Andy Argo (00:06)
Hello and welcome to the Andy Argo Adventure Podcast. In this series, I interview incredible travelers from all around the world with great stories to tell. Today I’m with Corben, he’s twenty three and from the UK, and with his girlfriend Sophie, who’s twenty-two from Canada. They’re calling in from Airlie Beach in Queensland, Australia. So welcome to the show.

Corben (00:24)
Hey. That’s the reality.

Andy Argo (00:27)
So it’s an exciting reunion for us. So we all met in Canada. There’s a pretty awesome summer job we all worked at together in the Canadian Rockies. And then you guys have obviously gone off on your adventures. So first of all, I’d love to talk to you about Australia. I feel like Australia is kind of a a traveler classic. I feel like it’s kind of a must-go-to destination for everyone. And you guys are there on a working holiday visa. So it’s not something I’ve talked about on this podcast before. But for me, I think it’s the best way for people to travel, especially at a young age when you might not have loads of money behind you. So I’d like to ask you guys first of all,

Does Australia live up to the hype? And how did you guys find yourselves both choosing Australia’s your to go destination?

Corben (01:03)
Yeah, I think it definitely lives up to the hype. Yeah. It w I think we’d better off answering the second part of that first, of like why we’re even here. So we worked together

at the ice and one of our friends there, Toby, he’s just like, you should come come to Australia when the season ends and it was really, to be honest, a bit of a whim. Yeah. Not that I’d never consider you you’d considered coming here. Yeah, I’ve always wanted to come to Australia just ’cause it pulled to me. But I’d never I’d never even thought about coming. I kind of or not almost wrote it off, but

I never it was never somewhere that was completely on the road I always wanted to go. I always knew I wanted to go to Canada ’cause I always want to go to the mountains, but I never knew that I wanted to come here. So it was more of a a whim decision for me to come over here, but it’s paid off. It’s a it’s an awesome place and I’m glad we came

Andy Argo (01:56)
So you think it was your friend who’d kind of inspired you the most to come here? And also you said you’d kind of written it off. I’m curious why you wrote it off in the first place, or why it wasn’t so high on your list, I should say.

Corben (02:08)
Think just because when when you’re in the UK and younger and you see the world as this huge, huge place and Australia’s just like it’s the furthest place you can go, really. And it’s like, why would you choose to go as far as you possibly can on the on your first few times going away? Like if you were gonna go somewhere, why choose to go all the way over there? So it’s not that I wrote it off, but I just never considered coming ’cause I just thought, it’s way too far, like there’s no

There’s no I don’t I’m not completely pulled to go over there, but I was pulled to go to the the to Canada and go to the mountains. But then when Toby was like, the end of the season, what have you got planned? I’m like, Well, nothing. He’s like, you should come come to Australia. I’m like, Yeah, sure, okay. So that that was kind of a bit of a whim.

Andy Argo (02:58)
Yeah, for sure. And then work wise as well, obviously you guys are, you know, hopefully saving a bit of money there as well, which will fund more travelling. But obviously you’ve done for yourself, Corben, you’ve done Canada and then Australia, which I think in some ways, for us as Brits, a lot of parallels, both former British colonies, so very culturally the same as us, very easy to kind of assimilate. And also big old countries. Obviously, for us in the UK, we’ve got a lot of history and a lot of good stuff, but the scale

Corben (03:21)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (03:22)
and the lack of wilderness, you know, we have countryside, but no real, you know, in

Europe generally speaking, it tends to be more countryside than wilderness. How do you sort of compare the wilderness areas, do you think I suppose for both of you as well, I suppose Sophie, you’ve got a different angle having grown up in Canada, so you might see if different eyes to us, but how do you compare the wilderness in Australia to Canada? And who who would you recommend going to each, if that makes sense? Who do you think would lean towards either one?

Corben (03:46)
Think well, first off, Australia is such a big place that the actual nature changes dramatically across the country. So there there’s loads of different types of wilderness over here. But one of the main things is a lot of it’s very similar where you are. So if you were to drive for five hours in the UK, many things would change. But in a place where it’s so large

These places are very similar for longer stretches of time. So if you go from Central Australia in the desert at Uluru to Ailey Beach, Queensland, it’s very, very different, but they’re very far apart. So it it’s it’s like driving from the UK to Switzerland. It’s it’s of course it’s gonna be very, very different. But

Wilderness here is very drastically different to in Canada, but again it depends on where you go. So like where we were in Canada in the Rockies, the mountains are outrageous. It’s just you’re surrounded by these huge, huge peaks all the time. But here it’s a lot older.

in terms of earth, it’s a very old continent and a lot of the mountains are a lot smaller and that’s the way it works, especially up here. Yeah, there’s no real

Andy Argo (04:58)
Yeah.

Corben (04:59)
hikes, it’s all bushwalks. Yeah, the hiking’s very different. There’s a lot of bushwalks we found, especially up here, it’s a lot of bushwalks compared to what in Canada where it’s more open spaces. So you see these open forests where you can really see through and see a peak in the distance through the trees. Over here the the the forest, the bush is so dense.

that if you go on a walk a lot of that time is spent in that sort of foliage where you’re lower down and you can’t see as far. There’s never a like a good viewpoint. I feel like lots of the time they’re really easy

Which is fine. But then there’s also like no like you don’t get to the top and you’re like, my god, this is awesome. Like that was like the best ever. It pays off. It’s just like, okay, time to go back down. But that’s in comparison to somewhere like the Rockies where every hike is outstanding. So it you know, the bar is already so high, you know, it if you

Andy Argo (05:53)
Yeah.

Corben (05:53)
compare that walk to somewhere else, then it would maybe be different.

Andy Argo (05:59)
You mentioned there about bushwalks as well. So I know for a stereotype, again, you know, for people who aren’t from Canada, I don’t know about you, Corben, when we first get to Canada for us as Brits, I felt like it’s always, my God, bears. You know, bears, cougars, all these things that’ll kill you. I felt the

Corben (06:11)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (06:12)
stereotypes were the same for us, isn’t it? It’s my god, snakes, spiders. How have you guys kind of found the the safety side of the bush? Do you think it’s over egged the danger there? And how are you guys coping with it?

Corben (06:22)
I feel so much safer hiking in Australia ’cause yeah, you see spiders and snakes and lizards, but like they’re not gonna hurt ya. They run away. But like I even like as somebody that like grew up hiking and like loves going on hikes and I go on like a solo hike and I’m afraid that a cougar or a bear I’m gonna like find one and it’s gonna attack me the whole time. But here I’m like la la la la la But at the same time. In Canada

With no thought behind it, you would walk in tall grass.

or in bushy areas with hiking boots and pants on and run straight through and not even think about it. You’re just looking at the view. But here if you can’t see the ground and you’re walking through grass, there could so easily be a snake in there. And it’s not like you see them all the time, but we’ve seen some big snakes, even near our house, big ones that are half the size of the road. And it’s not all the time. They are there though. So you just gotta be aware that you don’t have the same confidence in walking through a patch of grass that

That you would have in Canada because in Canada you can see the stuff that wants to get you. Here you can’t. But it also means that there’s not like a big bear walking through your garden, but you might see the odd snake or something. But it’s not common. It’s not as much as the Instagram and Facebook make it be where

Andy Argo (07:42)
Yeah.

Corben (07:42)
there’s snakes and spiders everywhere.

Like we’ve seen like some giant huntsman spiders in our house. But like they’re not poisonous. Like they’re not gonna kill you. They just they just kinda chill there and eat the buck. So even if you see them, you’re like, it freaks you out because they’re huge. But like then you you just leave it be. But and like lots of the snakes and everything that we see, they’re like pythons. So they’re not they’re not dangerous either. I mean, unless you see an Easter brown snake, that’s when you wanna get very worried. So

Andy Argo (08:09)
So whose job

is it to remove the spiders from the house? Have you guys decided who’s yeah, who gets the short straw?

Corben (08:13)
neither of us. I let it be. Personally I’m not that bothered by them being there, so we just kinda leave them. But our housemate, he’s Fijian and we had this big huntsman and he just picked it up with his hands and put it outside. He’s fearless. He just like will take

the spiders and any of the stuff and he’ll just he’ll just remove it with his bare hands, which is crazy. There’s video of him from work and he just picked up this snake and he just take it outside.

Andy Argo (08:42)
Jesus it’s a different way of life, isn’t it? Like, God, what have we got back in the UK?

Corben (08:44)
That’s what

Andy Argo (08:45)
Just badges, badges and deer nothing that dangerous, nothing that yeah.

And then I wanted

to talk a bit about working holidays. ‘Cause I think we mentioned before about how you can earn money and travel. So obviously Corben, you’ve done two now, I believe. You’ve done one in Canada, one in Australia. Of course for Sophie being from Canada, he obviously didn’t need it, but you’ve got a country big enough to travel around before you’ve come to Australia. So I want to chat you the sort of the visa process for Australia. How does it work and what is a working holiday visa and how have you found them so far?

Corben (09:12)
Well, first off, the work and holiday visa for Australia is incredibly easy to get. It’s so easy. I for example, when I got my application

You just it’s a simple online application, you fill out some forms, generally what you would do. And then you get two emails. One of them is you’ve applied for your visa. Thank you. It’s in you’ve applied, it’s been sent in. And the other one is congratulations, you’ve been given your visa. I got my congratulations, you’ve been given your visa email before the email that said you’ve applied. It was like that. It’s straight away. But with the Canada one, it’s a lot more different. You’ve got to do like biometrics so you get your fingerprints and stuff.

stuff

done. I had to go to London in the UK to get mine done before then you get applied to do the visa and it’s a bit more of a process. But with the Australia one it’s super it super easy.

Andy Argo (10:06)
And how do you find so for then? You found it quite straightforward as well for Canadian passport?

Corben (10:12)
Yeah. I mean obviously I never I don’t know what the Canadian visa

like processes but I’ve heard it’s very complicated and it’s expensive and it’s annoying. To be honest, doing anything government in Canada is a process and annoying. But with Australia, yeah, literally I remember like being intimidated by it and then Corben like, literally, it’s so easy. And it literally took 30 minutes. Fill out the form, fill out your information, pay the five hundred dollars to get your visa and then it’s granted. So it’s it’s not hard. No. And it’s all very straightforward.

Andy Argo (10:44)
I

well I when I applied for mine, I was a bit stupid. So I applied with my then girlfriend at the time. We went to Australia together. And hers was instant. I think it must be automatic, right? It just runs you through, job done. And I missed off my middle name. So I had to wait for a bit longer, but that was totally user error for the decision. So I kinda waiting for it to come back. But like you say, for me, same thing. There was no no medical, no biometrics. Like I know when I went to Canada, the issue I’d have for my working visa there was they wanted a police record for everywhere I’d lived.

I to get one for the UK, one for Australia. I was travelling New Zealand at the time and I found the issue was was medicals as well. You know, you said you had to go London, I was on the south end of New Zealand, I had to go all the way back up to Auckland. That was the only place in the whole of New Zealand that they were approved for, you know, sort of medi medical tests or the biometrics, whatever is required at the times. And that is a bit of a faff, but it’s nice, it’s just so straightforward. And I think for us

as Brits as well, it’s three years now, I believe, till we’re thirty five. And I think for Canadians, you guys up till the age of thirty you get one year with the potential to extend.

Corben (11:42)
Yeah, so you can get the three years, but you have to do your regional work to be able to extend your visa. So on your first year visa, you have to get a job and you have to work for 88 days. It doesn’t have to be consecutively, but within the year you have to work 88 days at a job that counts in a place that counts for your regional work. So you can’t work in Sydney or Melbourne or any like big city. You have to go somewhere like

farmland or somewhere regional. So just like outside of the cities to do that, which is kind of annoying, but it’s also good because then that means you get to see a different part of Australia. You like you have it forces you to get out of the big cities and you actually see what like it’s actually like. And you it forces you to travel a bit more, which is good, but also it’s annoying because it’s like a requirement that has to be met. So if you find somewhere and you really like it and you get a good job, but it doesn’t count as regional

then you’re forced to like leave that job and move and go to a different place. Or in like the case like we’re at now, so once you get your first year, you can apply for your second year. And then you have to do more regional work. So you have to go, it goes up to six months. So half of your year you have to spend working in a more regional place to be able to be eligible for your third year. And so that’s kind of what I’m doing now is that I’m working on my six months.

And so even though we love Airlie we can’t move until I’m done. And even if we I got my visa renewed and started it in November, and it’s June. And I’m still not done my six months because it’s about how many hours you work. So it’s not even the day. So if

you’re working four-hour shifts every day and you’re not getting enough hours, then

your six months aren’t gonna be done in six months and it’s gonna take more like eight like I still have like fifteen days to do my six months because I’m not getting enough hours in a job that counts. Because I actually have three jobs, but only one of which counts for my regional work. So it also like depends on your job. So you can’t just have any job.

Andy Argo (13:49)
I suppose that’s a bit

of a catch, Is that you’re there for the experience, but then if you’re not careful, you might end up working your I suppose your travel time away if you’re not balancing it right or getting the right work in the right place. But I for

Corben (13:59)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (14:00)
memory the regional work is very varied, right? I think from memory, I the whole of Tasmania is classed as regional. So at least I suppose you have got a few options, right?

Corben (14:07)
I mean

we’re in a really nice place and I’m working just like a normal job as a bartender and that that counts as regional work. So like there’s some places like in if you really like big city life and you you love the the busyness and the hustle, then the

it’s gonna be hard for you, but if you like like small town, like kinda slower, it’s much easier. And there’s also a list on the government website. It’s just all the postcodes that count. And then you can just pick any of them. So like Airley Beach is a great example ’cause it’s such a nice place, but it’s also a remote postcode, which also means it’s very competitive to work here because everybody wants to work here because it’s so nice and it works for regional work. But

There’s not a lot of jobs because it’s a small town. The competitiveness for jobs is definitely something that I wasn’t really prepared for. I was like, it’ll be fine, because we when we were at Alice Springs, it only took me a week to find a job. Maybe two. to find one that I actually wanted to work. But here it took a month before I was able to find work that was like almost two before I was actually starting to get real hours and make money.

Andy Argo (15:14)
How do you find the housing side of things as well? I know when I was there housing could be a bit hard to come by. Do you guys find yourself I know you’re a sort of a house share now for a few other people, do you find that easy enough to to get?

Corben (15:25)
I mean, what everyone I know, including us, got their house on Facebook. So Facebook is where we got our car, our house, and my job on Facebook. And the Facebook marketplace seems to be just the way everything’s done here. We even saw yesterday there was a a Boost Juice franchise on sale on Facebook Marketplace for $500,000. And it that seems to be the way that people do.

do it because they want to get around like fees and stuff and it’s just an easy way to advertise. But like I said, my job or h house or car all came from Facebook marketplace and the housing is is is sometimes hard to come by. Like it took us a while to find the right place. But I guess it depends how picky you are and what your budget is. I think those are the two things, but we weren’t particularly picky. We just wanted our place and we ended up with this place which is is is really nice just by chance but

The photos that we were shown were not anything spectacular. They were just like a two pixel photo of the room where like that’ll do. Like we don’t need a a nice place, we just that’ll do. Yeah. And we signed like a lease on scene, so And I think it can be trickier if you don’t have a car. Like if you need to rely on bus routes and or walking distance, it’s definitely like I think houses in town are a little bit more

competitive and probably harder to come by. Like a room that’s like walking distance to the main street ’cause we live a little bit outside, but we have a car so it doesn’t really matter because it’s only like a fifteen minute drive.

Andy Argo (17:04)
Ideal and at least Airlie is quite a small place as well, right? At least it’s still not

Corben (17:06)
Yeah, yeah,

Andy Argo (17:07)
not miles away.

