The Secret Life of Us
September 17th, 2008 by Tim Uden
I recently finished reading The Secret Life of Backpackers by Barry Divola. It’s a great read if you’re planning a trip to Australia and an interesting insight into backpacking culture.
Barry is an Australian journalist who had previously written an article about backpackers after spending a week in a hostel at Bondi Beach. This time Barry opts for a longer month-long trip up Australia’s east coast and the book follows his travels along the heavily beaten backpacker trail between Sydney and Cairns and includes Byron Bay, Hervey Bay, Fraser Island, Airlie Beach and Whitsunday Islands.
Although the book does profile these destinations, the real focus is on the backpacking sub-culture. However there are some interesting destination profiles and Barry’s sceptical view of the flaky new age side of Byron Bay is a great read.
A lot of the book focuses on party hostels and there is a good overview of backpackers’ hostels including Noah’s and Surfside in Bondi Beach, Cape Byron Hostel in Byron Bay, Koala’s in Hervey Bay, Magnum’s in Airlie Beach and Gilligan’s in Cairns. If you do stick to this style of hostel on Australia’s east coast there is a good chance that your trip will be similar to Barry’s and you will spend a lot of your time drinking in backpackers’ bars like Cheeky Monkey’s in Bryon Bay, Magnums in Airlie Beach and PJ O’Briens or the Woolshed in Cairns or just drinking cask wine at your hostel but I can’t guarantee that you’ll make a bong from an apple or have as much sex as the book portrays.
It is important, however, not to pigeonhole all backpackers. We are all unique and backpacking culture is different in destinations off the beaten backpackers’ trail and smaller hostels have a different atmosphere to the party hostels profiled in the book. Your travel experience will probably be a lot different if you stay in smaller hostels and travel away from the beaten Sydney-Cairns route.
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