Articles by Tristan

Hi all!

“So what’s up?”, you would say.

It’s been now 1 week that I’ve been staying in a backpacker hostel in Broome. With these 15000 habitants Broome is the largest city I stopped in since Perth. Nothing spectacular here except the baobs and another beach, Cable beach, famous for the nice sunset you can enjoy at the end of the day while riding camels 🙂 Oh and I almost forgot the Matso’s brewery, nice place to have a good beer!

The plan was initially to leave Broome after few days but we couldn’t get a lift any sooner. Three of us left at the beginning of the week. We were just 2 left, Marion and I. We had found a lift to get out of Broome on the 31st of July but on monday, the girl who was supposed to take us, postponed the departure until 2 weeks later. Meanwhile we met Marko, a friend from the “Magic bus”, again. He was supposed to join us on this trip as well.

We couldn’t​ stay 2 more weeks here waiting around so we decided with Marion and Marko to buy a 4×4 to go up to Darwin and to sell it there. We plan to do it slowly (3 to 4 weeks) to be able to stop at every place along the way. It’s actually way cheaper to do that than to rent a car for 1 month. The 4wd will allow us to take the “Gibb river road” instead of the Highway. The “Gibb river road” is the kind of gravel road on which you can drive 400km without bumping into any gas stations.

As we had one spare seat in the car, we published an announcement​ on a well known social network for anyone interested in joining us on this roadtrip. The following day just after we had done the paperwork to change the ownership of the car, we met Antonia, our new travelmate. We will take the road tomorrow and leave our backpacker hostel and all the comforts that go with it.

Stay tuned and see you for another blog post!

Click below the see all the photos 😉

Hello everyone!

Tuesday after coming back from Kalbarri National Park we stayed somewhere on the NW Coastal Highway at a kind of picnic area. That night was particularly cold., I was woken by the cold several times. Such a bad night there 🙁

The next day we were supposed to reach Monkey Mia by the afternoon but the bus broke down and we had to spend the whole day by the road (still the NW Coastal Highway) waiting for the spare bus. Jake’s friend who was running the other bus arrived around 10 pm and we had to stay overnight, our third day waiting around since the beginning of the trip.

The following day we hit the road to Monkey mia around midday. We stopped in Denham, the first city on the road, to buy some food for the next 3 days. Earlier we decided to stay for 3 days in a famous resort called Monkey mia. It’s a reserve located 25 km northeast of Denham in the Shark Bay Marine Park.

It was nice to get some humanity back after 1 week without showers, and the place was lovely. You can observe lots of wild emus all around the camp and dolphins jumping in the bay. In fact, the bottlenose dolphins have been coming close to shore for more than fifty years. Rangers from the Department of Parks and Wildlife carefully supervise the Monkey Mia Dolphin Experience.

The first day we sailed out on Jake’s friend’s boat at sunset and stayed there for dusk, sharing some drinks with the crew. The next day some of us woke up a bit earlier than usual to see the first feeding of the dolphins around 8 am. The rest of the day we enjoyed the beach, the hot tub and the sun.

On Saturday we decided to rent sea kayaks to explore the shore. Unfortunately that day it was raining during our little excursion but it was fun anyway​ 😉 At dawn we all met together around the fire on the beach. It was pretty festive that night as it was Canada day and Julie, a fellow traveler, is from Ottawa.

On Sunday we were supposed to book activities and accommodation for the next few days but Jake by his lack of organisation (school holidays, end of the season the see the whales shark in Coral bay) screwed the trip up. Since the beginning of the trip some things hadn’t been sorted out the way it should have been. We had to wait around the first two days, the bus broke down on the middle of nowhere and finally Jake announced us that we will have to wait 5 more days on a free camp waiting for availabilities in Coral bay (next big stop).

Since then, with 8 people from the bus we decided to take our own way and leave the bus on Monday. Emily has a way with organisation and made calls to sort out everything for the next week. So basically we leave tomorrow at 8am with a hop on hop off bus to Coral bay. We’ll stay 2 nights in a campsite and 3 nights in a backpack there. We will next take the bus on Monday morning to Exmouth and get on the whale shark tour on Tuesday together.

I hope you are all fine! See you soon for another post!

Click below the see all the photos 😉

Hello everyone!

So what’s new?

