Backpacker

Australia is backpacker’s paradise. We never came across any other country, which has such a strong focus on (young) backpackers. The whole tourism industry is to please people with a low budget. There are hostels everywhere which offer for little money a place to sleep, often in a dormant. Moreover, there are community rooms, kitchens and often community bathrooms in those hostels as well as on the beaches for the public.

We stay mostly on campgrounds. They are fully equipped as well and we mainly stay in big chains like Top Tourist Parks and Big 4.

There are showers, community kitchens in which you cook, do your dishes and you store your food in the community fridge. This is a great experience for travelers. However on the other side there are some disadvantages as well. For the low budget tourist everything needs to be cheap thus the quality suffers. Bars offer great live acts for free. The wine or prosecco is cheap, however tastes awful. That is why you need to drink beer. Btw: ‘ForEx’ (actually XXXX) or ‘VeeBee’ (Victoria Bitter) what most people drink here.

Moreover, you don’t find a table and bench at the campground as they have the community kitchen equipped with them. Well, we miss a big table as we were used to having one in Africa and America. Of course we have now our own chairs and a little table. In addition to this the standard of hygiene in the community kitchen is a big disadvantage. Depending on who is there and how many people share a kitchen it does suffer. However, even here we have found a solution. We brought with us our foldable kitchen sink. Thus we can cook and do the dishes on our own little campground area. Sometimes this is the best alternative. Just recently, in Townsville, Michaela wanted to cook some water for her tea. As always she took the pot for cooking the water in and removed the old water, which was in it. Well, it was not only water in there. A dead frog, which already turned blue and pink, came out of the pot as well. We don’t know how long the frog was in there. How often it was boiled and actually we don’t want to know. Well, Michaela did not have any tea that night after all.