Nov 14th 2011 Drove to Phillip Island - called in at Information Centre & bought a multicentre ticket. Started off at Churchill Island where there was a British settler's farmhouse set up- -v British - lovely old furniture, incuding grandfather clock & old carved fireplaces. Also a 'nursery' & children's toys. V British flowers in lovely , unstructured garden - roses, nasturtiums, busy lizzie, geranium etc. Also a kitchen garden with all usual Brit v...

Nov 9th 2011 Pete went to pick up our hire car at 8am & returned @ 10am with car plus a sat nav he'd picked up from Aldi $60 - last one in the shop!!! Good deal - they cost $10 a day to hire(and road atlases cost 26$ - so I done good). Then we left to drive The Great Ocean Road. Stopped at Torquay. Quite windy but no big waves. Few surfers around & only a few on beach. Stopped at Bell's Beach - -international surfing championships held here but not much ...

Friday 4th November 6am climbing down from upper bunk, half asleep and the ladder is very narrow - I don't need this 1st thing in the morning! However breakfast was very nice, porridge(yum), fruit juice, a full Australian (its the same as a full English, Welsh, Irish or Scottish - basically more yum, toast (with vegemite - yay!) and coffee. 9am.passing vast fields of wheat and other cereals- farming on a grand scale. Makes a difference from bush anyway!! Wow 11...

Just found out that an American scuba diver was killed by a shark just off Rottnest Island the day after we visited the island. He was attacked by a Great White 500 metres off the coast in Thomson Bay where the main township is and ferries from Fremantle dock. Scary stuff - he was the 2nd person munched in a fortnight, a well known local man, Bryn Martin, had disappeared whilst swimming off Cottesloe Beach, Perth's main beach. All they found were his swimming tru...

Thursday 13th October 4am alarm goes off, frantic washing, shaving(Pete not Al) and dressing in time for MD Travel to pick us up at 5am for the run to Manchester airport. 0900am boarding Singapore airlines Boeing 777. Nice aircraft, plenty of legroom and loads of films and stuff on the entertainment screen in front of us. Meals were generous and tasted good, also added bonus of complementary drinks - gets my vote every time! Flight was very comfortable with brie...