Category Archives: Australia

Stopover in Murwillumbah

The flight from Auckland to Gold Coast was great. I had a seat next to the window and watched the dawn for ages because we started shortly before sunrise and flew west. When we arrived at Gold Coast Airport we catch up with our friend Becky. We know her from the citrus farm where Yen and me worked before. Her home is in Murwillumbah close to the airport. She organized that I could storage my bike box so I didn’t need to assemble my bike. That was good then after New Zealand I was not that keen to cycle in Australia again and there are also things to do without the bike. [...]

See ya Australia – The bike journey continue in NZ

I remember well when I first arrived in Australia I wasn’t sure if I can find work, I was prepared to leave after a month if I couldn’t find a job because I would run out of money. But I had big luck. It worked out all well. From the 20 months I spent in Australia I worked 14 month and travelled 6 months. I can’t really say anything bad Australia, except the truck drivers, they always rushing and not leaving much space when they pass a push biker. Okay, I should not drive on the Highway, I will give my best to avoid Highways in New Zealand. Also snakes scared me often, but this will not happen in NZ, because there are no snakes. [...]

More than two years abroad – Getting comfy in Australia

After two years spending most of the time sleeping in a tent, sometimes in a hostel or at strangers I got my own home for a while. On the citrus farm where I’m working again is an old bus that belongs to my supervisor Andy. Around Easter he offered me to move into the bus.

At first I couldn’t accecpt. But then I considered elsewise, it was too attractive to have an own shower and bed. Yes, things that for most of you are natural. Before I had shower with cold brown river water. Now I have a shower cabin with fresh hot water. I can go upright in the bus and don’t need to crawl into my tent anymore. I have my own space and it’s a lot of space. I got furniture. An comfy armchair, table, cupboards and queensize bed. Also a sink, stove and even a fridge is inside the bus. It’s like heaven. [...]

Flight from Hobart to Brisbane and back to citrus picking

 710. Day of travel

20.590 km

On the 22th March I flew from Hobart to Brisbane. It was my fourth flight on this trip. Before I flew from Oman to India, India to Thailand and Singapore to Australia, always with my bicycle in the luggage. Also this time it was not a problem to take my bike in the plane. I flew with Jetstar and booked 40 kg of luggage in advance and paid 200 $ in total for the ticket. When I came on board I was very happy to be assigned a seat next to the window and the two seats next to me were empty, enough space for my legs. That was a comfortable flight. In only 2,5 h I flew the distance that I cycled before in two and a half months (from October to middle of December last year). [...]

Tasman Peninsula

After I cycled with Yen to Bruny Island and Hasting Caves we wanted to work again, but we didn’t found a job (they are to many backpackers in Tasmania and not so much work). So we decided to go on a cycle trip again. Our destination was the Tasman Peninsula and then come back to Hobart. We started from our camp in Huonville like on our trips before. The first day we cycled over a 500 m hill to Kingston and camped in a park close to the beach where I have been before with Alex.

On the next day when we cycled through Hobart Yen wasn’t sure if she wants to cycle further anymore, because she was scared by the heavy traffic that we passed. Okay it was my fault I shouldn’t cycle on the mainroad with her. I’m used to cycle on the road with much traffic but for Yen is still an uncomfortable situation. Then I let her choose the way. She did a much better job for the navigation and we had a nice way to Seven Mile Beach. We camped in the dunes at the beach close to the approach path of the Hobart Airport. [...]