#031: How to Travel Australia

In this episode, we talk Lyle and Leanne, a couple who retired to travel the world in 2019, about Australia.

On the Show Today You’ll Learn:

• What makes Australia so special for foreigners?
• Where to start your journey in Australia?
• An insight into what kinds of transportation you can use in Australia.
• Where can you find hidden jewels of Australia?
• What food specialties to try out when in Australia?
• Where do you need to go to see the Australian animal kingdom?
• How much money do you need to survive in Australia?

Links & Resources

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beachtravelwine/
Website: www.beachtravelwine.com

Visit our website at https://whywetravel.net/

Transcript

Claus Lauter: Hello and welcome to another episode of the YB Travel Podcast. Today we will go to Australia, so not only a country, but a continent. So a bit of a bigger place there, and we wanna get it from the firsthand, from people who live in Australia, to give us an overview of what you can do there and what you should see and do so with me on the show.

Therefore, I have Lyle Mike McCabe, and his wife Leanne, and we are going to dive a little bit deeper with them. They have traveled the world. They retire in 2019. You know what happened then? And as soon as they were able, they hit the International Skies in 2022 and started to podcast a journal about their travels to share that with friends and family.

And the audience grew and people were reaching out for help. So the podcast continued and their love of doing that as well. They have not only traveled the world, they also have a home as set in Queensland, in Australia. And that's where they are right now. And I wanna welcome to the show right now. Hi guys.

How are you today? Good morning 

Lyle McCabe: class. Hi, KLA. 

Leanne McCabe: Great, thank you. 

Claus Lauter: Nice to see you. You wanna talk about Australia? I have been there. I love the country. It's massive. It's huge. Let's start you're from there. Give us an overview of what makes Australia so special for foreigners. 

Lyle McCabe: I think once you're talking about the size, it's 7.6 million square kilometers.

It's got a coastline of 34,000 kilometers. And its density is 3.4 people per kilometer. So it's big. Yeah, you're right. And which means that climate-wise goes from basically tropical up the north to down to Tasmania, which is really, probably. Close to the South Pole. The second closest country land mass to the South Pole. 

Leanne McCabe: So why should people come here? I guess that's a good reason cause it's so big and it's so vast and there's so much to see. For sure. The, I guess the problem is it's, there's. It is so big, and most people don't have take the time or have the time to, to see it all.

And they, they probably tend to think they can, oh, we'll just drop into Sydney and then we'll head up to Cairns. And it's not that simple. So yeah, I guess it depends on, on, on what you. Your likes are, like for us, we love wine regions, so there's a lot of those.

And the beach obviously, whether you wanna surf or you you wanna scuba dive or if you wanna, do hiking, we've got mountain rangers and national parks all over the place as well. 

Claus Lauter: Okay. I think a good point that you mentioned, people underestimate the distances. They're specifically travelers coming from Europe where the next country is just around the corner.

They might have a problem figuring out how big Australia actually is now, what's the usual bits and pieces of the country where people start their journey in Australia? What really sticks out? What are the main tourist attractions? 

Leanne McCabe: I, what I see in here is people generally fly into Sydney and.

Then they, as I said earlier, they wanna head up to, to Cairns generally, or even up to Darwin up, up sort of the Kakadu, the Northern Territory. But ge it seems that Sydney or Melbourne are the starting points of where people, Yeah. Fly into for sure. Yeah. 

Lyle McCabe: Sydney's obviously got the Sydney Harbor and the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

And obviously the Opera House. And Bondi Beach. And Bondi Beach. So there's, the iconic stuff about Sydney, but Sydney harbor. Probably for Lee and I have discussed it, it is probably the nicest view of anywhere we've been in the city anyway. Cities, yeah. Yeah, that's brilliant. But as Lan said, you go up to Cairns and you've got the Great Barrier Reef, now that's, 348,000 square kilometers big.

And we've been there quite a few times and we love to scuba dive. So that's a great holiday. Then you've got the great dividing range between New South Wales and Victoria. There's ski fields. We like to ski as well, so there's plenty to do. Yeah. Okay. She said we love wine. So 

Claus Lauter: I think I wanna touch on the point of wine.

