Hi there,Only just finished writing the other blog, but decided I should write about Perth before I forget. This is a mammoth catching up session, but with it being 41 degrees outside, I don't really want to sit by the pool and frazzle!So, going back to Christmas in Perth. What city and what a great time had by all. I turned up at an old school friend's house the day before Christmas Eve. It was suddenly Xmas, as being on the road for the past 6 days around the west coast, didn't really feel Christmassy...it was so nice to be in a home and be so welcomed!As Jagoda, Martins girlfriend was Polish; we had a traditional Polish dinner to celebrate Christmas Eve. That's the way its done over there, Christmas Eve is more important than Christmas day. The food was delicious and they invited many of their friends over to join in on the festivities. Christmas day soon came round and we did pressies under a real Xmas tree (I didn't think oz would have any, put they do) and ate shrimp from the Barbie for Xmas lunch. Followed by a swim in the sea at Scarbourgh Beach. It was brilliant! Boxing day was the scorcher though. It got up to a record 44 degrees, so much so that a bush fire was happening on the other side of Perth, luckily not near us. We visited Fremantle which is a beautiful little fishing town and had a few beers before heading to Cottesloe Beach to watch the sunset, over some more beers.... its gotta be done on boxing day!Then at 2.30ish in the morning, Jeremy's flight got in from the UK. My big bro flew out with a whole bag of pressies for me so I decked out our hotel room with cards to make myself feel at home. I showed him round Perth by doing a tour of the place and going to Perth Mint to see some gold, and to Fremantle to eat yet more fish'n'chips - this time these were world famous ones!The following day, it was the beginning of our road trip, take 2 for me. We were heading south this time to do the Southern Curl, through the wineries and to the south coast. We stopped at Margaret River the first night, having spent the day, trying out wine and visiting a beautiful Jetty in Bussleton. The next day we were on the road again, picking up more people on the way and heading to the Gloucester Tree, which is a famous look out tower for fires. Except, you have to climb up the side of the tree to get to the 61m high look out. I didn't quite make it, it looked far too scary, but I did go a few token steps up, which I thought was pretty high enough! Then we went on to the tree top walk, which was amazing to walk in the tree canopy. Finally, we spent the night at the hostel in Albany, a very windy and cold coastal town that was so pretty. We would have liked to spend longer there, but time was against us, as always so we couldn't. We shared a few beers outside over a Barbie and I had 3 layers on, which is quite different to the temperatures I was experiencing in Perth. Anyhow, the final day of the tour, was in deed my birthday! Yippee to me. So we went to see some rocks and blowholes, not far from the old whaling town of Albany and then headed onto to a winery for some morning drinks (or wine tasting as it should be called!) A perfect start to the day for my birthday. It was a long trip back to Perth mind you, giving me plenty of time to open yet more pressies (thanks everyone), which took me 2hrs as we kept stopping at places in between. I did off course show off all my cards in the bus so that everyone could see and we shared b'day cake too!So, as it was New Years Eve, off course there was bound to be a party going on! So we went to a lush restaurant called Miss Maud's (Swedish Restaurant) where they had a buffet of all this really nice Swedish food. There was also this guy who serenaded me a birthday song, which was absolutely hilarious too! Then off to a party of Martin and Jagodas friends. They had a balcony over looking the Fireworks going off so we had a fab view of them all. We partied until the early hours and got up around 1ish the next day to head to the Perth Cup races. An annual event where anyone who's anybody goes. So we thought we'd check it out! So we dressed up as best we could and headed down there to see what was going on. It was packed with loadsa people drinking and sunning themselves, having fun betting and winning if they were lucky. We on the other hand, could quite get into the drinking spirit so did a bit of people watching before heading over to Cottesloe beach for a picnic and to watch the sun go down for the last time in Perth It was the best sunset I have ever ever seen! It was so bright pink, red and orange. A perfect way to end our time there!So, now im in Alice Springs in the scorching heat, wait to go outside when I don't burn. I got up and had an early morning swim. We're hoping to do some Abbo bush tucker trails or something. We're off to Ayres rock on sat and have been told that it got up to 47 degrees last week. Ouch! So it's not the best time of year to be in one of the hottest parts of the world, but we're here now, so have to be sensible about it. We need to pack loads of salt apparently and off course water!So, I will write soon to tell of our next adventures! Take care all

Love Adele x