Our first round the world adventure landed us down under. We flew into Melbourne, rented a car and drove 10 hours to Adelaide, with a return stop at Kangaroo Island. We slept at rest stops at night in the car and dodged kangaroos in the road. At Kangaroo Island we stayed on a kangaroo farm and watched tiny penguins migrate to their babies at night. Back to Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road for a few nights in the totally laid back city, and then on an overnight (very rocky) ferry to Tasmania. We rented a “wreck” and hiked around Freycinet National Park, including Wineglass Bay and Mount Amos, spending our time on its chilly beaches and with wallabies at the top. While there, we also stopped by ex-prison Port Arthur and the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. Back to the mainland, we rented a car and began our road trip up the east coast. First stop was in Sydney, where we had to see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, as well as Bondi Beach and the botanical gardens. Then we headed inland to the Blue Mountains, staying in Katoomba, and hiking the gentle mountains during the day. After a few days we returned to Sydney and started our beach hopping up the coast.

Along the way we hit Bateman’s Bay, Coffs Harbour, and then set up camp in Byron’s Bay, a chill little hippie town. We continued up the Gold Coast, stopping in the city-scaped Surfer’s Paradise for a quick swim, then spent the next night in Cotton Tree at a campsite right on the beach. Our next stop was one of our favorite towns, Noosa, where we stayed for three days as total beach bums. We hiked to a secluded nudie beach and ate turkey sandwiches on Thanksgiving, made friends with locals who introduced us to surfing and meat pies, and then made our way to the random and remote Town of 1770. We drove 30k on remote roads with one grocery store, one bottleshop and a lot of acres of recently controlled burned forests to avoid impending forest wild fires. We set up our beachfront camp site and settled in for four nights because we loved it so much. Here we took a reef trip to the southernmost part of the Great Barrier Reef and swam next to dolphins, turtles and a hammerhead shark! We then headed up to Airlie Beach, the touristy backpacker haven and our jumping off point for the Whitsunday Islands. We camped and woke up at sunrise each day to squawking cockatoos and parrots. Then we took a tiny private boat to Whitsunday Island on Whitehaven Beach with the whitest sand in the world and occupied one of four campsites (for $4/night!) on the miles-long beach. We stayed four nights, sans shower, sans fresh water (we brought our own), and only composting toilets filled with roaches, and it was by far the coolest place we’ve ever stayed. We shared our space with two foot long Goana lizards, giant bugs, body-surfing stingrays and jellyfish, though we managed to avoid stings despite our lack of stinger-proof bodysuits. Our campsite neighbor took us out fishing and we caught some cod, which we grilled up with some sweet chili sauce for dinner. It was hard to leave this spot, but we had the best shower of our life upon returning to Airlie Beach.

For the last stretch of our Queensland adventure, we headed up to Cairns, Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation. All great towns, very mellow. We indulged in skydiving on Mission Beach (a life list must-do) and then stayed at “Sanctuary,” a treetop retreat deep in the rainforest that overlooks the ocean. That was where we encountered our first Huntsman Spider, larger than our hands and not as slow moving as you’d hope. After having a total meltdown but being unable to escape without a mile-long walk through the also-spider-filled forest to get back to our car, we succumbed and tucked ourselves tightly in bed, hoping to avoid more surprise encounters with any new creatures overnight. We bid adieu to the massive Australian insects the next morning and headed back home via Cairns.

HIGHLIGHTS: Whitsunday camping (four spots only, incredibly remote, watch out for box jellyfish); Town of 1770 (random name, camping on the beach, introducing Aussies to s’mores); Great Ocean Road (12 Apostles); Freycinet National Park (numerous hikes, some straight up/down, pink granite boulders, 360 degree views of crystal blue bays); Katoomba / Blue Mountains (super hippy-dippy low-key town, easy hikes with kangaroos and cockatoos); Byron’s Bay (hippies, sea turtles, dolphins, beaches and $10/night camping); Noosa (perfect blend of town/beach, swimming naked is so freeing); pretty much everything about the entire trip. Australia is amazing!

HINDSIGHT: Still dying to see Perth and the west coast. Reserved for a future trip! Otherwise truly wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Date: 2006; Timeframe: 4 weeks