Almost a month has gone by now. I’ve bought three Lonely Planet travel guides:

Australia & New Zealand on a Shoestring
Australia (of course!)
Walking in Australia

I’ve mostly been reading the shoestring guide and have flicked back and forth in the walking guide and have already begun to overwhelm myself with Australian geography, environmental considerations and other useful/interesting facts. I feel compelled to help out with some environmental (conservation) volunteer work on my travels so this is something I’m going to look into quite seriously - I’ll provide some useful links with some overviews of the various groups involved with looking after the struggling environment, soil and endagered wildlife over the coming months.

As of now however, I do have a rough idea of my initial route. The keyword being “rough”. I definitely want to do some walking so I’ve tried to include places that pass near to some of the numerous national parks dotted around Australia.

The initial route is intended to provide me with two months worth of travelling from my initial landing in Melbourne (this is my definite landing spot since I have friends there), right up the east coast, past the Great Barrier Reef, up to the Northern Territory and back down through the Red Center past Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) going via Adelaide before finally hitting Melbourne again to replenish my spending by doing some work!

Here it is:

If I’m honest, half the reason I’m even blogging this is because I’d like to hear from anyone else who knows the places I’m planning on seeing and get some feedback on how I could improve my route. Whatever route I end up with is not set in stone, if I impulsively go off on a tangent then so be it!

1. Land in Melbourne after a painfully long flight, spend a few days getting my head straight with some friends.
2. Leave anything I don’t need to travel with at my friends and say goodbye as I start my 2 month exploration of the east coast! First I cross the Victorian border and into New South Wales while I head over the Kosciuszko National Park - Australia’s largest NP - which has more than its fair share of walking routes and the highest peaks!
3. In a truly scary contrast to some snowy peaks I’ll be heading towards the beach(es) at Wollongong for a chance to try the surf and chill out for a while.
4. Heading just a tad further north up the coast, I hit Sydney where there’s a whole load of things to see and do so I’ll spend a week or so here I guess.
5. Moving into Sydney’s Blue Mountain backdrop I’m off to another National Park for some walking in a Eucalyptus Haze! Bliss!
6. Time to plonk-out on wine. Hunter Vallley is a well-known wine making region. Now I’m no alcholic but I’m looking forward to this!
7. Taking quite a stride and leaving NSW behing I enter Queensland, the first stop being the infamous Byron Bay for more beach-loving relaxation and some hard partying! (You know me ;))
8. Just a stone’s throw away I hit Brisbane.
9. Another big trek along the coastline of the Great Barrier Reef and up to the Whitsunday Islands. Here I hope to do some island hopping and a bit of scuba diving. My dad will be so jealous!
10. Slightly further north to Cairns. I’ll be honest, I can’t remember what’s at Cairns but I’ve been told to go
11. Out of Queensland and into the Northern Territory to see Katherine.
12. Up to the tip of the Northern Territory to see Darwin — I’ve been told that this is a must!
13. Here’s where I’m undecided whether to throw some money into my travels. There’s a train called the Ghan which runs from Adelaide to Darwin and vice-versa. It costs A$690 in total but is said to be quite an experience. Either way, somehow I’m heading into the Red Centre toward Uluru (Ayer’s Rock). But first, I stop at Alice Springs.
14. Everyone knows about Uluru - the big rock - I have to see it!
15. Across the border into South Australia for… ermm… you guessed it, more wine drinking! Barossa/Clare is a big wine making region in South Australia.
16. Adelaide. Crazy thing is, I may have already been here if I do pay to have the experience of the Ghan since it stops at Adelaide but I’ll just have backtracked to the wine making region.
17. Portland - Just passing through mainly. It’s Victoria’s oldest town but I haven’t got much information on it. I figured it was worth a look anyway.
18. Start working. I need to save to get some money to travel on the West Coast.