Wednesday 30th March - Alice Springs. This was nice enough, but anything of real interest seemed to be a day trip away so we just walked about. Our hostel was horrible though. The room was okay, but but the kitchen was horrible. We saw ants, cockroaches and a mouse, eurgh. In other hostels the fridges and shelves get cleaned out on a regular basis, but thee seemed to be no sign of this happening here. Also, huge amounts of space were taken up for staff use. One o...

Friday 25th March - Drive to Adelaide. Vanny has to be there tomorrow so we spent the whole day driving to get there. Australia is so big! Saturday 26th March - arrive in Alice Springs. It is here that we bid farewell to Vanny. Having spend just about 24 hours a day together for the past couple of weeks, it was a bit emotional! Vanny, you may have been cramped, cold and expensive, but you got us where we needed to go and you will be remembered fondly! Sunday 27...

Sunday 20th March - the Great Ocean Road and Kennett River. Ahh, the Great Ocean Road - miles of beautiful scenery, taking in the coast, rain forests and woodlands. We began in Torquay and followed the road through to Kennett River, where we stayed the night and where we had another animal encounter - koalas! They were in the trees right in our campsite and also hanging in the trees along a road just behind the site. We were lucky enough to see a koala climb down...

After picking up the camper van a week ago, we've finally made it to Melbourne. But what an adventure we've had! We've driven up steep mountains, navigated hairpin turns and gravel roads, driven through almighty thunderstorms with lightning flashing all around, and then through mists as all the rain evaporated off the roads, and dodged massive road trains. We've certainly put Vanny (the camper van) through his paces! We've seen all manner of wildlife from kookabu...

G'day! This is our last day in Sydney. We pick up the camper van tomorrow and head out into the wilderness! Sydney has been nice, and very hot. The hostel is nice enough, nothing fancy but it's clean and the facilities are good - what more can you ask for? We are getting woken up every dawn by flamin' cockatoos though. They seem to be roosting in the trees just outside our room, and blimey do they make a racket! We'ce ticked a few things off the tourist list: ...