Round
Australia 1998
It
was late July 1998. I had just
taken the 2nd semester off Uni partly due to glandular fever
recovery. I mainly took it off so
that I could travel around Australia with Deb.
We did not have long to plan the trip.
With our parents busily trying to talk us out of it, we left with a
nicked old tent, and without a torch, rope esky, plan or map.
We were to have a bloody great time, and The General would finally earn
the rank to which it aspired, running perfectly with a roadside service in the
desert near Mt Isa the only work done.
Having
very little money, we went from Dole office to Dole office, and begged and stole
what we could. We put dole forms in
the following order:
Ballarat
…Suspicious?
We
were actually offered jobs 3 times without even asking.
This has happened several times on other trips as well, one bloke in 2002
offered us 2K a week between us to work on a mine site.
Another bloke offered us $200 each per day to paint houses in Darwin.
Never bothered.
Several
times, we checked out of caravan parks at first light, idling The Mighty General
past the office, then tearing off in a cloud of dust.
Usually we stayed in the bush though, at free spots and national parks
where the honesty system is poorly enforced.