So you have vineyards there, so there's, is there a certain area where people go, where you will find the vineyards? 

Leanne McCabe: If you go back to the Sydney example, that's probably why, I brought that up, is. There's so much to see. If you were just coming to a Australia for a short time, you could do a lot around that Sydney area and probably the oldest wine region in Australia is about an hour and a half out of Sydney at the Hunter Valley.

And that's a beautiful spot. We particularly like the, there's one close to us in Queensland, which isn't that well known. It's the Granite Belt Wine region and probably. We go down to Adelaide a bit. There's quite a few wine areas around Adelaide, which is, that's in South Australia, the Barasa Valley, which a lot of people have heard of in Adelaide Hills and Clear Valley.

And one of our particular favorites is over in Western Australia and that's where Lars got family over there. So we get over there a bit. And they make a lot of premium Australian wines. And that's Margaret River. 

Lyle McCabe: Margaret River. But they've but as far as Barasa Valley, that's very influenced by.

Germany they settled there and they were the ones that started 

Leanne McCabe: the vineyard. Brought their vineyard their grapevine. Yeah. So we 

Lyle McCabe: also, with Tasmania, which is It's only a small state, but for Leonard and our for us, it's our favorite region for wine in Australia. It's a very cool climate and which obviously helps the grapes.

And it's also, it's a small island, so you've got the ocean all around it that keeps the. The temperatures is the right temperatures and also over in Western Australia. You're talking about Margaret River, that's right on the coast as well. That wine region. So yeah. 

Claus Lauter: Okay. Now how do I travel within Australia?

Is there any preferred kind of transportation that you would say 

Leanne McCabe: you would probably you. Depending on how far you want it to go you definitely, our trains and buses are okay. However, they take such a long time. So I would definitely either hire a car in the local region you're in or if you're going to several cities, you definitely wanna fly domestically.

Around for sure. I think from Sydney and other place people like to get to, which isn't quite so far is the Gold Coast region. And and where we are just north of Brisbane in Queensland on the Sunshine Coast, which is becoming more and more popular. I think a lot of people have probably heard of Nua Nusa heads.

It's very, it's a popular beach area and that's, very close to us here. So there's airports, a lot of domestic airports and easy to fly around Australia that way. Yeah. 

Lyle McCabe: I think if you love Beaches Australia is, would be probably should be your number one pick.

Yeah. 

Claus Lauter: No, I totally agree. I have been to Noosa Beach and I can watch for that. It's a, it's an awesome area and the beaches are great. Now, are there any kind of hidden jewels or treasures fr from the side of a local that you would recommend along the East Coast? 

Leanne McCabe: Yeah yes, there certainly is. I would once again, if you're starting that base in Sydney, if you hire a car, And you head north.

I think a lot of people have heard of Byron Bay and that's just one small beach area between Sydney and Queensland's border. That Northern New South Wales beach areas. There, there's places like Brunswick Heads Yamba ocean Shores, Kings Cliff. There's Amba in Amba.

Yeah, so there's. Yeah, cost harvest hotel. So it's anywhere along the, on the beach north of say, Newcastle, which is about an hour north of Sydney, anywhere north of that up to the Queensland border is very under utilized and as beautiful as Byron Bay, if not even nicer. Yeah. 

Lyle McCabe: And then obviously you just keep on going up north.

Yes. And Yeah, from Noosa, then it just goes up to Ellie Beach. Port Douglas. And that's getting more into the tropical areas. And and I've obviously, Kakadu and all that sort of thing. They're in, they're not, they're that secret though. No, they're not. No, they're not that secret's.

True. But yeah, like it is. It's magnificent. 

Claus Lauter: Okay, now you're locals. Normally I would ask, how are the locals? You are locals. So the question doesn't really apply here, but I have experienced Australians as a very laid back very easy to deal with. Very open. Yeah. What would be the expression of, what would your recommendation to be for a foreigner come to country to your country, to Australia?

How to approach locals. How, what's the best style? Put it that way. 

Leanne McCabe: Yeah, I imagine we come across as pretty relaxed and laid back. I would, yeah. What would they say, or say? 

Lyle McCabe: They, for me, I'd probably say an example of this, how Leanne and I approach it when we are overseas.

