Sebastien and Léa’s Australian Adventure

G’day mates! We’re Sebastien and Léa, two French backpackers who’ve been travelling around Australia for the past year. We wanted to share our adventure with you and all the crazy experiences we’ve had. So grab a cup of tea, put on some tunes and enjoy our Aussie journey!

Sydney

We arrived in Sydney in January 2022 and spent the first six months living in a share house with some amazing people from all over the world. Our roommates included a Mexican guy who worked in a Mexican restaurant and two Italian girls who were studying English. It was such a great experience living with people from different cultures, and we made some lifelong friends.

We spent our days exploring the city, going to the beach and trying all kinds of different foods. We loved the fish and chips and meat pies, but our favourite was definitely the Vegemite on toast – it’s an Aussie classic!

Buying Our Van

After six months, we were ready for a new adventure and decided to buy a van to travel around in. We found a cute little van for sale and named her ‘Beryl’. She was old and had some rust spots, but we loved her all the same.

We headed out of Sydney towards the countryside, looking for farm work. We found some fruit picking jobs on the Wikifarms Australia app and decided to check them out. We ended up in a small town called Mildura, known for its vineyards and orange orchards.

Fruit Picking Job

Our first day on the job was quite the experience. We were assigned to pick oranges and were given a brief tutorial on how to do it. It seemed easy enough at first, but it was hot and backbreaking work. We quickly learned that it was much harder than it looked.

Léa was especially scared of the spiders that would sometimes crawl out of the trees. She’s not a big fan of creepy crawlies, but we all had a good laugh when a spider landed on her arm and she freaked out, accidentally knocking over a whole bin of oranges.

Despite the challenges, we persevered and ended up making some great friends on the job. We even had a few barbeques with our fellow fruit pickers, where we shared stories and had a few beers.

Beryl’s Breakdown

After three months of fruit picking, we decided it was time to hit the road and explore the rest of the country. But just as we were leaving Mildura, Beryl broke down. We were in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal, and we had to spend the night in the van until we could get it fixed.

Luckily, the next day we were able to get help and get back on the road. We continued our journey to Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock. It was absolutely breathtaking and worth the long drive.

Exploring Australia

Over the next few months, we visited some amazing places in Australia. We went snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef, hiked through the Blue Mountains and even went skydiving in Byron Bay.

We also had some crazy experiences, like the time we accidentally drove into a kangaroo on the road (don’t worry, we were both okay) or the time we got stuck in the mud in the middle of nowhere.

But through it all, we learned to appreciate the beauty of Australia and the kindness of its people. We met some incredible locals who showed us around their hometowns and even invited us over for dinner.

Back on the Road

As we write this, we’re still on the road and have decided to stay in Australia for at least another year. There’s so much more to explore and we can’t wait to see where our next adventure takes


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