Arriving in Sydney from China was a welcome shock back into the heat and sunshine. Before we arrived there, we emailed our friends all through Australia that we had met previously on other parts of the trip, and our friends that we made in Africa were so excited to see us again that they quit their jobs for a week and planned a road trip for us from Canberra through Sydney and on up to the Gold Coast and Brisbane. It was at this point that Ian and I decided that Australia should be more about the experiences with the people rather than trying to hit all the highlights or tourist spots.

After spending the first couple days in Sydney, we took a bus down to Canberra to begin our adventurous road trip with two other Australian rugby players in a 1983 Ford Laser, which was a tiny four door hatch-back with 300,000 miles that one of the boys bought for $600. Everyone we came across was shocked that we would even consider driving this car all the way from Canberra (the capital in the South) to Brisbane up in Queensland. However, we made the trip with the boys visiting their farms, beach houses, and staying with friends and family all the way up. It provided incredible insight to the way that they live, and I came to the conclusion that living in Australia is much like living in Florida with most people living near the coast and most of the culture is centered around the water.

When the boys finished with us in Brisbane, our friend James decided to give Ian and I the Laser for the rest of the time that we were in Australia. He did not believe that we would ever bring it back, and told us that he never wanted to see it again and hoped that we would drive it off a cliff or blow it up in some dramatic fashion. Well, despite how much we wanted to perform some incredible stunt endeavor, the Laser held firm for nearly the entire trip from Canberra to Cape Tribulation in the far north beyond Cairns and back to Sydney putting another couple thousand miles on it without giving us much reason to blow it up or junk it in some other way.

Driving nearly the entire east coast of Australia was fantastic because I really felt like I saw most of what Australians actually experience of their country, and we had a good time picking up hitch-hikers and stopping at any place that said they were famous or had something famous (food, objects, whatever). However, the best sights of the trip were not seen from the car but from a boat or in the water. The Great Barrier Reef which stretches from north of Australia nearly all the way to Brisbane was absolutely fantastic, and Ian and I and Ian's brother as well dove all along the Australian coast as we worked our way from the top at Cape Tribulation back to Sydney. We also visited beautiful islands such Magnetic, the Whitsundays, and Fraser Island; where we experienced wild wallabies, kangaroos, koalas, cockatoos, dingos (wild dogs), and many other types of parrots and lizards.

Having the car allowed us to experience a lot of Australia that we never would haven been able to. It was incredible diving the reefs, sailing around the Whitsundays, going to concerts in Sydney, driving 4WD Jeeps through Faser Island, and many others, but our best times were spent meeting back up with our Australian friends and in perfect Aussie fashion cracking open a few beers and told jokes and stories until the wee hours of the morning. Now, Ian and I are waiting to return the favor for when those boys decide to come visit the USA.

Unfortunately, now, I have to make the long trip home, and I believe that it will be very hard to transition back into normal life after such an incredible year. However, Australia was a good buffer for me before going back to the States because it not only is the only "first" world country that we visited, but also since it is very much like Florida I began to transition back into a "western" lifestyle. I could only wish for this trip to be longer, but time, money, friends, and family are all calling me home. I know that this is not the end of my adventures, but I hope I get the chance again in my life to take another extended trip such as this one. Cheers!