

Oddly, possibly our favorite was the one night we tapped into our past habits and boondocked/stealth camped in a small town, nearby a marina.  It ended up being among our quietest evenings and we ate/sipped wine while staring out at the sailboats anchored in the bay.

Ironically... not so different than some of our last evenings in vanlife - while driving through Alaska, and what (with the addition of a few very timely and life-changing conversations) ended up leading to our buying a boat, teaching ourselves to sail and living aboard.  Funny how some things come full circle in the most unexpected of places.

Our time in AUS was far, far too short - but it certainly proved what we thought we already knew... that we will indeed be spending more time here and likely exploring by land/van.  Hopefully seeing all there is to this vast beautiful country doing the "great loop" around AUS (and hopefully in a van we design and build similar to Wildling). 

Can't thank our friends enough for lending us their beautiful van, for hosting us along the way and for an incredible experience that proved to be the best first phase we could imagine right now.