From New Zealand it was just a 3 and a half hour flight to Sydney. It was pouring down, so I took the shuttle bus to the town centre and from there I walked to my Guesthouse. I had to wait until my bed was free because it was still very early in the morning. Good thing the pub was open and right below, so after a beer (not a cup of coffee I meant), I could unpack my stuff. It was a 12 bed dormitory. A bit of a difference after all those privacy but really nice people. With a few guys I walked over the Harbour bridge and to the opera house. I tried to contact Tim and Louise who I met in Laos and they went here to work both in a hospital. We agreed on spending Christmas together. I was unlucky for a few days but finally I reached them and they picked me up one day before Christmas day. It went not all as planed because they both had to work so I spend Christmas in my own on Bondi beach. Bit strange to have a bbq on the beach while listening to “I am dreaming of a white Christmas”.

On Boxing day I went to the aquarium and almost got a job as a window cleaner after I made a remark to one of the guides. Unfortunately the job was already taken. In the harbour the boat race “Sydney to Hobart” started that day. Nice to see all these racing boats, and I decided to go myself to Hobart.

The next day Tim dropped me off along the highway and for the first time in my life I did some real hitchhiking. 1100 km it was to Melbourne and my plan was to reach it in a week. Within two days I already was there. I could not believe how nice the Australian people are. The first one to pick me up was a carpenter. After 300 km he dropped me off and while I was thanking him another guy pulled over. He was working on a market selling fruit. After another 200 km he asked me what my favourite fruit was. That’s how I ended up with a whole box of mango’s on top of my backpack. The next who picked me up was a lady who was planning to take her mom for a ride. So after lunch at “mom’s place” we kept on going to the south. By the time in the evening she brought me to a campground about 600 km from Sydney. I was the only one with a tent so the travellers with a car or campervan invited me to join for dinner. I did have mango’s to share so I did not feel bad about it.

The next day about 7 in the morning I was packed and ready to go. A guy who picked me up was driving like mad so after a quarter of an hour I made my escape. Then it was my longest waiting period. 10 whole minutes before a man from Melbourne came by and that’s how I made the rest of the journey.

One night in a suburb on a campsite in the morning while I was having a breakfast in front of the supermarket waiting for the library to open a lady walked up to me and started to have a chat. She saw that I came from the Netherlands (little doll on my bag) and she invited me to have a cup of coffee in her place. She had moved to Australia 30 years ago from Friesland (province in Holland) She had internet so I could use hers. After the good lstrong Dutch coffee she consulted her husband and they let me stay for a few days in their place.

The last day of the year I stayed in the centre of Melbourne to celebrate the new year. Apparently in Australia, the people don’t buy there own fire works but the officials do and here in Melbourne they light it all up from platforms in the river. So like everybody else, I made my way to the park end tried to find a spot to see the lightshow. 3,2,1 - Happy new year! Time to go to bed because my flight to Hobart was going to leave early in the morning.

Just after a few hours of sleep I made my way to the airport, getting strange looks from all the drunk and celebrating people on the streets. (Mind it was about 4 am.) It was just a short flight and that’s how I came to Hobart in the early morning and everything was closed. It was after all the first of January, so I went to the harbour first and there some of the racing boats had just arrived. I don’t know if it were one of the last or the first, but I felt good about seeing them again. After all I had a bit of my own race to see them, although I think mine went a bit smoother.

I found a hostel in town and for the first time I started to look for a job. Not a real one because I was on a holiday visa, but WWOOFing (Willing workers on organic farms). That means you work for 4 to 6 hours a day and get free accommodation and food. I wanted to work with animals, so I found Something Wild, a wildlife sanctuary for the sick, wounded or orphans. I did got it, but I had to wait for a few day’s to start.

So not wanting to be in a city, I made a sign to Meydena and started to hitchhike again. Again my luck was with me. A little van pulled over with three backpackers in it. They did go the other way but at least I was out of town and in the right direction. The next who picked me up was a man from Maydena and he took me to his house. His wife was a ranger in the area and had a few days off so there I could pitch up my tent in the garden and in the morning his wife woke me up to take me a bit around. After showing the forests and the dam she dropped me off on lake. Lake Gordon is I can remember right, on ted’s beach. She opened the trunk of her car and took out food for tree days. With the words, have fun and i'll pick you up to bring you to your work, she left me all by my self. This is what I was prepared for. At last I did not carry all that stuff with me for nothing. So I put up my tent, started to purify water and collect wood. At least I did not have to find food. After that I had a swim in the lake. It was freezing but nice.In the night I woke up and heard all kinds of movements around my tent. A bit scared I took a peek outside and saw a few wallabees hopping around.

The next day in the evening a camper came and I had a couple of beers with Chris and Anna from Perth. They gave me some tips where to look for when buying a car and they made me decide to find myself a landcruiser. After the third night the ranger picked me up early in the morning to bring me for my first working day. I got a place to sleep, which meant in a shipping container normally used for preparing the food for the animals. My job consisted of racking kangaroo poop and watering the plants. After a few days I could feed a baby wombat. It was not what I was hoping for, but the animals, surrounding and the people were fantastic. I managed to make the guard /guide wash his bed sheets and that was according to the lady owner quite a accomplishment. He was living next door also in a container. Now he was building his own house up the hill close to the park.

