Starting in the Messy Middle

The Australian Adventure I Almost Didn’t Share

Why Being Present Delayed My Blogging—Until Now

I had intended to blog about my travels around Australia as I was doing it. However I’ve learned that it’s more important to be in the moment so this is the first post about the trip while it’s happening and I’m over half-way through. If it hadn’t been the commitment to Greyhound Australia who are sponsoring my travels with a 90 day Whimit pass, I would have probably waited until I was back home. Nothing like a deadline to get you on board!

So as I’m starting in the middle, I thought I’d start with the worst experience of the trip (so far) but to be honest I don’t think it can get much worse than this! I’ve slept in sub-zero temperatures in a campervan in Namadgi National Park and got a puncture while driving on Kangaroo Island (which is rather remote and only accessible by ferry). However these experiences seem joyful compared to the experience of staying at Elizabeth Hostel in Melbourne.

For a few weeks, in the middle of my trip, a friend joined me from the UK. Having survived the cold, we had no idea the joys that awaited us here. I’ve been choosy about hostels, being a lot older than the average hosteller. I stayed in one in Alice Springs where I had my own room and another in Byron Bay which was a 6-bed female dorm with an en-suite bathroom. Both of these were positive experiences so I was feeling a little more confident.

We searched for a 2 bed room with its own bathroom. The wording on the website (which shall remain nameless but was not Booking.com which I had used previously) led us to believe it had a private bathroom. ‘Basic Twin Room Private Shared Bathroom’ but I notice the website has now added shared bathroom to the description.

The first morning I had the joy of a man (in a female bathroom) smoking in another cubicle. Despite allegedly being a non-smoking hostel, there were some strange smells coming out of the door that led to the back fire escape too! Then there was a man (high on god knows what!) lolloping down the halls making odd noises and banging on doors.

We were supposed to stay for 3 nights, I wanted to leave after 1 but to make it more financially viable we stayed for 2. Lessons learned - don’t trust the star rating. When I tried to leave a review - which was 1 star for everything (as it’s not possible to leave 0) - and 5 for the location, the average came up as 4.2. I’m not sure how that algorithm works but I couldn’t leave a review. Also read reviews from other people who’ve stayed there as these will give a better picture!

Still, having experiences like this make you appreciate the good things in life. We moved to a 4 star hotel in St Kilda and cried when we saw the crisp white sheets and en-suite bathroom!

Thanks again to Greyhound Australia for helping to make this trip possible and allowing me to inspire other solo female travellers.