The half way point is here! I have completed 44/88 of the farm days needed to get our second year visa. It's actually crazy how much of our first year here this is taking up, but at least we have the consolation of a second year, featuring no compulsory farm work, to look forward to.

There's no real sign of Spring yet, meaning we've essentially had 2 winters in a row (British winter, followed by WA winter!). However, we'll then get 3 summers in a row so it'll all be worth it!

We had 2 days off from work this week due to the lousy weather and flash flood, even though we work inside! The sheep needed for the factory to run are currently stuck up north, due to the flooded roads! So we are hoping for the weather to improve for more than one reason!

Apart from this (literally the next 8 weeks at work will be exactly the same- not really worth talking about), we've spent some of our hard earned dollars and booked some more stages of our travelling this week. We secured tickets to 3 different days of the Ashes, in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney over the course of Dec/Jan. This means that we're actually tied down to a plan once we return back from Kuala Lumpur in November and we have booked to leave Perth the day after the Perth Ashes test. So, on 16th December we're flying over to Melbourne to begin the next stage of our trip! It's currently looking like this:

Now- End of October: Stay in Albany, WA, to complete our 88 farm days.

End of Oct- 15th Nov: Esperance, and drive up the West Coast, including Margeret River, ending in Perth/Freo.

16th-19th Nov: Kuala Lumpur, returning to Perth.

Until 16th Dec: Travel to Exmouth, including Coral Bay and Ningaloo Reef, return to Perth for the Ashes test.

16th Dec: Fly over to Melbourne for the Ashes, and a quick couple of weeks of sightseeing, over Xmas.

Before New Years: Make our way to Sydney :)

Oh and finally we got a really good view of some whales today! We'd already seen Humpback Whales from Cheyes Beach but only seen them from fairly far away.

Today we had the luck to run into some Southern Right Whales at Cable Beach, even more lucky that some people there had binoculars and a man had a drone on which he got a brilliant overhead snap of the 3 whales! They were pretty close to the shore, and the rocks where we were standing and we hadn't even gone intending to seek them out! As the weather gets warmer it'll be nice to appreciate the unique nature in this part of the state, before heading off for an adventure up the coast!

Accommodation: Albany Backpacker's, getting less busy now as a few long term people are leaving this weekend.
Highlights: Getting a really good view of the whales at Cable Beach, hostel karaoke and quizzes, singing on the car rides to and from work, nights at the White Star and 6 Degrees.