Twenty-four thousand kilometres of road tripping
Twenty nationalities encountered on the road
Nine months of work
Five States
Four climatic zones
Three oceans
Two lovers
One van
Oh-man, my Australian year was intense! We mostly spent it travelling. In every way that a person can travel. We roamed through forests, deserts, steppes, big cities, countryside, pastures, beaches and mountains. We also worked quite a bit, with jobs that ranged from burning fields to serving tables in a sailor attire, from smashing rocks with a tractor to cleaning toilets, from cooking for a crew of starving cowboys to housekeeping in an ocean front hostel. My first year of long-term travelling teach me many lessons, that’s sure. So here are some of them!
Everything you need can fit in a 50L backpack
While traveling long-term I learned to get rid of the superfluous. Everything that you own has to be carried around, sometimes even on your back. We bought a van as soon as we got to Australia, but even if its storage space was larger than a 50L backpack, it had to be shared with utilities and gear. Living on the road makes you reflect on how many unnecessary things we cumulate in our spoiled westerners lives.
You won’t always love the road
While I loved the ghost towns of the outback, the endless expanses of cows and sheep, roadside sleeping and waking up with the sun, I also hated the endless drives, the humidity in the van when it rained, the broken back, the confined space, the flies, the heat. Long-term travelling can also get boring after a while, I swear! But this will be the subject of another post.
Living on the road creates many more occasions for learning and meeting interesting people than living in one place.
We’ve been surrounded by friends and alone like hermits. We changed five houses, bought and sold a van, a surf, two bikes and a pair of shoes. We dived to see the corals and we searched the sky to spot the eagles. We have seen kangaroos, koalas, goannas, crocodiles, opossum and a whole lot of marsupials of every shape and size. But most of all, we shared the road with such a diverse humanity that we would have hardly ever met otherwise.
We worked with cowboys from Queensland. Lads that in their twenties are already married with kids and leading giant cattle stations. We lived with the nomads of Coral Bay, who sold everything in exchange for a motorhome and a seasonal job by the ocean. We mixed with the Melbourne hipsters, with their festivals, horse races, and trendy restaurants. We talked to Aborigines, either sober or not, and with Australians who never left their island and asked if Milan was by the ocean. But also with other Australians that have travelled the world and worked as agricultural pilots in Tanzania. We met Israeli vacationers and exiled Iranians; Korean dishwashers and Nepalese bartenders; Italians who took the working holiday in Australia for the Erasmus in Spain and, above all, we met many, many Chinese.
Even when the situation looks desperate, remember that behind every defeat there’s an opportunity
In Melbourne I changed five jobs. Each time I had to scout for a new one, I cycled the whole city and its suburbs exploring hidden lanes, ethnic enclaves and outlet districts. I had a laugh with shopkeepers, drank coffee with coffee makers and always ended up finding a job after the other, meeting new people and finally finding myself invited at two Christmas parties on the same day.
No matter how much you know that racism is wrong, it is always around the corner
In Melbourne I worked in a restaurant for a while and I soon learned that Chinese customers where the toughest. Because of the huge cultural difference, they treated the staff in a way that in the western world was considered impolite at best. Chinese table after Chinese table that treated me like a slave, I discovered that slipping into racial hatred is easier than you might think. Staying true to your values can be difficult when people keep calling your attention by snapping their fingers and shouting orders every five seconds.
I experienced what does it mean to be treated as an economic migrant
We moved to Oz in 2013, while in Europe (and in Italy in particular) the economic crisis was still raging. Although we went to Australia to explore (working was just a way to sustain our travels) we were often judged as economic migrants. The immigration policies also started to tighten that year because of the government shifting to the right. I have been reconfirmed that there are a thousand reasons behind migrating but only one behind the intolerance: ignorance.
It contributed to define my European identity
I learned that Australia is beautiful but I can’t live there. I missed Europe as much as I missed my family and friends. It is part of my heritage, my culture and myself as a person, and living so far from my loved ones and from my continent it’s not an easy choice. Spending one year in another western country yet so different from my own helped me put into perspective the issues that we have in the Old Continent and to value its culture and beauty. Even if I’ve been back for three years now, I still appreciate Italian and European wonderful scenery and distinctive customs and traditions with tourist eyes (at least most of the time :D). Last but not least, comparing myself to Australians I noticed how closer we are between us Europeans. I spent my childhood and youth being defined as the one from the little village, then the one from Bergamo, then the Italian. In Australia all this regional differences seems to fade away in the big picture.
Travelling is addictive.
You can overdose and get sick about it,
but once you’re hooked you can’t help it.
The siren call of nomad life
will always sing
in the back of your head.
Want more?
Browse my Australian Photo series:
GREAT CENTRAL ROAD
OUTBACK AUSTRALIA
BEACH AUSTRALIA
Hello people!
My name is Sabrina, and I'm a pirate.
As such, I usually travel a lot and don't have a fixed adress. Not for long at least. So here you are, welcome to my home, the one that follows me around the globe.