Hey again, we've now made it to melbourne (st kilda to be precise) after 5 lovely days in the camper and we already done loads. Start from the beginning.....

22nd Sept

Started really well with nice weather etc n good mood as we were going to pick the camper up. After a taxi journey there we ended up walking all the way back with the sellers to register the car to us fun! After we'd finished that another mcdonalds may have been bought and we headed to tpick the van up and start on our way. Craig was nominated driver to start and had couple of practice laps around the car park before heading into the center of Sydney. Before we drove a big distance we needed to change the regulator which controls the voltage given to the car from the altenator and was told it would cost aroud $50 which was a bargain. We asked for it to be done and got a mechanice telling us the whole altenator needed changing. To cut a long story short we were stuck with a couple of garages telling us we need to payt alot until a nice guy just did what was needed and charged us next to nothing. Again on our way we headed for mikes 2nd cousins house, steven. The address and number may have been misplaced a little bit to by his great memory, mike remembered most of the address, looked it up and gave Craig somewhere to go. Sods law was that when we arrived we had no number so ended up knocking on every door in the street trying to find this elusive Steve (mike never met or spoken to him). Last house to check and an old man answers, tells us theres 2 "Neal PLaces" across Appin, where we were. Problem is we didnt know where the other one was. IT was getting dark so we ended up just pulling into a layby and spending our first night in the van. O yea...when we bought the vans we cheated some travellers out of their surf boards (ended up spend about 70 english pound for 2 surf boards)

23rd Sept + 24th Sept

Today after a crappy night sleep we were travelling towards Batemans bay, said to be quite nice apart from one local who said its full of *shinybums* Nope we didnt know what he meant either. Anyway after a couple of hours driving we ended up there but didnt think much of it so carried on a little bit further south.We drove past a nice lake/river/sea thing and ended up pulling up in a wooded area and camped out. This was where we sorted the van out as you can see in the picture. Was a nice night and a really nice place to kip for the night.

Next morning we were up early, had brekkie and started driving towards Eden..by this time, me and ryan had started driving. Eden was a nice town with some great views etc. We stopped at the info centre and got a lot of help from them. Was still early in the day so we all went the the local fishing shop where ryan bought a rod n some tackle. At the beach while ryan was struggling to cast over the surf, me and craig had just the same problem but surfing the surf. It was so rough and cold you couldnt get anywhere on the boards so in the end we all just gave up n left and headed to a seaside kind of carpark. Ryan had anotrher go at fishing but with some locals and caught what they think was a Flathead but we know was a Dogfish. When Ryan said they could keep it they got a bit excited and left us. Define cheeky: That night camping out in front of a B&B!

25th + 26th Sept

After a quite long drive and some stopping for hte virews and beaches we arrived in Lakes Entrance which i would say is the equivalant of Cornwall/devon in that it has some nice beaches, alot of attractions and is where a lot of tourist go. There we treated ourselves to a leisure centre, the nicest pool where we messed about n played abit of vollyball etc. After a couple of hours luxury (to us) we headed and got a kebab. It was soooo soo nice but really different to the ones at home. That was another cold night after a nice day so when we ended up camping out we soon were in bed.

Next day we had a long drive where all 3 of us had a go whiles the others had a quick nap. We drove into Victoria and north towards Melbourne. It was getting quite late so we stopped at another info centre who poointed out a camping ground kind of place. We ended up in the booosh! Completely surrounded by forest etc it was a loud night with the wildlife. We had a little game of footy around there and ull see frm the pictures craig managed to ended up quite a way down in the river. Craig n ryan got bitten loaaads that night but I did fine and slept really well.

27th - NOW (2nd Oct)

A little bit of driving took us into Melbourne this day and we had a little walk round the city and took a tram south to St kilda - we're there now - look it up. We went back and got the van and parked it in the hostel we're staying in which is soo nice compared to the once in Sydney. Made a good lot of friends, some nice room mates ( apart from the one below ryan on the bunks who may have got lucky one night and woke ryan with a bit of bed shaking haha).

Anyway been a quiet couple of days and we juust relaxed really as we found a job, mostly labour work but with food and accom included down at Apollo Bay which is on the way to our next stop, Adelaide.

We all went and got ourselves some cheap mobiles to get in touch on etc but as it always goes mike drew the short straw and ended up with a pink phone!!!! only colour they had in stock until we walked past their other branch who wouldnt let him change it...great!

Played in a pool comp at the hostel, ryan came 3rd and mike won woop. Craig tried his best :) Introduced the aussies to top gun n they loved it goood gd! umm as i said, not alot has been done here really. Watched the grand final of aussie rules football which is about as good as watching paint dry- no offence!

Last night was by far the best we've all had here as we went to meet the neighbours stars at a local bar. Ended up meeting to of the more fine celebs (Jenay and Carmela if you watch it... o and ringo) We came 2nd in the quiz there but not many people took part so not really 2 hard. The dj was a bit naff but ended up playin you've lost that loving feeling from top gun yeear! So if u reading this palmer, dont worry, me and craig rocked it for ya! Got kicked out of there around11 so went on to an irish bar where there was live music and aloooot of people. Had really good time there, consumed a couple of beverages and ended up missing the last tram home. Instead of doing the sensible thing in getting a taxi we startd the 1 and a half hour walk back to the hostel. Ended up getting in at 4 and getting woken up by the roomates going to work at 7 nice.

Thats it so far i think, email us if you need us or just leave comments. Really enjoy reading them so thanks guy. Be in touch soon

Peace out!