Corben (17:08)
yeah. No, everything is at le like only twenty minutes away. Yeah, and there’s only like three traffic lights, so it’s okay.

Andy Argo (17:17)
So from when you guys landed then I’m curious ’cause it’s always the hard thing we say Canada or Australia. They’re such big countries. So I always find it’s an interesting one of where do you start? So for anyone going to Australia, I’m curious to sort of hear your journey of where did you land, how do you choose where to go and where did sort of your journey take you in Australia?

Corben (17:35)
I feel like most people most people I’ve spoken to come with a plan. Yeah, they come with a plan. But a lot of people come from Sydney and go up the coast on the east coast and then from there will go somewhere else like Western Australia or Adelaide or

Anything like that. But generally backpacking wise, the East Coast is very popular, and also the West Coast, like X-Mouth Esperance, also very, very popular. But a lot of people that I talk to on the boat tours, they’re doing Sydney to Cairns. We did the other way around where we flew into Townsville just because we had our friend that was living there, and then ended up going south from there. So, but really

s you can start anywhere. Like there’s no bad place to start, but it does make sense to go in one direction. So you could start north and head south or start in the south and then head north. But just do it coast by coast.

Andy Argo (18:31)
I suppose for you guys as well, you’re obviously in Airlie Beach, which is, you know, Queensland, which is north east Australia, obviously a bit warmer. For me, I don’t know if it’s well planned or a bit of luck. I tried to follow the seasons, I tried to fold the winter. I didn’t want to be in northern Australia during the summer, but you guys have obviously had a pretty

Corben (18:45)
My god.

Andy Argo (18:46)
Yeah, how do you guys find the heat being in Queensland during the warm parts of the year?

Corben (18:51)
Hard. It’s hard. It’s it it’s just like you’re consistently wet all the time. Even if you’re not sweating, you’re like sticky because it’s so humid outside. For a bit of context, it’s in the hottest days in summer up here, thirty-nine degrees Celsius air temperature, and then you got humidity on top of that. So you could have days where it’s ninety-five, ninety eight percent humidity. So it’s like a steam room.

‘Cause the thing is is like in the summer it it’s like tropics so it’s also rainy season. So it’s just like heavy rain, but then as soon as the rain goes away, the sun is out. So then it’s just yeah, giant steam room and it’s just the outside. Yeah.

Andy Argo (19:30)
think it’s bearable

or would you advise people to maybe steer clear from it? I suppose for you guys you’re living in Airlie Beach so you kinda needs to be stationary, but would you say for people it’s bearable and they can still travel in the north Australia in the summer, or would you say probably not?

Corben (19:44)
If you wanna come for like a nice vacation and you wanna hang out outside and you wanna like be all happy and stuff, I think don’t come in peak summer because you don’t wanna be outside because it’s too hot. The best time up here is probably a shoulder season between the winter and the summer or directly in winter. The winter just gives you a a few better options up here. Like right now in Sydney and Melbourne it’s it is cold. Cold. But

Up here it it continues to still be warm, but also we get smaller changes in tide, less rain. So that means that if anyone’s going out to go snorkeling on the barrier reef, they get better visibility in the water.

And you also at this time you get whales and manta rays, which adds to that sort of experience as well, which you don’t really get in the summer. In the summer you’ve got warmer temperatures, warmer water, but you also get the stingers as well, which you’ve got to be aware of. So that’s definitely a concern for some people who come and they’re scared of the stingers. And that’s not something that’s present in the winter time. Yeah, the one thing is that it’s cold to swim in the wintertime because of everything is everything is cold. The lagoon is cold.

But it’s still like twenty degrees. It’s the water temperature of the ocean is twenty two degrees right now. Celsius.

Andy Argo (21:02)
Incredible. And I suppose you do I know obviously being from Canada, so if you said it was feeling cold, a bit colder today, and they do say from what I’ve heard, I think if you go from cold to warm, it’s easier to adapt than warm to cold. I think there is more of a shock, isn’t there? But I mean for you guys you’re used to I mean, w how cold does it get where you’re from? I’m guessing minus twenty and colder, right, on some days.

Corben (21:23)
Yeah, like in like peak winter, it’ll go through like a little like cold spurt of like minus twenty, maybe minus twenty five, but like average it’s like between minus ten and minus five. Like it’s it’s cold, but it’s not like outrageously cold, you know? Like I guess if you’re more like in northern Canada or even on like the eastern side. West Coast doesn’t get like too harsh of a winter, but like East Coast or like northern Canada, y it gets really cold. So

Andy Argo (21:48)
It’s funny because you say cold but not too cold. But I think that’s by to clarify, by Canadian standards. I think yeah, compared to a lot of people, especially for the UK, this is mind blowing.

Corben (21:56)
But the thing is is our summers do get really hot. Maybe like not like hot in the mountains or like high altitudes where you are, but it still gets like twenty five degrees there. But where I’m from, it would get to forty degrees or just above forty degrees in the summertime, in like if you’ll have like a heat wave like for a week or two. But it’s like thirty thirty two degrees in the summer. So it gets hot summers but then cold winters. It really

Andy Argo (22:21)
Yeah. I to me that’s

ideal. You know, proper seasons. I know in Australia they always say it’s kind of hotter and hotter in

Corben (22:25)
Yeah, it is hot for seasons.

Andy Argo (22:27)
Queensland, isn’t it?

Corben (22:28)
Yeah, but like compared to the UK where it’s pretty neutral, where you don’t have them huge temperatures and you don’t have the huge colds either. It’s it’s very different t like climate.

Andy Argo (22:42)
I’m curious as well. So you guys said you flew into Tansville because a friend was there. So I think on the one person who I who I know who actually likes Town and I think I say likes Tansville. I mean it’s a nice town. I think it’s just ’cause Australia is partly so spoilt by loads of really beautiful sta towns. It sets the bar

Corben (22:58)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (22:59)
quite high. So Tansville I think is a nice I like it as a town. It’s obviously mainly an army sort of base, isn’t it? Is you know, is a big employer there. And then you got Maggie Island or Magnetic Island, which off the coast. So I’m assuming you guys went over to Magnetic Island and

saw the Rockwall bees and had a bit of time there as well.

Corben (23:14)
We like Magnetic Hour. We went on the like the Forts Walk which would recommend We made it like a four hour walk, like a six hour walk ’cause we took every single detour, we read all of the signs, we stood and watched the koalas in the trees. Yeah, you get it’s like one of the w only places you can see wild koalas like

consistently on this walk and you get to see the wild Koalas at the time when we there they had little babies and everything. So we could see them

in the trees just

sitting there and it’s it was awesome. It was awesome to see and we loved Magnetic Island. It’s cool and all the history from the war and stuff. It was fantastic.

Andy Argo (23:49)
Yeah, because I remember from memory on that forts walk, they also have arrows on the floor, like with sticks. I don’t know if they’re doing that when you were there. Like if people’ve seen one, they’ve kinda put sticks on the ground and There’s a koala this way. ‘Cause they’re quite hard to see, right? If you don’t know where you’re looking, they’re kind of quite well camouflaged.

Corben (24:03)
you have to be like really vigilant. You have to like stop and like look. Yeah. And also you just ask people coming the opposite way. have you seen any yeah, when you see this rock and you look in this tree, like there’s something. So people were helpful when we went and we were telling people, there’s a koala over there. So just ask other people. But don’t touch Yeah, don’t touch

Andy Argo (24:23)
Well I’m curious as well ’cause that was the the first place in Magnetic Island where I saw cane toad racing. And my my have you guys heard about this? My uncle is in Melbourne and he told me about it.

Corben (24:31)
Yeah, we have this painton

here every Thursday at one of the bars.

Andy Argo (24:35)
I’ve always put on my leg. It sounds made

up. So if you guys if you’re happy to, I’d love for you guys to explain what the heck cane toad racing is. Well, it has to be the most Australian thing that’s out there, right? So

Corben (24:42)
I didn’t

know what a cane toad was before I came to Australia, so I think we better start with what a cane toad is. So a cane toad

Andy Argo (24:50)
Yeah, good idea.

Corben (24:52)
is effectively an invasive species of toad which has a poisonous film on the top of their back.

So if ingested by an animal, so if your dog were to eat a cane toad, it may die. So they’re poisonous but they’re invasive, so there’s loads of them. So basically you’re supposed to kill if you see an on the

Yeah. I always kick them when I see them. People every time. Corben always gets so mad at me. He’s like, Sophie, leave them alone. I’m like, but they’re invasive and they’re like indestructible. Yeah. Like you can like step on them and stomp them, and then they’ll just hop away. You can kick them and it’ll like roll on the cement like a bunch of times and they’ll just hop away. Like nothing happens. So

Andy Argo (25:34)
think they’re part of that category

of animals, aren’t they? Where it was a great idea in theory. I think when they brought in is pest control. A bit like some guy bringing over a few rabbits, right? And before you know it, there’s just millions of them out there. so yeah. So yeah, un unlikable species, let’s put it that way.

Corben (25:48)
Unlike more

invasive species, not good for the place. Anyway, here in particular there’s a bar called Magnums and they have a

square made of wood and they every what is it Tuesdays or every Thursday at eight and nine they get these cane toads which they pick up from God knows where the street or whatever and they put little labels on them so numbered one through five and then people bet on these toads of who’s gonna be the first to touch the outside square. So they put them all in like a B and Q Bunnings bucket in the middle and then take the bucket off and then they have to hop to the

That outside of this large square, and the first one had touched the outside of the square, wins the pot of money. So but people here, what was it last week? $700. $700 on one toad. So a lot of the time people are betting crazy

money.

Andy Argo (26:42)
Did it win?

Corben (26:43)
And no, he lost. And he lost the money.

Andy Argo (26:46)
devastated.

Corben (26:47)
So the so the pool the prize pool’s like upwards of two grand. And people are winning that on a toad.

Andy Argo (26:55)
I From Mario’s Magnums as is this one where there’s a hostel around the back of it. I feel like I might have stayed there. I might have got to the same one.

Corben (26:59)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Argo (27:00)
‘Cause I feel like it is a bit of a dick swing contest, isn’t it? They’ll kind of auction off the toads at the start, they’ll put them down, let them hop a bit, and they’ll kind of outbid each other. Great show though, great entertainment, isn’t it? It’s it’s good watching.

Corben (27:09)
Yeah. Well, it’s so fun.

Every time you go, like the energy is just insane. But I thought it was like when I first heard of it, we used to do frog races and we would go camping as kids. Like we would always do this one camp with my dad’s work and we would go and we would catch frogs. We would there would literally be like a start and a finish line and it was like whatever frog, you know, hopped the finish line. But this one was different and I liked it.

It was so fun. Yeah. Because like the betting is also even even if you’re not betting, it’s so fun to watch because people just bet like hundreds of dollars. It’s funny because it’s someone else’s money. Yeah. So it’s

Andy Argo (27:45)
I’ll be honest, I’ve bet on a few as well. I’ve never won. I got there’s one where it won one race and then no one bet on it for the next time and I should have bet and my doubt crept in. I’d already lost quite a bit of money. And I thought of all the ways to lose money, betting on toads, probably not high on my list for smart ways to lose it, but anyway, good live and learn.

Corben (28:02)
I’ve never bet, but I’m I’m sure I should just like yell out a hundred bucks and then it always gets beat every time. Yeah.

Andy Argo (28:10)
Well feel like Australians

they will bet on anything. Like I thought we were kinda a gambling nation in the UK, but it’s like every bar you go and they’ve got I suppose we’d call them fruity machines, you guys call them slot machines, they them pokies, right? Every even like some tiny little country town, there’s just always someone there just playing on these machines. Day and night. It’s crazy.

Corben (28:26)
yeah. I did not know what

pokies was when I first got here and I was super confused and I worked at a golf course and there was somebody that came up to the bar and they were like, Do you have pokies? And I was like, I don’t know what that is, no? And then they were like, you know, like pokies, like where in town has pokies? And I’m like, I don’t know what you’re talking about. And then they got so mad at me that I didn’t know what it was, and I was like, I can’t help you.

We have Kino, I don’t know. I d I I literally I didn’t even know what to offer them ’cause I was like, I don’t i can you explain what that is to me? Maybe I’ll be able to help. And they just kept saying pokies and I was like, I don’t I can’t help you. I don’t know what that is.

Andy Argo (29:04)
For that there

are a few words, aren’t Where’s a bit of a language barrier? You think being all native English speakers, like the other one of course for us the classic is thongs, isn’t it? The Australians always wearing thongs by which they mean flip flops or you know, what’s it is

Corben (29:14)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (29:14)
it chandles aren’t quite the same in New Zealand? But yeah, it’s yeah, a bit of a language barrier.

Corben (29:19)
Yeah, definitely. There’s definitely them words that you just pick up. Like people say the I think the funniest one is old mate. Like old mate over there. And it sounds like an insult. But it’s like just like that guy.

Andy Argo (29:31)
suppose a bit like Canadians you guys everyone’s buddy, right? buddy did this, buddy did that. Do you think it’s kind of equivalent?

Corben (29:36)
Yeah,

it’s like it’s like, my my buddy way back or something. It’s like yeah. Or it’s like my my friend yeah, Bud Bud Buddy. Old mate over there just put seven hundred dollars on a toad. Like

Andy Argo (29:49)
Good way to spend a week’s work.

Corben (29:51)
Yeah, definitely. I feel like one time somebody was walking past me and I was like, hey, how are ya? And they’re how are you traveling? And that one really threw me off. I was like, like by car? Like by

like, I walked here today. What do you mean by that? And they just like were like, like I just it was just something to say back. Like I didn’t need an answer. Like it was just a hey, how are you type of thing? And that was really embarrassing for me.

Andy Argo (30:17)
Yeah, I thought some quirky

ones, Yeah. Well, how you guys finding

the culture as well? Because I suppose you guys have got a very interesting spectrum. Corben being from the UK, Sophie being from Canada. They’re very similar to us guys in a lot of ways. But where have you guys found sort of the cultural similarities and where have you found some differences, I suppose, between us and the Aussies?

Corben (30:34)
Well, everybody likes Canadians and like British people. So that’s also really nice. They find out you’re from Canada, like all Aussies like Aussies love to go to Canada and Canadians love to come to Australia. So it’s like always like a swap. So people are always like, that’s so cool, like I’ve always wanted to come to Canada, like, you know, like bamf and whistler and I’m like classic, you know, like snow season. It seems that most of the people you meet who are like grown up here have or want to go on a ski season in Canada.

And yeah, and I feel like Australians and like Canadians just like get each other ’cause like also like our history is kinda similar. Like I know we were talking a little bit with like the Aboriginals, like we were all if we were equally both colonized by the UK and you guys both came and destroyed the our Aboriginals’ ways of living. So that was like that’s like another thing. And like our governments I feel like work pretty

Similarly. But culture wise, I think many things are similar to the UK, similar to Canada. Obviously there’s differences, but I think one of the main things that we find all the time is different is just lifestyle in general. People are very fit.

In in the UK, if you go on a late night Tesco run, things are open till eleven o’clock at night. But there’s just not seems to be not the the case here, maybe in the bigger cities, but especially in somewhere like Airlie everyone’s up very, very early. If you go to the gym at 5 a.m., the car park’s full. It’s you you seem to be if you’re getting up at 6:30, you’re late to the game.

