Australia is the country where you would like to come back on your own with your own vehicle and ramble around to see more of its beauty. This time our route only takes from the western up to the eastern part. Some people say, it’s perhaps the best bite. Rich karri (eucaliptus) woods, deserts, unreal green blueish ocean water and white sand, and animals living only in Australia: kangaroos, koalas, oppossums. Very relaxed Australians. British architecture and naughty accent. Multicultural environment, particularly in the cities.

Perth

Pertas – vakarinėje Australijos dalyje įsikūręs miestas, kurio parkuose dvelkia ramybė. | Perth – Australia's biggest city on the west coast. It has something very relaxed and calm about it.

On the flight the Indonesian chaos grew into a polite silence and people smelled of civilization: they rarely talked to their neighbours, it was sterile and serene. Very tired we got asleep, and only woke up in the early morning landing into unknown to us land. Our couchsurfer left us ‘homeless’ as all of a sudden he needed to change his plans. Quickly we had been searching some other hosts, but landing we had no idea where are we going to stay.

Is hitching a thumb an easy matter in Australia. We only waited some minutes before a guy stopped to us. After having listened to our evergrowing tirade of the passed countries, he (as he worked in Motorola) gave us a mini high quality loudspeaker.

Perth is sterile as the dentist’s lounge. It’s got some skyscrapers. Our quick-to-reply Kat lived just a little bit outside the centre, but we could walk along the Swan river. ‘Daulphins’ we were excited as kids, but the by passers were ambivalent as there were swiming some macharels. The next morning in Kat’s garden squeeking parrots and other exotic and non exotic birds. And this is a city.

Freemantle as everyone promised had a different vibe. It’s a little town on the edge of the ocean, which has an artistic and relaxed atmosphere, where life was boiling slowly and pleasantly.

South east Australia

Margaret’s river

Pirmosios kengūros | First kangaroos

In Perth everyone was convincing us to go to that place. We are lucky to be picked up by extravelers who return the favour in the goodness chain. Everyone tries to show us his favorite bit – maybe the kangaroo place, maybe karri tree woods or a nice place looking out to the ocean.

We arrive to the wild beach. It’s the winter time so there are none who would have the stupid idea to camp in such a weather. Normally the rangers patrol along the ocean in order to make the naughty turists pay their fine for pitching the tent in a forbidden place.
We first thought to sleep under the naked sky. The stars, and the waves sounds are clearer. Soon after the sun sets down we get asleep, but in the midnight we suddenly have to change our plans. Unexpected storm made us to quickly pitch our home, and stay inside. The wind was wild and at times you feel like you will be blown away to or against the water. One side of the tent was poorly wet in the morning, so we can only guess, was it rain or the ocean waves. This is the beach which according to people has massive waves, hence lots of the best surfers train here.

Karri or Euchaliptus forests

Paslėpus kuprines krūmuose ir trumpas kelių valandų žygis miškuose. | After hiding the backpacks in some bushes we had a little two hour walk in a forest.

The rain can be pleasant or no. But in one of the driest continents, even in plus temperature, it can be quite unpleasant too. Our gore tex clothing lost their qualities, so we are getting wet gradually and fully. So when we were dropped by some visitor shelter near the euchaliptus forest, we decided to stay under the roof this time, where we have gas stove for free. It seems that to Australians is cheaper to provide tons of gas stove across the country instead of fighting with the one of their natural disasters – bush fires.

We decided to walk those bushes in the morning. Funny enough, even we walk in the thick forest of massive trees, it’s still considered bushwalking. Silence. Rising fog. Some sunshine beams. The euchaliptus tree leaves left a pleasant scent on our hands after squishing them a bit.

Albany

Paukščių drąsumas turistiškose vietose stebėtinas – vagia maistą iš rankų. | Birds are stealing food even from the hands in touristic places.

It sometimes happens like this – if you see a picture of a nice view, you want to see it live. Albany landscape was one of it. So instead of rushing straight to Melbourne, we slowly cruise along the southern part of Australia. The tourists are not a massive thing these days (thanks to winter) so even in quite popular places we are somewhat alone. Nice idilic place. The monument for ANZAC newzealanders and ozzies who fought in the war. Why on earth from such a paradisy area go and fight someone far away. Maybe being a part of british empire.

From Margaret’s river to Esperance our hitching slows down. We tend to wait on empty roads for some farmers, going to visit their fields. Some of them speak such a hard dialect, that its nearly impossible to grasp what are they talking about. When we try to check between ourselves the information, we understand that we got naught. But they cheerful, and so atmosphere is always great in the car.

Hitching in the desert

The school bus driver gave us a lift to the place where he thought we were going to be a bit more successful. Yesterday they took us when we already didn’t have a hope anyone will stop when the dusk arrived.
Western Australia is a vast territory, taking nearly a half of a continent but having only couple millions of inhabitants. So no wonder that some kids have to go for 50km to get to school, and some even do schooling at home. And doctors get to some places by helicopters.

