CORAL, CRITTERS AND CAR PROBLEMS ROAD-TRIPPING AUSTRALIA’S EAST COAST
Day 1: Setting off
We lurch out of the sketchy rental shop in Cairns—a tropical town perched on the far northeast coast of Australia. As an American, driving on the left side of the road in a regular car would be nerve-racking enough, but doing so in a massive sprinter van is especially scary.
My companion is a German girl who I met through a part-time job at a fine-dining restaurant in Mosman, on the edge of Sydney Harbour’s glittering water, where we waited on the well-heeled, international mix of patrons. For months, we would fold silverware into crisp white napkins and daydream about this very moment: when the hard work paid off and we were setting off on an Australian adventure down the east coast. I hadn’t spent much time with my travel mate outside of work, but we were nevertheless about to live in a van together for more than two weeks, starting with a couple of days in Cairns.