And people are up early and very fit and everyone’s running or cycling or I’ve taken up more fitness stuff now since I’ve been here just purely because it seems to be that everyone is doing it and it promotes you to do more. It’s a very motivating sort of culture. Yeah.

like people in Canada and people in like the UK are like everybody like wants to drink. There’s heavy drinking cultures in Australia, in Canada and in the UK, but like here, like everybody likes to drink, but like also they like to get up early. And lots of people are like, yeah, very focused on their fitness. Like you get up like at sunrise and then you go on a late night adventure, what it feels like and it’s eight o’clock, you know? I’m looking at the clock, it’s eight thirty and like, it’s like time to get ready for bed. It’s bedtime. You know?

Andy Argo (33:02)
I suppose it’s interesting ’cause

a lot of countries with warm weather, you know, they’d have like a siesta, they’d have like a lot of Mediterranean countries and Latin American countries, they tend to have a bit of a break in the middle of a day to, you know, get out the sun. Whereas I feel like Australia being a British colony, you know, the work ethic is you go to work nine to five and they’ve kind of weirdly kept that when I feel like it’s almost not lended to the to the environment almost. You know, it kind of would make more sense surely to to chill out for a bit in the daytime and then, you know, work a bit later.

Corben (33:27)
But also I think because it’s so hot, especially up here in North Queensland when it’s really hot in the day, the only time you can do anything is early in the morning or late at night. So if you’re going for a run, if you try to run at eleven AM, you just pass away. Like it’s so hot that it makes it so much harder. So going for a run at five or six o’clock in the morning or eight PM makes sense because it’s so much cooler. Yeah, I think maybe that’s why like lots of people also start work really early and then they’re off by like two, three o’clock when it’s like really hot.

Yeah. So like the work day for us, for example, st a lot earlier than it would when I was in the UK or even in Canada. Like most days I either start at six AM or at seven thirty AM.

Andy Argo (34:11)
Yeah, but like I say, early finish, I suppose at least it comes round, right? You just adjust your clock and that’s where it is.

Corben (34:16)
Yeah, well we

we we finish at five five PM. So it’s it’s kind of an adjusted work day where it is actually quite a bit longer, but that’s not necessarily the case probably everywhere, but it’s just with the nature of what I do.

Andy Argo (34:30)
I’m curious how you guys find your evenings as well. Cause I suppose Canada in the winter, a bit similar to the UK, right? It’s kind of dark very early, it’s a bit colder. In the UK, we’ve got a pub culture. And I think that’s partly down to our weather, right? You it’s so miserable in the winter. You’ll either play Xbox or go down the pub. You there’s not loads of options for outdoor recreation. You might be able to maybe do a bit of indoor rock climbing or you might go to the gym. But I thought there the weather’s so consistently good. You can do more in the evenings. So do you guys find you’ve kind of

change your lifestyle almost because the weather is that much better.

Corben (35:01)
I have a hundred percent. Yeah. I I think the the weather

is one of the biggest impacts on your how you how you live your day. Like we went for a run last night after work. It’s dark outside, but it’s still hot. So you still you’re promoted to go outside. Instead of it being I’m gonna put a hoodie on and whatever and go for a run. It’s shorts and T shirt or just shorts. But it was cold so you could go on a run ’cause the sun went down. Yeah. So you can go outside or we go for a you go for a bike ride or whatever. So you you you’re more promoted to be outside when it’s dark because it’s not

Cold. But also like the difference like between like winter and summer, like the sun isn’t setting at 4 p.m. in the winter and then setting at like 10 p.m. in the summer, you know? It’s ver it’s either it sets at like five six o’clock or that it sets at like seven thirty. Like there’s not that like huge variation, which is also a little bit temporary.

Andy Argo (35:58)
easier

for routines, right? If it’s more consistent with the weather, you can kind of just carry on as normal. And I suppose like you

Corben (36:03)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (36:03)
say, if you get in purely for a run, it doesn’t matter, I suppose, if you’re in the summer or the winter, right? You just keep that same routine and I suppose in England that’s where I fall I used to go running, but then it gets to winter and you’re like, I don’t really fancy it. And then when you fall out of routine, it’s hard to pick it back up again, right?

Corben (36:17)
Exactly. And that’s why it’s that’s what’s good about here is you can utilize that time before and after work because of the temperature that you end up being able to do more. And yeah, you’re able to just stay so consistent with it and you you like it. You know, you f you know that you feel good when you do it, so it’s more easy to do and

Yeah, whenever I don’t work super early in the morning, so I’ll like drop Corben off at work and then I go for like a little walk, I get a coffee, I’m just like enjoying my life and like the sun and it’s just it’s nice. And there’s all r always other people out there as well. So people are walking their dogs having a walk and you could stop

Anybody in the street and have a chat to them. The amount of times I’ve been stopped like on just like my morning walk isn’t it’s not like astronomically high, but it’s like high enough that it’s like, yeah, like it’s just it’s a nice to like stop and have a chat. Like most Australians are so friendly and like everybody is so good at small talk. Like you’re always small talking with people all the time. But in the UK, if you were to approach a random person in the street at six o’clock in the morning, you’d be like, What are you doing talking to me? You know, that’s a very different

Andy Argo (37:23)
Yeah. Some we still wake it up.

Corben (37:25)
It’s a very different reaction to to what you’d get here. It’d be like, Good morning, how you going? And then it’d be like, just, tell me about your life. What did you do yesterday? And I just I’ve never d never talked to this person in my life, but in the UK, who are you? Like, I just feel like it’s a little bit more not as received well.

Andy Argo (37:45)
Yeah, and it’s funny ’cause that means we should be very similar, right? We’re still, you know, sort of the same ancestors and all the rest of it. But I think I wonder if it is maybe partly the climate that’s done that, or maybe, you know, the convict joke again, you know. I suppose all the little rule breakers gone down there and they’re the fun ones, let’s be honest. So maybe that’s part of it as well. Yeah.

Corben (38:01)
Well, I d I think

it’s a lot of it has gotta be the the climate. I think the climate. You never th realise how much weather has an effect on you until like And it’s i I don’t look at the weather ’cause you just know that you’re gonna wake up and most of the time it’s gonna be sunny. And even when it rains it rains for a bit and then it goes back to being sunny again. Yeah.

Andy Argo (38:22)
suppose everyone in the UK gets SADS isn’t it? Where it’s like you haven’t seen the sun of like two weeks, everyone gets a bit miserable. And I think it it’s tough, right?

Corben (38:30)
Yeah, a hundred percent. And when you outside and get the sun, it makes a massive difference to your life. Yeah. I was really excited to go home for Christmas because I was like, like the snow, like it’ll be nice. I’m super excited to see my family. But then when I was there, I was like, wow, like I’m really excited to go back to Australia and get into like my routine. Like I just want to go for like a walk in the sun, you know.

Andy Argo (38:53)
Yeah, it’d be interesting when you guys leave to see if kind of how you remember Australia ’cause I suppose you almost get used to it, don’t you? You get to use that quality of life. And I think it’s always hard, you always look at somewhere for Rose tinted glasses, isn’t it? Like if you look at Canada I’m sure you’ll probably remember hopefully a lot of the best bits. And maybe when you leave Aus you’ll remember, you know, there’s morning walks and the cafe culture as well is amazing, right? It’s all these little independent cafes and seems to be a big part of their sort of culture over there.

Corben (39:15)
Walk into like any cafe and it’s good. Like it it’s yeah, it’s crazy. And they’re all like yeah, everything is like independent. That was like another thing. Like all the restaurants and stuff, they’re like owned by people here, but in Canada or like maybe it’s just like cause it’s like a very American corporate thing. Like most restaurants, you know, it’s like

White spot, Boston Pizza. Like it’s all like they’re all Earls. Like they’re the same restaurants everywhere. But here it’s like everywhere you go, it’s a little bit different. You know, like you don’t get like all those big chain restaurants. You get like Well you do in these cities, but not maybe yeah, I guess in the cities, but like here it’s definitely more independent. But even like in small town Canada.

Like, you know, you you don’t really have like you would have like one like chain restaurant, you know, instead of like even in Banff and in J or in Jasper, there’s literally an Earls. Like we have in Airlie Beach And the Montana the the chains. Obviously you’ve got like the McDonalds baking, which is Hungry Jack’s, Subway, all them things are here. But they’re not really in the main street. There’s a McDonalds in the main street. But

W most of the majority of it is is privately owned places.

Andy Argo (40:29)
nice ’cause then like you it’s more variety, isn’t it? If you go from one town to the next, it feels different ’cause it’s all the people are different, the shops are different, you know, it’s kind of has a nice vibe to it. And I suppose for you guys as well. So I’m curious to get your story. You started in Townsville and then where did you guys go after there?

Corben (40:44)
Sunshine Coast?

Yeah, we ended up going to the Sunshine Coast for a little bit. So we’re from towns where we were starting to make our way down just down the east coast. So we had a car and we wanted to do a road trip down and just see what there was on the east coast. And we ended up stopping in the Sunshine Coast for a little bit. We stopped here for a weekend. It was raining. Yeah. We stopped in Airlie for a bit. it was very wet. But then yeah, we went to the Sunshine Coast. We did a few weeks on the sunny coast and we stayed in a little share house there and we considered staying there for a bit. It was really because we didn’t know what was happening with jobs.

We either had one in the Dane tree, but that didn’t start until February, and it was December, and we were really balling on a budget. So we were like, we kinda want something quicker. And then Corbin’s job got like finalized to start in January in the Outback. So then we stayed in the Sunshine Coast for a little bit. We explored like some of the mountains there, like did like some of the hikes. my cousin lives there, so we visited her. We went to Steve Irwin Zoo, saw Robert Irwin. That was exciting.

Andy Argo (41:44)
Was she performing then?

Performing? I don’t know if that’s the word. Presenting?

Corben (41:46)
Yeah, he him and Terri did the rock show. Yeah, it was cool.

Andy Argo (41:50)
Interesting ’cause I’m I skipped

it when I was there, but I’ve heard nothing but good things. I nearly met him when I was in Tassie.

Corben (41:54)
it’s so good. I don’t think I

can ever go to another zoo again. It’s just like the best

Andy Argo (41:58)
Yeah.

Corben (41:58)
in the world.

Andy Argo (42:00)
Yeah, they’ve got some guts doing that job, Like it’s I’m sure they’ve trained for it, but it’s still I don’t know, still looks pretty sketchy, some of the stuff they’re doing.

Corben (42:07)
Yeah, definitely. But yeah, we we did that and we just started making our way down. Like we said before, we were really struggling on a budget. And we were at that point where it was either you got enough money where you can fly home or you gamble on keep traveling and hopefully you get a job before you hit zero. And we we chose the latter and went from the Sunshine Coast all the way down to Sydney and in in that time I got offered a job.

in Central Australia by email. So you kind of knew that you could keep burning your budget and know you were gonna get some work.

Andy Argo (42:42)
Then so you guys had a drive then. You’re driving from Sydney, which is on the east coast of Australia, pretty much bang into the centre to Alice Springs. So how do you guys find the the drive across? What do you guys see at going from the coast into the interior? And how do you kind of find the the driving, the animals and the landscapes?

Corben (42:58)
I definitely slept the whole ride almost. So I did all the driving. Sovie did all of

Andy Argo (43:01)
Yeah.

Corben (43:03)
the sitting there. And first up we took a Ford Fiesta. So it’s not a big car at all. It’s a tiny little hatchback. And we took that thing from Sydney to our springs and it’s over three thousand kilometers, so three days, a twelve-hour day driving, a twelve-hour day driving, and another ten or so hour driving.

over three days just back to back and we just kind of worked out a bit of a route where we could do them lodge stints and then stay somewhere overnight. And to be honest, from that the the direction we took was like interior. We didn’t go straight to Adelaide. We just kind of went straight across the country and then up. There’s nothing there’s not really much to see out there. It’s a lot of

Nothing. And you really realize how big the country is because it’s the best way I can describe it is like it’s a Minecraft super flat world. Is you can’t see the end, it just keeps loading in. And it’s it’s literally so, so flat. It’s unbelievably flat.

Andy Argo (44:04)
Are we talking proper Australian desert where it’s kind of your odd little shrub here and there, pretty kind of red gravelly desert, you know, not Sahara style, that kind of classic outback Australia vibes?

Corben (44:12)
Yeah.

We kept some red dirt actually. Yeah, well it’s super

it’s absolutely typical Australia desert. And the one one of the things that I really remember is in the proper centre of Australia the speed limit ups to 130 kilometers an hour. So we’re doing 130 kilometers an hour for like six hours in a straight line and then there just happened to be some road works. Do you remember this?

You we’re going so you’re going super quick and turn up to this road works and it’s a little traffic light.

So we stopped after six hours of driving in a straight line and there’s this like light shrubbery on either side of the road and it just felt like the whole world was moving away from you. Just because it’s so flat and everything’s so similar, your brain doesn’t really comprehend that you you’re moving. It feels like even though you’re going so fast, you’re going quite slowly. And then when you stop you get that weird sort of motion. yeah, yeah. I get that, like sometimes even just pulling out of the driveway because I get a little bit confused but like this way.

Andy Argo (45:15)
It’s interesting though, isn’t it? It’s

just so big, especially for like Europeans like ourselves. Or see in Canada you’ve got some pretty long roads, haven’t you? And pretty straight roads. But for us it’s still shell shock.

Corben (45:23)
Yeah, it didn’t really

intimidate me at all, like being like I mean, there’s a whole lot of nothing when you go out the window, but I grew up like driving eight hours, twelve hours to go visit family and stay there for two days and then drive back the same weekend. But that’s completely alien to someone from the UK. I if you’re on a family holiday in the UK, it’s like two hours away. Even if you were to drive from far north of England to London, it’s five or six hours. To drive

three days in a straight line, you you’d be in mainland Europe. You know you’d you’d go so far, you could go through so many different countries and redid it and you’re still in the same place. But I mean yeah go doing those kind of stints back to back to back is definitely different and it’s hard. It hurts your back. Which is like suck

Andy Argo (46:10)
Yeah.

And then sort of wildlife wise as well, anything running around out there, you see many kangaroos and stuff

Corben (46:16)
Yeah, kangaroos, d we we had a few dingos really in the centre of Australia. camels is a big one. But most I didn’t realise that there was wild camels in Australia. And then the other

Andy Argo (46:27)
Yeah.

Corben (46:27)
one is cattle. Cattle’s a big thing because a lot of the roads are so flat and they’re on farmland. So the there’s no there’s no fences. It could be unfenced in parts of it. Some parts are fenced, but there’s there’s there’s a large portion that is unfenced where you can have wild cattle.

But it’s on the road, so you could be going a hundred kilometres an hour and there’s a cow in the middle of the road or a camel or whatever. So we we had some wildlife. There’s so many different

Andy Argo (47:03)
near misses then. I kangaroos

are a bit they’re not the brightest, are they?

Corben (47:07)
No. I had more near misses and close calls when I was doing ’cause I I when my job in Central Australia actually just started driving coaches through the night and I had more time with near misses with cows and camels and some kangaroos during that.

Andy Argo (47:28)
Yeah. And then in terms of work then, so you said you found work in Central Australia. So how did you find the job? Is this another Facebook gig, did he say, or is this sort of ruined?

Corben (47:37)
How did you find your job? I think so the job I have right now I found on Facebook, but the the one before I think it was like an indie to type one of them websites where they list jobs on there and was I don’t know what it was. It was like a

something similar to a a seek or I think seek is a big one isn’t it? Seek and seek. Yeah, we were on Seek and Indeed for like a month, like in Australia, trying to find jobs. And it it’s really hard and super competitive. Yeah. But Seek I think is the one where I found my job and I I just applied online. And then we had a few video interviews. It was two interviews that were had online and then that was that I was offered the job.

Yeah, and I went I went

there without having a job and just was like, I’ll just get one when I get there.