Rekordas – ilgiausias laukimas 6 valandos. Karolis skaito knygą, Evelina ratais vaikšto vidurį ilgo tuščio kelio. | Our record for the longest wait – 6 hours. Karolis is reading a book and Evelina doing circles in the middle of a long empty road.

So we are dropped at this crossing. It’s empty and neglected like from some horror movie. The kangaroo jumps over the road. We made ourselves comfortable. No cars for the first hour. We have food for half a day, maybe for a day. So it would be vital to hitch a car eventually. We admired the nature for an hour. Meditated. We drank the coffee. Read our books. Made our morning exercises. Admired nature again. Sown our broken backpacks or gloves. Some cars passed quickly perhaps thinking we are kangaroos. So after six hour of waiting, a road train – a massive truck (the size of the vehicle never to be seen before) slowly approached us. Normally all the hitchhikers don’t advise to hitch those monsters, as their breaking process is time consuming. So a happy face Tasmanian was not surprised to see our surprised and relieved faces after being picked up. He has seen us before and decided to turn around and pick us up.

Esperance

Team LT.

We were sitting on the bench near the library when a woman with a dog approached us. She smiled and asked where are we traveling from. Our conversation progressed, and soon she invited us to her campervan, whilst she was house sitting nearby. Sheryl prepared us dinner and the breakfast the next morning. Soon we set off together to see her favorite beaches. Truly breathtaking views. If you have an image of a idilic beach – emerald water and white sandy beach, you just make it like 49 times more and so you will get a view. We mean it. The beaches were the best sofar and afterfar :). After the lunch filled with our life stories, we got to the Cape Le Grande park. We couldn’t resist jumping into the cold blue greenish water.
Sheryl and her stories got us very close to each other. When the next morning we were about to travel further she packed us with lots of food supplies, and then she told us ‘I feel like driving you till Norseman today (like 200km), we were surprised and seriously touched by that. No one drove us randomly that far before. When we said goodbies before we hitched another car, we felt saddened.

Nularbor plain

‘Nul arbor’ – zero trees in latin perhaps describes clearly the appearance of the desert. We are going to drive like couple thousands kilometres across, so probably we need to have enough food and water supplies for the road. We hear the water has a price of the gold. In reality, its far more expensive that milk for sure. We have to by a bottle of milk and fill it water, as we will need to wait for the bigger shop for another 2000km (like two times distance Kaunas to Moscow).

Įmportuoti kupranugariai ir daug kitų gyvių ant kelio. | Imported camels and other animals on the road.

We sat near the road leading to the treeless plain. The massive jeep approached. It perhaps underestimates this vehicle size by calling it jeep. Its like a mini version of a truck. A driver humbly introduces that this type of car is on the edge of being illegal size. So we board this plain-train-bus and cruise for couple thousands kilometres with two funny brothers.
The road is straight as an african spine. We started to to play a guessing game ‘how far you think is the distance till that hill’. The trees were present at the start, shrinked to a maximum until it vanished. But you always knew there is an ocean all along. South Australian Bight. We stopped couple times in some unadvertised places and were surprised by the rocks which feet being washed by the water. We sat down on the edge of the world. In silence.

The South Ocean

Karolis

In theory you cannot hitchhike on the highway in Australia. Unless you are left in the place where you have simply no choice. The jeep turned around and approached us. In the boot there cages with dozens of birds. Keith was open about his life, and soon we felt we know him as an old friend. But going with him meant we are doing a detour again, and instead of going straight to Melbourne we are back to the ocean again. Good. The time spent at the start of the Great Ocean Road (which we made a bit later) was one of the most memorable ones. It’s been cold as we are facing Antarctica and its cold winds. But we had time of our own.

Melbourne

Evelina

Linas, even if he was born in Australia, spoke of rich Lithuanian language, and he actively seeks to educate his kids to speak good Lithuanian too. He will be the one to help us quite a bit in Melbourne. We spent few days in his father’s forest. ‘Now snakes sleep as it’s winter. But there are lots of them in the summer time. Normally they are timid, but not the tiger one. This type of snake was chasing me once as it was looking after its area’. We slept under the starry sky that night near a massive bonfire.

We approached Melbourne with a bit of anxiety. Out of nature we are back to the skyscrapers. People crowds and their cold being scare us a bit. But this is quite a pleasant city to dwell. Lovely Yarra banks, Central Business District a bit static and boring, but there are lots of parks and the atmosphere is vivid. We have not noticed how we spent here a month and a half here.

Australian lithuanians

Vieno lietuvio sodyboje miške. Susikūrėme milžinišką laužą už praėjusias Jonines. | In one of Lithuanian guy's summer residence. A massive bonfire to remember a lithuanian pagon celebration – Joninės.

In Melbourne we barely communicated with australians, but we were received straight into the hands of Lithuanians living either for their entire lifetime or those who arrived recently or temporarily. There is a Lithuanian club, where people come here every sunday to eat a lithuanian meal. Lots of them still maintained a very nice archaic our mothertongue. Some of them, particularly younger ones sruggle to communicate, but those who been raised speaking Lithuanian in their families, have a very rich vocabulary and perfect grammar.
Everyone of them have their stories to tell. They all escaped the Siberian woods in winter. You can listen all day of their stories coming here by ships, their 2year work to repay the shipping costs, their struggles at the beginning. Surely, the good thing their past was safe. However, they did not only simple live here without caring of their homeland. They protested if some country didn’t recognise the occupation, or at the rise of the independence they sent money to help the poor ones.

Lina, Evelina, Karolis, Milda, Andrew. And Lithuanian beer.

Lina our lovely friend from Lithuanian but known from Newcastle times, became our guard and guide. Milda with her australian fiance Andrew invited for a homestay, and we collected lots of laughter during that stay. We even tried lithuanian potato pie with kangaroo meat, and share lots of travel stories, as they are huge travelers too.

Then Dana, Australian lithuanian, who used to be quite a famous child clothing designer at a time, hosted us for an entire month. She provided us home warmth as well as showed us bits of underdiscovered Melbourne. In Sydney we are hosted by Rita Baltusyte Ormsby, a woman who worked in Washington ‘Voice of America’ and communicated with lithuanians when they did not have a chance to hear anything from abroad.

Finally we arrange our reflections about our journey in Lithuanian club. People get quite interested, and then they support our further adventures.

Great Ocean Road

12 Apaštalų – be galo turistiška vieta. Tikriausiai atpratome nuo tokių populiarių vietų, nes įspūdžio didelio nepaliko. | 12 Opostles – very very touristic place.

We join the younger lithuanians to Great Ocean Road trip. But we stay in the free camping sites (for the first time). Nearby there is an ocean where at night we go to see the rising moon, and the rising sun in the morning. We left our food at night, and wallabies (smaller kangaroos) came to share it. Breakfast happened to be smaller than planned.
In the early afternoon we set off to visit Great Ocean great views. Twelve Apostles are meant to be the special site with the rocks rising straight from the water. Its majestic indeed. But the place is overflooded with tourists, so we much more prefer Grotto – an enclosed rocky area looking out to the ocean.

Sydney

Operos namai. | Opera house.

Sydney and Melbourne compete with each other eternally. Both are somewhat similar, only Sydney has got something which everyone can recognise – Opera House and the bridge that reminded us of Newcastle so much. Some say people in Melbourne are more elegant, and more simple in Sydney, but the tourists are here. We liked both, and we managed to find personal space in both of them.

The last hours in sunny chilly Australia. We are going to Hawaii, and then to Alaska. Then all the way south. The new stage commences.

Practical tips

Food
After Indonesian expenses the prices in Australia seemed enourmous. The first week we chose products carefully and ate youghurt, tuna or beans. Eventually we started to cruise among Woolworths, Coles and Aldi supermarkets and find lots of things on sales. Some Asian markets can offer cheap veggies too.

Miegant fermerio laukuose kelyje link Sidnėjaus. | Sleeping in some farmers field on the way to Sydney.

Sleep
If you intend to camp (thats possibly the most common way of nightstays), there are free and paid camping sites. You’ve got to be careful camping where there are clear signs that you cannot camp. We traveled in winter time, so the rangers were not as present, but you might pay a 150 AUD fine if they find you. In summer time you won’t be able to make a fire too – the bush fires are too common and too harsh in Australia.
We slept in the desert too. Some locals might warn of snakes, but in winter time they all sleep. You got to be carefull and check your boots in the morning if there no unwelcomed and poisonous spiders.

Visas and airport
We explained in lithuanian blog how to obtain the evisitor, you have got to check for your own country as it varies from one to another. http://www.immi.gov.au should be helpful enough.

Before flying to Aussieland you got to get rid of any fruit or veggies. The officers can be strict, so there is no need to risk. Before landing you will receive declaration sheets, where you have to declare whether you have any of the marked things. You better declare it because if they check you and find undeclared mentioned things, you will be in trouble and pay massive fine. If you declare – they will check it if its ok, and that’s it.
Some Australian states on the borders might check if you bring any fruits or veggies as they are desperately afraid of fruitflies. So you rather get rid of (or eat) any fruits too.

Kitas posukis už 1172km. Sako ilgiausias tiesiausias kelias pasaulyje. | Next turn in 1172km. They say it's the longest straight road in the world.

Hitchhiking
Even being two persons with huge backpacks we hitched quickly and easily. Most often will stop those who have been traveling before and want to repay their debt. Majority of them were very pleasant and tried to show the places of interest. Some told us that road officers might be quite strict, so you rather don’t hitch on the highways, but better on the entrances or rest stops.