Camping in Central Australia and a Hillsong Conference

Last Saturday was my first day back at Sydney airport after a bit of a break. We did a big road trip to Central Australia and took a 3 day camping trip with a bunch of young international backpackers from Alice Springs to Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (Olgas) and Kings Canyon. All went well and had a great time. Time to start planning the next one!

It was then quite a surprise to find that the first visitor I chatted to on Saturday was a young Swiss backpacker who had done the same camping tour as us just 4 days after we did it. She had also travelled with friends up the East Coast and to Darwin, Adelaide and Sydney.

I also came across a couple of French visitors on their way home. The first was a yuong girl who had been on a homestay in Australia for 7 months and loved it. She had also done a couple of short holidays to Bali and NZ. The second was a French couple who had 3 nights in Sydney on their way home after a holiday in Noumea.

On a Qantas flight to Singapore was a friendly young Indonesian lady who now spends most of her time here in Sydney. She had first come to Australia as a 9 year old schoolchild and now works in food technology for a large company.

Travelling home on V Australia was a couple from Ohio, USA who had seen a lot of our country in a short time. In 16 days they had visited Port Douglas, Cairns, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, Melbourne and Sydney. This included a bus trip from Adelaide to Melbourne.

I met a young New Zealander going home after attending the big Hillsong Church annual conference in Sydney. He said there were 30000 people here for the conference from all parts of the world.

Till next week.

Peter

One Method of Car Disposal and a Unique Place to Sleep

I met a couple of Dutch travellers flying home on Malaysia Airlines yesterday. One was a backpacker who had done an interesting camping tour from Alice Springs to Adelaide. The other one also had some interesting stories to tell. He had stayed for the first 2 weeks in a luxury hotel in Sydney and then, in sharp contrast, travelled around the country on a very tight budget. He used a car he had bought in Sydney for A$1800 and stayed in backpacker hostels. When he flew out of Cairns to join his flight home in Sydney, he just gave away the car for free to another traveller he had met there. The car had gone well for his travels and had not needed any repairs or manintenance.

Also heading home to Scandinavia at the weekend was a young Norwegian backpacker who had also had quite an adventure on the East Coast. She had rented a car with some other fellow travellers and also was on a tight budget. They slept in the car on 2 occasions including 3 consecutive nights at one location. However she had also spent 4 nights in a much more unusual location - an airport hangar! They had gone skydiving and somehow managed to be allowed to sleep next to the planes.

On a flight home to Christchurch was a friendly Chinese family with a very cute 8 year old daughter who was happy to answer all my survey questions (on behalf of her mum) to the best of her ability. They had been on holidays in Sydney.

Other visitors of note that I came across included:-

* An Egyptian lady here to visit her son. She had already been to Australia many times.

* An older English couple on a round the world journey who travelled by rental car in Tasmania and travelled by train from Melbourne to Adelaide and the Ghan train from Adelaide to Alice Springs. They were heading to Honolulu and then Las Vegas before going home.

* An American who had done Melbourne, Kangaroo Island (SA) and Cairns all in 6 days. He was on his way to visit a friend in New Zealand while the rest of his family spent some more time in the Cairns area.

Till next week.

Peter

Souvenirs Australia Warehouse