Road Trip North to Brisbane

The Australian equivalent of craigslist is called gumtree and a section of the site is rideshare where peolpe post where and when they are driving hoping to find a travel companion. Usually you split the gas money, sometimes the driving. You can also post where you are and where and when you want to go hoping somebody will contact you with a ride offer. A big thing for backpackers in Australia is buying a used campervan and driving it all over the country, with the east coast being especially popular. On gumtree I found one such person that was headed from Melbourne north to Brisbane. I replied to his ad and we met up for a beer to make sure the other person was not a whackjob and that we would get along well enough. Apparently we satisfied each other's standards and we were set to leave in a couple days. Tobi, 20, is German with long blonde hair and is partial to bad slow speed metal, what sounds like Blink 182 covers and semi-Western or country covers of songs that I like. He listens to some decent music but what I will remember is listening to what could have been Slip Knot's rendition of Suite Judy Blue Eyes. He bought the van with money he earned planting trees near Cairns and various other jobs scattered around the east coast. He is a slightly strange character but nothing too off putting. His Facebook profile picture is him holding a bow and arrow that he made. He will not initiate conversation with women and once there is conversation he speaks but get overly touchy. He was completely foreign to the idea that if I am speaking with a girl and her friend is otherwise unengaged that he may consider speaking with her. No doubt this hesitation is related to his issue initiating conversation. Also, he owns and periodically wears a cape. Seriously. No, he is not Frank Costanza's lawyer.

He is a good guy though and to be honest I was lucky that he took me on this trip. He brought much more to the table than I did. It was his van, he drove the entire time, his all-important and useful map. He had pots and pans and two stoves for cooking, a extra sleeping bag, He only benefitted from me by splitting the cost of fuel, some company, and my outstanding social skills (everything is relative). He was a pretty decent cook and a driver and I have only a couple complaints about the entire 1981 kilometer (1238 mile) trip.

There was a German girl, Anna, that I surfed with in Melbourne that needed a ride up to Sydney so she joined us part of the way. The campervan only has two seats and two seat belts so at all times when in the van either Anna or myself was on the bed in back and everybody was hoping the police did not notice. They never did and we did not have any trouble.

I do not recall most of the towns we stopped in but I do remember some good times. We went swimming in the South Pacific Ocean in the middle of winter. The water was cold and the shower just off the beach was even colder. Tobi taking up two-thirds of the bed while Anna and I shared the remaining third or, when Anna left, me having to wake Tobi up to ask him to move over. We ate home-made German bread made over a fire. I turned a meat-eating German on to hummos. We made nearly random ingredients into some tastey food. Plenty of beautiful scenary.