On Sunday 101h October 2015, after a few months of preparing and awaiting, I finally arrived in Australia.
This was my first ever solo adventure, and because planning such a big trip can be a little overwhelming, I decided to get help from Jobstop. Jobstop work with Work & Travel, a company situated in Sydney that help backpackers on their travels. I can recommend every first time traveller who is feeling a little unsecure to at least go to a company and listen to what they have to say and how they can help you. Joining Jobstop gave me more confident to travel alone.
ORIENTATION WEEK
Though Sydney was not my favorite city, I found it too big and bombastic, I was impressed with everything around me.
Monday was a busy day. I went to get my Australian banking card, opal card, sim card all sorted out and ended up spending hours running around Sydney’s Chinatown. Jetlag kicked in soon though, so I went back to my hostel Wake Up for some well deserved chilling. Here’s a list of the things that were included in the orientation week:
- Centerpoint Tower
At noon our group met and went to Centerpoint Tower for lunch. At 309meters (!) we had an amazing view of Sydney.
- Paddle Boarding
We boarded the ferry from Circular Quay to Rose Bay, enjoying Sydney’s wonderful skyline.
I thought paddle boarding would be hard, but it was fairly easy. I may or may not have fallen hard on my board a few times, but I survived. It was my first time going into Australian waters and yes the fear of sharks was there. The instructor nicely pointed out that sharks did not come to Rose Bay, but we might get some visits from stingray. I could manage that.
The wind was very blowing hard that day, but everyone from my group managed to break through and paddle over to a nice side of the shore. We sat down on our boards in the water for a while & I’m pretty sure that was one of the single most beautiful views I had ever seen in my life.
After the paddle boarding, we enjoyed the sun and solitude of Rose Bay for a while, before heading back to the Work & Travel office for a Travel Expo, where we got more information about our travels.
- Featherdale and Blue Mountains
Featherdale isn’t like any zoo we have in Belgium. The animals have larger cages, while most of them run free through the park. To my surprise and delight, we found out that quokka’s lived in the zoo.
After Featherdale, we got on our way to the Blue Mountains National Park. A long long time ago, the Blue Mountains were inhabited by the aboriginals. Ronnie, our Australian guide, told us many stories about the aboriginals and how they lived in the endless miles of threes, caves and mountains.
After a steep walk we went up and witnessed the Three Sisters.
Then we took a walk down and found ourselves in what seemed like a rainforest. The temperature cooled down and it became pleasantly hot. The views were more than amazing. We saw stunning waterfalls, walked pass the home of one of the deadliest spiders on the earth (but didn’t meet any), met animals I didn’t know existed, explored the wilderness, hiked dangerous paths and heard the most amazing sounds from the forests.
- Bondi To CoogieWalk
I should probably buy a hat.
The walk from Bondi to Coogie was beautiful to say the least. I’ve never seen so much clear blue water in the ocean as I saw on Bondi Beach. As we walked the path to Coogie, cockatoos were flying around, waves were crashing on the shore and the ocean was wild.
This must be the first time that we actually saw people with dogs, as you see none in the city. After the walk we arrived at Coogie beach where we had our first famous Australian Barbie! (barbeque). Afterwards, we pulled on our swimsuit and chilled out at the beach for the first time. The sun was burning hard (I already ran out of sunblock) and the waves were so big, resulting in a perfect day at the beach.
Hostels I stayed at while in Sydney:
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