Most people heading to Australia crib about the 30 hours of air travel and airport time, but we three decided to take a more adventurous way, the three-month haul overland on the Oz-Bus.
We, Emily, Sara and Jacinta, are three 22-year-old Galway girls and have all been good friends since secondary school. We had always wanted to go to Australia once we finished college. Mainly because Emily is an Ozzy herself! Emily is going back to Oz to live, Jacinta intends to head to New Zealand after a year in Oz and Sara wants to travel the world for as long as she doesn't run out of money!
Emily and Sara went inter-railing around Europe in 2007 so we've had a taste in backpacking and alternative methods of transport than flying. However Jacinta gets severe travel sickness so we'll see how that fares out ...! So why on earth are we getting the Oz Bus then? Well how many people can say they've visited places such as Iran and Pakistan ... India and Nepal ... etc? We think that this is an adventure of a lifetime! We want to travel the world and the Oz Bus is giving us the opportunity to see 17 countries in three continents in 13 weeks with a group of other fun-loving people with a mutual love of adventure! It's so exciting!
Sara has been doing the bit of research into the countries we're going to but Emily doesn't even know half the countries on our trip! There is so much preparation before we get on the bus that at this stage we're expecting our Oz Bus tour leader to be guiding us on what not to miss but in all fairness we will have plenty of time to read our travel guide books once we're on the bus.
We've had a few leaving parties at this stage and I think we're still in denial that we'll soon be gone. I think there may be a few tears before we get on the bus ... our Mammies are having multiple panic attacks, Emily's mother offered to pay for her to fly from Turkey to India so she could skip Iran and Pakistan! "Why can't ye just fly to Oz like every other normal person!!"
Our friends think we're crazy too ... spending three months on a bus! Some of our friends are going to fly over and meet us in Sydney in September. Luckily none of us will be leaving behind any broken hearted boyfriends -- we got rid of 'em as soon as we booked the bus! :). The last thing we want to be worrying about are boys! You're only young once and we'll only be young free and irresponsible once, we have no mortgages, loans or children to worry about so if we don't go now ... we never will!
We'll keep you updated as we travel along, check out our weekly diary on www.carandtravel.ie to hear about our crazy antics on the Oz bus!
Slán,
Emily, Sara and Jacinta.
Advt