Yeah. I'd reverse it. And generally, Depending what bar we're in and probably how many glasses of wine, we generally just go up and I'll say to land, you wanna make a new friend today? And we'll just look around the bar and we'd just go up and say, hi, we're from Australia. Yeah. And I'd say exactly the same.

Yeah. I think if I was a friend, because people would be intrigued, they wouldn't be offended. They'd be you'd have a new friend straight away. And that's what we've found. Yes. All over the world. 

Leanne McCabe: Yeah. I agree with you. I think, just going up and saying, hi, I, I'm Klaus, I'm a.

The oldest digital nomad, that you'll ever meet or, pe we are very isolated here. Obviously our cities, are very molded cultural, but when it comes to the regional areas we don't see a lot of overseas travelers in, so yeah.

Go and say hi. 

Lyle McCabe: Yeah. Buy him a drink. You've got him for 

Leanne McCabe: life. Say good day. 

Claus Lauter: I agree. Yeah. Question in regards of food. Obviously traveling and food goes very well together and in every country there is something to explore when it comes to the cuisine. What are specialties that you would recommend to try out food-wise while you're in Australia?

Leanne McCabe: You would have to say fresh seafood. We just have such a, as Lyle said earlier, a huge coastline. And we have an abundance of fresh fish or ocean fish and obviously prawns and calamari and those sorts of things. And, we do grow a lot of produce as well any of the tropical fruits in season, the mangoes and light cheese and those sorts of things is definitely, what we'd recommend, I think, One of the things to do when you come to Australia, which people love to do is, and they see everyone doing, and even the Australians do it, is you go and get what we call takeaway fish and chips.

And you go and sit, on a picnic bench somewhere and at the ocean or in a park and you have fish and chips, which is a pretty nice thing to do. I think 

Lyle McCabe: probably too in the last probably decade, I've noticed that the The chefs are going more for very much Asian fusion.

Yeah, and I particularly love that. And and that's, including seafood, pork, whatever. Yeah. All sorts of different styles of meats. And again, because it's so plentiful here, your beef and everything, it's just unbelievable. Beautiful. That's true. I love lamb as well yeah.

And yeah, you can't go past the old beachside barbecue too. 

Leanne McCabe: Yeah, that's true. We do have a few, we do that every time we have family around, we. We don't chuck a shrimp on the Barbie, but we put a, we do put a snag or two on there. Sausage. Sausage. We don't, yeah, but one of the things people might not know about Australia class is it's we've got a pretty big breakfast culture.

We love to go out for breakfast and probably even more so than dinner. We don't, like in the cities, people go out a lot for dinner, but we're not so much here, but there's nothing. Unusual about, meeting someone and for breakfast and we love, we've got real coffee culture as well, so obviously the smashed avo on toast is a big thing here.

We, we love our smashed avo. 

Claus Lauter: Okay. No, that sounds very taste. One question I have, and a lot of people, you have a very unique animal kingdom there. Everyone knows kangaroos and whatsoever. So where do we need people to go to see Australian animals? 

Leanne McCabe: Yeah. We have a few different places obviously we, where we live, we are very close to Australia Zoo and I think a lot of people have heard of, the Stray Zoo because of Steve Irwin, the crocodile guy.

And you can see lots of Australian animals there. And you can actually walk through, which I do with one of my, with two of my little grandkids that live up here. There's a enclosure where you can actually put your hand out with the feed and they come up and eat out of your hand. And the little wallabies in kangaroos, which is really special.

We have recently been to Tasmania, as we mentioned before, and. Even though they're not exclusive to Tasmania, they are, my favorite animal are the wombats. They're just these great big teddy bear things. And I don't know if you saw any when you were here, you could go out and do a nighttime tour and they're wandering around the grass and there's places you can just, there's Maria Island where you can just wander around and they're just, every, everywhere.

But. Honestly, there's you're driving from one place to another. You're probably likely to see, kangaroos anyway, aren't you? And 

Lyle McCabe: Oh yeah. I think, yeah, collateral Mountain probably in that small area. In Tasmania. Yeah, in Tasmania. And it was all really unique. The AERs, the.

