# Visiting National Parks, alone without car



## Jerryv (Aug 3, 2009)

Hello everyone,

I have read many topics on this and other forums, search Google and spend hours and hours reading travelingblogs, but i still haven't found an answer to my quistion. Hope i will find it here!

Iam planning to travel a couple of months, maybe 6, in Australia but i dont have a drivers licence.
I want to see almost everything there, but i dont think i will spend weeks on the coast. Iam not a real party animal or "surfer dude". I want to learn how to dive tough. Also i want to see the outback and nature of australia. And now comes my quistion:

How can i visited the National Parks without a car?

I have a bit of experience with hiking (multiday hikes, bringing all gear like tent and stove etc). But now that iam alone i dont want to make it to grazy. Its to unsafe if you get lost or break a leg etc.
still i want to do some hiking, day hiks or overnight hikes in cabins.

I know about the Greyhound and OZ Experience bus, i have read alot of "wich one to take" topics. But somehow nobody seems to talk about hiking! About the National Parks.

Well the real quistion is:

Can i travel trough australia with Greyhound and/or OZ Experience (some sections with the Greyhound and a special section with OZ Experience maybe) and still visited the National Parks?
Or am i stuck to city's, villages, beaches and touristsspots?

Cycling dont seems like a option because of the extreme tempratures and the lack of experience from my side.

Thank you.

Jerryv


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## mike (Jun 13, 2007)

It's going to be difficult without your own transport. It's probably a good idea to pick up the Lonely Planet to Australia. The book should be able to give directions for public transport to get to your destination.


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## Wanderer (Jun 16, 2007)

I don't think there's any one general answer to what transport you can use as you'll find some national parks far easier to acess than others and typically the coastal ones will be easier, and if you just google national parks followed by the state [actually google gives you all states on just entering national parks], you'll get some good detailed info including access - for example:
. DECC | Visiting a park

And I know for instance that the three major national parks to south, weat and north of Sydney and many small ones can be accessed by train/bus/ferry and though you're not too far away from the largest city in Australia, there are many great walks and/or camping possibilities.

And as another example, Tasmania
. Parks & Wildlife Service - Home I picked because not only is it a compact state, they have a section on the site under activities where great walks, short [60] and longer ones are listed.

And that leads me to the next point of trails, and
. Australian Bicentennial National Trail is the longest and then there are longish trails in SA that run from Cape Jervis up to about the Flinders Ranges, one in WA called the Bibbulmin[sp] trail, another on the southern Victorian shipwreck coast and quite a few developed in national parks.

I know of a person who on foot caught a ferry across to Fraser Island and hitched a ride with some people part of the way about the island but no reason why you could not walk from the River Heads ferry island landing point to somewhere like Central Station and a 90 km. trail is being developed on the island.

Getting to national parks inland is going to be more difficult [and dangerous as you mention], greyhound or even cheaper flights being far better than OzEx which is more coastal and renowned as a party bus [and more expensive]
Greyhound have passes that may suit you and then there are also air passes with Regional Express :: Home [under products]

The approach I would take would be to identify those areas you have an interest in, doing that in part by also considering how far away from anywhere they are, for the further, the more difficult it'll be but first check the NP sites to see what's mentioned and then look up whether there is a youth/backpackers hostel in town, YHA Australia and BUG - the Backpackers' Ultimate guide to budget travel in Australia for you'll find they'll be a good source of local info as to being able to arrange transport with the postie, the milkman or whoever.

Fish Creek I think it is down in southern Gippsland know of that for Wilsons Promontory and then there's some places that'll do pick-ups, one place or might even be two at small National Parks in central Queensland hinterland - Cania Gorge and Kroombit Tops - google them and you'll liikely find info.

There's a YHA at The Grampians in western Vic and quite a few walks there and then you also have them at a couple of alpine areas in Victoria - great walking in summer, and one also at Thredbo from where you should be able to get transport into the Kosiuscko NP.

And then there'll possibly be some places like the Flinders Ranges where you may be able to arrange to get there with a tour, hang about by yourself for a couple of days and get next tour back - might cost you a bit though.

But going to really remote inland areas alone is probably not too feasible from water supply alone - Australia is the driest continent anytime and we've been having drought conditions pretty much for a decade now and water gets scarcer inland, and you'd need a heap of it just about anytime and obviously more so when at hottest.


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