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I arrived in Australia febuary 24th. I was able to reach my parents's contacts in Australia the day before I took my flight. For few weeks I was not able to log into my gmail account so some emails didn't get through. I arrived in Melbourne at 2 am and Simon was waiting for me with a board with my name on it. I took plane so many time this was the first time someone was waiting for me with a board with my name on it.
Simon didn't know who to expect. Usually someone in sabatical year is probably close to retired. He was not expecting a 33 year old backpacker. I did introduced myself in the email but I didn't put much detail since I assumed that i would have be introduced by the person who gave me Simon direction. But at the end it was great, I played golf fix computer problem. relax and I had a room for myself. After 3 months in hostel you appreciate it.
Simon and his wife Margaret organised a barbecue at their place to introduce me their daughter Claudette and her boyfriend Joe. I went cycling in St-kilda neighborhood
with Claudette. I went to port fairy with Simon, Margareth and another retired couple for the port fairy folk festival. I also went sea fishing with Simon's friend Gordon. I didn't catch anything that we could eat but it was a good introduction to local fish.
After port fairy, Claudette and Joe invited me to a friend's BBQ and they invited me to stay with them in another suburb of Melbourne. The following weekend Claudette organised a visit with her friends to Halesville sanctuary. We were very lucky since one girl in our group was a volunter in that santuary. It was a good introduction to australian wildlife.
I also met Marco in Melbourne. I have met Marco in Ireland in 1996 and I visited him in Italy during my interail trip. I found him on facebook and he notice that I was going to Australia where he moved.
During my 5 weeks in Melbourne I also meet some couchsurfing people. I did 15km Yarra river bike ride with Bjorn form Germany visiting Melbourne. Bjorn is living in the suburb of Paris so we tried to speak french but he was not used to my accent...even if
I tried hard to speak formal ( you don't want to hear that. Sound too poch )
During that month I also got familar with car. I talked to Simon mecanic who gave me advised about australian car market. In Canada car don't last as long as they do in Australia. Here you can buy a 1983-1990 car. I needed to narrow my reseach. He narrowed it down to Toyota later than 1995 to get good fuel consumption (injection) and reliability...his recommandation was Corolla . I didn't want a car but a van so I can sleep in it anywhere I want while being discrete. I wanted a reliable car since I my plan were to do the western australia and there you can be miles without seeing a car. You don't want to have a breakdown.
In my 3rd week in Melbourne I found a toyota Hiace 1999 one owner, full service record, priced at the red book value. It was perfect. I bought it and start a new carreer in carpentry. Under Joe supervision, recommendations and with his tools, I made a bed, a table, a rack for my esky (cooler, ice box) and my water
(30 liters). It took a 2 weeks to do the mecanical inspection, join RACV for roadside assistance, tranfert registration and get an insurrance and one week to get basic setup inside my van.
The total cost: 8500$ for the van, 150$ for the road tax, 200$ for mecanical inspections, 700$ for one year full cover insurance with AMMI, 380$ for new tires ( should have been changed...normally they wouldn't have passed road worthy inspection since they were 95% used but when you know someone...everything is possible) and 500$ camping stuffs as (bed wood frame, cooler, matelas, curtain, water container, owning, tinted windows sheets, duna, pelow, bed sheet, 12 volts light, inverter 12v to 240volts, propane tank)
At that point, 5 weeks have passed since I arrived in Australia. I had to move out of Melbourne. I was getting root there. I was not paying rent where I was staying at friends. After 2 weeks I was feeling I was abusing their hospitality. So even if my van was not completly over I had to move and start my trip in Australia and terst my new van. It is easy to just continualy improving the van setup and not
travelling.
At the last minute, I booked the ferry to Tasmania before it get too cold down there....
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