Australia experience

The Australia adventure was the first trip with Gapforce that I have done and I would highly recommend it. There was only a small group of us (11) including our leader Joe who made this experience even better. I couldn’t have asked for a more amazing group of people to spend the 7 weeks with. I learnt a lot about the Australian culture along the way as well as involving myself in many activities at the different locations visited.

We started in Sydney and although the weather was a bit miserable, we all got to know one another while visiting the harbour bridge and opera house on our harbour cruise tour and after visiting the blue mountains. One of my favourite locations we visited was Byron Bay. This was where we kayaked in the ocean and got to see dolphins and whales which swam right underneath us. Such a breathtaking experience and definitely once in a life time.

Many other activities which were included was the Australia zoo. We got to stroke koalas and crouch right next to kangaroos and also feed them. Later on in the trip we spent 3 days on Fraser Island. We travelled around in 4x4’s and camped out right next to the beach where we could get up to see the sunrise.

Additionally, we spent 1 night on a sailing boat on Whitsundays. This experience is something that drew me to the trip originally when i signed up and I was not disappointed. Our leader Joe, was always organised as to where we were going next, where we were staying and made sure our trip ran as smoothly as possible.

When we arrived in Cairns we spent 3 weeks here which is also where we said our goodbyes to the few people who only signed up for the 4 weeks. The rest of us spent the time volunteering for the Cairns council, mainly gardening and helping within the wetlands and botanical gardens. It was very rewarding knowing you were helping the community and especially as the leaders from the council were lovely people themselves.

Within Cairns, our leader Joe found out about different activities we could do whilst we were here as 3 weeks can go slow if we weren’t doing a lot but it flew by. Joe told us about how we could do our Open Water diving course which allows you to dive to 18m when qualified. He organised everything for us and all we had to do was the payment and getting outside our hostel for the bus to pick us up. It was the best thing I could have done while I was there! Not only did I learn to dive but I did it on the Great Barrier Reef where we saw turtles, reef sharks, stingrays along the way.

Joe gave us enough space and freedom for the group to get out of the trip what they wanted and enjoy the trip as much as they could, but enough structure when we needed it and asked for it for us to feel comfortable ‘alone’ on the other side of the world.

I’d highly recommend this trip to anyone looking to get away from home to travel but not wanting to do it alone as you get to meet some amazing new people, and I can easily say I’ve got friends for life who I will keep in contact with. The memories I have will last forever and I can’t wait to share it with my family.