Accommodation in Australia is a tricky affair. Once you shell out all the money for airfare to Australia, you might think that nothing can surprise you anymore (I know that's what I thought). It simply isn't the case – they do things a little different down there. Just because it is an English speaking country doesn't mean that you won't be surprised once you get to the “land downunder!”
One of the most popular forms of accommodation in Australia is Australia hostels. People down there travel much more than Americans. So much of the country is pristine, unspoiled wilderness, and there is a ruggedness in the Australian spirit lost to America and Western Europe of today. They don't mind living in somewhat spartan environs if they can live easy and on the cheap, and that's just what Australia hostels are: spartan and cheap. But for my wife and myself, 20 people in a room with one toilet between the lot of it, staying up all night drinking and singing bawdy songs quickly grew old despite the reasonable rates, and we were forced to reconsider our choice of accommodation in Australia.
The Australia resorts, however delightful and picturesque, were well beyond our means when we went on our vacation, and so it was a choice between plain old camping and hotels. We were successfully tempted to indulge in a few nights of hotel accommodation in Australia, where we could have some privacy and a nice soft bed to rest up in, and then off to the wilderness for us.
Because Australians are so often on the move, it isn't at all hard to find outdoor accommodation in Australia. Both of us already had our backpacks, and sleeping bags, and it was no problem to find tents, pots, pans, portable stoves, and other essential camping gear for very reasonable rates. Some of it we were even able to rent – convenient since we had no plans on lugging a brand new tent back to America when we were done.
Of all the places we stayed, I think the outback had the best accommodation in Australia. Nothing in the world is better than it – lying outside all night with the sky for a blanket and the earth for a bed as they say. Most nights, we didn't even need the tent, as it was during the dry season, but there were plenty of stations each within a days walk from each other, where we could fill up water and replenish necessary supplies.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment