On the 27th June I started an amazing 3 day journey from Sydney to Melbourne which managed to take me all the way from sunshine to snow in just one day. The route we followed took us from Sydney to Canberra, Jindabyne, Thredbo, Suggan Buggan, Lakes Entrance, Wilsons Promontory and finally Melbourne.

On the first day we visited the country's capital city Canberra. I find it so funny that a country hadn't even built it's capital city until the 1900's and even then the design was the result of a worldwide competition. So what is the story? Well basically parliament sat in Melbourne for the first 20 years but the people of Sydney weren't impressed with this arrangement and so, after much arguing, a compromise was reached, a town would be built between the two places and so was born Canberra.

The couple who's design won the competition were Walter and Marion Griffin an american couple who had never even visited Australia - well not until 1914 when building commenced! As you would expect there were lots of issues with the construction of the town and the parliament building but eventually it took over as the seat of government in 1927. Whilst in Canberra we had a tour of the parliament building which was really good as our guide went down a line of paintings of all the past Prime Ministers and told us something amusing about each one such as 'he was found in the streets of New York with just his pants on after being thrown out of a brothel', 'he bought a company for a dollar and sold it for a million' and 'he died having sex' - ok so the last one wasn't that funny but you catch my drift! He was also trying to explain how the Oz parliamentary system works with the passing on of votes (how strange is that) and how it can lead to representatives of obscure parties getting into the house. To illustrate his point he used a current politician who appears to be a bit of a loose canon, but some random women, clearly a fan of this politician, came over and started having a go at our guide - it was classic!

Whilst in Canberra we also visited the National Museum of Australia worthy of a mention simply because two years after it opened they realised that the architect, Howard Raggatt, had covertly written quite controversial messages, in brail, around the inside and the outside of the building such as 'Forgive us our genocide'! Having been there I find it incredible that it took so long to uncover - take a look at the photo and see what you think!

On the first night we stayed at a hostel in Jindabyne that was absolutely heaving with people - in fact 400+. The reason for the high numbers is because the residents of Sydney all come down on weekend ski trips. As it was Saturday night the party atmosphere was definitely switched on but the problem was that the staff appeared to have it switched on a little bit more than the guests who were there for more reasons than just getting drunk. Consequently at breakfast the next morning there was a line of about 6 staff waiting to get fired as they hadn't got up for their shift - whoops, but can't say I'm suprised having had vanilla liquor poured all over me the night before by one of them!

On Day 2 we visited the ski resort of Thredbo where we were given the option to go skiing but, because of the price, most people declined and instead chose to go on a snowy mountain walk. So up the chair lift we went, truly excited by the sight of snow in Australia, when disaster fell, the cloud had descended to such an extent that we couldn't do the walk safely. So it was a hot drink at the cafe and then back down the chair lift. Our poor guide really had to pull out all the stops now to keep us amused - his solution - let's go tobogganing! Everyone was really into this idea, even me until I hit a tree and seriously hurt my bottom - I've still got the bruise to prove it now! Photographic evidence of the crash is available but not the bruise.

The remainder of Day 2 was spent driving through some wonderful scenery between Jindabyne and Lakes Entrance. At least half of the road we took is unadopted highway first built using convict labour, in fact, as one of the first trade routes, it originally had a gate at each end so the local settlers could charge anyone wishing to use it. In 2003 this area suffered a devastating eight week fire and the forest is only just beginning to regrow. That night we slept at Lakes Entrance which boasts the longest beach in Australia - 90 mile beach. After a supper of fish and chips at a local restaurant we decided to go down to the beach and chill out round a fire. This was really cool but then on the way back to the hostel disaster struck, for the second time in one day, as the luggage trailer suddenly detached from the back of the bus! Turns out that some tea leaf had had away with the metal pin connecting the two whilst we were on the beach so with a temporaray pin made from a twig we slowly drove home and a new pin was purchased the following morning.

Our final day was spent at the scenic Wilsons Promontory where we just did lots of walking along the rocks and along Squeeky Beach but the most memorable thing was the sighting of a wild wombat. I had been talking with our guide, Squatter, explaining that I had seen most of the indigenous animals of Australia except for the elusive Wombat - and so the challenge was set. He was determined to find me a wombat and, as the photos will show you, he came up trumps big time!