Australia

We had booked two serviced apartments in a block that was situated in a suburb of Sydney called Petersham. There were 9 of us in total, 5 in the 3 bedroom penthouse apartment and 4 in an adjacent 2 bedroom apartment. Petersham is not the most central location but the price of the apartments reflected their location and we had struggled to find anything else that was suitable for 9 people.

Everyone meeting up in Sydney for Christmas and New Year and been decided on before Gavin and I had left the UK and it was something that we were massively looking forward to having not seen our friends for 8 months.

I got the initial feeling that something was up when I received a text from one the group. A few calls later it transpired that there was a pretty big balls up with our booking and once we all arrived at the apartments the extent of the balls up became clear. Basically the company had messed up somehow but were trying to blame anyone and everyone rather than take responsibility themselves and were less than apologetic for their mistake. The four that were in the two bedroom apartments were fine but the five of us that were in the penthouse were not. We simply could not have the apartment that we booked and the company had no other three bed apartments available to offer us. Based on the fact that it was 22nd December the likelihood of us finding anything else, through any other means, was pretty damned slim.

The solution the company offered was to put us up in a 2 bed apartment with one person on a sofa bed for a few nights. Following this we would have to move to the other side of Sydney and into 3 studio (read: bedsit) apartments. Gav and I would have one 'studio', Sue and Jane another and Sylvia another, with the other 4 people remaining in an apartment in Petersham. Clear as mud? Note quite the group Christmas and New Year we had planned eh?

I was not happy.

To cut a very long story short after a (ahem) conversation between myself and one of the managers, the five of us did move into the two bed apartment with a sofa bed, we stayed there for the duration and did not have to move to the other side of Sydney into the bedsits .....oh yeah, and we didn't pay a single penny. They gave us the whole apartment for 12 nights totally free of charge. A saving of £350 each. Nice.

Of course it didn't end there, the big boss turned up a couple of times and tried to throw his weight around. Unfortunately for him I have weight on my side too.....

Anyway enough on that, here's some piccies that hopefully show what a wicked, wicked time we had with everyone over Christmas and New Year. A huge thank you to everyone for making it such a brilliant 12 nights xxx

Oh no, Sue's found the beer!

Not a bad effort for our first night in the apartment

Sunday 23rd - Vicky's leaving drinks at the Bondi RSL and The Beach Road Hotel

CHRISTMAS DAY

The local garden centre gave away their (almost dead) Christmas trees on Christmas morning.....

Gordon Ramsey aint got nothing on me

Sylvie takes a nap after dinner from which we woke her sometime (and many glasses of wine) later by singing Christmas Carols to her. As you can imagine, it was as though a group of angels had landed in the room and sang to her....

Dinner was followed by drinking games, dares and general messiness

Boxing Day - Sydney to Hobart Boat Race watched from South Head and then fish and chips at Watson's Bay

Thursday 27th - Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. I know it looks like our heads have been superimposed but that is really us stood on top of the bridge at it's highest point

Friday 28th - Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk with lunch at the Cogee Bay Hotel where Gav and I met up with Sara and Victoria whom we had met on our tour of WA. Later we headed out for drinks at the Loft Bar, Kings Street Wharf

Saturday 29th - After shopping along Oxford Street and at the Paddington Market, we met up with Roger and Tracey for drinks at the Paddington Inn

Sunday 30th - Dinner at Sussex Thai (I think the waitress had her hand over the camera lens for that picture) followed by drinks at Cargo Bar, Darling Harbour

NEW YEARS EVE! - Sydney fireworks watched from Mrs Macquairies Chair

Sue, Jane and I arrived at Mrs Macquaries chair at around 9am on the morning of New Years to secure a spot for everyone. Lucky we did as hundreds of other people had the same idea. Lots of queuing followed by a frantic dash with coolboxes and chairs followed. A little bit of stress was well worth though it as it was a wonderful day and night.

Don't ask me. It's the Birmingham Bogle or something isn't it?

(Fireworks pictures to follow. We've used our upload limit for the month!)

Happy New Year!

NEW YEARS DAY! - Field Day

Field Day was absolutely brilliant but apart from the excellent DJs that kept us rocking through the day and night, and of course the fabulous friends we were with, another reason that everyone enjoyed it so much was that they found away of earning money whilst they partied. Every beer or soft drink can that was brought back to the recycling desk earned you one whole shiny dollar. Now you can imagine how many cans are thrown all over the floor at an event like this. Our gang made hundreds of dollars, no exaggeration. Gav made $330, the others made more! There were a fair amount of others that cottoned onto the get rich quick scheme though and our collected cans had to be guarded to prevent them being nicked. It was hilarious seeing all these people running around the field, bin liners in hands, frantically grabbing cans as soon as the last sip had been consumed by an unsuspecting party goer.

NEW YEARS DAY - We partied on at Candy's club after Field Day

All too quickly our time together in Sydney came to an end. Sally, Teresa, Andrew and Kat all on left on 2nd Jan whilst the rest of us left for our flights to Auckland, New Zealand on 3rd Jan.

Gavin and I had had 5 excellent months in Australia and were very sad to be leaving, although of course we were looking forward to the next chapter of our adventures.

We were up early of dawn on Monday 26th November to pack and catch our flight to Melbourne. Ordinarily we pack the evening before a flight, especially when in a dorm, as it's pretty annoying when someone decides to start packing up all their stuff at the crack of dawn as they haven't been bothered to do it the evening before. However, due to the 'Sunday Session' the previous day we were now that annoying couple packing at the crack of dawn.

