Living out of a car is a very different experience from living in an apartment. You suddenly lose the luxuries of a warm shower every day or a real toilet. Yet the best way to explore Australia is out of a car, so I am saying goodbye to the easy Sydney life and becoming a camper full time. Our original plan was going up the east coast, which we also started out doing. Me, Matthias, Kristin and Jack (that's the car) headed north towards Brisbane. We have a camp/map book called The Travelers Bible which has a list of free and cheap camp sites all over Australia. It became a "can't live without" item on the first day!
The first night we camped at a free camp site off the Pacific Highway. Then we continued north past Newcastle to another free camp site. However the second campsite was further into the woods than we first thought. And also the road was so bad that even though it wasn't that far, we had to drive so slowly it still took another hour. When we finally got there it was a very nice spot! The next morning we had a group of lizards walking around us. The biggest, which I assume was the boss, came right up to us and stole our rubbish bag. Then he had a feast with our leftovers.
Port Stephens
Just south of our second camp spot is Port Stephens. An area of several small towns, great beaches and amazing wild life. It's the dolphin capitol of Australia and also home to the longest moving sand dunes in Australia. When you first see them Sahara comes to mind. We camped here for 3 nights at a caravan park right next to the beach. One evening we where at the beach when a group of Arabians asked us if we wanted to play soccer with them. It was a lot of fun. They where studying in Newcastle, but were on vacation for the weekend.
The first day in Port Stephens while looking for a cheap place to sleep (before we found the caravan park) we also checked out the local backpackers. They where more expensive. Anyways, they had a large lawn for tents and in the middle of this lawn there was a kangaroo chilling. Of course we slowly snuck up to it, and it turned out it was totally tame. So we spent the next half hour cuddling and making photos with it. :)
One of the days we also drove into Newcastle and looked around. Newcastle is a shipping town from what I could gather. And their main export is coal. We walked along a long pier, past the lighthouse and several beaches, before it went straight into the ocean. There was a poem written along the pier at random places. It was hard to understand the meaning, but a cool way of art. Later in the evening we met up with a friend of Matthias that is studying in Newcastle.
After Port Stephens we drove to Newcastle Airport to pick up Annina. With four people in the car and even more luggage we needed some smart packing to get everything in. But we pulled it of and we continued our trip up the coast. We stopped in Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour (home to the big banana) before our next planned destination.
Yamba
Yamba is one of the greatest secrets on the east coast. It is a small town right by the sea, with some of the best surfing beaches, amazing fishing and an incredible atmosphere. I was there earlier with surf camp and now I wanted to show it to Annina. The first night we went on a walk to a beach called spooky beach. It was so cool in the moonlight. The next day we spent at the blue and green pool, doing cliffjumps and lying at the beach. The pools are freshwater right next to the ocean and become very warm from the sun. In the evening we had a nice dinner at the backpackers, they have a great restaurant with very decent prices. While eating we washed our clothes. Then after dinner we played ping pong. It was a wonderful day.
Ballina
After Yamba we kept going north to the next stop: Ballina. A German friend of me and Matthias from surf camp was living there for a few weeks and invited us to stay for a night. It was amazing to take a warm shower again and cook in a real kitchen! We wanted to go surfing with him, but the waves were to high. Instead we spent the day lying on the beach, playing "volleyball" and bodysurfing. Me and Annina also went jogging on the beach. It felt good to exercise again.
Byron Bay
Leaving Ballina, it is under an hour to Byron Bay. However this is also when the rain started for real. I haven't mentioned it before, but we had quite a bit of rain as we where going. Until this point however it was only now and then, mostly in the night. But as soon as we left Ballina it was poring down constantly. The reason is that there is rain season in the northern parts of Australia. I think no one of us really understood how bad rain season is when camping. Everything gets wet, and you never get a real chance to dry anything. Plus the smell of wet clothes is horrible after a while. We spent the next two days in Byron Bay in the rain learning how much is sucks, before we decided that going further north was a stupid idea and that we should rather come back when the rain season is over. So we turned our noses south, changed our plans and decided to do the south and west coast first. It only took one full day of driving to get back to Sydney!
Annina's former kindergarten teacher lives in Melbourne and she was so nice and let us stay at her house for the days we visited Melbourne. It was a pleasant change from sleeping in the car. We also had access to hot showers and a real toilet. The first day while Annina was visiting her grand ant (she also lives in Melbourne) I showed the city to Matthias and Kristin. It was nice to come back, as you may remember I was in Melbourne one of my first weeks in Australia. We checked out Federation Square, walked around in the city center and visited the Crown Casino. Federation Square is a square with buildings with very special architecture. We also jumped on the free city tram and went for a half loop around the CBD. 
We started off our last day in Melbourne by going to the Victoria Market. You can find close to everything here and the prices are normally lower than anywhere else. I bought a pack of clove cigarettes. I haven't been able to find them since I was in America last time. After the Market Annina took us on a chocolate tour. When she was in Melbourne the last time she went on the same thing and now she showed us the five different chocolate stores. "Haighs" and "Chocolait" where the best ones. Sigrid, the kindergarten teacher we were staying at, told us about a free way to get a good view of the city. In a hotel called Sofitel on the 35th floor they have bathrooms with the wall against the outside of the building in glass. It was very cool! You could literally take a piss while looking out over Melbourne. That evening we cooked dinner for Sigrid and her boyfriend Charlie as a thank you for letting us stay there.
