Please do tell me about dropbears. One can’t be informed enough ofcourse.
Thanks for the advise though. I never expected that the Wet was that extreme. I figured you just had three months of non stop rain, nothing we Dutchmen aren’t used to. Ignorence abounds here overseas apperantly.
{adopts innocent look}: Dropbears? DROPBEARS??? What dropbears? Not here. No way. Certainly not. [sub]Reprise, a word in my office…[/sub]
Are these the notorious critters you mean? I’ll prepare myself. I understood that firearms are illegal in Australia? Well, as little as I know about engines, I do have a powerful samurai hai-kick that can deal with these beasties.
Firearms aren’t illegal in Australia; the laws regarding firearms vary from state to state and are fairly tough. It’s a good idea not to even think about firearms unless you live here and you understand those laws.
One thing which did occur to me after you made your lst post, though, is that we have extremely strict weapon laws in Australia. NSW, in particular, has had extremely tight “blade” laws for the last few years (what you call “box-cutters” we had laws about long before Sept 11).
In short - and this is only the summary - unless you have a licence and a damn could reason for carrying anything which could be regarded as a “weapon” in Australia, then don’t. In general - and there are exceptions to the laws but they don’t apply to your average tourist - you can’t walk around in this nation with any kind of potential weapon attached to your person unless you have a license to do so, AND a legitimate reason for doing so. Not only is there no constitutional “right to bear arms here”, you’re making yourself unnecessarily vulnerable to attack if you’re perceived to be carrying a weapon.
This is where local knowledge comes in extremely handy - there are places in Australia where you can quite legally hunt or carry certain kinds of weapons for a specified period or purpose, but even though we are both democracies, our laws relating to some things are totally different.
I repeat my earlier advice - always ask the locals (and avoid the dropbears).
I’m going to duck in here to add that I am also considering a trip to Australia this winter (summer, Aussie time…).
If any Aussie dopers have any advice as to where to go, what to see, etc. I’d appreciate an e-mail (so as to not further hijack this thread…)!
Thanks!
Aghris, wanna travel together? (keep in mind that I haven’t yet decided to go there… just thinking about it as an option…)
Astroboy, the sole purpose of this thread is to get some more information (preferably first hand) about Australia. It is hardly a hijack to ask about where to go and what to see. I myself am very interested in that. My Lonely Planet has all kinds of info (an Australian friend of mine could actually calculate his travel time from home to school using the book, which had us both amazed), but local experience is worth so much more.
I’d love to meet up somewhere if you plan to go, but keep in mind that we don’t know each other at all, so we may actually not get along. (I’m a very easy going person and what I read from your posts I’m sure you are too, but you never know of course). So if we do, we might end up going our own ways afterall.
reprise, I was just kidding about the firearms. I wasn’t planning on bringing any of them, or using them (guns are illegal here in Holland, so I never used one in my life). I was just having a jest with your comment on dropbears.
Astroboy, my prelimenary travel plans are as follows, although the first part is subject to a lot of change after reprise’s information about the Wet:
Darwin (Kakadu Park, Litchfield)
Katherine
Kununurra (The Kimberleys)
Broome
Perth/Fremantle
Alice Springs
Cairns (Scooba Diving, yaj!)
Brisbane (Small DopeFest Primaflora?)
Sydney
Melbourne
Hobart
Sydney (Return Flight)
All these are subject to change, depending on situation, but if you bring a mobile we can keep contact (if not, the email option works very well)
The problem with your itinerary Aghris, is that you are planning doing some MEGA journeys during the Wet and dupicating some of them. Those people who love the humidity will tell you that is fine, but I can’t for the life of me work out why you would do Darwin, Perth, Alice, Cairns? It would make much more sense to fly into Cairns and do a Western circuit, or to do Alice on the way to Perth. Unless you can afford a charter jet or the Ghan, I’m not kidding when I say many roads in the Top End are cut off at that time of year. Apart from anything else, the way you’ve planned your itinerary involves every conceivable long-haul flight in Australia.
I know nothing about your financial state, but I’m telling you that if some travel agent has booked those legs for you at US dollars then you have been ripped off. Your itinerary doesn’t make sense geographically. It sounds like one a travel agent hoping to make maximum commission would book you on…
Give me 2 days to get my SSSFers on the job and you’ll not only save money on accommodation, you’ll meet some of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet (hope you don’t mind flying in private planes).
Thanks reprise. I’m still thinking about this itinerary so your suggestions are brilliant. The travel agency didn’t rip me off, the only sold me an open jaw ticket flying in on Darwin and back from Sydney. All travel between those points I have to take care for myself. The route I chose was because I wanted to see as much as possible of your country/continent, so zig-zagging was the best option I thought. As stated in my OP, I do have quite a few bucks to spend, my ex company was very generous.
The reasons for Darwin, Perth, Alice and Cairns are because of the Great Barrier Reef where I absolutely have to dive and the rainforests that are there, Alice because you can’t go to Australia and not see Ayers Rock, Darwin because of the great thunderstorms during the Wet and Kakadu park which I heard was a must see and Perth because someone recommended it to me as somewhere that is good to go and for some less touristy diving than is possible in Cairns. I also don’t want to come back home and regret that I missed some parts of Australia because chances are slim that I will ever return. The zig zagging tour will make sure that I’ll see most of the country. Or do you think this was bad planning on my part?