Gidday from Australia
March 8th, 2007 | by lissie |For those of you at home reading this its 21C at 7am – yes honest I am awake at 7am – something to do with jet lag I am sure and I hope it will wear off soon!
Big thank you to Qantas – we managed to bring about 60kg of stuff with us at no extra charge. We had at least 10kg in our carry-on bags anyway. On check in we had 50kg – but was told we could carry on 2 bags each ! Go figure. And yes I know I used to travel light but…. Actually having 9 bags between us is an absolute nightmare – can’t find anything – maybe this is why people who camp always have a system, I’m not very good at systems, I usually just travel light!
Anyway the 60kg of stuff appears to be mainly tools, kitchen utensil’s, towels, linen, books (guidebooks, technical books, 4WD books), cables and chargers and other miscellaneous stuff. Its enough to completely fill out Hyundai station wagon so I’m hoping that Landcuiser’s are significantly bigger !
We are off to see a Landcruiser today – maybe even to drive one! I’ve done lots of research on the internet regarding a suitable 4WD vehicle and it seems to come down to a Toyota and a Landcruiser. We have decided that it needs to cost less that $10,000, be a diesel (fuel economy and range), have no rust (very expensive to fix), have less than 450,000km on the clock (so when we sell it it is still less that ½ million kilometers which appears to be a psychological barrier) and be no earlier than mid 80’s. Oh, and air conditioning is absolutely essential and a snorkel and carrier barrier and decent tyres would be nice because we will have to do all that anyway.
It still hasn’t really hit that we are a long trip. Paul mentioned yesterday that he feels that he really should remember to go back to work soon! I think its because we are staying with friends and doing business-like stuff like setting up a bank account and buying a mobile, we are surrounded by normal people doing normal stuff like going to work! I think once we get the youth hostel that we are moving to on Saturday and start meeting other travellers that it will become a bit more real.
Helpful hint to those travelling to Brisbane with a vehicle. Downtown parking is horribly expensive - $24 / hr limit of 1 hour in the whole CBD. We hadn’t realised what a deal it was to get free parking included with a hotel or hostel! We ended up using the bus to get us to town – clean, efficient and cheap in comparison!
5 Responses to “Gidday from Australia”
By The Crabtrees on Mar 29, 2007 | Reply
Did we tell you that we waved when you took off? We were at Jims place and Suzi came running in!
By lissie on Mar 31, 2007 | Reply
I thoguht I saw something out the window ….