We drove from 60km west of the Queensland (QLD) state border to around 100km before Charters Towers - 1000km or so in total. Along the way we seen lots of road trains, termite mounds, ate ice cream, and went to sleep in the car at a rest area as we were too tired to setup the tent.

We drove from 100km south of Mataranka to 60km west of the Queensland (QLD) state border - 800km or so. Along the way we stopped for free coffee, seen grassland fires, seen wondering cattle, waved to passing drivers outback style, and made camp for the night at a rest area.

Free Camping: View Map (rest area: running water, toilets, shelter, tables)

Hitched a ride to the mechanic in order see what’s up in person. Nope. Not ready yet. Tomorrow it would be though – we’ve noticed it being worked on. We picked up some more food from the car and hitched back to Curtain Springs.

NT - The Northern Territory. Someone we were hitchhiking with told us it also stands for “Not Today, Not Tomorrow.” True enough, we called our mechanic in Yulara (100km away), and he said that the part that was to come in today will come in tomorrow. Anger. Frustration. Helplessness. Sem-depression. We were running out of things to do here, food to eat and our clock was ticking. We decided to go for a walk to find red dirt everywhere and cattle mooing in the distance. We then collected some wood for a camp fire we would make that night. We bought some protein, crackers a six pack – hoping for a better tomorrow.

We visited our mechanic who said he will get the new car part (a cam or timing belt – which broke) on Monday morning from Alice Springs (500km away). We decided to move from Yulara to Curtain Springs where there was free camping and it was closer to our next destination – Kings Canyon. We took more food from out trunk and hitched a ride with a Dutch girl and an American guy – leaving our car in Yulara at the mechanic’s mercy.

The outback is the heart of Australia. It’s a place where the days are hot and the nights are cold. It’s a place where you can legally drive 130km/h. It’s a place where people say “no worries” (a.k.a “no wucckas”) a great deal, but it’s also a place which can be filled with lots of worries (in our modified Austra-Canadian version, “yes wucckas”).

The outback is a place where horror stories of broken down cars in the middle of nowhere are born. We’ve seen those broken down cars while driving Stuart Highway, and they’re no fairy tales. There are wrecks travelers must have given up on, set on neutral, and pushed into the desert – as it must have been cheaper that way than to tow hundreds of kilometers to fix. Well, having said that, while in Melbourne although we did everything we could to increase the reliability of our station wagon, it happened to us too – we broke down in the outback. At around 11am on the Lasseter Highway, on route to the sacred heart of Australia, Uluru, we started losing power. Acceleration did nothing. Ewa began asking why I was breaking. I wasn’t. I did not say a word until I safely used the remaining momentum to pull to the side of the road. Anger. Worries. Helplessness. Yes Wucckas. Five minutes later we flagged down a Belgium couple which offered to give us a ride 300km eastwards to the nearest bigger town of Alice Springs. I almost took the opportunity, but the thought of leaving Ewa behind in the car was too scary to bear. We waited another 5 or 10 minutes and flagged down an older Aussie couple in a 4WD truck going westwards on route to Uluru. Bob offered to tow us to the nearest roadhouse station where we could find a phone, and so we took the opportunity. 60km west we got there and started making calls only to find out that the nearest mechanic is another 100km west and the tow job would be over 400$. Bob helped jumped in to help out and resumed towing us instead. We got the car to the mechanic, took some food and camping gear from the car and got a drive to the nearby Ayers Rock Resort in Yulara (20km away from Uluru). Lucky? Unlucky? We got to Uluru – outback style!!! Thank You Bob!

… ok this is it. “KITT, super pursuit mode.”, “Yes Michael”. I’m leaving Melbourne tomorrow morning before 8am to drive 740km and find Ewa somewhere in Adelaide. Rodney, our house mate, threw in a small shovel in case we get stuck again - I hope we don’t have to use it - Thanks Mate. :) If I make it to Adelaide, the remaining route might look something like this. The two big stops are Darwin and Brisbane. Google thinks it can be done in 4 days and 6 hours. I think we’ll take 4 weeks instead. Free wifi permitting, we will try our best to update this site.

Woohoo. Here we go again …

We set out for the Great Ocean Road this long weekend. We’ve seen the 12 Apostles - rock formations – of which really there are 8 or so left as they are being washed away by the sea. A bunch of cool free standing rocks in the middle of the sea - a bit overrated in my opinion. Driving through the coast lands we also bought some brie and herb cheese, and fresh tomatoes at some local farms. Then we spent one night in a tent through a storm with some of the moisture dripping through. Yeey. The next day we got stuck on some muddy grass with our lovely Toyota on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere in the Otway National Park while making a turn. Luckily some very friendly Aussies pulled us out. While driving home, we’ve seen a rainbow over Melbourne. Another hard, but well spent weekend.

We decided to do a 13km hike today in the steep Cathedral Ranges – as the name itself suggests. As we were lazily finishing up breakfast, Daniel appeared with his backpack punctually (ok, actually 10 minutes early – Swedish Style). We planned to start the hike at around 10:30am or so (ok fine, we started it 10 minutes late - Polish style). Although we turned the 2 day hike into a 1 day trail, and thus avoided some of the sections labeled “hazardous”, “dangerous” and “very hard”, we still struggled doing a steep ascend and descend – the pain was clearly felt the next day. Some of the views were nice from the very top. The weather was great. We’ve also seen a lyrebird pass by our trail, and I miserably failed to capture a photo of it. Booo. The walk itself was tense with the ups and downs, and at the end of the hike we came to the conclusion that it was an average experience – just because most of the walk demanded higher concentration to look down on the trail (away from enjoying the surroundings).

Oh, and once we got to the car park we found our tire to be flat. The tire that once took a week to deflate now deflated in less than 24 hours. It turned out that the car dealer in Sydney screwed us over – since when we were inspecting the car, we checked for a jack, and on the day of purchase it went missing. Hmm - bastard. Anyhow, Daniel saved our ass by letting us use his jack to change the tire. Next week we’re getting the rest of the car fixed up properly (along with getting extra equipment: jack, fuel and water canisters) for the lengthier trip ahead – no worries. I’m happy we’re noticing this stuff before we drive out into the desert.

We arrived in Melbourne in the late afternoon and drove right through to the Kensington suburb where we would spend the next 2 days looking for more stable housing and getting used to the city. Courtesy of some very hospitable people over at GlobalFreeLoaders.com, we did not have to pay a cent for the temporary accommodation, internet access, and use of their house or their utilities. It was very useful to have connectivity to be able to search for further accommodation and having the knowhow of the locals. Thanks Cass!!! On Friday April 13th, we moved into a new place in the Kew suburb. The place is in a very nice neighborhood not too far away from the downtown core, with good transport options, lots of small cafes and restaurants, internet connectivity, our own bathroom, and above all a clean area. We’re sharing the place with one more person - so far so good.

Our first impressions of Melbourne? It feels that it has more greenery than Sydney, and is also a bit more spacious. Apparently both cities argue they have the better coffee. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Tip: for free accommodation all over the world check out globalfreeloaders.com