We had decided to stay in more of large guest house than a hostel in an up-market suburb of Melbourne called South Yarra. My, oh my, what a great night's sleep we had that night. Bliss. It's such a nice feeling to get into a bed with crisp, clean linen after sleeping in so many grubby rooms. Also, as my Sister, Sylvia, was joining us in Melbourne we thought it would be a good idea to ease her into hostel life in a gentle fashion...and somewhere with clean bedding is a good start!

Images of Melbourne - Parliament & tram, State Library and train & tram

Yarra River

Before Sylvia joined us, Gavin and I decided to squeeze in a trip to the Great Ocean Road and well, if you are going to do it, do it properly - we decided to live it up a little and splashed out on a convertible car. I know, we'll be regretting it when we have to get second jobs in McDonald’s when we get home but frankly, bugger it, it was so much fun!

The Great Ocean Road

Our first stop off was at Picnic’s B&B in an area called Apollo Bay. The lady that ran the place was so cute and the room was so homely, think Mrs Bucket in Keeping up Appearances. I loved the fact that she brought out the milk jug with a little beaded doily on it.

Apollo Bay

The lady from the B&B also gave us some great info on things to see and do during our trip along the G.O.R. Heeding her advice our next stop was the Cape Otway National Park to see if we could spot any Koalas and we saw heaps of them!

Otway Lighthouse

We then drove on to Point Franklin which is a gorgeous, rugged coastline with barely anyone else around......apart from flies. Now, I know I'm going on about the flies now but take a look at this....

Point Franklin

With our jumpers wrapped around our faces for protection, we stumbled back to the car to get away from the zillions of flies that inhabited the beach.

Next stops were The 12 Apostles (or 11 now that one has fallen over), London Bridge and The Arch.

On to Warrnambooll and a gorgeous B&B called Herbs Hus which is a beautiful converted Victorian house with huge rooms that are filled with period features. As we were the only guests it actually felt like we had the whole house to our selves although the owner was just a tap on a door away if we needed her. She also has the most gorgeous baby daughter who I am afraid stole my attention whenever she was in the room. We had dinner at a lovely local restaurant called Beach Babylon. The kangaroo fillet was great (yep, I wont eat a dog but I'll eat a kangaroo....the line becomes blurred doesn't it).

The following day, Gavin gave up the controls and allowed me to drive the three hours to Lorne, on the return to Melbourne. It was all going so well until, when pulling in to a lay by to allow the faster drivers that were queuing up behind me to overtake, I managed to drive into a very large, very deep hole. The thing is Gavin had been virtually screaming at me to slow down but I had assumed it was just because he thought I was driving too fast to pull into the lay by when of course I knew I was not. I didn't realise he had seen the hole from some distance away but couldn't get the words out quickly enough to explain why he wanted me to slow down. Fortunately there was very little damage to the car and more fortunately still the hire company failed to notice it and so we were not charged for it. I didn't drive much further after that.

We headed back to the guest house in South Yarra and into a dorm room ready for Sylvie's arrival in a few days time.

On Friday 30th we went off for more of an explore and headed to Brunswick Street in an area of Melbourne called Fitzroy. Brunswick Street is littered with funky shops, cafes and bars and has a cool, edgy feel. Does the fact that I just said cool mean that I am so far from it that I should not have even been allowed onto Brunswick Street? That evening we headed to Chapel Street near to our guesthouse for drinks.

Street art on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

On Saturday 1st December we jumped on the tram and headed to the beach in St Kilda. I don't think it's too unfair to say that the beach at St Kilda is not the best that we have seen however it does have some of the best cake shops I have ever seen. Acland Street is home to a number of old fashioned cake shops which are just impossible to walk past, along with shops, bars and restaurants and so of course we had a beer followed by a cake.

St Kilda

I loooove cake

Sylvia was due to arrive at the airport at 6.30am on Monday 3rd and so on the previous day, after making our huge "Sylvia McNeish" banner we had an early night. Sylvie's flight was slightly delayed and so by the time she arrived I had been holding the banner in the air for around an hour. The other people in the arrivals lounge were beginning to find it rather amusing and were asking me whether my arms were aching yet. When Sylvie arrived she came through a different door, walked in the opposite direction to where we were standing and therefore did not even see the banner. Oh well.

We all headed back to the hostel with the plan to grab some sleep before the Neighbours Triva night that we were going to that evening. Needless to say none of us slept and so Sylvia attended the Neighbours night in a sort of jet lagged haze. Now, the Neighbours night is not something Gav and I would have gone along to and we were only going to keep Sylvie company but I have to say, what a laugh! Yep it was tacky, and yes I didn't know who any of the 'stars' of the show were, having not watched Neighbours since I was about 13 years old, but it turned out to be a really good night. Sylvia sleepwalked back to the guest house.

Neighbours Trivia Night

On 4th Dec we took Sylvie on a Melbourne city tour, through the Vietnamese area of Richmond, the city and Federation Square and on to Melbourne's 'Little Italy' Carlton where we stopped for lunch. Following which we headed to Brunswick Street in Fitzroy and after a leisurely coffee jumped on a tram and a train back to our room.

Melbourne alley art

Wednesday 5th Dec was day two of Sylvie's whistle-stop tour of Melbourne. The day was spent along Chapel Street for a spot of window shopping (Gavin left us to our own devises for this section of the day, probably very relieved that I now had my sister to accompany me with any sort of shopping activities). That evening we all went along to the Queen Victoria Night Market and had dinner from the great food stalls whilst being entertained by the local police band. Mildly odd to see the band in their police uniforms singing a Fat Man Scoop song (the title of which I cannot recall) but they were very good.