Well, I left my dear hosts Debra and Trevor on Wednesday. The last few days were even better than before. We went to Matilda Bay on Sunday with the whole Family for a barbie (short for barbecue). It was great to experience a traditional Aussie barbecue get-together :-). It was a real spread! Pastries, sausages, corn on a cob, cake…

On Monday Debra took me to the casino. I’m not really into casinos but it was a good time even though I lost the few times I played! A few days ago I talked to Debra about two very french meals, the fondue and the tartiflette. She bought everything we needed, so we could have fondue for dinner.

Tuesday was the meeting day for all the travelers (we are about 20 from different nationalities). We met at The Monkeys bar in the afternoon before heading off the next day in the early afternoon. Everyone seems nice and I think we will have a good time together during the next few weeks.

Jake is the driver. He is going to make a round trip from Perth to Broom with his 25 seats minibus. As for me, I’ll stay in Broome and head to Kananurra later. It’s the season for bananas, zucchini and melons and I feel like trying to do some picking. Well, time will tell. It’s still 3 or 4 weeks until the next question marks actually 🙂

We were supposed to hit to road on Wednesday but we headed out a bit later than expected. The bus had engine trouble and we had to stay for 2 nights in a garage in Perth. We had the entire uptairs office to sleep in though, so it was pretty cosy.

On Friday we finally got on the road. For the first night of the roadtrip we stayed at a picnic area. At dinnertime every day, someone is in charge of cooking for everybody, which I find pretty cool.

On the second day we did some sand boarding 50km away from the last stop and after we decided to visit the pinnacles.

Last night, we stayed on a free campsite along the sea, nice spot. Every night we stay around the fire chatting and playing games.The more we are going in the north the more I stare blissfully and in amazement into space when I look the night sky, it’s crazy.

Today is time for a little pitstop to buy some food and drinks (we can’t carry more than 3 days of supplies for 20 peoples actually). The third camp stop was nearby Ajana, a campsite called Galena Bridge camp area. We stayed there 2 days as we could have enjoyed the river and public toilets there.

Today we went to Kalbarri National Park and stayed all the afternoon by the Murchison river. We walked along the river to gaze at the Gorge and the red rock formations.

It’s more and more difficult to have network coverage even with two SIM cards/providers.

Talk to you later! See y’a!

Click below the see all the photos 😉

G’day everybody! (or “gidday”, an australian shortcut for “Good day”)

This is the third post. So far I’m still on time with my blog posts 🙂

So I’m still in Attadale at Debra and Trevor’s place. They are really lovely. They invite me over for dinner every evening. Debra is really a great cook. One of the best meals I’ve eaten is corned Beef with vegetables.

In exchange for their hospitality, I remove the leaves, weed around the house and varnish an old counter out behind the house. I have to admit that they don’t ask me to do a lot. Every day, Debra insists that I visit every single place around Perth.

As for the paperwork, I sorted out all the bank stuff on Monday and got my tax number “TFN” (I’ll need it if I want to work as a fruit picker). The same day, I tried taking a self-guided stroll in the city center. Actually, you can find some self-guided trails on the Perth website (https://www.perth.wa.gov.au/our-capital-city/things-see-and-do/self-guided-trails). This is a nice way to learn about the city on your own. For instance, you can learn that the city of Perth was originally built by convicts.

On Tuesday, I went to Rottnest Island, a small island off the coast of Perth. You should book your trip on a Tuesday if you plan to go there. They call it “Tuesday telethon” and tickets are half price. The ticket came with a bike and I could gone on a trip all around the Island. That is not realistic to do on foot in a single day. On the island, you can observe the quokka which is a marsupial about the size of a cat (check out my pics in the album).

These little creatures are really greedy… to such an extent that they will come to see if you have any food for them. You can’t feed them, but if you have some water you can pour it into the palm of your hand and the quokkas will come right up to you and drink it! I also saw some sea lions in the water. There are some volunteer guides on the island and I was able to learn some facts about the island and the species that live there. If you are in Perth, you should definitly go to visit Rottnest Island.

On Wednesday I spent part of the day outside, sanding a counter to get rid of the old varnish. Later in the afternoon, I met Tom and Megane, an English couple who have spent 6 months in OZ (comes from Aussie for Australia). They left Perth on Saturday and are off to Broome in the north. In the evening Trevor and Debra invited us to the East Fremantle Yatch Club. The food there was really nice. I am starting to eat more fish again (maybe because it’s deep fried 🙂 ).

Speaking of fish, I went out for a fish and chips lunch on Thursday with Murray my Couchsurfing host, we had decided to do so earlier in the week. We had a beer at Little Creatures Brewery (nice IPA there). And after that we tried the fish and chips at Joe’s Fish Shack (such a yummy fried fish!).

