Return to Oz

Our return to Australia was a purposeful one. With our mixed history in the country there were a good few Areas that neither of us haven’t seen yet or would have liked to revisit. To make this entire task a lot easier we left the Van in the hands of a lovely Maori family in Karratha.

But there was also the idea to emigrate to this country. Although we had been here for so long, it was a bit of a culture shock once we landed in Perth. First it was all so amazingly clean and tidy (which changed once in the outback). This all changed fairly quickly once we noticed how expensive and of a low standard everything seemed to be. Food costs 5-10 times as much and is usually restricted to unhealthy fast food. We also got a shock with when we noticed how crappy Australian accommodation can be when compared with the cheap as chips rooms we have gotten used to in Asia.

We had booked an 80 dollar room (one of the cheapest in Perth) and had to wait till 10:00 until we finally got the key for our scruffy little room which didn’t even have a heater. Another shock came with a 300$ emergency treatment at a dentist for 1 filling.

We also feel a lack of culture - this is not really a country of engineers and academics, food can be quite boring and is usually quite unhealthy. So despite the benefits this continent has (it’s mainly jobs and the way you get treated at work), we temporary lost our desire to live here permanently.

Enough with the moaning, we still enjoyed our return here. The people here are as friendly as only Australians can be and as the best in Life is free, Australia has lots of free attractions. For example we rented some bicycles for Free in Fremantle for a couple of hours so are the lovely rest areas and public facilities.

Karratha

After a limited stay we flew to Karratha, with very positive impressions. The cooler season magically transformed the place. There were nearly no insects and the cooler temperatures were just a dream (especially considering we spent the last 12 months in the tropics mainly during the summer).


It was great, we had a chance to revisit a good few friends we made here. In a way it felt a bit like a home. To some degree travel tired we decided to stay for a month giving Laura a chance to use a little more of her “Working” holiday and me to work a bit on the Van that needed some work doing for our planned trip across the continent. During our spare time we took it easy for once and visited the area around.