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Hi Folks
Hope you are all well. So when we left Sydney Jan 8th we flew to Adelaide and had one night there before collecting a car and setting off to see Oz. We drove towards Melboure but first stopping at Robe for a night. We got on to the Great Ocean Road and saw The Bay of Islands, London Bridge and the 12 Apostles and along the way we stayed a night in Port Fairy and then Lorne before reaching Melbourne.
One of the friends we'd made while travelling in South America very kindly offered to put us up in Melbourne. So we stayed with her in South Yarra - just next to St Kilda. We visted the Victoria National Gallery and saw an exhibition on trainers - yes that's right, trainers. Clearly not quite my choice but I found it mildly interesting, lots of old skool Jordans, Bathing Ape, Rebok pumps etc. We had a wander round the Botanical Gardens and went to St Kilda market and out for a few beers, obviously.
Next we flew to Ayers Rock and decided to go on a tour led by Aboriginal people which was interesting, then we sat and watched the sunset with a glass of bucks fizz, although it was raining so the rock didn't really change colour as it's meant to. It was still a pretty awsome sight though, we were a lot more impressed with Ayers Rock than we thought we'd be.
Next day (Tues 16th) we flew from Ayers Rock over to Perth. We went on a wine tour (as you do) and visted 5 wineries, 1 brewery and 1 chocolate factory!!! Fantastic! I can strongly recommend the Chenin Blanc from the Swan Valley region of Western Australia. Thursday we took a boat trip over to Rottnest Island and stayed in a hostel that used to be an army barracks and had to stay in a stinky mixed dorm. While snorkeling at Rottnest Christian got stung by a jellyfish but luckily it wasn't one of the evil ones, although I don't doubt that it was still rather painful. Friday we spent the night in Freemantle which was nice with some good bars and a cheap asian food market. Sunday we met up with some of Christains family and spent the day with them in Parkerville then drove to Mandurah for the night. Madurah was full of flash boats parked up in the jetty's that backed on to people's very flash houses. From there we headed down to Albany where Christian did his advanced PADI course and I gave myself a pedicure, read a lot and went for coffee and cake a lot. Next on to Margret River the regions biggest producer of wine for a couple of nights and from there back to Perth to see family again and on Sunday night we flew to Cairns.
Cairns is so different - totally tropical. Perth was hot (41 degrees one day) but very dry, Cairns is very, very hummid and wet. So not content with killer snakes, jellyfish, spiders and sharks, over on this coast the have killer frogs too. My nerves are shot. We stayed in Cairns a night and visited another Aisan food market and swam in the gorgeous lagoon they have there (man made so none of the affore mentioned killers around). Next day it started to rain when collected our car and we set off down the coast towards Mission Beach to stay in a treehouse hostel. The hostel was out of power when we arrived but they soon had it fixed. To get from our room to the loo we had to go outside and as soon as dusk fell out came the frogs. There was hundreds of the little critters and as I didn't know if these were the evil ones or not I took no chances and stayed in our room as long as I could. We didn't get to Dunk Island as it was still raining so we headed down towards Townsville and got the ferry over to Magnetic Island. We stayed there 2 nights and stayed in and read and drank as theres not a great deal else to do at a beach resprt when its raining. Actually that's not strictly true, Christian went for a run on the beach but ended up getting bitten on the bum by a giant poodle en route. He's ok now (the hero) and the owner was very appologetic. So now we have to watch out for vicious dogs too. We got the ferry back to Townsville on Friday wth the intention of driving down to Airlie Beach but the Bruce Highway was closed due to flooding so we ended up staying there 2 nights and only got to Airle Beach (which doesn't even have a decent beach - we've been duped) today when the highway was cleared. Don't think were going to make it over to one of the Whitsunday Islands as - you guessed it - it's still raining and Queensland is experiencing some of it's worse floods ever. Honestly, torrentail rain in summer in australia - ???? We are cursed. I will never tan (and i've even dropped to factor 18 from 30 to help the tan progress but now all there is is bloody rain! I tell thee.
Anyway 2 weeks from today and we'll be in Mumbai and if by chance they happen to be having there worst summer on record I'll be doing a detour home via the Caribbean - surely they've got to have some sun there?
PS WE FINALLY WON A CRICKET MATCH AGAINST AUSTRALIA WOO HOOO!!! xxxx
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