Heading up the East Coast - Part 1

Through Facebook, I met two crazies who wanted to travel the same route between Melbourne and Sydney as me. Korneliusz (36) and Leonardo (23) were looking for someone with a rental car and I had one.

On 04.01., we met in Melbourne in the morning and drove to Wilson's Promontory National Park. When we arrived, we went straight to Squeaky Beach. On the way back to the car, we encountered a snake. According to the snake experts on the road trip, it was a tiger snake. After that, we drove to Prom Wildlife Walk, where we saw emus, kangaroos, and several insects, including the bulldog ant, which is considered the "most dangerous ant in the world". Finally, we went to the "Big Drift", a huge sand dune with a great view. On the way to the dune, we came across a brown snake. One of the snake experts wanted to film it and got relatively close, but the snake didn't find it funny - nothing happened to him though.

The next stop was Canberra. Since the journey was quite long and took 8 hours, we stopped halfway and stayed in a town called Orbost. Away from any major cities and with a slightly strange first impression.

The next day (05.01.), we continued towards Canberra. On the way there, we visited Gibraltar Falls, a beautiful waterfall in the middle of a eucalyptus forest.

Upon arriving in Canberra, we checked into our hostel and found that the capital of Australia felt like a ghost town. There were hardly any people on the streets. In the evening, we met some questionable characters in the hostel.

06.01.: We used Friday to explore Canberra. We met Felix (18) in the hostel, who was doing a work and travel year in Australia and knew Canberra inside out. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to do, but the Capitol was very impressive.

On 07.01., the four of us headed to the Blue Mountains. We made a stop at Jervis Bay and caught a slightly gray glimpse of Australia's allegedly whitest beach. When we arrived in the Blue Mountains, we made our way to Echo Point, where we had an incredibly amazing view of the eucalyptus forests and the cliffs.

The next day, we set off on two different hikes. First, we went to Hanging Rock and were rewarded with a breathtaking view at the end of the trail. The steep cliff edge made some of us a little nervous. Of course, we had to go to Hanging Rock to enjoy the view and take great photos, but the catch was that we had to jump over a rock gap - luckily, I was surrounded by three men who helped me.

Afterwards, we continued to the Grand Canyon hike - surrounded by cliffs, streams, waterfalls, and fern palms, we embarked on an adventurous path. In total, we walked 32km - my legs are feeling particularly heavy today 😄.

After a sunrise in the Blue Mountains, the road trip with many experiences, great discoveries, and fun people came to an end today with the final stop in Sydney.

On Wednesday, I will continue with a backpacker group along the East Coast of Australia. I will keep you updated