Thursday 6th we were off to the Botanical Gardens to meet up with our friends Sally and Teresa who were in Melbourne as part of their month long tour of Australia. We would all be meeting up again at Christmas but as we were all in Melbourne at the same time it was a great opportunity to get together. A picnic in the Botanical gardens was our activity of choice and we picked a great day for it.

That evening we met up with Sally and Teresa again for drinks at the Transport Hotel in Federation Square.

Gav and I spent the majority of the following day in the Melbourne Museum whilst Sylvia had a look around the shops in Chapel Street and caught up on some sleep. We were off to Chinatown that evening for dinner and so after a group nana nap, off we went. We stopped off at a bar before dinner and got chatting to two local guys. Unfortunately by the time we had stopped chatting and laughing, the restaurant we had planned to go to was closed and that is why we ended up in the worst restaurant in the world. From the outside it looked fine and if our memory served us correctly it had been fairly busy when we had looked around earlier that evening. Lets just say this, after our starters arrived we decided to simply pay and leave rather than subject ourselves to the rest of the meal. Yep, it was that bad.

Melbourne Museum, Royal Exhibition Centre and War Memorial

The evening of 8th was spent in Carlton for an excellent Italian meal and the 9th was spent packing as the following day we were flying to Brisbane to pick up our campervan which we then planned to drive back to Sydney in time to join our friends for Christmas and New Year.

Melbourne sunsets

Is it because I iz black? A stall we came across at a craft market in Melbourne

Our first night in Brisbane was spent in a hostel as we didn't pick up the camper until the following morning. To occupy ourselves in the meantime we took ourselves on a walking tour of the city which I have to say totally changed our opinion of Brisbane. Gav and I had spent a little time in Brisbane during our honeymoon in 2004 and were less than impressed with it, however, the walking tour showed us how much of the city we hadn't seen before and how much more of an interesting place it was than we'd thought.

Images of Brisbane - Eternal Flame, City Hall, signal box art and City Beach

On Tuesday 11th Gav collected the campervan first thing and we set off on our road trip.

Our home for the next 12 nights

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

We drove to the Gold Coast on Wednesday 12 and had our first trip to Surfers Paradise.....in the pouring rain.

We spent a couple of days at Surfers visiting Wet 'n' Wild Water Park and Dream World. Both of which were really good fun but the absolute best attraction was the Giant Drop at Dream World. You sit in a carriage with 7 other people and are slowly lifted up to a height of 120 metres where you are held for 20 seconds. After 20 seconds you are dropped with such speed that you cannot even scream, in fact breathing is almost impossible. Gav and I went on three times.

Giant drop and Sylvie and Gav on the log flume

On Friday 14th we drove to the Lamington National Park and stayed in a campsite at the Binna Burra Lodge. The drive to the lodge was pretty hairy as it was late and therefore pitch black during the last couple of hours of driving and when you are driving along mountain top, winding roads, with sheer, barrier free drops at your side that isn't too much fun. Thank God that Gav was driving and not me as I suspect we would not be here now to tell the tale if I were at the wheel. The campsite was pretty basic and in the middle of the forest, which left Sylvie far from impressed after the long drive. She was even less impressed after a rabid, crazed possum chased after her during the night. I heard her screaming, "let me in, let me in" but thought it was simply an insect that had frightened her. She managed to blurt out, "one of them things...fluffy tail" as she scrambled back into the camper. We did stop laughing at some point but I have to say the possum did remain outside the camper for some time looking at us all in a menacing fashion. We took bathroom breaks in twos for the rest of the evening.

Lamington National Park, Gold Coast Hinterland

We were lucky enough to see heaps of wildlife whilst we were there including Pademelons, which are small, nocturnal, marsupials that are similar in appearance to kangaroos.

The following day after checking out the views from the lodge we headed off on a trek to the Gwongoorool Pool. Which was a pretty steep 3km down to the pool and of course 3km climb back up. Sylvia splashed her face with lovely cool water from one of the waterfalls during our ascent back to the van to cool down a little only then to have her next brush with nature when she realised a leech had managed to grab a hold of her. Gav to the rescue!

We then drove on to Ninbin which is a surreal little place. In 1973 a bunch of university students held the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin which was a "total cultural experience through lifestyle and participation". Following the festival a number of people stayed around to continue living the dream with other like minded people. The result is an 'alternative' sort of town where, although still illegal, cannabis can be bought and smoked in local cafes etc. Taking a look at some of the people in the town, I suspect cannabis is not the only substance that is readily available in Nimbin!

Onwards to Byron Bay where I subjected myself to the hottest Thai salad I have ever had. I do like spicy food but I think someone in the kitchen was having a laugh with this one! We followed dinner with a few cocktails - well I needed something to put out the raging fire that was happening on my tongue! My lips felt swollen and were burning and without going into any detail I was slightly concerned about the after effect of eating so much chilli.

Byron Bay

Gav and Sylv had booked surfing lessons for the following day. I have had surfing lessons previously and, though it was tonnes of fun, I knew I was useless and did not need further proof of the fact. I instead spent the day strolling around the pretty town of Byron Bay, reading the papers on the beach and generally enjoyed doing nothing. Knowing that the others would be starving when they had finished I nipped to the local supermarket to pick up supplies for Gavin's famous McCurleys which we were to have for lunch. Two things went a little wrong that day, firstly we got a parking ticket for not being parked at a 90 degree angle....... I kid you not. Secondly, the surf lessons were cut short as the current was became too strong for the instructor to continue. However, on the upside Gav and Sylv did get half of the money they had paid for the lesson back and those McCurleys, barbecued on the beachside and eaten whilst sat by the sand, watching the world go by, tasted pretty damned good.

For those that are curious a McCurley is Gavin's take on a McDonalds bacon & egg McMuffin and it's delicious. Ask him to knock you one up next time you see him. Although Sylvie did knock up a 'McNeish' recently which is her version and is up there with the McCurley I have to say.

Next stop was Coffs Harbour. Our campsite was right by Park Beach so first thing the following morning Gav and I took our pre-brekkie walk along the beach which was followed by a swim and the invention of a game we have called Sea Stunts. Sea Stunts involves flinging yourself into the waves in a position suggested by the other players, for example I might shout "scissor kick" and we would both have to jump into the next large wave whilst doing a scissor kick. Backwards flip, gambole, belly flop etc are other suggestions. All I will say is don't knock it 'till you've tried it because we have had no end of fun with this game.

Coffs Harbour

Later we all took a walk along Coffs' Historic Jetty and were lucky enough to see a couple of turtles swimming around. A mooch around town followed by a couple of hours at the beach and then back on the road for our 2 hour drive to Port Macquarie.

Historic Jetty at Coffs Harbour

It rained that evening, in fact it rained quite a lot. We had planned to treat ourselves to fish and chips at a local chippie we had read about and were not going to let the rain put us off so off we trundled. It was a little further than we anticipated but they were excellent fish and chips. The owner of the restaurant, a fellow Pom, was even kind enough to drop us off at the local pub and let us devour our fish and chips in his car during the journey.

Port Macquarie

On Tuesday 18th we nipped to Port Macquarie's Town Beach for our morning walk and sea stunts session before heading on to Nelson Bay, Port Stephens. As well as visiting the lighthouse and One Mile Beach, we of course sampled the famous pies from Ned's Pie Shop.

Nelson's Bay and sea stunts at One Mile Beach

Stockton Bight sand dunes, en-route to the Central Coast

We then travelled through the Central Coast area and stayed at an eerie campsite at The Entrance and the following day drove through the Northern Beaches, en-route to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains.

Gav and I had visited the Blue Mountains previously but as Sylvie had not we were more than happy to go again. It's such a beautiful area and we were able to combine the visit with a trip to the Jenolan Caves.

Jenolan Caves

After spending a couple of days enjoying the Blue Mountains area we continued on to Sydney where we were to drop off the campervan and check into our luxurious apartment with all of our friends................hmmmm more to follow on that saga on the next entry!

Until then ta-ta xxx

Green. I think that is the best way to describe how we felt getting up at 5.30am on Saturday 3rd to head off to the airport. As I've mentioned in our last entry, one or two Sambucas had been consumed the previous evening (along with one or two other drinks). Gavin spent the taxi journey to the airport telling me about everything I had been up to the night before - dancing on my knees (?), Michael Jackson impressions, the running man (an old favourite)....and all with a broken shoe (long story). Brekkie at the airport soon sorted out our thick heads and after a 3 1/2 hour flight we arrived at Connellan Airport. We picked up our little hire car and drove the short distance from the airport to the Ayers Rock Resort in Yulara.

The Ayers Rock Resort is pretty overpriced for the standard of accommodation available so rather then pay top whack for the higher end hotel rooms we opted to rough it a little and stayed in a cabin on the camp site (still $150 a night though!). We had no loo in the cabin and so shared the bathroom facilities with the campers but did have our own little kitchenette (handy as food in the resort restaurants was as overpriced as the accommodation).

Our cabin at the Ayers Rock Resort

Warning signs in the campsite and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park

The best decision we made was to hire a car and see the sights independently rather than booking ourselves onto any organised tours. We therefore had as much time as we needed to see and do everything that we wanted to.

Sunset from a view point in the Ayers Rock Resort on our first evening

We dragged ourselves out of bed at 4.45am the following morning to watch sunrise at Uluru (Ayers Rock) which was, well, a little grey. After sunrise we walked the Liru and Uluru Base walks which took us from the visitor centre and around the base of Uluru, around 13.5km in total. Fortunately it was a cool day so great for walking and the low temperature kept the flies away (more on the flies later).

After nipping back to our cabin for a little rest and sustenance we headed back to Uluru for sunset that evening.

Monday 5th, day three at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park we visited Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). I have to say that we both thought it was more impressive than Uluru. We completed both the Valley of the Winds walk and the Walpa Gorge Walk, around 10km in total.

It was a much warmer day than the previous day and so the dreaded flies decided to make an appearance. We had been warned about the flies at Uluru but this was our first real taste of things come (although little did we know how bad it would get during the next few weeks).

Another downside to the much warmer weather was that I managed to get sun burnt! Quote annoying as I then had ridiculous tan/burn marks so it actually looked like I was still wearing my vest top even when I wasn't.

Uluru, Day Four

It was a terrible shame that we were unable to visit Kings Canyon during our stay in the red centre. Heavy rainfall in the previous few days had resulted in the only road from the Ayers Rock Resort to Kings Canyon park to be closed due to flooding. It was very frustrating to be so close (well, around a 4 hour drive away) and to be unable to get there. There was the option of getting a helicopter but we may have had to re-mortgage our house to be able to afford that method of transport so we decided against it.