Andy Argo (48:22)
I suppose that’s thing is traveling as a couple, right? It’s yeah. Do you try and get work together, in which case that’s pretty hard logistically, or do you just sort of commit to one of you and then the other one asks around when you’re there?

Corben (48:31)
Yeah. We didn’t really have a strategy at the start, but honestly it works out better that one person has a seller. At least one person has to have a job, I think. Because you can kind of help each other out. And you know, we spoke a bit about this before. It’s it’s it’s inherently harder as a couple to travel because you kind of gotta think, both of us gotta have a job.

And have her own money and we both have to have a decision on where we’re gonna be and that makes it much harder to travel together than it would be separately. But at the same time you can also back each other up. So if I got a job first, I can help Soph while she still tries to get a job. Yeah, because that’s what will happen. It’s like when we were in Alice Springs, you know, you go the old school, go to the everybody and you hand the resume, you talk to the manager and be like, I’m looking for a job. And

I mean i you just I called it rejection therapy.

Because it’s really it’s really embarrassing and it’s really hard. That’s like the one thing about looking for a job, like in person. It’s so embarrassing feeling. Like I don’t know if I’m the only one that like feels like that, but online it’s like fine because you just rejected over email. But in person you just get told no over and over and over again, which is kind of hard. But then also sometimes you get a job and it’s like not something that you wanted to. I remember my first job interview where I got the job was at like this bar and

It was just all the whole clientele was aboriginals, which is fine, but they had a tendency they have a tendency to like over drink and be more aggressive. I mean anybody can, but the in the interview he asked he was like, How comfortable are you like cutting people off and telling people no? And I was like, Well, I’m like I can do that, but like it’s never something that you

want to do because if you cut anybody off in any job ever, they always are like they always get angry that you cut them off. And I’m so I asked and they have like multiple security people in every room. So I was like, this has a lot of red flags. And then I went to another place. Corporate was like, have you checked out the golf course? And I was like, No.

But I like emailed them before I went. I went in in the morning and they’re like, the manager’s not in and then I went in as soon as he went in and he’s I heard you’re looking for a job. I was like, I am and he was like, Well, perfect. And then so it worked out good because it was in a nice area of town and it was a good job, but

Andy Argo (51:04)
Think that’s a good way to do though, ’cause at least you an instant feedback, right? If you ask and they’re like, We’re not hiring, but at least if they say, we’ve got something, you could start. I’ve had some jobs in Australia where I start the next day, right? You can get quite a quick turnaround

Corben (51:15)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (51:16)
rather than indeed that might take a couple of weeks to get back to you and then it’s all just kind of a slow process. So I know it’s a gamble, isn’t it, if you rock up somewhere, but at least it’s a very quick sort of turnaround before you’re up and running and actually earning again.

Corben (51:25)
Yeah.

Also one of the main things is just timing and luck Like you could places that are small because they’ve got such a backpack of population where people are coming and going, if you walk in the same day that someone just quit, you could literally have a job the same day or the day after and that makes it easier but also harder in a way.

Yeah, ’cause when we came here I was doing the same thing, but it’s so much more competitive here that it took a month. I was going into the same places over and over and like once a week. I was talking to a lot of people. I emailed every place that I went into and it it was just hard. It’s really hard on you mentally, and it just it’s so embarrassing, especially like feeling like they tell you they’re like, we just hired two people yesterday. And it’s like it’s

Andy Argo (52:12)
Yeah, it’s

it’s tough, you just missed out. But I suppose at least I mean you’ve been to a part of Australia, I suppose Alice Springs, you know, is one of these touristy places, and I’m guessing if there’s a lot of backpackers, there probably will be a bit more turnover of staff, so at least you might be able to sneak in, like you say, at short notice. But Alice Springs, for the people who aren’t familiar with it, it’s I suppose the nearest town to Uluru, or formerly known as Aires Rock, right? Which is the classic for people who I think most people will recognise it even if they don’t know it by name. It’s the huge red rock right in the centre of Australia. So it’s very iconic. I suppose probably one of the

Well that in the Sydney Opera House, right? Are probably the most too iconic Australian

Corben (52:44)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (52:45)
landmark. So how do you guys find being in that kind of I don’t know about you guys, but it’s kind of a childhood dream, isn’t it, to go there for a lot of people and see proper Australia, outback Australia? So how do you guys find it being out there?

Corben (52:55)
Seeing

the outback was really cool. Like I’m I had a teacher, I think it like in grade school where she used to say that her daughter moved to Australia. And I think that’s one of the reasons why I really wanted to come to Australia. And she always talked about the outback. And it was really interesting to see it in real life. I mean it wasn’t like I was definitely more excited to come to Australia as I got older for like the beaches and the nice the nice areas. But it was it was cool to see it and it was good to experience it because it’s not what you think it is. You know? It’s not just like

flat and actually it is. Wait, I grow up in the US. I think when you think of Australia as someone who’s never been here before, the two things you think of is the Outback and the Great Barrier Reef. Yes. And they’re two things that we’ve managed to tick off in terms of living and working on or near. And that’s outstanding that we’ve managed to fall into that.

sort of environment. But out there in Central Australia, it’s a very, very unique place. You know, you say that Alice Springs is the closest town to Uluru, but it’s five hours away. It’s not close. And it’s still it’s still the closest place. You know, the the actual town that’s connected to Uluru, which is basically I would call a service area where it has hotels and stuff, which is direct access to the rock.

It’s not it’s not a town, it’s it’s it’s an area with some shops, like basic amenities really, and some hotels and stuff. But it’s not particularly built up. Alice Springs is definitely more of a town, but yeah, five hours away. And it is a long way for p a lot of people to travel. Many people would f fly in, but to drive over there is is is crazy for most people. It’s just way too far to drive. You spend days just driving on the road. And then even Alice Springs is a town at

myself is not exciting. I cried the first day we got there. I like, we drove for three days and this is

Andy Argo (54:55)
Yeah.

Corben (54:56)
we’re here and this is what it is. Like I was like not excited to have arrived.

Andy Argo (55:03)
I suppose it’s hard, isn’t

it? You’ve always got a romantic image of these places and then to see it for real, you know, is I suppose like you say, a very remote town, right? So what was underwhelming, it is just, I’m assuming, not as picturesque maybe as you thought.

Corben (55:17)
What do you think for yourself, like when you first got there? What I just like wasn’t I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be in Alice Springs. Like it wasn’t it was just kind of like where we needed to be, but we were like have it trying to have a like a positive outlook on it where we’re like, Well, it’s the outback, like you gotta see the outback, you know, it gives us real experience. So we were like but then when you were when we were there, it was just like yeah, I

It wasn’t an exciting place to like land. No. But like especially after driving for so long. I mean also as we explained before, like we we effectively had no choice. It was our only job that we could get after being spending a month or so applying for roles and we were on the end of the tether in terms of finance. Like it was

you you’re committing to staying because you’ve got no other choice. You can’t fly home anymore. You don’t have enough money. So it was our lifeline effectively. And yeah, it’s not the most outstanding town. You see a lot of stuff online and

You know, you can do your own research and see what Alice Springs what Alice Springs and is like. But it’s very different in a way to what you see online. It’s you know, it’s it’s not got the best image online of what it’s like. But that’s in a very narrow in a very narrow scope online, but you know, that’s that’s generally the way of social media and normal media outlets is it puts a narrow scope on terrible things that you see. Like there is them things that happen out there in Central Australia, crime wise it’s

it’s very much crime heavy. It’s crime heavy and a lot of the things that they talk about happen to us. Like we were there for five months and you know we had people broke into our house and stole some of our things and there’s rocks thrown at our cars and you know

Them kind of things are seen as normal. I remember when I went into work after we’d been broken into at night and I was like, we got broken into last night. They were just like, that’s that’s just Alice Springs. Yeah, I I remember I was late to work ’cause like Corben had to he got up and he had to go work. He’s like, Sophie, somebody broke into our house, I think. And I was like, What? So I called the police and I did all the things and then I was a little bit late to work and then I was like, my god, like I was since it’s a golf course, you see all the same people every day. So I was pretty close with the members and I like, You guys on

never happen like guess what happened and they’re like yep it’s Alice Springs for you and I’m like so it’s just normal for people to break into your house while you’re sleeping through the kitchen windows and then steal your electric scooter and yeah my electric scooter and no

yeah it was kind it was scary for sure.

Andy Argo (57:56)
Well

it’s a funny one, Australia, ’cause it’s like I had similar experience why I got robbed, I was at a place called Ceduna which is the like the last town before you cross the Nullarbor which for our listeners is kind of this desert which goes across the south Australia. So if you’re driving west to east or vice versa, Ceduna the last town in the east before you try to drive west towards Western Australia. And I had a similar thing there and Darwin as well experienced sort of crime in these more outback areas. But then you can be on coastal Australia, right? And you can go swimming in a very busy area, leave your bags on the beach, and you come back and it’s still there.

Thank God we would not have that in England. It’s just chalk

and cheese, isn’t it?

Corben (58:30)
Yeah, you wouldn’t be leaving your things anywhere in the UK. You know, if you left your phone and wallet on the side, someone’d probably be gone. But here it’s like even in the gyms, there’s no lockers in the gyms. It’s just boxes and you just leave your stuff in there and no one you know, you could put your car keys in there for a 50 grand Mercedes and no one’s taking it, you know.

And it it’s cr crazy that that there’s just so much trust in the community in places like this. Like we, for example, do not have a housekeep. We don’t lock our house. We w we go

Andy Argo (59:02)
Yeah.

Corben (59:02)
on holiday, you don’t lock the house. And I and obviously it’s a share house and that’s slightly different. But regardless, we don’t lock the house. We don’t lock the door. And that, you know, I’m never worried about

people, you know, walking around at night and leaving your stuff about and you could leave your car with the keys in it and I think it would be I have gone to the shop and forgot the key in the ignition a couple of times. Which more thinks it’s ridiculous.

it has happened. And that’s fine. Like nothing but nothing ever happens. It’s the vast distances I think with Australia that really, you know, shows. And then yeah, everywhere you go is is is different. You know, y it could be different in Darwin than it is here, but in these certain communities it’s very, very safe in some places it’s different.

Andy Argo (59:50)
Suppose you mentioned there on the vast distances. So I suppose the question I’ve got to ask is Ularu Aires Rock is the kind of east classic destination for an Australian to go to. Is it worth people making the detour for to see it in your opinions?

Corben (1:00:05)
I wouldn’t spend more than two days there, but it’s definitely worth seeing. There’s a lot of history and it’s very interesting from not only like a cultural perspective, like to have an insight into early humans and Aboriginal people and their way of life. And that is very interesting. And it’s it’s a very peaceful place out there. But you d at the same time you don’t need to spend

a week there and also would highly recommend that you don’t drive. I’d highly recommend that if anyone wanted to go, just fly straight into Yolara where the airport is right next to the rock. Spend two days, see that, see the rock, see Katiuta, which is also in the same national park. Also a phenomenal rock formation there. Do them things and then leave.

‘Cause the the the payoff of seeing all that is not worth driving for three days unless you’re doing this sort of large trip of Australia. But if you’re on a budget or you’ve you’re on a time crunch, just fly in and out.

Andy Argo (1:01:07)
Yeah. Still worth a detour, but to keep it a couple of days and then done then. Yeah.

Corben (1:01:10)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Andy Argo (1:01:13)
So you guys kind of stayed there to top up the coffers, you know, and you said I’ll give you guys credit as well, you said you got that sort of countdown where you’ve probably spent your your sort of bug out fund, I like to call it your sort of emergency fund for flying back home. So you’ve taken that decision to dip into that fund, so you’re kind of forced to stay in Australia. And obviously it’s luckily for you guys it’s paid off and you had that time in our springs, you managed to save a lot of money.

So economically

Corben (1:01:36)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:01:36)
wise, obviously Australia pays really well, I think, compared to the UK and especially compared to my experience in Canada, it pays really well. So tipping culture isn’t really a thing, but the wages are significantly higher. So have you guys sort of find saving there? Do you think it’s a good place for people to save up and then head off when their travels elsewhere?

Corben (1:01:55)
Yeah, if you’re working like full time, like or like not even like full full time, like just at least like thirty, thirty-five hours a week, I think it’s so much easier to save save money because the wages are so much higher. And Australians love to complain about how expensive it is to live in Australia and how you can’t buy a house. And that is true. Like that lots of houses are like easily a million dollars or like over like

s seven hundred thousand dollars, which is very expensive. So you can’t buy a house, but you can live pretty comfortably just working like a normal like minimum wage job because the minimum wage is so high. And if you have like really any certificates, like you can have like a hospitality, like one, two or three certificate where it just says that you can make coffees, like serve drinks, and then you get like paid on your on your ticket. So you just get paid higher and

the penalty rates, like working on weekends, you get paid more to work b you get like paid point seven five percent more to work on a Saturday and like like one point five percent more to work on a Sunday. so and if you work early in the mornings there’s penalty rates. If you work late at night there’s penalty rates. So you just get like paid more. Especially to work outside of like the normal Monday to Friday.

Andy Argo (1:03:21)
So do you guys think if someone’s new to traveling, let’s say someone’s eighteen, they’re fresh out of school, they don’t want to go to university, they want to travel, would you say Australia’s kind of up there as a a good go to option for a first place to go to travel a bit, save a bit and then go off? Do you think that would probably be a a top contender for a good place to start?

Corben (1:03:38)
A hundred percent. I think so. Because like for example, when I was saving up to travel, I was working cutting cheese in a supermarket and it’s really difficult to save money in the UK because the wages are so much lower. But if I would have instead gone away first, maybe to Australia, you’re also starting your travel earlier, but but you can start with less money because you know you’re gonna work when you arrive.

So you don’t have to worry about having the huge sort of back end savings. You have a little bit less money for your flights and a bit of burn money when you arrive. But if you can start working, you’re also in the place you wanna be, but you’re also able to earn a lot more money. So you could be on twice the amount of money or

or a little bit less than twice but amount of money that you’d be on earning in the UK. So you’re not only starting your travels but you’re also earning more money for your time. Yeah. I mean it the one thing is is just it’s just hard to find a job. But once you have a job and if it’s giving you hours, then it’s easy to save money. The one thing is getting a job. Depending where you are is very competitive. And especially maybe if you’re eighteen and you don’t have like a lot of experience, it might be harder because lots of people like

we get like like three, four resumes a day at our job at where I work. And if you don’t really have like any like barista experience or you don’t know how to make cocktails, it’s definitely harder to get a job.

Andy Argo (1:05:11)
That’s a good point actually. Maybe just even if you are struggling to, you know, think about going abroad, like you say, just bit getting some barista experience. I feel like that’s so transferable, you know, for sort of the whole world, isn’t it? Even where we worked in Canada, you know, as soon as you can make a decent coffee, you’ve got a job waiting for you. It does seem and same as bar work as well, right? You know, it shows that you can deal with people and you can sort of handle like you say, dealing with people in what might be a

potentially confrontational environment. Maybe not so much for making coffees, but in bar work, you know, it takes a certain kind of person to to do that, right?

Corben (1:05:40)
Yeah, yeah.

Like having them sort of basic skills is always helpful anywhere you go, but especially when you’re trying to travel in a competitive environment where you’re trying to get a job quite quickly. Yeah. If you’re able to learn things and like pick up quickly and you’re you’re like pretty sociable, you’ll do very well. But if you’re more of a like a slow learner and you don’t pick up jobs very well, then it’s definitely harder because you get a trial shift. It’s not like an interview where you sit down and then it’s like, you have the job. It’s like a trial shift. So if you do the trial shift and they think that you’re slow and

you’re not very like talkative and you’re not super confident, you won’t get called back.

Confidence definitely goes a long way. And people skills, talking to not only like customers, but also like management and stuff like that definitely goes a long way. But I think generally as a country to travel first off, if you were gonna travel from the UK if you were eighteen or whatever, it’s yes, it’s a long way, but it’s definitely a place you can assimilate really well with because it’s the same language, same sort of culture. But

At the same time it’s quite easy to travel, it’s well trodden, so that everything’s you know there’s researched. It’s very easy to pick up a route or find people who are going the same way as you and there’s loads of information online.

Andy Argo (1:06:56)
I suppose easier to travel, it’s a very nerdy thing to talk about infrastructure on a podcast. But it’s there’s so many parts

of the world where they haven’t got good roads, and for such a low population density, I think Australia, you know, the whole coastal road is paved, those inland roads you guys have been driving on where you probably don’t see a car for God knows how many miles, and they’re still pretty good condition, right? They’re immaculate, they’re well paved. It’s very kind of accessible despite being so sparsely populated,

Corben (1:07:21)
And you can get on like the buses, the greyhound buses and stuff, they run from all the way on the east coast, all the way around the country. Like you can go on a greyhound bus anywhere, really. You know, there’s accessibility to do that. Maybe it’s not the same sort of infrastructure that you find in mainland Europe where you can hop on a train and you know it’s it’s not necessarily that as good as that, but the roads are there enough where you can drive or get a bus or fly.

Andy Argo (1:07:49)
Well, you mentioned there as well, like we sort of talked about obviously you guys are confident. Obviously, Sophie, we work together doing sort of restaurant work, which, let’s be honest, you kind of gotta be pretty confident to do that. And of course, Corben, you’ve traveled a bit

Corben (1:07:58)
So

Andy Argo (1:07:59)
and you’re both very confident, happy, approachable people. But we talked a bit more about, you know, for working visa, you guys have done this one yourselves for Australia. You’ve kind of applied for it, you’ve gone and found work yourselves. But there is of course the alternative we spoke about just before we started hitting record, which you did for Canada. So I suppose for people who are maybe less confident.

Maybe a little bit more apprehensive about travelling. Are you happy to go into your experience about that, Corben, in in Canada, if you may?

Corben (1:08:25)
Yeah, a hundred percent. So I when I went to Canada I knew that I wanted to work in the Rockies or wanted to travel to the Canadian Rockies and I’d known that for a long time. But I’d done a f a bit of travelling beforehand but never on the working side of it. And I wanted a bit of assistance with that. So I actually went through an agency called Global Work and Travel and

You basically put a it’s not really an application, but you tell them a bit about who you are and what you want to do, and you get paired with effectively like a mentor who helps you out through the whole process. So they send you like PDFs of how to apply for the visas. You can send them any questions you have via email. And then when it comes to it and you have a date set, and they can also help you with flights and stuff and insurance. I didn’t do that with them. I booked my own flights and insurance and stuff because there’s a bit of a premium on top of that for them doing it for you. But

In terms of the what their base package is is basically they’ll set you up with a job.

Which and I think housing if you need it, but my housing was connected to the job. So when I put in my application with them, they send you a list of potential jobs that you could do and you basically rank the ones that you think would be a good fit for yourself and then they eventually set you up with an interview with whoever the hiring manager is online. So I had an interview with the hiring manager and then I had another interview with someone else from the same company and then eventually

You get sent either an offer or a rejection. But it makes the process super simple. Like you pay money up front to the agency, which helps you out, but it definitely makes the process super easy for someone who’s never done anything like that before. I think with a visa process like Canada, it is more valuable because it’s a little bit more difficult and there’s more steps to it, like you’ve got to do biometrics and stuff like that. Maybe with Australia, it’s not as useful for the visa side because that’s quite self explained.

explanatory and there’s lot of information on it online but definitely with the jobs it could be helpful because it gives you something there you don’t have to worry about I’m gonna have to go and hand out all my CVs, my resumes and talk to all these people. It gives you something that’s set in stone that you know okay when I fly into Canada I’ve got this money but I also have a good job job starting on the 20th or whatever. So you know you’ve got somewhere to go.

Andy Argo (1:10:48)
It’s always nice when you’re earning in local money and spending it in local money as well, isn’t it? You know, it feels like it’s it’s always nice to not dip into your savings. And I think you mentioned as well when you land, it sounds pretty organized. Like you said you get a sim card, they introduce you to a few other people in the same boat. So I think that kind of instant social side you said was kind of quite well organized, right?

Corben (1:11:06)
Yeah, a hundred percent. So like when I

arrived in Vancouver when I did my Canadian one, you get a taxi into the into the city or you get on a train or whatever. And then you end up going to their office and there’s a manner of other people who are doing very similar things to you. And a lot of the times the dates for when people arrive, like so usually like every week on a Tuesday or something, there’s groups of people that are arriving doing work in holidays. So you end up in a room with ten people who are starting their journey the same as you that you’ve never met before.

then they give you some cards of things to do over the next few days while you’re in Vancouver and you get your

Yeah, whether it’s social security number, what is it called? Social security number. Social insurance number, your SIN number, and they

Andy Argo (1:11:52)
Yeah.

Corben (1:11:53)
give you a SIM card and stuff like that. So whilst you’re sorting your stuff out for life, like your bank account and stuff, it gives you a place to stay. You get they give you a few nights in a local hostel so you can have a meet some new people and it really does help out. Like if you’ve never done anything like it before, it’s a huge sort of

confidence boost to know that you’ve got all that stuff to help you out when you arrive.

Andy Argo (1:12:16)
I suppose you guys travelling as a couple. I met a couple when I was down in Canmore, which is just next to Banff. I was down there a couple of winters back for work and there was a a couple from Liverpool in the UK. And I think with them travelling as a couple, they had maybe similar to where you guys had, where trying to find work in the same place can be a bit hard to line up. So I think they’d both use the same thing to get work at the same place, which is probably quite a nice. The only downside for them is they’re both washing dishes in the kitchen. So not ideal work and I think they did find the work a bit crap, to be honest. But

But you know, at least they were in the same place for the same time. So I suppose maybe it

Corben (1:12:47)
No necessarily.

Andy Argo (1:12:48)
could work out in that way.

Corben (1:12:50)
Yeah. Well you don’t necessarily need the same job, but it’s can be helpful too. As long as it’s in the same place, I think it’s fine. I feel like maybe you just spend way too much time together. I mean you’re working

Andy Argo (1:12:59)
Yeah.

Corben (1:12:59)
together, living together, have the same car, have the same friends. I mean, you need a little bit of space. I mean

Andy Argo (1:13:06)
Well that actually takes me on to my next point. So if you guys traveling, obviously, you guys are kind of working a bit as well. But when it comes to travelling, how do you decide and make that decision, I want to stay here or I want to go? You know, you’ve obviously got that element where, you know, obviously if you’re dating, you’re probably quite similar in some respects, but obviously no one’s no one’s identical. so for you guys, how are you finding in terms of when you want to say, Look, I want to move on to the next, how do you find that balance of sort of working out so that you’re both getting out travelling what you want?

Corben (1:13:32)
It’s definitely harder. I mean, we just have a lot of conversations about what we wanna do and you’ve got to think about it a little bit further in advance. I think it’s just one of the one of the inherent issues but complications that come with travelling together instead of alone. That you can’t make necessarily a split decision where I’m gonna go or I’m gonna go and do this now. You kinda just have a c have to have more of a conversation about what you wanna do and

long term word you want to go and see and stuff like that. So it’s more it’s just more of a conversation really.

Yeah. I I don’t really have anything else to add. It’s like you have to like make a little bit of compromises. It’s like it’s harder because you have to like factor in somebody else’s budget and I think like once ’cause maybe we’re both working but we still have different budgets. So then that’s another thing. Like if you want to go and do something and it’s like fairly expensive but then the other person like can’t. I think that’s like been the most frustrating and like the hardest part in in like

Andy Argo (1:14:35)
I suppose we mentioned

before we hit record about standards as well. So obviously Corben, you’re said you’re more than happy to sleep

Corben (1:14:41)
yeah.

Andy Argo (1:14:41)
in some twenty bed hostel dorm whereas Sophie I get of course being a girl, it’s obviously a bit different in certain you know, if you’re in a dodgy area of town and stuff, but how do you guys find the sort of where to spend the money? Obviously you might be earning different amounts, but then it’s how do you see that sort

of threshold of luxury, shall we say?

Corben (1:14:57)
Yeah, that’s also a factor. I don’t love hostels and like hostel life ’cause I like clean, I like organized. But I like the hostel stuff. I think it’s really fun. You get to meet good people and it gives you things to do and I I’m not bothered at all by sleeping in a room with twenty people. Like it’s just it’s just a fine thing to do.

And that makes it harder, you know. But it makes it more difficult to be like, okay, we want to go to this place, but now the budget’s gotta be six times larger because Yeah, and I’ve never really stayed in like hostels I’ve never really done like that kind of that kind of traveling either. So it’s also just very new and a little bit scary to me and Corben is like, it’s fine and I’m like, a little bit nervous about it. So that’s

Andy Argo (1:15:44)
suppose

maybe it’s hard because I feel like the Australian hostels are often not great. There are some nicer ones, but I feel like ’cause it’s a more developed country, people are happy just to take a cheap bed. And same in sort of Canada, some are okay, some are good. But Southeast Asia,

Corben (1:15:57)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:15:57)
obviously Corbyn, you’ve been to Vietnam, that’s Southeast Asia are the creme to the creme of hostels, right? They’re so cheap. And because they know you can get a hotel for ten US dollars a night, they want to do it cheaper and nicer in a hostel. So they’re kind of forced to have a very high standard of hostel living. And I preach in Australia

Corben (1:16:11)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:16:12)
a lot of the ones I stayed in weren’t ideal.

Corben (1:16:14)
stayed in one and it was so dirty. But in cans we stayed in one and it was nicer. But also I find that with somewhere like Vietnam because it is so cheap, it’s just a no-brainer. Like you can spend a a pound and stay overnight somewhere. But in Australia

It’s actually quite expensive to stay in some hostels because some of them are still a hundred dollars a night. So it’s like sometimes it’s like, well, you can stay in plus somewhere that’s like ninety-five, a hundred dollars a night, or you can stay somewhere that’s like a hundred and fifty dollars a night and it’s like a million times nicer. But also because there’s two of us, if you if it’s a hundred dollars a night to stay in the hostel, which is easy pretty much the going rate for hostels somewhere like Airlie Beach, if it’s a hundred dollars a night and the hotels two thirty

then it becomes like, well, why don’t you just stay in the hotel? Because there’s two of us. So you’re spending this basically the same money anyway. So that’s where it becomes especially somewhere like Australia, where it doesn’t it it’s the sa it’s not necessarily a budget question. If it’s somewhere like Vietnam, yeah, it’s probably a budget question. But here, because the hostels are now maybe more expensive even when you were here, that be even it’s just an expensive place to travel.

All around the board.

Andy Argo (1:17:33)
Feel like it’s a bit of cheeky as well. ‘Cause I feel like back in the day hostels were it was cheap accommodation and that meant it was very social. Whereas I feel like now they know people go there for the social side and they’re trying to charge a premium for the social side and I feel like it’s a bit of a rip off. And a lot of places, even in Sri Lanka when I was there, it was the same. There was not normally, but there was one hostel in by this German chap on the south coast. Nice neck of the woods. But he was charging, you know, I think I was paying the same price for my own room with an en suite, and he’s charging the same like an eight bed mixed dorm. And I thought this is kind of

You know, I don’t mind a bit of social side, but to me it’s it’s a benefit of you being a bit of a a cheapskate backpacker, right? Whereas when they’re charging a premium for it, I think that’s kind of taking the mick

Corben (1:18:10)
Yeah, a hundred percent. Like, yes, some of the hostels here are absurd amount of money. But I think that’s just the nature of the country. It’s just an expensive place to travel as yeah, and when you’re not earning in the local currency as well, for someone who’s coming from somewhere else, it can’t even feel more expensive.

Andy Argo (1:18:28)
Yeah, for sure. Well I think you guys are doing it well. You look obviously happy enough and you know, stood the test of time and more adventures to come as well. So it’s gonna say if you want, we can take a quick break and then afterwards we’ll come back, we’ll talk about going towards Queensland, the more I want to say classic Australia, I suppose, the postcard Australia with these beautiful white sand beaches. You’re of course working in the Whitsundays as a snorkeling guide and working down there. So you guys have got a lot of stories to tell. So we’ll come back in a couple of minutes. I’ll let everyone grab a cup of tea. I’ll be back in a few moments.

Andy Argo (1:19:02)
Casual eating phase. So welcome back everyone. Hope you had a good break. So we’re back with Corben and Sophie and we’re in the casual phase. So we’re gonna chat about East Coast Australia. So you guys know an Airlie Beach, which is I don’t know if I want to say it’s my my favourite part of Australia, but it’s definitely gotta be top three. I don’t know if I could pin down a top one. It is top

Corben (1:19:21)
It’s up there for sure.

Andy Argo (1:19:22)
tier, isn’t it?

Corben (1:19:23)
It’s definitely up there. It’s cool. Like you just come here and like we were literally only planning on staying for like four or six months and we’ve now been here for a year just ’cause you just it just feels very homey.

And you just like get connected, I think. Yeah. It’s a very cool place to like just live and your your lifestyle is very good and you know, you become happy with what you’re doing with work and so it’s kind of a motivational sort of a place. Like everyone’s doing cool stuff and has got a cool story. Yeah, and literally like all of our like we’re living in a share house, but it’s in like then one of the nicer areas of town. All of our neighbours are millionaires.

Like they’re all like super nice houses. Like you can’t even see them if you look on the street because they’re like the people who own own the company I work for live opposite the road. And it’s a

Andy Argo (1:20:14)
Pretty good.

Corben (1:20:15)
hefty company. Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:20:17)
So you guys kinda

went there was it pretty quickly after Alice Springs you kind of made your way back towards the east, was it? Or do you guys go via detail?

Corben (1:20:23)
Yeah, we know from

Alice Rings, so Corben got his job.

And then we did like a little trip to Cairns and we saw like the outer reef and we did like the Daintree Rainforest. We had like a like a week like little holiday and then we came here. Yeah. So it’s pretty much straight away. Like we just drove, we did the same sort of thing. We drove from Alice Springs up to Cairns. Another one of them like three days, twelve hour days driving in a straight line and sort of journey. And then just did a few days in Cairns just to break it up and then drove here.

Mm-hmm.

Andy Argo (1:20:57)
Do you find those fun the Daintree? ‘Cause I loved it. Like Daintree for everyone listening is a pretty awesome rain for us, right, up in the north and it’s it’s crazy good.

Corben (1:21:04)
We used to know all like the crocodile tours and everything, so little crocodiles in the in the river and it was cool. Like it’s a cool place. Lasers was sick. I liked it. Yeah. Did you do Kuranda? Did you go to Kuranda when you were there? The little rainforest town?

Andy Argo (1:21:19)
It rings a bell. Yes, I did. Is that the one where the train goes from or two, is it? Is that Kuranda? Yeah.

Corben (1:21:26)
I really wanted to go on the train ’cause it was like the most scenic train in the world. And then I was slightly disappointed when it was like mostly trees. Yeah, it was And then there was like a couple stops

Andy Argo (1:21:35)
Yeah.

Corben (1:21:35)
of like yeah, there was lots of construction. There was a couple stops where it was like amazing waterfalls, but it wasn’t as good as Instagram made it look.

Andy Argo (1:21:44)
It’s always a catch, And that’s the annoying thing, isn’t it? I’d feel like you can’t trust I mean, Bar you guys were on about Bali weren’t we, before this chat? And I feel like that’s case in point, isn’t it? Like I feel like everyone loves Bali but I’m like, it’s okay, but I feel like a lot of it feels like Delhi. It’s just like bloody scooters everywhere and smog and it’s just yeah.

