So we are on the road again……..feels weird that we won't be sleeping in our own bed again or hanging out with the guys in the apartment but we have an action packed 3 months ahead so we'd better be getting on with it!

I had been loaned a car (VW Golf Wagon) after leaving work which mean we could drive down to Melbourne at our own pace which was great - we didn't fancy any more trips on that damn Greyhound Bus!! We were on a tight schedule that first morning once we left Sydney as we needed to get to Jervis Bay for a whale and dolphin spotting cruise at 11am. With a mix of excitement and a bit of sadness to be leaving we hit the road at 7am and despite getting what seemed to be every red light on the way out of the city we made it with about half an hour to spare - the holidays could now properly start!! We made our way down to the boat and wouldn't you know it, a bloody school trip of about 20 teenagers on board with us - sure isn't there always something to test your patience!!

All on board we set sail and it took around 30 minutes to get out of the bay and past the headland at Jervis Bay - we were now on full alert whale spotting……with neither of us really having a clue what we were looking for!! After a while a few clouds of spray were spotted so we made our way toward them and right enough there were 2 humpback whales slowly making their way between us an another boat - we got pretty close but couldn't see much apart from their fin and a bit of their arse when they started to dive….nevertheless we had spotted whales! It was a bit choppier out past the headland which was good as it shut the school kids up as most of them were now curled up on the benches trying not to boke ha ha (see photos)……….. .in all honesty I wasn't too far behind them, I just hadn't tried to lie down yet - definitely no possibility of a career at sea for me! We pressed on but didn't see anything else until we were on the way back in - 3 more humpback whales and these fella's decided to show off a bit more! We didn't get the snaps of them doing back flips or anything like that but we got the shot of the tail of 2 of them on the way down….well chuffed! We were really happy that we got to see a few and were talking about how good value the cruise had been when a scream from one of the kids went up from the front of the boat! We both took a race out and lo and behold there were dolphins swimming right round the front of the boat - we could have almost touched them! This really made it for us - a great start to travelling again!

Back on dry land we stopped for fish and chips before we hit the road for Batemans Bay where we had booked into the YHA for the night which on arrival seemed like more of a caravan park/campsite with a hostel building in the middle. We checked in and went into the hostel and apart from one English girl we were the only ones there - the place was deserted! Suited us ok - we got some food, watched 30 minutes of TV and were in bed by 8:30 - we were beat! Up early the next morning to hit the road again - but not before stopping off at pebbly beach to see some wild Kangaroo's (still weird seeing Kangaroo's bouncing about the place). Spotted a few down on the grass beside the beach having breakfast and got the necessary tourist photo's - think Laura now wants one for a pet………..anyone know any pet shops in Belfast that sell 'em???

We had booked into a motel in Albury that night so it was back into the car for another long drive via Canberra (see separate blog) to get there. It ended up taking around 7 hours in the car before we arrived at the motel but it was nice - much nicer than the YHA. We spotted a pizza place 100m down the road and decided that was for us……..after a few slices, a shower and half of an awful movie (cheaper by the dozen 2) we were out cold.

Melbourne tomorrow - looking forward to getting there for our last stop in Australia before NZ.

Craig and Laura = )