Chapter 11 Unspectacular Spectacular Weeks

After leaving Sydney, we went straight to Brisbane as some places were still very smoky and we wanted to get rid of Jacky quickly. The 'quick' part was just a matter of speaking.

Just before Brisbane, we set up camp and spent three days advertising the car on Facebook.

It turned out that the demand had shifted from Brisbane to Sydney. Great.

So we threw ourselves into it with about 20 other car sellers, for about two car enthusiasts. Apart from an unsuccessful viewing and test drive. We decided to drive the 1000 km back to Sydney.

On the way there, we camped one night by a river. The next morning, just before we wanted to go swimming, we were surprised by dolphins hunting close to the shore!

We spent one more night just before Sydney, before we drove into the city and met two interested Dutch girls. Everything went smoothly and they were enthusiastic until we did the obligatory workshop check.

The mechanic declared practically everything as renewable: front left shock absorber, all four tires, oil leak, timing belt and water pump... He quoted us 4000 Australian dollars.

Fortunately, the Dutch girls were patient and so we had the car checked again by another very nice mechanic, who came up with half of the things that needed to be renewed and half of the price. The timing belt, plus the water pump, could have survived another 50 thousand kilometers in terms of mileage, but the time had come to change them, which alone cost 1500 dollars. After two days of negotiating, we finally sold the car and a great burden fell off our shoulders.

Farewell Jacky:

Our time was like a poorly running relationship. It started off fantastically and we had a lot of fun together. But after three and a half months, the nagging began and we started to annoy each other, so the divorce was pretty easy in the end. Nevertheless, thank you for never leaving us stranded and always giving us a safe ride from A to B. Thank you for about 8000 beautiful kilometers!

We spent three more days in Sydney before taking the train back to Brisbane, a 15-hour journey, which we have already done five times now.

We already know Brisbane very well, which is why we focused on planning for New Zealand. But more on that later when we're done with the North Island.

Today we explored the Suncorp Stadium of the Brisbane Roars with Max, who just arrived in Brisbane. Let's just say: the rainy weather had more class than the game. But after Schalke's brilliant performance against Gladbach, the bar was set unreachable from the start.

Next time there will be more to report and especially more beautiful pictures!

Until then

Your Louis & Jonas