After 10 days I had to leave because another WWOOFer would come, so I made my way back to Hobart to take a flight to Perth. After 3 days looking for a car I found one. A Toyota Land Cruiser. It was rusty as hell but the engine was good. It took me a few days to prepare it. I had to buy a lot of stuff, like a spare gas tank, food, water can etc. I lowered the back seat and the whole back was now my bed with extra space underneath for my gear.

I was ready so on Australia day I left Perth and going a bit south, towards Donnybrook, where I had a job as farmhand on a fruit and vegetable farm. Now I became an expert in tomato’s, plums, peaches, courgettes and sorting them on size, yes boys and girls, size does matter.

After visiting wave rock I got another job in Hyden on a sheep farm. John, the owner, learned me how to ride a motor bike and command the dogs. We practised a few day’s and then he gave me a map. “Just take Tyke (the dog) and these 200 sheep and bring them to this paddock” he said. I looked on the map and asked him if he was serious. It took me three days and two nights to do the job, but I did it. I only fell of the bike twice. On the way I slept in the open close to Tyke and just ate canned food. Also I had to share it with the dog. I was surprised that all the sheep stayed where I left them. Ones I put the sheep behind the fence it only took me two and half hour to come back. Just in time to celebrate my accomplishment by killing and stripping my own organic sheep. Nice, I never want to eat sheep again.

John did some maintenance on my car and now I was ready to go for real. On my last night on the farm a friend of the family came by to sort things out with the dingo problem. He was going on a hunt and I joint him to hold the search light. We did not see a single dingo and just one rabbit. And he missed. T

he next day I left and tried to find a job in the middle of the west coast. The WWOOFing book had a aquarium job, but at the moment they did not needed any one, so I kept going north in a few day’s. Along the way I almost drove over a lizard with a blue tongue. Very convenient name, - blue tongued lizard.

In Shark Bay, I went to a touristy place. Here every morning some people fed the dolphins and had a information talk about them. Normally a lot come to the shore but this morning only 3 came. Apparently there was an earthquake that night and that’s why the stayed away. But it was good fun and after the talk I asked if I could swim with them. I was not allowed to go at the feeding ground, but a 100 meter further out was ok. I was the only one who was in the water and one of the dolphins came up to me. Unfortunately the water was a bit murky, so I did not have the best view. And as soon as other tourist saw that the dolphins were close to me, they jumped in to the water, but they took off.

After that I went to Exmouth. I read it was nice to dive there, so I did. The highlight of those dives were the Wobbegong, a carpet shark who lives on the bottom of the sea. The second dive we made that day, a lady was in trouble half way the dive. I helped her out and that meant the end of the dive, but as a reward I got another dive for free. so I was cool with it. It was time for the eggs to hatch from the turtles, so for two nights I sat and waited on the beach, but no luck this time.

From here I kept on going to Broome. To describe how the trip was, imagine a Turkish steam bath, put it at its highest temperature, mix the air with salt and dust and voila - , the highway to hell. And the funny thing is. I loved it. One night I stopped on a parking place, just by the side of the road. There was one more caravan, so I thought I would be ok, but after dinner they were gone and I was just on my own. I went to sleep and in the night my car was rocking. A few drunk guys tried to wake me up and get me out of the car. When one of them put his hand trough the window, I took my screwdriver and stabbed him. Right trough the hand. Thank Allah, Buddha, god and everybody else, they left.

Waiting for some daylight, I went on again and just 130 km before Broome I took one last stop in the middle of nowhere. I followed a little sign camping, but it turned out it did not exist anymore. Now it was a paddock for a pony who kept me company that evening. It was a beautiful spot. Red cliffs overlooking the sea, sun set and the pony standing beside my car. When I wanted to take a picture of the whole thing the git drank my last wine. Bastard! So I went to bed and enjoyed the thunder and lightning show.

The next day the pony was gone. Probably enjoying his hangover. I went on to Broome. I wanted just to stay for a few days, but it turned out I stayed almost two weeks. The Kimberly Club is the best guesthouse I have ever stayed in. The hostel itself is not that special, but the atmosphere and the people I have met, made it all.

In Broome I went to two pearl museums, to the cliff from where you can see dinosaur footprints at low tide and I went to the oldest open air cinema (in the world they say). Just as I was ready to go I had an serious ear infection. High fever and incredible pain, but when that was gone I went up to Darwin. Along the way I wanted to go in to the Kimberly’s and see the Bungle Bungles, but due to the rain every road going there was closed. So like every day I just kept on going. It was tempting to go to where they filmed the movie Wolfs Creek. It was so close, but after my experience with the other night I decided not to. You know when you see de film, why.

I went to Darwin. It looked like a big town after such a long time in de outback. The hostel where I slept was more like a prison. Unfriendly staff, big and to much security and rules. That first evening I was having a beer on my own and felt a bit bored. A small group of blokes were sharing a jug of beer so just to start a conversation I asked how much a jug was. One guy was kind a cute and he was willing to show me around the next day. Well, he was a good guide and I decided to keep him. So that’s about the story how I met Mikael. From here our stories continue together. Sometimes we tell it as our story, but if we have an other experience or went our own way we tell our tale.

This story continues in Darwin - Australia >>