Corben (1:22:00)
my gosh.

Yeah, the scooters, they’re so dangerous. When me and Anna, when we were in the Philippines, we got into three scooter accidents. And I still like.

Andy Argo (1:22:12)
Over what space of time? How how

what time period are we talking about? Is this just in two weeks? That’s impressive.

Corben (1:22:17)
Two weeks? We were in the Philippines for a month,

but our scooter accidents were all like pretty like

There was like two in twenty four hours. Yeah, there was two in the same night because we made these friends, like we went we went to the Philippines with some friends that we met, like at the ice, right? Like Nicole and Larry, and they introduced to some of their friends, who then introduced us to some of their friends. And then we were all like we me and Anna like went and we started traveling with some of Nicole and Larry’s friends. They were super cool, super great, and then some of their friends, we all went to a night out and then we didn’t

Know how to drive the scooters, so he was driving us around on like a scooter, and he had gotten drunk while we were all out. He was the designated driver. But one thing is like where I’m from, and like all of my friends, how it works is if somebody’s the designated driver and you discuss that at the beginning of the night, they’re the designated driver, like they don’t drink. They might have like

Andy Argo (1:23:14)
Yeah.

Corben (1:23:15)
a beer at the beginning of the night, but then other than that, like they won’t drink. So then that’s kind of just how I thought everybody else’s brain works, but it’s not. So he ended up drinking a lot, and then me and Anna.

were so drunk and then he was driving us back to our host yeah it was a big one so it

Andy Argo (1:23:28)
Wait, is this three people on one scooter as well? that’s cozy. Yeah.

Corben (1:23:33)
like fit fit fit three of us pretty comfortably but then we got into two accidents on the way home and I just remember like the first one like I fell back and it hit my head and I was like my god thank god I’m wearing a helmet was like the words that came out and we got like so scratched up and that kind of stuff so yeah it wasn’t

Andy Argo (1:23:53)
I feel like it’s kind

of a I don’t want to say a rite of passage, but I feel like the same in Vietnam, right? You’ve got these places where they are kind of they’re just very scooter heavy for some reason, aren’t I’m assuming it’s just cheap, hot country, right? And they’re just just seems to be a dumb thing. But drinking on one, that’s yeah, I think I’d draw the line on that for sure.

Corben (1:24:07)
Yeah,

don’t definitely don’t do that. And then so then after that I was like, fuck this. am I allowed to swear on here? Yeah. So then I was like,

Andy Argo (1:24:14)
Yeah, why not?

Corben (1:24:17)
I’m learning how to drive a scooter, but I had never really driven like a scooter or anything before. And then we went off like and we went to this beach and then I’d parked on the sand.

And then getting out of the sand, I like just started it too fast. So we weren’t like driving. It wasn’t like an accident. The first two was like proper like wipeout and it was not that great. But then the other one was like, I was starting and then we just fell over. And we still got scratched up though, which was like the worst part. So like we spent like the last two weeks and we were just like all scraped. Scraped. No, it wasn’t that bad, but it was enough to like ruin the vibe, you know? And like

Andy Argo (1:24:57)
Yeah.

Corben (1:24:58)
Yeah, it’s yeah.

Andy Argo (1:24:59)
catch though, isn’t it? ‘Cause they have fun. That’s like one of the best things about travelling, right? Just be on a scooter

Corben (1:25:02)
Right.

Andy Argo (1:25:03)
in the sun, like yeah.

Corben (1:25:05)
And you don’t think about how dangerous they are until you fall off of one. And now I’m terrified to like go back on one if I like go back to Asia. It’s like a jet ski. Jet skis are awesome until you get sent off the ski. I’m n I’m not yeah, yeah. I love riding on a jet ski. And I’m not terrified of one because every time I’ve fallen off I haven’t gotten hurt. But every time I go on a jet ski I almost always fall off.

Andy Argo (1:25:26)
Well you guys using

them on I’ve only done them on the sea and the guy I was renting it in Tenerife over the winter and the guy’s like, you know, don’t go too quick over the jumps and of course that’s the best bit, right? But I can see how

Corben (1:25:35)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:25:35)
you get spat off it, ’cause they don’t have they have some force behind them, right?

Corben (1:25:39)
Mm. Hundred percent. It’s just so quick if you get a good one. But yeah, we have a couple friends. Mm-hmm. No.

Andy Argo (1:25:44)
Are you using them at work then? Are you guys using them there? Do you guys get jet skis through work and stuff?

Corben (1:25:49)
No, we just have speed the ours are speed boats, so it’s like eight of these basically speed boats. So they’re X rescue boats, and that’s what we go out onto the reef with. So it’s it kind of handles like a jet ski. So it’s it’s but it’s

Andy Argo (1:26:02)
Still crashing down,

still getting a bit of impact.

Corben (1:26:05)
So it’s not like a fer like the ferries they roll like this, but ours actually turn into the waves so it can kind of surf it. So it it you kind of never go in a straight line. You’re constant constant surfing the waves. So it’s it’s it’s like a roller coaster almost. So the whole boat’s constantly just like surfing, but it’s 750 horsepower. So they’re just they’re sending it through the waves.

Andy Argo (1:26:28)
it’s pretty cool job. So there’s a skipper who drives it, right? And you’re like a snorkel guide, I wanna say, or what’s the what’s the gig?

Corben (1:26:34)
Yeah, so there’ll be the skipper

that drives the actual boat and they’re they’re the the one who’s in charge and then as a decky, it’s just usually most of the time just the skipper and then you. So two members of staff and then thirty people on this speed boat. So you’re the one who’s going so we do the beach, so we go over to Whitehaven Beach, Hill Inlet, go to the lookout and do the walk. So it’s like an hour long sort of bushwalk up down, have a look at the view, go to the beach and then we do either one or two snorkels depending on the tour. So you

Just going around the Whit Sunday Islands basically. And you’re the one who’s snorkeling with them. So you’re actually in the water doing the snorkels. You have a little GoPro and you’re diving down, taking pictures of people and helping people with their masks and stuff in the water. So you’re doing basically exactly what they’re doing on their tour as staff, which is cool.

Andy Argo (1:27:24)
Well it’s you were saying before, it’s like you could be working back and saving in the UK as a cheesemonger in Morrison’s,

Corben (1:27:29)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:27:30)
or you could be saving up your money, getting paid to go snorkeling in Barry Reef. It’s like I mean, don’t get me

Corben (1:27:35)
It’s ridiculous.

Andy Argo (1:27:35)
wrong, not maybe not everyone’s as lucky to get a good gig like that, but not bad, you know, if you can wangle it.

Corben (1:27:39)
Yeah, I’m definitely

Yeah, I’m definitely very fortunate to be doing the job that I’m doing, but yeah, you go out and you’re literally snorkeling on berry reef, like spend your day like looking at a turtle. Like you’re snorkeling for two hours of your day and you’re being paid for that time. It’s crazy.

Andy Argo (1:27:57)
It’s nuts. And then are you I’m assuming for that as well, like is it getting does it get repetitive? You know, like obviously here it’s sort of driving the Ice Explores and stuff. I feel like it’s still pretty fun, I still enjoy it, you know, sort of s it’s my second year now. But if with that, do you find it would get repetitive or are you still loving loving it just as much?

Corben (1:28:12)
my job is a

bit a bit more varied than some other people who are only just deck hands Like I do a f a few other things, like we do scenic flights off from here over the Great Barrier Reefs on helping peop people pick people up and take them over to the to where they’re taking off from the little mini airport here. So it gives me a few different days where my week’s kind of

s stretched out, where are you doing different things. But generally when you’re on the boats, it’s the same day, but the s the people are different, so you always have a different vibe. You’re always working with different skippers and the conditions are always different, different tides, different weather, whether it’s raining or not, your different snorkel spots. So we’re not always going to the same snorkel spot. You go into the different snorkel spots every time. So it’s it’s constantly different. So it it doesn’t get boring.

Andy Argo (1:29:01)
That’s good.

Corben (1:29:01)
It’s always fun.

Andy Argo (1:29:03)
Extreme job. And then we mentioned there as well, you were saying obviously, so if you go into the Philippines to see people you met in Canada, then when we’re having our little chin wag during the break, you guys were saying you met people who we, you know, used to work with here in in Canada as well. I think that’s the awesome thing, isn’t it? You build out this network and then every country you go to, the more you travel, the more you be like, I know this person from this country and you get your own little tour guide It’s just such a good snowball, isn’t it?

Corben (1:29:26)
It is. It’s crazy that how many people you know from all around the world and like especially like you know, you’ll you’ll get it a bit with work, but I every day I’ve got thirty people and they’re from different parts of the world. Literally you could have a boat which has got people from everywhere, like South America, North America, Europe, Africa.

in one boat, you know, you could get all them different people and they’re all there together. So you’re getting a conversation, I’ve just spoken to that guy who’s from Argentina, I’ve just spoke to that guy from South Africa and they’re all next to each other and you get a really good perspective of different places just by talking to people and what they do for a living and it’s cool like to have that many people you talk to.

Andy Argo (1:30:11)
I suppose as well with that. I think that’s partly why I choose my countries. It’s like you when you meet loads of people like you obviously end up in Oz, you met cool Australians, you’re like, I’ll go to Australia, I’ll hang out with them. I don’t know about you guys and say in Philippines, right? You just meet enough nice people, like if there’s that

Corben (1:30:23)
Mm-hmm.

Andy Argo (1:30:23)
many nice people, it’s gotta be a pretty cool place. I feel like it’s a quite a good way to kinda plan your future trips,

Corben (1:30:28)
Hundred percent. Yeah, like I work with one girl from from Chile and the way she talks about Chile, I’m like, Well, I wanna go. And then Corben’s like, I wanna go to South America, so we’re very heavily weighing that option. Yeah, like we miss meet a lot of people in South America, Chile, Argentina, stuff like that, and they’re all so nice. And then they hype the country up so much, you’ve gotta go, you gotta do this, this, this. So then you start building a list of places you wanna go. The bucket list never stops experiment. Yeah, the bucket list never stops.

Andy Argo (1:30:56)
Yeah. Expensive hobby.

That’s the issue, isn’t it? It’s

supposed to want to travel more.

Corben (1:31:01)
Yeah. I know. But that’s also like kinda where like the remote work starts to go into. Like we’ve both been trying to like build like our own little things. They’re slowly coming together, but they’re not like the big moneymaker. So

Andy Argo (1:31:17)
Well actually that’s a good point to go on to. So Corben, if you can, I’d love to chat about your game. So obviously for us, you know, when you’re travelling in a hostel, I feel like it’s great. And I don’t want to sound miserable ’cause I love hostels, I love hostel life, but after a while the conversation can be a bit same, isn’t It’s hi, where you coming from, where you’re going to. And your game is honestly like the best idea I’ve ever heard. So are you happy to share the world your card game? So I think it’s such a good idea that would kind of I feel like it’ll bond people more quickly in hostels and sort of the travelling world. So are you happy to to tell us more about it?

Corben (1:31:46)
Yeah, 100%. So this is Stretch Card Game, Stretch the Travel Card Game. So I produced this with one of my other friends from the UK who I did a bit of traveling with a few years ago. And we kind of been working on this idea for like what two years I guess now. Long time. And

It’s just around the idea of people do get bored when they’re traveling. Traveling there’s a lot of fun stuff, but there’s also a lot of time when you’re kind of stuck doing nothing where you’re on a bus or you’re waiting for somebody, you’re waiting at a bus stop, or you go on a train, or transport, you’re at dinner, you don’t know what to say, you don’t know what to do. And basically all this is is little mini games you can play during that time and it’s things you can do with strangers, with people you know. It’s a great little icebreaker. So we’ve split it up into different categories, so

Different categories of things you’re usually doing when you’re traveling. So going on transportation, exploring a new city, going for dinner, things like that. And within them categories, there’s little challenges of things to do. So we’ve been testing these challenges with people here in Airlie, but also in different places, Asia. So if you took some home to Canada and I’ve got one that’s in the UK, and we see people that are just trying out, and we’ve had some really good feedback so far, and people have been playing it.

She played it in in Thailand. She said it was really good. So it’s cool. It’s it’s a good thing that we’ve started and it’s it’s really good fun. So hopefully it keeps going.

Andy Argo (1:33:14)
That’s a good thing as well, is it’s pocket sized, isn’t it? It’s like that’s always the catch. Like I love a good chess set, but I’m like, it’s big, it’s bulky. I’m like, that’s just nice. You can bang it in your backpack, you’re away. And I think, like you say, there’s a lot of downtime and especially I don’t know if you guys are the same. I’m cheap, man. I’m travelling on a budget. I’m you know, I have so many time in like overnight buses and it’s such a good idea just to kind of, you know, whittle away the hours and have a bit of a laugh. So yeah, honestly,

Corben (1:33:35)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:33:36)
good luck to it. And for everyone listening, I’ll put up my website as well. There’ll be a link in this website in this website if you guys want to follow it.

So you can find that and get a copy for yourselves. But yeah, it’s a good idea and I love hostels. You need someone to keep you entertained, right?

Corben (1:33:48)
Hundred percent. And we wanna also focus on doing real stuff as well. Like it’s so easy to just slip into like going on your phone. But all of this stuff that we wanna do, especially with stretch card game, is all focused on real interaction with real people. So it’s all real challenges you do outside. So it’s almost stuff that you can’t do when you’re sat down. So it doesn’t really work sat in a bar. It’s actually stuff you gotta go out and do. So it gives you little activities to go and do, which is is really cool.

Andy Argo (1:34:15)
Why don’t you mention that? ‘Cause it’s like, you know, I think there are that’s a good thing with travelling is all these people are quite spontaneous. You know, it’s a different demographic, isn’t it? Like back in the UK and people who are kind of used to a more settled life, you know, I feel like it’s kinda nice being when these people are happy just to kind of be up for pretty much anything. It’s one of the best parts of travelling, right? You can just wing it, do whatever you want in a day.

Corben (1:34:34)
Hundred

percent. And you end up waiting like not waiting, but meeting people who are very similar to you. Like, you know, there’s only a certain type of person that would go and live in an ice field in the middle of nowhere or you know, and that breeds a certain type of person, which means that when you are travelling you’re more likely to run into people who are similar to you.

Andy Argo (1:34:56)
Yeah. I suppose we’ve mentioned the ice field a lot. So this is where to sort of backtrack this is jumping out all over the place. But the ice field is in the Canadian Rockies. It’s where we all sort of met working. So you guys happy to share how you guys kind of found your way here as well. Obviously, I suppose for so if you’ve got it easier being yeah, I suppose you’re still Canadian, but it’s still not exactly close to where you grew up as well. So how you guys find yourselves over here doing what I I think it’s an awesome job. It’s a cool place to live, right? It’s a good excuse to live somewhere remote. But yeah, fire away.

Corben (1:35:25)
well, for me it was kind of really random. Me and my best friend, who I moved there with, Abbi, we were feeling really bored, really restless at home. It’s very it’s a nice city if you like don’t grow up there, but when you grow up there, it’s very like a fishbowl. Like everybody knows each other, everybody does the same thing. It’s like

It’s it’s fine, but then you just you just wanna get out. So we were like, We’re gonna leave for the summer, we’re gonna do something super cool, we kinda we’re looking a bunch of different things. but then her parents actually met working at the ice field and we we were looking at other things, like we looked at jobs in like Alaska and that kind of thing, but it was just a little bit too far away, a little bit too far out of our comfort zone and we both really wanted to travel and do the do something a little bit different, so

She was like, why don’t we just go to the Ice Field, we’ll meet a bunch of people from all over the world because that’s like everybody knows like Banff and Jasper and like that kind of area. And if you’re gonna travel to Canada, that’s where you’re gonna travel to. So we were like, we’ll meet some cool people there, we’ll get like some opportunities and that’s kind of exactly what happened. So she just she applied and then she was like, Okay, I got the job, now it’s your turn And literally she sat me up for it and I then we had an interview and then we were leaving a couple months later.