Mount Conner, 2 hours drive from the resort

On Wednesday 7th we departed Uluru for our 3 1/2 hour journey to Perth in Western Australia. Our accommodation in Perth was a double room at a hostel called One World Backpackers, in the Northbridge district of Perth. We arrived feeling totally refreshed and relaxed (and a little sun burnt) after our four days at Uluru. Our refreshed feeling was short lived however as the double room we had booked was adjacent to the communal kitchen and the main reception area and so was very noisy until well into the evening and from around 6am the following morning. Not much sleep was had that evening - welcome back to hostel life Mr & Mrs Curley!

The following day we took ourselves on a walking tour of the city ending up in Kings Park, a 1000 acre park in the city which incorporates the Botanical Gardens.

Percy Button and Kangaroo statues

Barrack Street Jetty, Swan Bell Tower and Swan River

Views of Perth from Kings Park

On Friday 9th we headed out to Cottesloe Beach which is short a bus ride away from the city. It was a lovely day but pretty windy which meant we were sandblasted the whole time we were on the beach and having my freshly sun burnt skin sandblasted was a fairly unpleasant experience. We ended the day with a few drinks at the Cottesloe Hotel and the Ocean Beach Hotel which has great views of the beach.

Cottesloe Beach

Lizard at Cottesloe Beach

The 2007 Northbridge Festival was held on Saturday 10th and was just a short stroll from our hostel. After an hour or so wondering around on our own we met up with Roger and Tracey for drinks and dinner. Roger and Tracey have emigrated to Australia and arrived in Perth the day before we did and it was great to catch up with them both.

DJ Kentaro at the Northbridge Festival

We had moved from the double room into a dorm room and thankfully were able to get some kip that evening as on Sunday 11th we were up at 5.45am for a day swimming with dolphins in an area called Rockingham. Neither of us knew exactly what to expect but the day far surpassed anything we had imagined. We basically get set up with wetsuits and snorkels and then spend a while searching around the bay for the dolphins. Once the skipper spotted dolphins, we took it in turns to get into the sea, one small group at a time. A staff member lead the group, pulling us along with an underwater scooter and unbelievably we were able to get within touching distance of wild Bottlenose dolphins. At one point we had 6 dolphins swimming and playing around us, all around 7ft in length. We had 6 drops into the water and each time the dolphins were more than happy to come and play. It was amazing. We were both in agreement that it was once of the best experiences we have ever had.

On Monday 12th we were packed up again and were picked up at 7am for our Western Exposure tour to Exmouth and back to Perth. The tour itself was 7 days although we had decided to spend a little longer in Exmouth in order to do a couple of Scuba dives and planned to travel back to Perth with another group.

We were both a little apprehensive about being on an organised tour for so long but the company had been recommended to us and we decided it was too far to drive independently with the amount of time we had available. We need not have worried. It was brilliant. We were fortunate enough to have a great group of people who all got on like a house on fire. There was 9 nationalities, with ages ranging from 22 to grandparents (we were too polite to ask but I'd imagine mid 60's). I have to say the way the group gelled was a lot to do with a Scouser called Casper who was one of the funniest guys I've met. He got us all talking by setting up quizzes and things to pass the time on the bus and generally entertained us all non-stop. Another factor of course was alcohol!

It was pretty early on in the tour, ie day 1, that we realised how bad the flies were going to be. We stepped out of the minibus at the Pinnacles Desert and were absolutely swarmed by flies. Jeez, I had complained about the few in Sydney and Uluru, they were small fry compared to these bad boys! Our tour guide, Nathan, said it was the shortest visit to the Pinnacles he had ever conducted as we all piled back into the bus after just 10 minutes. We depleted the entire stock of fly nets at the next service station.

The Pinnacles Desert

Sandboarding at Kalbarri

Us abseiling and 'Natures Window' in Kalbarri National Park

Gorge Walk, Kalbarri National Park

Flynets 'R' Us

Stromatolites and Shell Beach in Shark Bay

Joey at our Denham Hostel, daybreak and Dolphins at Monkey Mia

Gorge and Torquoise Bay in Cape Range National Park

The 'Western Exposure' Group

During the tour we had the option on booking an additional one day 'Swim with Manta Rays' tour in Coral Bay. Gavin and I were hesitant to book as we had already spent a fair amount on the Rockingham Dolphins day and also knew that we wanted to go scuba diving during our stay in Exmouth which is another fairly pricey activity. However, the rest of the group persuaded us to go along. It was quite different to the swimming with dolphins experience as we were not pulled along with a scooter and so it was pretty tough going to keep up with the 4 1/2 meter Manta ray that we spotted - they are pretty damned fast. I was fortunate enough on the second drop to have got myself into a great position and was able to swim directly above the ray, having the most amazing view for what felt like ages before it decided it had had enough and swam away from us. To make the day even better we were also taken to a shark 'cleaning station' where the sharks hang around to get a good old clean by all the little fish. We snorkelled 5 metres above around 7 Whitetip reef sharks. We had to leave however when some of the staff noticed a shark that they were unable to identify arrived. The fact that the new shark made the reef sharks skittish and nervous was enough for them to get us out of the water pretty sharpish. There were no complaints from us! (Pictures to follow once we've had the underwater camera developed)

Coral Bay

It actually felt a little sad when we were all saying our goodbyes on the last evening together. One of the American girls said it was a bit like the end of summer camp when you are saying good-bye to all your new friends. Luckily two of the girls in the group had done the same as us and decided to stay on in Exmouth to dive so we were able to book together to dive at the Murion islands.

