The blog is back!

This is going to sound a little crazy, but we've both been constantly moving..with little time for anything else. I know thats going to sound odd coming from two people, bumming around the world and all that, but we've been hitting the road solid...early starts and all (!) for the past two weeks, and its not letting up. Currently, I'm updating this blog from Alice Springs, having found an internet cafe (rare!) thats open beyond 6pm, and having only just got off the train a couple of hours ago. We're going to nail two entries..and pics whilst we're here..but time is against us, again. Ayres Rock tommorow, Cairns by air the following day...but we'll fill you in up to this point at least....then I need to lie down!!!!!

So, Suze mentioned that her parents had come out to babysit/join us in our travels round the Victoria state of Oz. Well, shortly after departing the farm, waving goodbye to Ann and Tom, the horse, the dog, the cats, the cows, the chucks etc..we took a mini road trip up into the mountains and beyond! Let me try and condense 3 days of sightseeing, best I can.

We took the inroads down to the Mornington Peninsula again, though straight through to Portsea and the ferry for Queenscliffe. Lovely crossing over, though breezy...thankful for the lack of hair in that respect! We hit Queenscliffe and the coast, hitting the Great Ocean Road at Torquey. Keith and June spent their early moments of marriage taking in the Great Ocean drive, and we spent the afternoon revisiting their old haunts before taking off at Lorne north to Ballarat for the night. Cracking cafe should you ever visit, did repeat business the following morning when I'd finished my run (yes, I was piling into cake no sooner had I'd done 5km...we both need to diet, its a disgrace and product of excessive beef/scones/devonshire teas/clotted cream!). Us backpackers were unbelieveably grateful for a night in a five star hotel to boot!

We headed up the Hume Freeway via Hanging Rock and numerous quaint towns for Wangaratta. Colonial is the best way to describe the many places we stopped at..erm...for coffee and cake..again..and again. The leaves are amber and deep red as you drive up the many high streets which is a bit of a mind f**k considering its summer back in the UK..though a pretty damn hot Autumn in anyones book out here! We stopped off in Wangaratta that night...and a pretty average beef curry to break the diet of fine steaks and fried food products. That diet is looming by the day!

Keith and June spent a portion of their time in Oz at Falls Creek, a skiing resort high in the Great Dividing Range. We stretched our legs at 2,000m that day, crisp air but not ready for snow just yet. The road up and down is littered with bare trees, stripped of all life by a bush fire in 2003. The blanket of grey bark is a little like old people hair..and pretty incrediable. We wound down the Great Alpine Road to Bright that evening...promised by the hotel owner that a rare sighting of a platypus would await us. Unfortunately, he must have heard cause the little b***** refused to surface, and in the pitch black (it gets dark real quick out here) I was in danger of finding knee deep water, and not the riverbank (though unfortunately found kangeroo crap on my shoe later. Charming). Bright resonates pioneer Australia..almost as if the gold mines are still ticking over. It was tough to leave the town..which is why we had to stop again on the way out...for more tea and cake....tsk.

And so we returned to Melbourne, exhausted but grateful to relive my in-laws happy days in and around Melbourne, and to see more country in Victoria than the locals get to witness! With Keith and June safely back on the plane back to the UK, a cheery farewell from our gracious hosts Di and David, we picked up the car in Melbourne and head straight for Adelaide along the Great Ocean Road.

Once again, we got an unwelcome upgrade, but the Lancer was infinately better than the Camry..and had better access to radio stations (long drives are nothing without music!) Ozzie radio stations play the same tunes over and over again, so within the hour you are able to sing along to half the hits. This helps when the rain is torrential. In fact, thats a tame word as I've never seen rain like it! At one point we had to stop the car and wait till it was safe to move off again...reason being, the haze of water was at a point where you cannot see the road. Those windscreen wipers got a proper workout that day.

Undettered, we picked up the Great Ocean Road from where we'd left off with June and Keith, at Lorne. The first evening was spent in Apollo Bay, quite apt as Suze's parents spent their honeymoon here at the Green Gables Hotel. Alas, the hotel was long knocked down by marauding developers but the Apollo Bay Backpacker is still standing! A unique experience, similar to that of living in student digs with our room opening out onto the communial area where we encountered a couple from Adelaide enroute to Melbourne for Anzac day. Scott, as we found out, had spent that day "spearing" fish for tea. Madness, but apparently quite common out here. "Tasted a bit sandy" apparently, more testement to the high winds on the coast and not his frying technique. I'm not sure if this kind of arrangement really suits us, having been living it up in nice guesthouses over Asia and friends/flash hotels during our time in Oz. Maybe we're just being spoilt...but then we did survive 9 days in a tent! We set off early the next day, eager to hit Adelaide in two days time to get the Ghan up to Alice Springs (more later!).

Along the way, we took in all the sites...the Cowry Lighthouse, Airies Inlet, the Twelve Apostles (though only saw 7 so clearly being shortchanged!), the London Arch..all in the photos so I won't bore you anymore on that. We stayed in Mount Gambier...at a motel this time which in fairness was only marginally more. One chinese takeaway banquet later, bottle of plonk, we passed out knackered..knowing all to well that we had yet another early rise and another 460km to Adelaide. We're piling into these early nights with real gusto...

The final drive was peppered by torrential showers, but we still managed to squeeze in Larry the Lobster (the photos will make this all a little clearer!), more tea and cakes at Robe and a cracking sunset as we hit the southern peninsula en route into Adelaide. Another backpacker this time with ensuite facilities, but in comparison to the motel...a complete ripoff! I have this idea that backpacker joints in some areas of Oz bank on the "youth vibe" to stick a small premium on the price, that feeling of togetherness that we both think..up to this point...is no where near what we experienced in Asia. Saying that, when we hit the real backpacker trail down the East Coast..in our Hippy Camper (please, I can't describe this..at some point later on when we pick it up, the full horrer will be commited to digital celluoid)..things might be very different. Anyhow, less complaining..we got hammered that evening, more tickled by the colourful array of characters frequenting the drinking holes out here in Southern Australia. Adelaide is very much a single night stop for me...a hicksville undercurrent, maybe a little unfair but just an opinion remember, that didn't sit well with either of us.....

....but regardless..we're boarded the Ghan railway up to Alice Springs..and its here that I'll sign off and Suze can fill you in later...two days time later in fact! We've got time to spare before our flight out of the Red Country, and we plan to use it wisely...

So till then.

Much love

Mike & Suze x