Spent the day cleaning out the van and getting some washing done. We also dealt with the speeding ticket that had come through for Frank, 2 days after we had sold it! Nightmare!! We went to see Susan, Joe and Mathew as well where they treated us to pizza, again. They seemed a little disappointed that w never came across any of the poisonous snakes or deadly spiders that they had done such a good job of warning us of on our last visit,

First thing this morning we went to have a look round the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum in Bathurst. The museum used to be an old primary school built in 1897 - the staff seemed to rave on about this though it didn't really interest us considering Dave's house is probably much older - Australians seem to milk everything they can from their not very old history, which can be quite boring sometimes. Anyway, onto the real history they have here - the fossil...

Jonas took us on all day trip to see Dave's family today. First stop was to one of his daughter's, Rachel's house where we met her children, Catherine and Daniel and grandma Avril. We had cups of tea and loads of cakes while we got to know everyone. Next stop was his other daughter, Susan, husband Joe and son Matthew. Had a really good night eating pizza, and talking about everything that bites, stings and kills in Australia. They gave us loads of advice o...

Today was the first day we saw Australian animals in Oz. We went to a nature reserve and saw koalas, kangaroos and emus - which Claire accidentally sent into shock as she had the left the flash on the camera! Unfortunately, we wasnt allowed to pick up and hold the koala as it is illegal in NSW, but it was still good fun.

This morning we decided to head into Newcastle city centre for some lunch and a look round. It's not as big as we thought and had a kind of British town type feel. The best thing about the trip was the roast lamb sandwich (with gravy!!) we got from the food court! When we got back Jonas took us for a look round his village. It's a nice little place but apparently has a few angry residents! Spaghetti Bolognese for tea, which we had to make in the dark as there wa...