I have now completed 6 dives but have a long way to go before I'm any good at it I think. I managed to shake myself up a little bit when I started having a coughing fit 15 feet underwater. Not a great feeling but I did mange not to panic too much and complete the dive. Gav had a few issues with his buoyancy and seem to keep floating up towards the surface. I wouldn't say we are naturals in the water!

South Murion Island

The best part of the day was when we had finished our dives and were given the opportunity to snorkel for a while. The crew kept it quiet until the last minute that we were going to be able to snorkel with turtles. It was turtle mating season and the area that we were dropped off, South Murion Island, was just swarming with them (some of them were, ahem, a little busy though). Visibility was not brilliant so once our faces were in the water we were not aware how close we were to a turtle until we were literally face to face with one. They are huge! I'd guess they were around 1 1/2 meters long and around a meter across. They are so chilled out (just like there are in Finding Nemo) that they just let us swim alongside them for ages. The ones that were 'getting jiggy with it' were understandably a little less patient with us and would swim off is we got too close. We could see all the tracks on the beach were the females had climbed up to lay their eggs. To be that close to so many turtles in the wild is pretty special. Another absolutely amazing experience. (Again, pictures to follow once we have developed the underwater cameras)

On Monday 19th we started our 2 day bus journey back to Perth. Lots of road and lots of sleeping were involved. We did have a stop off at the Hutt River Province which was quite interesting.

Basically a wheat farmer in Western Australia decided that he wasn't happy paying taxes to the government and, after much debate, he used a loophole in the law (which has now been closed) and declared his land a sovereign state. He and his wife are know Prince Leonard and Princess Shirley of Hutt. He has his own currency and stamps and you can have you passport stamped upon arrival as you are effectively entering another country that is within Australia (yep, we had our passports stamped).

Hutt River Province - Us with His Royal Highness Prince Leonard I

After one night back at One World Backpackers in Perth we collected our hire car for a 3 day trip to the Margaret River area, stopping off at Bunbury and Bussleton en-route. We had to juggle our itinerary a little to fit it in but are both very glad that we did. The wine tasting tour that we had booked ended up only having one other couple on which meant it was a pretty subdued tour although it didn't stop Gav and I getting sloshed on all of the wine we tried. We ended up coming away with 3 bottles of wine and bottle of white port (surprisingly good), all of which have now been consumed!

Our hire car

Bussleton

Wine Tasting Tour, Margaret River

Prevelly Beach, Margaret River

Freemantle, 15km from Perth

We decided not to head back to Perth City and instead booked into Ocean Beach Backpackers in Cottesloe Beach. The room we had was pretty disgusting, I mean really messy and dirty, and don't start me on the bathroom! I was the only girl in a room with 7 guys. We had to sleep with the windows open all night as the smell in the room was too bad if you closed them. All of that aside, we had the best time there. It was such a laugh and we met some great people. It was a shame to have to move on as we had had such fun staying there although I was glad to see the back of the dirtiest kitchen I have seen in ages.

Sunset at Cottesloe Beach

On Saturday 24th we jumped on a ferry from Barrick Street Jetty to Rottnest Island where we hired bikes for a 3 hour ride around the island. It's pretty hilly and I did have to stop once or twice and push my bike up the hill. It didn't help that we had arrived too late to get a bike with any gears which made navigating the hills a little more difficult, downhill was great though. It was also great to be able to stop and jump into the sea in one of the lovely bays to cool down when it all got a bit too hot and sweaty. We even managed to spot a Quokka and her Joey.

Rottnest Island

On Sunday 25th we met up with Roger and Tracey again and were joined by a couple of girls from the hostel, Amy and Rachel, for the Cottesloe 'Sunday Session'. We ended the evening with more drinks at the hostel. Another big session the evening before a flight!

Cottesloe Sunday Sesh

Drinking games at Ocean Beach Backpackers

This entry doesn't take you right up to the end of November but I'm afraid I have blog fatigue, as I fear you have too after reading this lengthy entry. In addition to my blog fatigue the internet cafe that we are in keeps playing heavy rock which I'm sure could cause ones head to explode. I therefore have to leave as a head explosion may be difficult to explain at the local A&E and claiming on my travel insurance would be a nightmare.

Melbourne here we come!

Children cooling off in a fountain in Sydney's Darling Harbour

Oh my word we have been hit by a plague of Bogong Moths!

It's made the news here as it has been such a problem. At one point we must have had 20 in our apartment alone. There were thousands upon thousands of them in Sydney itself. They migrate through South East Australia during the spring but this year Sydney was hit with massive numbers of them. Some buildings were literally covered in a complete wall of moths. Sitting in the park or even just walking down the street was a traumatic experience let me tell you.

Gavin "I aint scared of no moths fool" Curley came to my rescue on numerous occasions with his cat like ability to catch the little blighters mid flight. Not surprising given that his only alternative would have been to listen to three girls in the apartment squealing and running around like lunatics every time we were confronted with one.

Apparently they are delicious, there have been loads of recipes doing the rounds. You have to remove their wings and fur though......(vom).

Talking of insects, is it just me or are flies in hot countries a bit, well, 'harder' than flies in the UK? In the UK if a fly finds it's way into your home all its looking for is left over food. It will then relentlessly fly against a window pane (regardless of whether said window is open or not) until it dies. Here, forget food, they want to take you on! They repeatedly try to fly into your mouth, your ears or your eyes. They don't care that you are feverishly batting them way and doing that crazy dance that we tend to do when something is flying at us - you know sort of 'spinning around on the spot whilst swinging your arms around your head' dance? Nope, these flies are saying "C'MON, HIT ME. IS THAT THE BEST YOU'VE GOT!" (for some reason in my head that's a Cockney accent when of course it couldn't be because these are Aussie flies, but go with me on this).