I didn’t tell any I

Andy Argo (1:36:47)
Excellent.

Corben (1:36:47)
didn’t even tell my mum that I was like applying for it or anything and then I got the job and I was like, hey, this is what I’m doing. And she was like, okay. And then it it worked out because then yeah, obviously I met cool people from all over the world that I’ve now like met Corben there, you and then like a whole bunch of other people who are now like

everywhere I went to the Philippines from like the people I met there and now obviously I’m in Australia from the people I met there. So I feel like it’s a good starting point to be honest.

Andy Argo (1:37:15)
Hundred percent, yeah. And it’s especially where it’s a load of backpackers,

like you say, right? The whole world comes to you and you can cherry pick where you want to go.

Corben (1:37:22)
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s like the importance of doing just one thing. Like if you do one thing, usually that breeds like another opportunity. Yeah. Because you meet so many other people and then you get more options. And then this list never ends. Yeah. Just keeps growing. And we talk about this all the time, how like it’s only scary once. I was so scared to like go to the ice. I was terrified. I like almost didn’t go. I like, Abby, I can’t do this. And then I went and then I stayed the full year. She left early and

Now like then all of a sudden like moving to Australia wasn’t too scary, like going to the Philippines wasn’t too scary, so then it just everything else after that. Like we’re going to New Zealand, we’re going for a little road trip, hiking trip, going to England after that and doesn’t doesn’t seem scary, you know? But the first the first one is always scary. Yeah. Even if it’s close to home.

Andy Argo (1:38:14)
I suppose at least you’ve had Abby to do it with, you’ve had a mate, which I think makes it easier. And it’s always hard, isn’t It’s a lot of people I speak to back in England who are kind of I know they want to do it with someone, but a lot of their mates just are not interested in travelling. They’re just happy in their own little world. They’ve got their bubble of mates. And then I suppose at that point you’ve got to bite the bullet, right? You’ve just got to choose somewhere and just but now I’m guessing no looking back, right? You’re half a world away, living the best time of your life in one of the most beautiful

Corben (1:38:36)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:38:36)
parts of the world and yeah.

Corben (1:38:38)
The one thing I’ve I’ve never done anything alone. I went to the ice with my friends with my best friend. I went

to the Philippines with friends. I came to Australia with Corben. So

Andy Argo (1:38:53)
I just gonna say, why’d do it alone when you

got that piece of arm candy? You know, I don’t blame you. I’d keep him close as well.

Corben (1:38:59)
But if you if you meet like cool people, I just think it just like naturally goes and you just wanna do the cool things. I think if you do it with somebody else it’s easier, but then also like there’s another person like s keeping you outside your comfort zone. But you also need to do it to like meet these people too, you know? You have to be open to like talking to them and then also like going like

somewhere with somebody that you might not really know. You know, me and Corben only knew each other for three months and then we decided to move across the world with each other. So I mean that’s just

how it goes.

Andy Argo (1:39:33)
It takes some guts doing as well. But I mean, I suppose at least you meet in like minded people. Like I feel like everyone we met here at this seasonal job, it is quite remote. Most people here are here ’cause they love the mountains like we do. So it’s like I suppose at least as long as something kind of feel like if it appeals to you, chances are other people who have gone there have gone there for similar reasons, right? So you’ll probably have more in common with them than with, say, just regular people. You know, you’ve got something in common at least, right?

Corben (1:39:56)
Exactly because you’re in such a small space and like the people it attracts, like I said before, is just pretty much exactly who you are. It’s the same as where I work now. Like the staff where I work at Ocean Rafting are the not the same but

down the same path of everyone’s usually got a cool story, it’s a lot of internationals, people have done stuff before, people are planning to do stuff after. So you just end up in the same group and it’s cool because you’re in a different place but you’ve got people who you can relate to.

Andy Argo (1:40:28)
And then yeah, you can just piggyback off their ideas, right? The amount of people you meet in hostels off through at work from like, got like you guys, I haven’t been to the Philippines yet. But you know, if I go that way, I’ll be hitting you guys up for recommendations and I’ll be able to, you know, sort of piggyback off that and like you guys say, meeting all these Chileans, thinking, Chile could be a good bet and then, you know, you’ve got mates down there for when you rock up and arrive.

Corben (1:40:47)
Yeah. Exactly. And she’d be like, please can I stay in your house? Please.

Andy Argo (1:40:52)
Do you guys speak

any languages as well? You guys I’m a I’m only English and a bit of like a smashing of bits and bats of others.

Corben (1:40:59)
Just just English. It it’s very humbling when you travel to all these other places. You feel like such a dick. Like some people like

Andy Argo (1:41:06)
Ha ha.

Corben (1:41:07)
only speaking English, like once once you like learn that like so many people have to learn English and that’s just the only language you speak, you just feel like such a dickhead. At least

Andy Argo (1:41:18)
It’s kind of embarrassing,

isn’t it, when you meet Europeans who speak like five and I’m like, God, I can barely speak English you know, on a good day like

Corben (1:41:23)
Yeah.

Or like, yeah, there’s like I w one of the only people at my job besides like management where English is my first language. And it’s just

I can’t like there’s all a lot of people that also visit from other countries and there was this one girl that like didn’t speak like a lick of English and she was spoke Spanish and I was like I cannot help you and then I turned to my coworker and I was like I was like what language do you speak and she was like Espanol and I was like get over here you need to talk to them and then then she was able to help them like so easily and I so it helps but then but then you know

It’s good we have different staff who can talk different languages because we have such a different clientele tourism, sp like at the ice, the reason it’s probably got this that many people from different places is because it’s good to communicate in different languages. Like, I’m never gonna learn Mandarin, but if you’ve got a Mandarin staff, it really helps because you can they can communicate.

Andy Argo (1:42:30)
Yeah. Hundred percent. And I think, yeah, that we are lucky here. There’s so many people and I think as well, just being exposed to a lot probably helps, but it does limit our options, isn’t it? Like for us to work in holiday, I suppose what makes Australia and Canada so good, right? And New Zealand, of course, you guys go into next and it’s so easy for us. And even when I was in India, like it everyone speaks even if they’re not fluent, they speak some degree of English and Philippines, right? Their English is amazing. You know, so at least you can bond with the locals, right, and make it for your mates.

Corben (1:42:55)
Yeah, we’re very lucky in that regard. We’re there’s a even a a small little bit of English can go a long way.

Andy Argo (1:43:03)
Well I want to ask you guys as well for Australia, I appreciate what we’ve kind of done a whirlwind tour of your trip, but where do you where are your top picks? Where are your kind of your places you’d recommend for people to go and visit? And especially anywhere that’s kind of under the radar, like we mentioned about Instagram, leading people a spray, but gone. So if you look like you’ve got something on your tip of your tongue, hit me with it.

Corben (1:43:19)
Well that we

We stopped in Rockhampton just for the night. We weren’t really planning on doing anything there. But then in the morning before we left to go finish our journey to Sydney, Corbin’s like, I think we should do something. So we just went on Google Quick and then we did this cave tour. It was like a 45-minute tour in the morning. And it was so cool. And like everybody that I’ve heard that like has gone to Rockhampton, I’m like, have did you like do the cave tour there? And they were like, nah, I’ve never even heard of that. I’m like, man, you should have went. Because it was so cool. You learned so

much history about the caves and then at the end like they talked about the acoustics and then they like turned all the lights off and then they played this song like hallelujah and it was like the cool it was just such a cool experience and it was just so random. And that one I’ve never even heard of before and it was really an unexpected thing but I think about it all the time.

And it was a little cool adventure. So apparently this this cave outside of Rockhampton, which not many people visit, says like drive a little bit out of Rockhampton and you arrive at this center and they just take you underneath into this cave system. But the floors and some of the walls are actually made by bats.

So over a long period of time, bats have like basically pooed all over this place. And it’s formed

Andy Argo (1:44:41)
Nice.

Corben (1:44:42)
these solid floors. And you’re walking on top of what is bat poo. And underneath you is just a huge cave system. So you’re walking on this on top of bat poo, which is supporting all your weight, which is crazy. So it’s hollow. So if you

Andy Argo (1:44:57)
my god.

Corben (1:44:58)
bang on the floor, it’s hollow underneath.

And they take you

Andy Argo (1:45:01)
Jesus.

Corben (1:45:02)
all through this cave system, and then you get down to the bottom. And they’ve basically built what is like a church in the bottom of this cave system, and there’s pews down there, and they host weddings and stuff in the bottom of this bat cave. And

We all sit on these pews and it’s they’ve got these tiny little lights up in in this in the top part of the cave. And right in the top, top, top part of the cave there’s all these bats just chilling like in the in the in the roof of the cave.

And in the air they turned off all the lights, play hallelujah. And supposedly the acoustics in this random back cave are better than that what’s in the Sydney Opera House. Yeah, I think if I rem remembering it like accurately, the best acoustic is like 2.4.

And Sydney Opera House is like one point six or something, maybe one point eight, and the acoustics

Andy Argo (1:45:54)
way.

Corben (1:45:55)
in there was two point two. I don’t know. I you have to find the statistic, but it’s supposedly better in this back

Andy Argo (1:46:01)
It’s good.

Corben (1:46:02)
cake. But it did sound like surreal. It was so cool. And then the like the fact that they turned out the lights so it was like exactly pitch black, so you couldn’t do anything except focus on like the music. And it was it was really cool, so that’s that’s and it’s just like a random little

Andy Argo (1:46:16)
Well it’s funny you’re saying that people go through it and

have never heard of it. ‘Cause I’ve I’ve been through Roxhampton, I’ve never heard of this either. So this is news for me. I’ve yeah, never even on my radar.

Corben (1:46:25)
Yeah. But so many people stop there. It’s just like a road trip because it’s like in between It’s like the perfect way to see the distance between here and like the Gold Coast. Like people of people are like travelling all the way down.

Andy Argo (1:46:38)
Yeah. That’s a good one to know. Something different as well, I feel like. There’s some cool caves, sort of canmore, aren’t

Corben (1:46:41)
I think I think it’s from the Sunshine Cove

to Sydney. I think Rockhampton is No, it’s not. It’s four hundred and something kilometers from here. Is it? Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:46:51)
If you know off the top of your head, I can do time, I can’t do kilometres. That’s impressive.

Corben (1:46:56)
There’s a sign that’s outside Proserpine and it’s like Mackay Rockhampton. Rockhampton’s like four hundred and sixty kilometers or something. Never mind. I don’t know where it is. But I know the caves were really cool. I don’t know. And then

Andy Argo (1:47:13)
Well, that’s my issue with Queensland as well. Not issue, but like, you know, you mentioned Mackay there. I feel like there’s Mackay, Yapoon, all these like beautiful coastal towns. And I feel like you almost get spoiled. Like they’re so beautiful. They’ve all got like a nice lagoon, like a swimming pool, and then a beautiful beach. And I feel bad ’cause now some of them are sort of blurring into one. ‘Cause I feel like they’re all just so picturesque, aren’t they? And pristine. It’s just unreal.

Corben (1:47:35)
It’s crazy. There’s some cool places on the east coast. And like even Cairns, like everybody goes to Cairns to like do the reef, but we went to Fitzroy Island and that was really cool. And we saw the reef, but then we were like really debating if we should like stay an extra night to do the outer reef. And we did and it was Yeah. was that outer reef is like the best thing I may have ever done in life.

We wanna go

Andy Argo (1:48:01)
Really?

Corben (1:48:01)
f further north and do it with the dainty like Cape Tribulation and do that later in the year, in August time. But the outer reef

So you’ve got two different types of reef in Australia. One of them is fringing reef. So fringing reef that reef is attached to islands that’s tidal. So as the tide rises and falls, that reef sometimes will drop out of the water. So the top part of it can die, basically. But generally the reef is just attached to the island. But the outer reef is when you see it on a map, you see the coast of Australia and then that reef that’s out like this. That’s the outer reef. So the further north you get in Australia, the closer it gets.

to the coast so the quicker it can you can get there. So like on an ocean rafting boat or speed boats in Cape Tribulation you get to the outer reef in about 15 minutes.

Andy Argo (1:48:53)
wow.

Corben (1:48:53)
But on a on a on a ferry, how long is it from Cairns? It’s like an hour and a half. I think it took yeah, like an hour and a half, almost two hours to get to the outer reef. Yes. But they fed and it’s So it’s a long way out there, but it’s absolutely outstanding. The the reef is just crazy. We got in the w you get in the water straight away and the visibility’s like glass. You can just see like all the way it’s like if you’re looking all the way across a room, it’s

Amazing. It’s like absolutely crazy. You get in and it’s like some sort of visceral emotion. It’s just the craziest thing ever. Yeah, it’s like whatever you picture in your head what the Grape Barrier Reef whether what the Great Barrier Reef looks like is exactly what it looks like on the outer reef tour. Like the inner reef tour was like it was cool. Or not the inner reef tour, but like you know, like the fringe fringing reef. It’s really cool and it’s really good to see, but it outer reef is just so much different. Yeah. Fringing reef can be

Andy Argo (1:49:46)
We’re talking more

sea life as well, more fish, more funky animals, that kind of stuff.

Corben (1:49:50)
It depends.

It depends where you go. Like s some of the fringy reef we go to here is phenomenal, but it has to be very good it has to be the right conditions. but on that outer reef when we went, it was I’ve never seen visibility like that in water ever. It’s just insane.

Andy Argo (1:50:08)
Well I feel like it does almost spoil beaches. Like I’ve travelled a lot and I’ve seen nice beaches everywhere, but I feel like the ones in Australia are just so much better than anywhere else I’ve seen for just being ’cause they’re just so clean, right? They’re clean, they’re well kept, there’s like no one on a lot of them. And then yeah, with the with the reef as well and I never got over to the west. I don’t know if you guys are planning a trip out to you know like Ningaloo and stuff like that where it’s got the whale sharks. But for me I

never

Corben (1:50:29)
It’s not

Andy Argo (1:50:30)
got that far over.

Corben (1:50:32)
It’s on the list, but it it’s so big. Like we really wanted to do a trip like this month to there, but we wanna go to Esperance and we wanna go to Exmouth, like in the Ninglu Reef. But those are on opposite sides. So it’s really you need a long time to travel that side of the coast and basically with budget we would

choosing between Western Australia or New Zealand. We just think New Zealand is probably a better option for us right now, just because it’s the mountains and stuff and we really want to do that.

Andy Argo (1:51:03)
Yeah, and I think you’ve had so long in Australia, I’m guessing you’re craven mountains again, right? A bit of yeah, I wouldn’t say colder weather, but yeah.

Corben (1:51:07)
Yeah. That’s what I said. So you can go reach

again or you can go and try and do some mountains and some like really cool adrenaline stuff. And that’s what we’re planning on doing in New Zealand.

Andy Argo (1:51:18)
Yeah, and I feel like it’s very backpacker friendly in New Zealand as well, Like it’s such a like you say in Australia you drive for five hours and it looks the same. I feel like New Zealand. It’s still vast, but it’ll change more quickly, right? And it’s so accessible and yeah, full of skydiving, rafting, it’s kind of got it all, hasn’t it? It’s a backpack’s dream.

Corben (1:51:34)
Yes, we want to have like a really like lit adventure. I feel like

Andy Argo (1:51:39)
Yeah.

