As Kevin said in the previous post, the trip is over. After a few weeks of processing the journey in the comfort and familiarity of home, we’ve come up with a few reflections and stats for the last blog of the big trip. more»

Well, we did it. We made it back to Atlanta, thus completing our trip around the world. Fortunately there were no major mishaps on the road: nothing stolen, nothing lost, no trips to the hospital, no missed flights, etc. I’d call it a pretty successful trip.

We’re going to be taking it easy for the next few days, catching up with friends and family and letting it all sink in. Stay tuned for a wrap-up, where we’ll put together some interesting statistics from the Big Trip, and include a list of best places/experiences/food/etc.

During our incredible week in Hawaii we were very well taken care of by our hosts, Chris and Krystal, two of our best friends we met on JET. more»

After our excellent trek ended in Alice Springs, we didn’t have much time to make it to the 1,5000 kilometers up the Stuart Highway to Darwin. So, nursing our hangovers we said goodbye to a real bed and a private bathroom and fired up the Ambassador Van for the first time in almost a week and hit the road. more»

One of the sponsors of the World Nomads Ambassador Van is Intrepid Travel, and we were lucky enough to score a free five day adventure from them around the iconic Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) and other natural gems of central Australia. more»

Luck had it that our arrival in Alice Springs for our (free!) one week trek around Uluru from Intrepid Travel coincided with the annual Camel Cup. Once we noticed this good fortune, it was an easy decision to make; we would become camel racing fans for the day. Or maybe a lifetime, depending on how the event struck us. more»

We drove two straight days and 1200 kms from Mt. Isa to get to Alice Springs. It was a surreal drive with no sign of life for stretches of hundreds of kilometers. Petrol was far from cheap, and one of the in-the-middle-of-nowhere petrol station/hotel/pub/restaurants had a sign explaining their expensive fuel: more»

After cutting inland almost 1000 kilometers, we reached our last stop in Queensland, Mount Isa, the quintessential outback mining town. It’s a fitting place to end our tour of this incredibly diverse state, after having already visited rainforest, beaches, cosmopolitan cities and lush hinterland. more»

After three weeks heading from Sydney all the way up to the Daintree, we’re ready to see what’s going on “out the back.” It should be a marked contrast from the well-heeled towns along the east coast, even as far north as Cairns, and the lush vegetation and tropical beaches. more»

To reach the Reef, you have to take a boat tour off the coast of Queensland. We chose one from Cairns, the tropical tourist town to the north, to Green Island. The entire island is a national park with rainforest and surrounded by the reef. It was a cheaper option, so a bit crowded, but still amazing all the same just because of what it is. It hardly needs an introduction, but it’s the other UNESCO World Heritage site up here besides the rainforest. The reef stretches continuously for miles and miles down the coast and sustains thousands of coral and marine species, which is pretty important and of course world-famous. more»