They are ASBO flies. They want to fly into your eye and then steal your car.

I don't like Bogong Moths or ASBO Flies.

Moving on......

Sydney has completely come alive now that the sun has arrived. Every weekend seems to have a free festival or event taking place. Here's what we have been up to for the last few weeks.

Wallabies v England, Rugby World Cup - Saturday 6th

Later that evening.......

Those of you in Birmingham think 'Flares' and that will give you an idea of what The Retro Hotel was like which was the venue for our PwC Retro night out. Full on cheesy, I don’t care that I'm dancing to ABBA, kinda place. I managed to get lost on my way home even though the club is on the same street as our apartment. You'll be pleased to know I found my way back eventually!

PwC Retro Night Out - Friday 12th October

The Surry Hills Festival included stalls selling clothes, jewellery, arts & crafts, food and beer, three stages with live bands and performances and a dance tent. Not bad for a free event! Fortunately the dance tent stopped playing at 6pm as had it of carried on we would not have made it to the fancy dress party that evening.

Surry Hills Festival - Saturday 13th October

Vicky invited us along to a fancy dress party where everyone had to dress up as something beginning with the letter P. Gav and I decided against dressing up but those that did really put a lot of effort into their costumes and looked great.

Patrick's ‘P’ Party - Saturday 13th October

I attended a drinks evening with the agency that placed me at PwC on Thursday 18th. Copious amounts of 'bubbles' (as in not really champers but it'll do anyway, especially as it's free) was drunk. I came away very merry with a lots of new friends.

On Friday 19th I attended a charity lunch at PwC to raise money for The National Breast Cancer Foundation. The team at PwC put on truly excellent events. The room was beautifully decorated - it was obvious that a lot of time and effort had been put into making sure it was a successful event. Around 150 people attended and lots of money was raised for the charity. Again the champers flowed....and I drank it.

A couple of the girls that I had met on Thursday evening invited Gavin and I out to a works drinks evening on Friday night and so after my long boozy lunch I left the office to rush home, get changed, pick up the Hubby, and start all over again. We had a great night but I have to say it all caught up with us by Saturday. DVDs and a Thai takeaway was all we could manage. Little Miss Sunshine, have you seen it? It's worth watching just for the dance routine at the end, hilarious!

Another day another festival. Dank Street festival is part of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Month. There were numerous stalls selling all kinds of food and wine along with two stages with DJs and live performances. Well here's the thing, we started off very civilised, tasting wine, eating freshly cooked seafood whilst listening to the music. However, once we had 'done' the festival we decided to move on to a nearby pub where we met with a group of guys who had been out since 4am (watching South Africa beat England in the Rugby World Cup but enough said about that). Sambuca shots and Irish dancing followed.

Dank Street Festival – Sunday 21st

Hungry?

Oh dear, here we go again...

On Wednesday 24th the team I work for at PwC took Gav and I to a restaurant called Wildfire in Circular Quay for a farewell dinner. It was a lovely evening, Gav got to meet the people I have been working with for the last three months and we all got to meet each others's partners. We received our third invitation to Christmas dinner that evening too. I think for someone to invite two people that they hardly know into their homes for Christmas is an exceptionally kind thing to do.

Also part of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Month was the Sydney Food and Wine Fair held in Hyde Park with all proceeds donated to the AIDS Trust. It was an extremely popular event with lots of queues for the various food and wine stalls. After we'd had a good feed we sat in the sun for an hour or two just watching the world go by.

Sydney Food & Wine Fair – Saturday 27th

More drink, I actually need to detox now I think. Well let me just explain, we didn't set out to go to the Drink Pink Rosé Festival at The Argyle. We spent the first part of our day, as planned, visiting Paddys Market and then the Rocks Market looking for little gifts to send home. We had heard that the Argle was a good bar so when we spotted near to the Rocks Market area we decided to pop in for a spot of lunch. It was then that we realised there was a Rosé tasting day. For $20 you could have unlimited tastings of over 50 wines and three full glasses of your favorites. When it was coming to the end of the day the gentlemen serving were more than generous with the amounts they were pouring.

Drink Pink Rosé Festival at The Argyle, The Rocks - Sunday 28th

Wednesday 31st. Our last day at work! We've both been so lucky with the jobs we found and are fortunate enough to have really enjoyed working for the last three months. Having said that, we are both very excited about donning our backpacks and hitting the road again and having no more work until at least April 2008! We have two months of travelling around Oz ahead of us and it's just over four weeks until my Sister, Sylvia, joins us in Melbourne. We also get to see our friends Roger and Tracey when we are in Perth.

Cardie's leaving lunch with some of the PwC support team

Ladies and gentlemen, he is bringing sexy back! Oh yeah, I dragged Gavin along to see JT at the Acer Arena on 1st November and it was absolutely brilliant!

Justin Timberlake Concert

We arranged to have farewell drinks on our last night in Sydney. I honestly do not remember a thing past the second Sambuca, however, judging by the photographs I had a great time!

Leaving Drinks, Cargo Bar - Friday 2nd November

You can guess that I felt less than well getting up at 6am for our flight to Uluru but more on that in our next installment.

