The Road to Becoming OZ Experienced

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The OZ Experience Transport Network is more than just a means of travel for backpackers. It is a bus company that wants to show you the parts of Australia that make Australia a 'fair-dinkum - dunk'em - funky - surfy - g'day - shrimp-throwing - barbie - beer-drinking - tanning - bungi - swagshagging - too-sweet-mate of a place'. Oh yeah!

In my travels I have never before signed up for a bus tour to explore a whole country. So with an open mind, I packed my over-weighted laptop and boarded the big green bus at Bondi Beach, to begin my whirlwind OZ Experience.

The Concept

Until you've travelled Australia it is really hard to conceive just how big the country actually is. Australia has the whole spectrum of environments from rainforest to desert, from mountains to flat arid plains, from reef to deep sea, from beaches to cosmopolitan cities.

OZ Experience is not an express bus company. It is a 'packaged' means to experience Australia's immense diversity of environment and culture. The basic idea is to take travellers to the places they'd like to go and enjoy visiting. Quite often OZ Experience takes travellers to places they wouldn't have considered going, those parts of the trip are often the most rewarding. It's a little like Heineken slogan, 'Heineken refreshes the parts other beers can not reach'. Only in this case, 'OZ Experience takes you to places where bitumen roads have not reached'.

The OZ Experience Route

The travel diary of my trip has been broken down into places on the OZ Experience route. Read on to find the weird and wonderful encounters of my trip, because when I wasn't being flung across the floor at Nundle, I was being dragged from club to club in Surfers and that was just the East Coast. Each story will give you an idea of what to expect on the OZ Experience route and whether or not it's for you. It may give you ideas for your trip to Australia in general. If you plan to buy an OZ Experience ticket, it may help you to choose your route and plan your schedule.

Is OZ Experience for you?

It is easy going for the traveller on OZ Experience, town to town, hostel to hostel. To make an informed decision on whether OZ Experience is the way to go for you, research the route to make sure it takes in all the places you want to see and consider the time frame you have available to do the trip. Talk to other travellers who've been on the OZ Experience bus and talk to the ticket agents.

There are other ways to travel Australia, none of them offer a better or worse way to travel, but each of them offer a different experience. The biggest question is 'What kind of experience do you want?' The OZ Bus is definitely a fun way to go, you will make new friends, you will forget your inhibitions and your time in Australia is very likely to be a memorable one.

Drivers

The OZ Experience Drivers go through a training program before they go on the road so that they can tell you about the areas you pass through. To make life easy for passengers they even will book the accommodation of your choice ahead of arrival between cities. Some overnight stops offer no choice of accommodation. These places are normally off the beaten track, which is why there is little or no choice. However, OZ Experience negotiates pretty good deals with these places to give passengers value for money.

Several adventure activity operators work with OZ Experience and often offer passengers special deals on sailing, scuba diving etc. There is no obligation on the passengers part to use these companies, but the drivers can give you the low down on what's on offer.

Tips when with OZ Experience

With OZ Experience the passenger can spontaneously hop off at any stop. To join another bus later on, passengers must book a seat. Demand on seats will vary from place to place along the route and depend on the time of year. The best approach is to research your route first and before you jump off a bus, check how long it will be before you are able to join another bus to continue your journey.

On route you'll often stay over-night at places where passengers from an OZ Bus travelling in the opposite direction are staying. Talk to those passengers to get some first hand info on what the places ahead of you are like and what they offer. The best advice comes from word of mouth.

Like any trips that involve a group, it takes a little time to get to know people. The sooner that happens the more fun the journey becomes, so get to know the people on the bus and RAGE ON! The bottom line is, you'll only get out what you put in.

Conclusion

By travelling on the OZ Experience Bus you will not find the meaning of life, you will not meet Tom Cruise, you will not find your Mum sitting in the seat behind you, you won't miss the European winter and you definitely won't find yourself stuck on a bus to nowhere with some crusty prehistoric tour guide dribbling into his microphone about blah blah nothing very much thank you.

By travelling on OZ Experience you may find spiritual enlightenment from the Guru Driver, you may find a partner for life and never have to join a dating agency again, you may double your lifetimes consumption of suntan cream (or beer), you may shoot more film than Stephen Spielberg, you may find yourself wearing school girl fashion, you may find yourself running from a boomerang you just threw, you may send the odd postcard home (time to sit still permitting). You will definitely leave Australia OZ EXPERIENCED.


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