I over-plan everything. Spreadsheets, contingency buffers, the works. So when I finally booked solo through Praxis Holidays on their Australian Delight package I had the whole thing mapped out before I even packed.
Australia didn't care.
Sydney first. Jetlagged, completely disoriented, somehow ended up spending two hours in the Rocks neighbourhood when I was supposed to be at Bondi. Old sandstone laneways, a market running between buildings from the 1800s, a coffee that was better than it had any right to be. Didn't plan any of it. Best part of Sydney.
The Great Barrier Reef I thought I'd budgeted for emotionally. I hadn't. You go underwater and your brain just refuses to process what it's looking at properly. Stayed in the water way longer than scheduled and felt zero guilt about it.
Melbourne was food and laneways and then more food. There's a ramen place somewhere off Federation Square that I still think about. Can't find it on any app. Maybe I imagined it.
Hobart surprised me most. MONA is built into a cliff face and contains the strangest art I've seen anywhere, strange in a way that felt genuinely brave rather than trying too hard. Salamanca Market Saturday morning. Waterfront after. Quiet city that asks nothing from you.
Kangaroo Island out of Adelaide was the last day. Sea lions at Seal Bay just lying there completely unbothered by humans. Koalas. Remarkable Rocks at the cliff edge with the Southern Ocean underneath. Kangaroos on the road at dusk which nobody warned me about and which is apparently just a normal driving condition there.
I came back with a folder of photos, a notes app full of half-finished observations, and the distinct feeling that I'd only seen about sixty percent of what was actually there.
Already looking at coming back and doing the rest.