Corben (1:51:39)
that’s the best word to describe it. Lit. Lit. Bungee jumping. White water rafting. Hiking. Yeah. Just anything that’s cool. Yeah. We’re doing helicopter ride. It’s one of my friends who just

went on a

a tour over there which was you take a helicopter to the top of a r a glacier and then they just drop you off and you hike out. So cool. Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:52:11)
Franz Joseph. Incredible.

The Heli hike. Yeah. I did it when I was there and it’s the pilots. Like, obviously we’ve been glacier guides out here where you drive a effectively a big bus onto a glacier. I think our job’s pretty cool, but there’s his next level, ‘Cause they drop you and then I don’t know if you’ve seen the videos, but the pilots they just plummet off the edge. It’s like dropping a stone, like, coolest job ever, like fair play to them. But yeah, you guys will you’ll love it.

Corben (1:52:33)
like past the being in the military flying helicopters and then go over there. You’d think.

Andy Argo (1:52:38)
Little cheesy retirement

job, you know, living the dream, getting paid to look at glazes.

Corben (1:52:42)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:52:44)
Yeah. And I feel like the people are nice. I remember hitchhiking round there as well, and it’s like I always judge how nice people are about how easy it is to hitchhike. And I say New Zealand and Taiwan are like Taiwan might just clinch it ’cause you could literally hitchhike in the wrong direction and get picked up. But New Zealand, like the best people and Taiwan, like just yeah. And to fair Aussie’s really good as well, aren’t they? They’re a good bunch, like you were saying, but but yeah, there’s next level laid back.

Corben (1:53:05)
Yeah,

awesome. Well we’re looking forward to it. It should be fun.

Andy Argo (1:53:11)
Well yeah, so in terms of you guys then New Zealand and then see how you go, sort of assuming budget wise and keeper that travels, you mentioned South America and I think that’s the good thing about you guys starting so young, right? It’s like, well, you can just be spontaneous, you know. I feel like when you hit thirty everyone’s getting married and having kids, you’ve got these commitments you’re kinda getting dragged back home for. speaking of, you are going to England, aren’t you? So you’ve got that got that to look forward

Corben (1:53:28)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:53:31)
to.

Corben (1:53:31)
You know, you you can’t just be on the road forever, you gotta come and see your family and say hello and you know, you miss them when you’re on the road, so you gotta you gotta go back at points and say hi and it’d be nice to see them at I see everybody, so that’d be cool. Looking forward to that. But then yeah, you wanna try and plan in other stuff that you know you kind of have a bit of a direction of what you’re gonna do after.

Andy Argo (1:53:54)
Yeah. And I suppose for you that’d be your first time meeting the family, right, Sophie, for Corbyn’s head. After all this time you d

Corben (1:53:57)
Yep. I’m actually really excited.

Andy Argo (1:54:01)
Is it two years now you’ve been dating and then ’cause you’ve been travelling all the time?

Corben (1:54:03)
Yeah.

Well yeah, it’s we’ve been over here for over a year. It was a year and a half now. Longer than a year and a half. Longer than I think it’s been a year. Just over a year and a half. And then I went home for three weeks in between Canada and here, but yeah, I was in Canada for that period before. So it’s been a while.

Andy Argo (1:54:26)
Yeah. Yeah, I’m curious what you think when you go back. Like I kind of I don’t know, when I went back I’d forgot how much I missed the place. Like it is a you know, I love the UK.

Corben (1:54:32)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:54:33)
It’s good place, good history, good people.

Corben (1:54:35)
When did you go back?

Andy Argo (1:54:37)
So I went back for the first time in I went back just over the winter. So I planned to go back and then go to Arabia and then ended up spending a bit of time working on this little website I’d been working on, which I’ve fired off. And then also obviously the whole Iran thing kicked off. So I was gonna go to Oman and Arabia and then they started cancelling flights and I had to be back here for work for the seasonal gig. So I kind of yeah, planned to go that and end up just spending probably about four months back in the UK. It’s the first time I’d probably been back in four years and it was really good.

It’s just good to be back and chilling out, seeing family and like you can have your WhatsApp calls and stuff, can’t you? But it’s not the same as being sat face to face and yeah, sat opposite someone. So yeah, it’s good.

Corben (1:55:15)
That’s cool. Yeah, nice. Where did you stay? You stayed mum, dad or

Andy Argo (1:55:19)
Yeah, kinda it’s mum and dad for a bit, but they’re like West Cumbria. So they can see the Isle of Man from where they are. But then my brother and his missus there Leeds and a lot of my mates are Leeds, so I’m from like North Yorkshire, but then spent eight years in Leeds ’cause you know what it’s like round that way, not much work. So see a lot of my mates around there and I end up going to stay with my brother and his missus for what I thought would like maybe three, four weeks, and then I’ll be off on my travels again. End up turning into probably about three months. So I feel bad

Corben (1:55:43)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:55:44)
for just, you know, completely third wheeling their marriage. But

But I had a great time.

I hope they did as well. Yeah, binge watched Harry Potter, you know, hadn’t seen that ever, so that was kind of a an education. But yeah, it’s just, yeah, good to be back. And I think the culture is different as well, Like I feel like the Aussies are very laid back and I feel like our humour’s maybe a bit more dark than in Canada.

Corben (1:56:04)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:56:05)
Yeah. Yeah. You guys are a good bonus though, so don’t take that the wrong way. You guys are all right.

Corben (1:56:14)
Not offended. That’s good. But yeah.

Andy Argo (1:56:17)
Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, thanks for coming on guys. I was gonna say one final thing. I wanted to ask you guys for advice. Is there any kind of any books you’d like to recommend? Any nuggets of wisdom for travellers? Any sort of wisdom you’d like to share for world? I appreciate I’m putting you guys on the spot.

Corben (1:56:33)
Do I I don’t read. I think I think

My my my dad would always say never start a list with a number because don’t say I’ve got two things to say just start but my my first thing would be if you’re gonna start traveling do consider a working holiday because it gets you out straight away and if you’re

eager to travel and eager to go and experience stuff, but maybe you don’t have the financial financial backing or the savings to do it.

definitely consider a working holiday off the off the gate because it gives you a really good footing to learn something but you’ve still got the stability you’ve got a job and a place to be and friends and stuff. And even if you go through an agency, really good option. So definitely consider a working holiday because it gets you out there in the places you want to be but also earning money. So you get to experience some good stuff earlier instead of thinking I’ve got to work for two years in a job I hate in a place that I’m not happy to then afford to go and burn through all my savings.

Just go and do something cool.

Whilst you’re working at the same time. So Yeah, I think that’s probably the best one to do it. I feel like that’s what I’ve done the whole time. ‘Cause like I just I went to the ice and I was working, but I was also like in a cooler place than where I lived and then doing cooler things, meeting cooler people. Went for like a month and I traveled, but like yeah, you you’re stressed with money when you’re like not working and traveling and now that we’re here, you can you get so much a better of a feel for a place than if you were just going.

Andy Argo (1:58:17)
Missing through. Yeah, couldn’t agree more.

Corben (1:58:18)
Yeah.

But just taking that first step because it’s always gonna be scary or whatever, but go go and do something no matter what it is. And as soon as you broke down the barrier of getting out of the bubble, the world just is a so much bigger than you think it is, and it just takes one as soon as you do one thing you build your confidence and then be everything becomes normal. You’re like capable of doing anything you wanna do. You just kinda have to think.

that you can do it. Yeah. Like going to Australia is just it’s just like getting on a plane and going to Spain, but you just stay on the plane for a bit longer. Like it’s just taking the first step is the most important thing, I think. And that’s honestly just with anything. Yeah, just do it and then you’ll be fine. You’ll work it out.

Andy Argo (1:59:07)
Especially

especially for us, right? It’s everything so transparent. Like you book a hostel, you can see the star rating, you can see how well reviewed it is, you can book everything advanced. Like you kind of there’s not that much which isn’t unknown, right? I mean maybe like you say

Corben (1:59:18)
No. Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:59:19)
for work it depends if you just rock up and wing it, but other than the rest it’s it’s pretty kind of easy to research, isn’t

Corben (1:59:25)
Yeah, and nowadays, like everybody there’s always at least one person who’s probably done what you’ve wanted to do. You know, what you want to do. So like it’s not like it’s unheard of. You know, you’re not the first person to travel, you’re not the last person to travel. No, and there’s people that are there to help you online and you know you will meet people, you know, if you’re by yourself, you’ve got no choice but to meet people and talk to people and the skills that you gain from

Going out and doing something that’s completely different and having stories to tell people is i it’s invaluable. It’s yeah. The amount of it sounds so silly to say the amount of like growth you have from travel and it changes who you are, but it does. Like it’s it changes what you think is possible and what you can do with your life and going experiencing different things and seeing different places and talking to people from different backgrounds and who do different stuff with their life, whether it’s their job or how they live, gives you a lot of

inspiration of what you can do. And more people are keen to help you than you think. I feel like. Like you think they’re like, I’m doing this alone. Nobody’s gonna help me. But like if you just ask, so many people are so nice and they’re always willing to help, especially like if you’re really like down in the dumps, like you you’ll find something, you know? Yeah. So you know and

Andy Argo (2:00:45)
Yeah, and I think you’ve

made a good point before, just incremental, isn’t it? You know, you’ve you’ve gone to the ice fields, you’ve gone to Australia and then you’ll just keep snowballing from there and you don’t have to do everything at once, right? You can just build up to it over time and yeah, ease into it.

Corben (2:00:56)
Yeah.

It doesn’t have to be a big a big thing. You can definitely ease into it, build up to it. Yeah. And if you’re like you’re like with other people and you know, you you kinda hope that people will come and talk to you, but other people are probably hoping that you’ll come and talk to them too. So just go

Andy Argo (2:01:15)
Yeah.

Corben (2:01:15)
and talk to people because most of the time they’re probably thinking the same as you.

Andy Argo (2:01:21)
I suppose for them you’re a resource as well, right? You know, I suppose, you know, you might get helped by them, but equally they’ll be interested in what life’s like in the UK or Canada. And you know, I suppose they’re

Corben (2:01:29)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:01:30)
curious. Like you see all these Aussies coming up to you who wanna either have been to or wanna go to Whistler and Banff You know, we all just I’ll be honest at this point, they might as well get rid of visas for with the amount of us that just rotate, you know, make our

Corben (2:01:39)
I know.

Andy Argo (2:01:40)
lives easy.

Corben (2:01:41)
Yeah. The amount of conversation that you can get out of someone in twenty minutes, you know, people come feel comfortable with you pretty much straight away as long as like, you know, you have a normal conversation and people wanna people wanna talk to people, especially nowadays. If you’re confident and yeah, normal then lots of people wanna talk to you. Yeah. Yeah. I people even if you’re not normal. But people are a lot of people are like starved of

Human connection. People do want to talk to other people. So start off by talking to someone and they’ll they’ll probably be like, sick, yeah, I’ll talk to you.

Andy Argo (2:02:13)
And this thing’s funny, you guys saying obviously you drove all the way from the east to the centre of Australia. I have so many mates back home where they’re terrified of sort of losing their job. And you know, when you’ve been travelling you’re like, I’ll be fine. I can move abroad, I can drive halfway across Australia for work. You kinda get so much more resilient and happy just to go with the flow and you get so much more confident.

Corben (2:02:30)
It’ll

be fine. That is definitely one thing that I was scared of. I was like, like like what if you can’t get a job or something? But then once once you get once you do it once, you’re like, it wasn’t that hard. And then like maybe even like the second time, it was a little bit harder the second time around. But it still happened. So I mean, you’ll just always work it out because you have to. So like you got no choice. You will work it out. It’ll be fine.

Andy Argo (2:02:58)
And you get used to right? Like you said, it’s rejection therapy almost. And now, you know, if you’re working in sales, you do get used to it. It is kinda brutal at first, isn’t it, but after a while. And I think as well for your jobs, you you’re probably doing different jobs than if you’d stayed at home. There’s all these like snorkeling and stuff

Corben (2:03:11)
Right.

Andy Argo (2:03:12)
like that for a living. It’s like, God, not in a million years could you do that back at home and then you’re now you’re doing all these random

jobs that you wouldn’t have dreamed of.

Corben (2:03:20)
Mm yeah, I don’t think I would have started doing like obviously I’m just working a restaurant job like here as like my eighty eight days and like my stability. But the other things that I’m doing I wouldn’t I don’t think I would have done if I was at home because I wouldn’t have been like

wanting to learn different things and like wanting to try new things. But it’s like it’s not I’ve not studied to go and do tourism. It’s just something that I fell into, but you know, it’s not something I ever thought I would do. I I never really knew what I wanted to do when I grew up. I knew that I kinda wanted to work with cars. But that didn’t really work out. But

You know, you can’t call that that’s a bad thing where you I I missed out on doing this job that was really cool in the UK. But if I would have got a job in cars in the UK, maybe I wouldn’t have come and do all this stuff. So sometimes things you might think are bad at the time are actually a blessing in disguise. Hindsight.

Andy Argo (2:04:11)
Yeah. And it’s also like, well, what if you’d worked in cars? I mean, like, you know our parents’ generation, you get the gold watch, right? You work at one company for forty years. Whereas I feel like if you’ve been a backpacker, you’ll get all these random little skills. It might be you get a career for twenty years and then maybe yeah, it takes your job, but then ’cause you’ve got all these past life experiences, maybe you can retrain more easily. It’s turned into a career podcast. But like all those random little skills, I feel like you never know, they’ll circle back at some point like

Corben (2:04:33)
No, but like it

I think that is like what teach I feel like the sociable and like confident skills is just something that Yeah you can carry in anything. And as if you’re sociable and confident you can probably do any job and or at least talk your way in any job and learn as you go. Yeah, pretty much.

Andy Argo (2:04:53)
Well in terms of next steps of how to find you are you happy to share your public Instagram, if people can wanna track you down and see some more?

Corben (2:05:00)
Yeah, so well with the card game, if anyone wants to check out the car game, that’s at stretchcar game. So you can do stretchcardgame.com with and stretchcar game on Instagram as well. And then personally my Instagram is brown underscore Corben. That’s probably the best one to follow, just because we’re gonna be changing a few things round as we’ve got a few more projects in the pipeline. So all them projects are gonna

clump together as one. So we’ll have the card game with a few of the other things which are going to be really cool experiences. So that may change the domains there. So honestly the best is probably follow my personal Instagram, but you can also follow the card game one as well. As that swaps, we’ll put up some information and direct people in the right thing so they can follow along.

Andy Argo (2:05:51)
Nice and easy. Happy days. And then so for you guys, if you do

Corben (2:05:52)
That’s it.

Andy Argo (2:05:54)
want to get those links as well, I’ll pop them on this episode. So if you go on my website, andiago.com forward slash podcast, you’ll find the episode and down there as well. You can find links to the card game and to their Instagrams on there as well. You can also check out my travel guide as well for Australia with cool things to do. So feel free to check those out. Honestly, thanks again for joining guys. Thanks for your time and enjoy the rest of your travels.

Corben (2:06:14)
well thanks Andy. This was so fun. Yeah, thanks very much. It was good to catch up with you too. See what you’re doing.

Andy Argo (2:06:19)
Likewise, it’s been long overdue. You’re looking a lot more tan

than I am, I’m jealous. Until you’ve been down under.

Corben (2:06:24)
I’m not, I’m still see through. This is yeah, this is Corbin’s 10. All right, awesome. Yeah. Thanks.

Andy Argo (2:06:26)
I mean, we are English, you know. Yeah, it suits it, suits it, you know. All right, well

thank you so much for joining guys and we’ll catch you on the next one.

Corben (2:06:37)
See ya.