Sunday, December 05, 2004
Anything to declare?
Most of the people from our trip have been passing through customs and saying goodbye to Australia for now. I had my Macadamia nuts confiscated as I went New Zealand through customs yesterday. Australia has been the road trip of a lifetime, here are a few pictures from the last leg:
First stop Airlie beach for a sailing and scuba trip around the Whitsunday Islands
From here we split in 4 and went our separate ways. Paul, Linda and I travelled in Bertha, Steve and Amanda sped off in Big Bird, Rachel took the bus and Debbie and Chris cruised down the coast in Yogi (Scooby). We were all to meet up again in Sydney a couple of weeks later with the exception of Rachel who is still having fun in Brisbane
Linda, Paul and I visited a couple of islands as we went down the east coast. Fraser Island was definitely the highlight - we took Bertha over and did loads of rally driving on the sandy tracks through the rain forest. I was dead proud of her - we even towed an aussie who was stuck in his jeep!
Back on the road - time was running out for most of us and I was keen to get to Sydney and give myself a couple of weeks to sell Bertha.
Here we all are together again (briefly) in Sydney.
And again, minus the ladies from Ireland - they flew home the day before
And finally, the car market in Kings Cross. This is the best way to sell out of state cars in Sydney but it means sitting under ground for as long as it takes. Eventually I met a couple of Dutch backpackers willing to part with 1800 Euro for Bertha.
I managed to break up the monotony by taking a morning off to go sky diving. Here are a few clips that you can download.
Jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane (8MB)
Cup of tea in mid air (7MB)
Slow motion clip (33MB)
Click here to see the rest of the pictures from this part of the trip.
Paul is a better photographer than me and he's let me put some of his pictures online, click here to have a look
I'll leave you with some contributions from the people I met along the way:
The Darwin Crew
From left to right: Amanda, Steve, Rachel, Thorsten, Paul, Dom, Austrian chick, Debbie, Rachel, Vaughan, Linda
Linda from Dublin (Ireland)
Definitley the deadliest trip I have ever been on or ever will go on. Met the most amazing bunch of people that I will miss terribly. Especially Bertha. I wouldn't change a thing probably just hope that we could of all met up earlier along the line. What an experience. Alrite our Kid. Can't wait to see yis all again. Love Linda xxxxxx
Debbie from Dublin (Ireland)
Hey everybody, I had the most amazing time ever. I miss you all so much
especially, getting abuse of drunken Paul. Getting kicked out of pubs thanks
to Amanda trying to kill the bouncers. German phsycho trying to kill us en
route to Cairns. Dom trying his best to organize nine people in the one
direction, (unsuccessfully). Rachel's Houdini act. Not to worry I can still
wake up beside Linda feeling a bit sticky. What can I say about Chris ;-).
And this was all thanks to Steve feeling sorry for two crazy Irish bitches.
Couldn't of picked a better group to travel with and I'm not forgetting Big
Bird, Yogi and Bertha. Miss you all I can't wait to see you all for a big
session. Love yis Debbie. xxxxxxxx
Paul from Sunderland (UK)
Steve - a southerner living in Newcastle (UK)
Amanda from Perth (Australia)
Chris from Seeland (Holland)
I'm sure the story doesn't end here, there has been some talk of a reunion in northern england some time in April
First stop Airlie beach for a sailing and scuba trip around the Whitsunday Islands
From here we split in 4 and went our separate ways. Paul, Linda and I travelled in Bertha, Steve and Amanda sped off in Big Bird, Rachel took the bus and Debbie and Chris cruised down the coast in Yogi (Scooby). We were all to meet up again in Sydney a couple of weeks later with the exception of Rachel who is still having fun in Brisbane
Linda, Paul and I visited a couple of islands as we went down the east coast. Fraser Island was definitely the highlight - we took Bertha over and did loads of rally driving on the sandy tracks through the rain forest. I was dead proud of her - we even towed an aussie who was stuck in his jeep!
Back on the road - time was running out for most of us and I was keen to get to Sydney and give myself a couple of weeks to sell Bertha.
Here we all are together again (briefly) in Sydney.
And again, minus the ladies from Ireland - they flew home the day before
And finally, the car market in Kings Cross. This is the best way to sell out of state cars in Sydney but it means sitting under ground for as long as it takes. Eventually I met a couple of Dutch backpackers willing to part with 1800 Euro for Bertha.
I managed to break up the monotony by taking a morning off to go sky diving. Here are a few clips that you can download.
Jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane (8MB)
Cup of tea in mid air (7MB)
Slow motion clip (33MB)
Click here to see the rest of the pictures from this part of the trip.
Paul is a better photographer than me and he's let me put some of his pictures online, click here to have a look
I'll leave you with some contributions from the people I met along the way:
The Darwin Crew
From left to right: Amanda, Steve, Rachel, Thorsten, Paul, Dom, Austrian chick, Debbie, Rachel, Vaughan, Linda
Linda from Dublin (Ireland)
Definitley the deadliest trip I have ever been on or ever will go on. Met the most amazing bunch of people that I will miss terribly. Especially Bertha. I wouldn't change a thing probably just hope that we could of all met up earlier along the line. What an experience. Alrite our Kid. Can't wait to see yis all again. Love Linda xxxxxx
Debbie from Dublin (Ireland)
Hey everybody, I had the most amazing time ever. I miss you all so much
especially, getting abuse of drunken Paul. Getting kicked out of pubs thanks
to Amanda trying to kill the bouncers. German phsycho trying to kill us en
route to Cairns. Dom trying his best to organize nine people in the one
direction, (unsuccessfully). Rachel's Houdini act. Not to worry I can still
wake up beside Linda feeling a bit sticky. What can I say about Chris ;-).
And this was all thanks to Steve feeling sorry for two crazy Irish bitches.
Couldn't of picked a better group to travel with and I'm not forgetting Big
Bird, Yogi and Bertha. Miss you all I can't wait to see you all for a big
session. Love yis Debbie. xxxxxxxx
Paul from Sunderland (UK)
Steve - a southerner living in Newcastle (UK)
Amanda from Perth (Australia)
Chris from Seeland (Holland)
I'm sure the story doesn't end here, there has been some talk of a reunion in northern england some time in April
