We bused about 3,000 kilometers along the East Coast, from tropical Queensland to New South Wales. We drove another 1,000 kilometers South of Sydney and out of the beaten tracks. We walked on dozens of beaches, escaped the floods by a couple of days, spent New Year Eve in Sydney and Christmas at the beach.
And of course, we learned a few things along the way.
Australians are quick to dismiss their capital and I don’t think I have ever heard anybody bragging about being from Canberra. Indeed, the state of ATC (Australia Capital Territory) is tiny and Canberra is usually not on the backpacker trail—we didn’t go last time we were in Oz in 2003.
But this week, we had a car and time in our hands, so we took the mountain road to the capital to see what it looked like.
We finally found a little paradise, 500 kilometers from Sydney and 700 kilometers from Melbourne: the little town of Narooma, on the Eurobodalla Coast. Conveniently located far enough from the two big cities, Narooma manages to retain some of its local charm and it’s not too swamped by Australian holidaymakers.
To get there, we had to take a steep climb up a mountain road. During the first half of the climb, the narrow strip of asphalt crossed the Kangaroo Valley, where there seems to be more wombats than kangaroos, according to the numerous yellow diamond-shaped warning signs for wildlife crossing.
After New Year, we decided to rent a car to get off the beaten track and go where Greyhound doesn’t, South of Sydney, following the Grand Pacific Drive.
All travelers know how great—and slightly surrealistic—it feels when you see a landmark for real, whatever it is, for the first time.
I didn’t react any differently when I first walked to the iconic Sydney Opera House. This building, as well as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, came to be a synonym of Australia for the rest of the world.