Platypus the wombats. Yeah. But I think the other place to go which is up north is takadu and that's, there's a lot of crocodiles, but there's a lot of other I suppose tropical animals, and that's just 

Leanne McCabe: amazing. So we've been places like Agnes Waters, which is, a few hours north of here and we're just walking.

From our beach place to the beach, and there's a little kidner digging a hole, or where I used to live on a place a bit further north called Woodgate Beach, which is quite isolated. I'd take my dog for a walk as the sun was rising and there'd be a group of, 40 kangaroos just playing on the beach, playing in the water.

So it's, it like the the wildlife is abundant and especially when you're out, out of the cities for sure, and there 

Lyle McCabe: is the occasional snake, 

Leanne McCabe: but we won't go there. 

Claus Lauter: I can say, there, there's this notion worldwide that everything in Australia tries to kill you. But I can watch for it.

It's not true. It's not fair with it. It's not true. Little bit on the budget side how much budget need to people bring to survive in Australia? Much money. 

Lyle McCabe: It's not cheap, Australia. It's not 

Leanne McCabe: cheap for us, but when you have the conversion rate, it's Oh yeah. To book a unit like on the beach, right here in, in off season.

So if you don't come in the school holidays you probably get something for around the $1,500 Australian. Money and that's for a week in a two bedroom apartment with beautiful ocean views. For us eating food, going out's not cheap. You what would you be looking at?

A, 

Lyle McCabe: We just got back from Mexico and we went on a hundred dollars Australian a day. Yes. For each of us. So that's 200, I'd say it'd be more like four to 500. And that's to go to nice restaurants and Australia. 

Leanne McCabe: That Australia dollars. Yeah. Australian dollars. Yeah. 

Lyle McCabe: Yeah, but see the wages here.

Are so good. We were told that a lot of the international backpackers come here because their casual wages are so high here that they, so they build up so that they can go to other countries. And then they come back. And that all because of that our social security system, is fabulous as 

Leanne McCabe: well.

And our medical system's all good. Yeah. But to come back to, the, how much it is, obviously we are not budget travelers and we are not total luxury tab travelers. So there are people that backpack around Australia. Very cheaply, as Lyle said, there's lots of seasonal work, there's lots of backpacker, hostels and there's lots of places to, to buy food and cook it yourself.

But if you were going to come for a few weeks, stay in a, in nice accommodation and eat out all the time, yes. You're probably looking at the figure that Lyle was talking about. I 

Lyle McCabe: just thought then I think probably $500 is too much. I think I found Harris. Very similar prices to what Australia was, which was about 400 a day.

Australian, Australia, Australian a day. Whereas say London was double was double that. Yeah. 

Claus Lauter: Yeah. No makes perfect sense. Before we come to the end of the episode today, where are you on next travel plans taking you? 

Leanne McCabe: We're off the, we're excited. And it's only in a couple weeks. No. Can you guess? Yes.

We're off. We're off to Italy. Okay. 

Lyle McCabe: Awesome. Great country. Yeah. 

Claus Lauter: Yeah. So it's just enough time to, to explore the main things in Italy. 

Leanne McCabe: Yes. Good choice that, and that's what we do. We're just going to Italy. That's how we like to travel. Just a week in each place. Just walk out the door and say which way we're going today, and just see what we encounter.

Claus Lauter: That's the best approach. Where can people find out more about you and your travels? 

Leanne McCabe: They can find us at our website, which is www.beachtravelwinealtogether.com. And we've got our podcast there as well. But if you are a podcast listener which obviously they are because they listen to you, Klaus we can be found beach travel wine on any of the podcast platforms and we've got a lot of Australian episodes and we are going to be.

Podcasting as we travel around Italy and we've done a lot in Spain. Yes, a lot of Spanish episodes as well. 

Claus Lauter: Okay, excellent. I will put the links in the show notes and you just one click away and hopefully a lot of people will join you on the podcast. Li Ian, thanks so much for your time. It was really enjoyable to learn more about Australia and I hope a lot of wisdom visitors will pack their suitcases and come down under 

Leanne McCabe: and come and say good day.

Yeah, 

Claus Lauter: absolutely makes sense. Thanks so much. 

Leanne McCabe: Bye bye bye.