"Jason" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 05:27:35 +0000, Hallvard Tangeraas wrote:

And suggestions for a travel route.. I realize that I've left out all of
western Australia, where I intended to start my trip in Perth. But
someone told me that Perth is so far from everything else that I'll
spend ages going through the outback, not being worth it as I can see so
much more at those other places mentioned here. Opinions?

When I did my first trip, I took 3 months to do the circle from Sydney -
Melbourne - Adelaide - Alice - Darwin - Cairns and then east coast down
back to Sydney. You could do this in 2.5 months. I think 2 months would be
a bit rushed.

Cut out Melbourne and Adelaide. They are great cities, but on an itinerary
that includes Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, USA in 6 months they are somewhat
of an anticlimax.


If you can get internal flights, the bit I would definitely fly would be
from Darwin to Cairns. It's a long way. And there's not a whole lot to
see. I did it once on a bus. It took 32.5 hours. It's not an experience
I'd wish to repeat.

Basically, fly around the inside bits whenever you can. The desert is nice
and interesting for an hour or two, but there really is an awful lot of it
in the interior of Australia.

You will presumably be arriving in December and leaving Jan/Feb. The
northern half of Australia (including Cairns and Darwin) is tropical; you
will be there in the middle of the wet (monsoon) season. Expect 35 degree
heat and 100% humidity 24 hours a day. The more southern parts (Brisbane,
Perth, Sydney) will be hot but not nearly as wet.

When you arrive in Sydney, find somewhere to stay near the beach (Bondi
Beach is big backpacker scene). A hot summer day in Sydney, on the beach,
cold beer in the hand, topless girls all around, sucking oysters off the
shell ... think I might go in for another surf before I get too toasted ...
mmm, Sydney summer.



As for Perth, well if you can fly in there, spend a week and then fly onto
somewhere else, it might be worth doing. I certainly wouldn't go north of
Perth on your first trip. Again there isn't an awful lot there other than
the tourist trap of Monkey Mia apart from some nice diving on the Ningaloo
reef.

Jason

--
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the Coral Sea, Ningaloo reef, the Solitaries and Byron Bay