Time to travel again

After working in a café in Sydney for three months, the travel budget was replenished and it was time to travel again. I flew to Darwin with two guys I met already at the hostel in Sydney a few weeks ago.

For about a month we had been planning to buy a car in Darwin to drive down the west coast to Perth. On the evening when we were on the plane to Darwin, we actually had no plan as to how we should continue in Darwin. A few hours before departure we looked at cars on Facebook. We wrote to the owners and arranged to meet with them the following afternoon.

We spent the first morning in Darwin relaxing in the park. Later we walked around the city a bit and doing a few errands.

Trying to find a car

At around three pm we drove to our first car visit. We really liked the car, but the air conditioning was broken, which we should have had repaired beforehand for around 800$. The engine also rattled strangely.

The second car, which we looked at immediately afterwards, had a working air conditioning system, but we should have had the brake pads replaced beforehand. At the time, we felt confident that we would buy the first car.

Nevertheless, we drove to the third car inspection. We looked at the car, talked a little with the owner and knew very quickly that this was the perfect car for the three of us. The price was $6000. In order not to rush anything, we didn’t buy the car directly, but wanted to sleep on it one more night.

But in the end we were so convinced of the car that we wrote to the owner that same evening that we wanted to buy the car the next day.

Some small setbacks

The next day dragged on a bit because we couldn’t pick up the car until around 5 pm in the evening. Without a car, we couldn’t buy any camping equipment either, because we didn’t have a place to store it.

Nevertheless, we have already looked at roof tents at that time. In fact, we found a good rooftop tent on Facebook pretty quickly. In fact, the owner was also a backpacker who lived in the same hostel as us. So we immediately met her to have a look at the rooftop tent. The roof tent was still in good condition, which is why we decided to buy it from her. She was kind enough to offer us some of her camping equipment.

In the evening we drove out of town to pick up our car. Of course, none of us thought about the fact that we also need insurance for our car. So while Marcel signed the purchase contract, Mathis and I took care of the car insurance online.

Finally we transferred the $6000 for the car to the owner. Normally, even large amounts here in Australia arrive in the other account within a few seconds. However, since we transferred the money between two different banks, the money did not arrive immediately. We then waited for a while, but the money was still in our account under upcoming payments. Understandably, the owner didn’t want to sell us the car if the money hadn’t arrived yet.

Quite disappointed

So, quite disappointed, we drove back to the hostel without the car and extended our stay for another night. The plan was to wait until the next morning to see if the money would arrive, otherwise we would have gone to the bank and asked if the transaction could have been canceled so that we could pay for the car in cash. After all, we didn’t want to waste any more time in Darwin and wanted to start our road trip as soon as possible.

That evening, of course, we were not able to buy the roof tent as planned. Luckily, the next morning, just before seven pm, I got the message that the money had arrived and that we could pick up the car in the evening.

During the day we prepared a little for the road trip: we went shopping again and packed our things.

Finally having our own car

In the afternoon we drove off again and picked up the car. We had to change the sales contract again to the right date and then we could drive with our own car for the first time.

Then I did the first ride. Driving a car again after almost five months was a really nice feeling. The only thing I still had to get used to was driving on the left-hand side. First I did a few laps around the block to get used to driving a bit. Although driving through the city worked out quite well, it still required a lot of concentration. That’s why I was very happy that we have an automatic car, so I didn’t have to shift gears.

After we picked up the car, we picked up the roof tent right away. After weeks of planning and thinking about whether we even have enough money for a car, it was a very nice feeling to have found a car so quickly that we are super happy with.

Preparing for the roadtrip

The next morning we checked out directly from the hostel as none of us wanted to stay in the hostel one more night if we have our own car and tent.

First we went to Bunnings. After that we went to the car wash and we thoroughly cleaned the inside of the car, the roof tent and the camping equipment that we had been given as a gift. Then it went to Kmart. This was the best part for us. There we bought camping chairs, mattresses, blankets, pillows, crockery and other little things we need for the upcoming weeks.

Then we went to an outdoor store and bought a tent for two people. Finally we went to Coles, where we bought some groceries. We mostly bought pasta and pesto as we couldn’t buy anything that needed refrigeration.

The first night with our own car

Originally we had planned to drive to Litchfield National Park that evening. But since it was almost half past five and we still had to drive almost two hours to the national park, we decided to spend the first night at a campsite in Darwin.

As soon as we set up the tents, we realize that we are still missing a lot of camping equipment. The tent, which was actually intended for two people, was only enough for one person. Mathis then slept on a mattress in the open air. He only fixed a mosquito net under the roof tent, under which he then lay. Marcel slept in the small tent, which was actually too small for him. I slept in the roof tent that night and was the only one of us who actually slept very well there.

That evening we were able to see the starry sky quite clearly for the first time. We could even see the Milky Way.

The next day we started our roadtrip and headed to Litchfield Nationalpark. If you would like to know what we experienced during our time in Litchfield Nationalpark, please read my next blogpost Starting the roadtrip in Litchfield Nationalpark – Australia Travel Diary.