Written by Chris:

Today we packed up our stuff and left the Emperor's Crown backpackers - still the best one I've stayed at to date.Shane and I made our way over to the Traveller's Autobarn to pick up our campervan.It's a Toyota Hi-Top - extra high so that the third lucky person (Shane in our case) can sleep in a coffin like environment, inches from the ceiling.After forty five minutes of paperwork, signing our lives away, we got ready to get in it and I realized that it's a stick shift.Shane doesn't drive stick.So, alas, I guess I'll be doing most of the driving!Lucky chance though - I got the guy to agree to have Natasha added as a driver for free however, so all's not lost!Toyota Hi-top SQX 146 with 285,500 km on him.I named him Bruce (after a grade two friend that chewed pencils, it seemed appropriate)

We swung back to Emperor's Crown to pick Natasha up and properly examine our chariot.Natasha was suitably impressed with Bruce's fuzzy roof interior and general luxuriousness.I'm not sure this girl understood just how fine life would be when she married me.Bruce has a two burner gas cooker, a mini fridge, microwave (only works while plugged into a powered site), two plugs (same), a sink with 35L reservoir and plenty of storage for our set of three dishes, cups, mugs etc.

Written by Natasha:

"Here comes the bunny…And they're off!It's Goin' The Biff off the jump, followed closely by Cherry Cola Lola, while Seymour Bunny and Thai Ahead lag behind…rounding the corner Goin' The Biff continues to gain lengths while Cherry Cola Lola has lost ground, and Seymour Bunny and Thai Ahead battle it out for third and fourth…Whoa! Seymour Bunny makes his move on Cherry Cola Lola…it's going to be close for second…And it's Goin' The Biff, Seymour Bunny in second by a nose, Cherry Cola Lola in third…although we'll have to wait for the photo to confirm."

Going to the dishlickers (Greyhound Races) is a lot of fun!Although the races are very short - don't blink of you'll miss them!It was great to see the dogs in their element!We drove an hour east of Perth to Northam, a town of 7,000 people just to see them. Directed by Shane, we went to the thoroughbred race track first (who knew a town of 7,000 would have several race tracks), then back tracked to the information centre to get to the Dog Track.The dog track was fairly informal - you could sit at the plastic tables outside, at the wooden banquet tables inside, on the lawn or really anywhere else your heart desired.We chose a spot on the wall below the announcer's booth in the shade as it was a beautiful sunny warm winter's day - 18-19 degrees - without a cloud in the sky.

Before too long, an older gentleman joined us (I guess we had a prime location) and we chatted with him about how to read the racing forms, greyhound racing and life in general.He said he's retired a number of times, but somehow keeps going back to work.

In the end, Chris and I won a couple of bucks (although we lost more than we won), while Shane was the big winner.It really didn't matter since we had a lovely time. J