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| Wednesday, 16 June 2004 |
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Australia on a Shoestring by Victor Cherubim
The thought of Down Under, for a month of adventure conjures up visions of the outback, the rainforests, the Uluru Red Rock and course, the blue green sea and the white silicon sands of Bondi beach. But none is more enticing than to venture out in the summer of the Southern Hemisphere, with the guarantee of Christmas without snow. To size up Down Under as a backpacker, is a challenge. To be a backpacker is to redefine a lifestyle. Many a student on a year abroad considers this experience as an education in itself. There is an aura of the uncertain and the unexpected. To travel abroad on a shoestring, without planned travel, escorted tours, at ones own leisure with only a rough itinerary, is invigorating. Why? With much of today's living sometimes preordained, the buzz, the suspense, the drama and the thrill of a challenge beckon many young people. However, this mode of travel has yet to attract the old as the ultimate holiday experience. The licence of a backpacker is the rucksack where every whim and fancy is accommodated, with minimum weight and maximum security and safety. There is nothing calculated or cultivated than to live out of a backpack, sharing a dorm room with little or no privacy among 4 to 6 other unfamiliar people. In fact, this lifestyle is the opposite of comfort afforded in a hotel. In some dormitories or hostels, there are as many as 28 persons sharing a room and who says it has to be unisex, as mixed dorms are the norm of living. But, there are no freebies, other than a cultural and a social mix of people. As I criss-crossed the Outback, the Inner and Outer cities of Australia, visiting over 20 towns and cities from Alice Springs through Adelaide, to Coffs Harbour to Cairns, a distance of 4200 kilometres on a Greyhound Coach, over three time zones and on a few occasions by "Virigin Blue" Air to ease the exhaustion, I asked myself time and again: Why opt for this mode of travel at nearly three score and ten? Was I taking on somewhat of a gruelling task to test my powers of endurance and stamina or my mental agility or to run away from the bleak wintry weather back in U.K.? I had only myself to blame as I willingly opted for this type of holiday. It was not until I set foot Australian soil in Sydney airport, that I realised the enormity of my task and the no turning back sign that lit up boldly in my mind's eye. Everyday of this month long adventure was different in some way or other. No amount of pre - planning could help me to adjust to the varied lifestyle and the diversity of living of this lifestyle to the full in the immediate present. The way I can best describe my challenge is that it was an experience of a world within a world, which I had not witnessed in Europe, a re-learning of sorts. We tend to think of Australians as the settlers from Britain some 250 years ago. We think of Australia as the land with the prison colony from Britain. We think of Australia within the past fifty years, with the "assisted migrants" passage," from Britain and the Commonwealth. We are told that the population of Australia today is 20 million, with an expected increase of only 5 more million by 2030. We are also informed that to sustain a larger population in the wide-open lands of the Australian hinterland would mean having to either import water, or to conserve existing meagre water resources. One sees a sea change taking place around Australia. There is a lifestyle different in many respects from the Northern Hemisphere. A relearning of values become necessary due to the laid back approach by Australians. What I encountered was the discovery of diverse pleasures in experiencing the unknown and the untired. The thrills of sky diving, white water rafting, sea kayak, whale watching, crocodile hunting, bush walking, outback quad adventure, marine wilderness scuba diving and snorkelling are exciting both the young and the old. Everywhere I travelled I noticed a diversity of escapes from ordinary to extraordinary. The urge to escape from the beaches to the lush rainforests and the wide-open expanses on the one side, contrasts vividly with the mindset of nature lovers, environmentalists and explorers of bush foods, medicines and cuisine on the other. It was also novel to experience five different standards of accommodation ranging from Lava and Wilderness Lodges to swag and Safari tents. Whilst all this is visible, what is unseen, is the quiet revolution taking place in space exploration research in the wiles of the Outback. This is the new dimension of Australia, preparing for 2030 today, so that it can take its place among the explorers to Mars and the Outer planets. With Sydney over 22 hours away and 11 hours ahead of London time, satellite communication makes a mockery of this distance. A telephone link up from Sydney to UK costs less than a local call connection within UK. Regardless of this ease of communication, Australia happens to maintain a distance from UK in its trade links with Pacific rim countries, including the West coast US. Trade with China has exceeded all expectations. A feature of this trade link is that Australian subsidiaries are manufacturing goods in China, price competitive specifically for the Australian market. I found the people and their thinking, although culturally linked to UK, are diversified in every other way, possibly due to their new vision for the future, where trade takes preference. This policy is making Australia a "big player" within the Pacific rim countries, preparing to lead this third group into competition with the EU and US. I found experience came second to performance in Australia. The trend is ability to perform in every walk of life, not excluding the capacity to climb in and out of the top bunk of the available bedsteads in a backpackers' hostel, irrespective of one's age or sex. The opportunity of living on a shoestring both in terms of my trainers and my living expense on food, was also no exception. With variety on offer, the choice of international dishes at unbelievable prices in one location catering for Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Malaysian, Indian and South Pacific is a tempting offer. Full English breakfast with all trimmings is available at half cost but dinner menus of crocodile, emu, and kangaroo steaks are treble normal dinners. My search for an Australian identity, was somewhat of a "voyage of discovery". It was both a mood and an experience. It was a mood, which is laid back, less stressful than I had thought and an experience, which was exciting to say the least. As opportunities for a backpacker are few and far between locations, one has to be prepared for all weather, political and otherwise or accept the unexpected at all times. What is common between Tony Blair, the politician and backpacker is that both grab every opportunity as it comes. The link is this diversity in existence, is to relish the challenge and variety of today's living. I am no authority on backpacking because there are no authorities I know. There are just those who love it and have had luck with it and those who have not had it. Whether backpacking or living on a shoestring, is an acquired knowledge is anybody's guess. |
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