Ta-ta for now xxx

Vicky's birthday night out No.1. The Cricketers Arms, Surry Hills - Wednesday 5th September

Friday 7th September was a public holiday due to the APEC summit which was being held in Sydney (George Bush and his entourage whizzing past our offices the previous day had caused hysteria). Gavin and I went to see Snow Patrol perform at the ACER Arena on the evening. They were absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately we have no pictures as we were the only two people out of thousands that abided by the no cameras rule. It's a little strange going to a concert in Sydney though as the crowd are so subdued. We have spoken to a number of people about it since and that simply seems to be the way people are at concerts here. I found it odd that the people in the seated area stayed seated for the entire concert - we were in the standing area and bounced around like lunatics as you would expect. I hope the crowd are a little more enthusiastic when I go to see Justin Timberlake next month! He's bringing sexy back!

Vicky's main birthday night out was on Saturday 8th. it was a great evening although I realised it was time to go home when I found myself in a 'dance-off' which involved me break-dancing, spinning around on the floor like a mad woman. Sadly I did not win said dance off as my opponent wiped the floor with me with her double commando roll. Note to self: must learn more moves.

Vicky's birthday night out No.2. Cargo Bar, Kings Wharf - Saturday 8th September

The following weekend was spent walking some of Sydney beautiful costal walks. It's excellent as we can jump on a bus or a ferry and be at a beach in less than 30 minutes.

The Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk - Saturday 15th September

The South Head Coastal Walk - Sunday 16th September

The South Head Coastal walk ends at Watson’s Bay where it would be simply rude not to sample the fish and chips from the famous Doyles restaurant.

Views from the ferry port in Watson’s Bay

On Friday 14th we jumped on the train after work and headed to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains for a weekend break (I know, a weekend break during a year long break!). The mountains are spectacular. We had such a lovely time. It's fair to say we had to drag ourselves away on the Sunday. We stayed at the cutest little hostel called No. 14 which is a restored mountain guesthouse with lots of character and a lovely fire burning in the communal area (it's pretty cold in the mountains at night).

On Saturday we walked from our hostel to Echo Point, the starting point for our Echo Point to Scenic Park bush walk which incorporates The Three Sisters and the Giants Stairway along its 2 1/2 hour duration.

Blue Mountains bush walk - Echo Point to Scenic Park

Like the big kids that we are we had to buy the unlimited pass for the two cable cars and the funicular railway at Scenic Park so that we could go on everything in both directions!

Scenic Park at the Blue Mountains

Views of the mountains from Scenic Park

On the way home from the mountains we decided to visit the Zig Zag railway which is also in the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately we missed our connecting train for our return journey and had to wait for over two hours at the Zig Zag's Bottom Points station with the company of an exceptionally annoying family - Mr Know-it-all, his wife, Mrs Man-Woman, and their kids, Rudee and Ruder. (shudder)

The Zig Zag railway

On Thursday 25th PwC hosted an event for PAs and clients PAs. It was a such a fun night with a fashion show and lots of champagne. I'm pleased to say that I was relatively well behaved and was not one of the girls that got locked in the stairwell whilst having a cheeky ciggie, or the girl that knocked a whole table of drinks over - twice, or the girl that was placed into the sick bay by a Partner who had found her slumped over her desk in a drunken stupor. The same girl woke up at 3am and called the police as she had no idea where she was (she rang in sick the following day unsurprisingly). No siree, not me. I was of course one of the ones who insisted that the night could not end when they closed the free bar and switched on the lights. "Who's up for carrying on?" - said in a loud Brummie accent

One of the guys at work invited us along to a private party that was being held at Bungalow 8's bar in Kings Wharf on Thursday 27th. It was a great do that had attracted a huge crowd and had DJs, live PAs, entertainers and a free bar. We managed to get our photo in the social pages of the Sunday Herald which my work colleagues found very entertaining! Fortunately the photographer managed to take our picture before we commenced our drunken dance routine to Salt 'n' Pepa's "Push It".

The Sun Herald, 30 September 2007

On Saturday 29th Sarah, Conor and their gorgeous little son Finn invited us over to their home for our first Aussie BBQ. I think they were a little surprised that our contribution to the BBQ was kangaroo meat. But we wanted to try it! It's a bit like tough lamb and I probably wouldn't buy it again. Following the BBQ Gavin and I headed to their local pub which Sarah had promised served the best Guinness in Sydney - Gavin is in full agreement. There was an Irish Band playing and lots of dancing too which made it a great evening.

As it was a bank holiday weekend, on Sunday 30th we headed to a night called Godskitchen at Home Club with Vicky. The club went on until 7am....we did not. Why, why, oh why do people bring glow sticks to clubs? You look silly, stop it! We left at around 2am.

The weather on Monday 1st was gorgeous. We spent the whole day in Darling Harbour for the Darling Harbour 'Fiesta' which was a celebration of all things Latin American. There were three different stages with performances from dancers and musicians along with stalls selling crafts and food. The children's Flamenco performance was excellent, however, the funniest thing I have seen in ages was the 'Learn to Salsa' session. Two dancers on stage gave instructions to the crowd and we all had a go at learning a few Salsa steps. We were really surprised at how many people got involved. Everyone was really up for a laugh and didn't care how silly they looked and boy did they look silly. It was very funny indeed.

These two little darlings were having an excellent time dancing to the salsa music (yep, still obsessed with Asian kids!)

And so the end of the bank holiday weekend and the end of this installment.

We'll update again at the end of October by which time we'll be finishing up at work and set to head off on our travels again (can't wait!).

It's Wallabies v England in the Rugby World Cup on Saturday. I do hope England win as we've been getting no end of stick from the Aussies. C'MON ENGLAND!.

Ta-ta for now.

Gav & Cardie xxx