I went back to Kings Park as well. It’s a huge park with a botanical garden, nature trails and big grassy areas. You can walk for a while there without running into anybody (at least on Friday). I wish we had that kind of park in Marseille (and don’t mention the Borély park or Pastré please, they are both way outside of town). 

While I was taking pictures, I noticed “The Swan Brewery” down along the “Swan river” and bound to be I ended up there trying their Australian Pale Ale (not so bad 😉 ). In the evening I met Thomas, a Portuguese who has been traveling around the world for almost a year. He is passing through and he wanted some company to experience the night life in Perth. Pretty much every place to hang out is in Nothbridge, which at night is a very lively district of Perth.

I’ll stay in Perth for few more days and I’ll probably hit the road on Wednesday. I’m not sure yet, but I may have found a group of travelers to team up with.

Click below the see all the photos 😉

Hi guys!

There I am! My flight travel was alright but these 30 hours of flight wore me out. Add on top of that the jetflag (+6h) and you see my point. That said, I should get used to it fairly quickly, it’s not as if I had landed on the East coast.

Following on from my stopovers, I can tell you that Istanbul Airport has nothing attractive. Even the WIFI ask you to register in order to get 2 free hours of Internet :-/ Singapor airport on the other hand has a lot to offer with showers, free cinemas, prayer rooms, smoking rooms, a butterfly garden and so on… that’s crazy. That turns a typical deadly stopover into a great moment!

Concerning my first steps in Australia, as expected Murray picked me up at the airport. He didn’t recognise me from the description. I had given to him “a red backpack with yellow strips”. The reason is not really funny actually. I wasn’t carrying it as it hadn’t come up on the carousel at the airport! Of course I made a claim to the airline. Not so bad, they gave me a toilet bag and 150$ to wait until it turns up. Surprisingly that didn’t ruin my day. I had already gotten used to the idea of doing without it actually. I know I’m a bit pessimistic.

First we went at Murray’s home so I could settle in. He showed me the house and his garden and then he took me for a little ride around Perth. I needed to get a phone card so he went with me to a phone shop. The guy at the desk was completely amazed when I told him in France we’ve got plans up to 100G over 4G networks for about 30$/month 🙂 I was completely burned out during all the day and staying seated in the car didn’t help me to stay awake. We went to eat at a little café along the beach and I had a burger and a flat white coffee (the regular australian coffee). After that we headed to his home and I had a quick nap, I couldn’t stand it any more. He invited me to share a meal in the evening before we called it a day. The following day Murray insisted on giving me a trousers for the continuation of my venture (He pitied me I guess lmao) and he took me to see kangarous at Mundaring Weir. It was so exciting to see kangarous for the first time!

We had a last coffee and he dropped me off at the bus station. I headed to the city center and to Fremantle to meet Amandine at the beach. She was doing a surf lesson. I think I’ll give it a try soon as well. She invited me to join her to visit Fremantle market, a nice little market, where I couldn’t help but buy a t-shirt with a bad boy style kangarou on it (I had to actually, remember I have no more spare clothes). There we met Matt, a friend of hers there. After the market we wanted a beer or something to eat so we went to a Brewery called Monk and I tasted my first Australian beer, it was bound to be an IPA and a very good one 😉 (I put a high mark 3.75/5)

Later we went to the lighthouse at the end of the harbour to see the sunset, and time came for me to meet my workaway hosts, Debra and Trevor, so I left them to take the bus. Once I arrived Debra greeted me and shown me the house. Trevor was out for his job and Debra was preparing a birthday for the next day. She invited me to share a delightful meal with her (soup and rice with chicken :d). After the meal she suggested that I pick a movie and to take a place in Trevor’s room, just about a real cinema with heaps of Blu-rays and two rows of seats!

I’m nicely settled in an outhouse with a king size bed, my own bathroom and a little kitchen. Even breakfast was set!

On saturday I went for a little stroll downtown in Perth to locate every exchange office as I’ve still got plenty of euros to change. Before I left France I had withdrown some cash and I had exchanged a part of it at the airport. Actually I’ve been marked by money issues in NZ – my grand mother might remember bringing her phone to the bank to put me straight through! – and I wanted to avoid to be caught short (long life to the cash!). I bought some food as well. It’s always funny to discover grocery shops overseas. That made me remember New Zealand as the product sold there are pretty much the same.

Good news, after 2 days Singapour Airlines finally found my bag and drop it off out the front here at my hosts place! all’s well that ends well!

Click below the see all the photos 😉

See you soon!