G'day people, Darren and Kerry here with another update on our crazy adventures! Thank-you to everyone who has left messages recently on the message board, we really appreciate it! Here's what we've been up to the last couple of days:

Wednesday 14th February

Stayed at the campsite for best part of the day charging up our Ipods and phones and talking to a bloke called 'Johnny Guitar' who is staying at the campsite with his band while they tour the Melbourne music circuit playing 1950's and 60's rock and roll. Spent a few hours by the pool reading our books before meeting up with Mads and Maria and travelling off together into the city to have dinner and watch a caberet show called Dracula's Caberet! Upon entry to the venue everyone has to board the ghost train that takes them into the main theatre and it was a pretty impressive way to start the night. All the staff were in character, dressed up in ghoulish fetish rock/goth clothing. Our waiter 'Syst' was especially funny, constantly quipping jokes about the other guests and generally making a fool of himself. The food was absolutely lovely and the show was really funny, with Mads and Darren spending most of it oggling the two girls in the performances. The show ended quite late and we travelled back by tram, arriving at the campsite at around 12:30 a.m.

Thursday 15th February

Woke up early to pack the tent away and say our goodbyes to Mads and Maria. Left the campsite and spent a little while getting lost around the suburbs trying to find our way back to highway! We ended up heading South to Wilson's Promontory, the most Southerly part of mainland Australia. Did a few walks around the promontory and saw some amazing beaches including Whiskey Beach, one of our fave beaches so far and Squeeky Beach, a beach made up of tiny ground quartz that literally squeeks as you walk along it. Also saw a small snake along one of the walks so we kept out of it's way! The road South ended at a place called Tidal River, a beautiful river area with a walk that takes you all along the river and ends on a stunning beach. We left Wilsons Promontory in the late evening and slept in the car in a scary picnic area in the middle of nowhere near Won Wron. Kerry got eaten alive by the March flies and Mozzies and we both got a rubbish night's sleep.

Friday 16th February

We drove from Won Wron to Seaspray, which is on the infamous 90 Mile Beach. We took a little stroll along the untouched golden sands of the seafront before driving behind the sand dunes all the way up the back of the beach to Golden Beach. Along the drive we noticed that there were 20 free campsites on this stretch of road, so we decided that we would stop in one of these for the night. At Golden Beach we spoke to an English couple who made our day by giving us a tube of mosquito gel (that works!). The mosquitos are annoying but the March flies are the worst. Bascially they are bigger versions of the blue bottles we get at home.... only they bite you... a LOT! I got bitten 20 times today by flies alone. Add that to the 15 mossie bites and you can see why a tube of free repellent felt like the best present ever! We spent the afternoon laying on the beautiful Golden Beach, reading and snoozing before heading to the local take-away for some local flake and chips. After a last walk down the beach front, as the sun was setting and the sky turned into the shades of pink that make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up we managed to just squeeze into a space at the free campsite, where we parked and slept in the car. It was quite reassuring that the campsite was full, as it feels a bit safer when you know that other people are around.

Saturday 17th February

First thing today we drove onwards towards Lakes Entrance and stopped at a small town surrounded by water, called Metung. We watched several people participating in various watersports and took endless photos, as the town was very pretty, before heading on the Lakes Entrance, which has arguable one of the best views we have seen so far in Australia. If we'd have had more money and time we would have stopped for a few days, but we are noticing now that we need to head up the coast so that we can find some more work soon. Lakes Entrance caters for people of all ages and there are nice retirement flats there for those who want to spend their days after their working life relaxing by the lakes, sailing across the azure waters or pottering about the quaint shops. I could see us there now... oh, of course we have to work for a few more years yet... After Lakes Entrance we drove to a rainforest walk, just passed Cann River and went on a hike down a small track which followed the path of a stream. Upon this walk we saw various Australian wildlife, including a Lyrebird, many water dragons, a snake and a platypus! I didn't get a close up look of the platypus but we were lucky to see one at all, as they are so secretive. There was a free BBQ there, so we used that and decided to stay overnight in the park of the rainforest. We met a really lovely couple, called Fred and Irene, who come from England and moved here in 1973. They were telling us their stories of moving over here and explained how, when the money was tight, they would take the children on holiday nearby and all four of them would sleep in the stationwagon (estate car)! Considering the fact that Darren and I feel squidged into our Falcoln when we stop for the night that is quite some feat! We all sat in Fred and Irene's caravan and talked until 2:30am. We slept in our car again, as neither of us could be bothered to put the tent up for one night and we are getting used to only getting a few hours kip.

Sunday 18th February

A long drive from Cann River to Canberra today, although the scenery, as ever, is pretty stunning ranging from mountains to rain forests to open farmland. Found a campsite 6km outside of the city and pitched up our tent. We then drove into the city and had a look around Government House, an impressive looking building where all the important decisions are made in Oz. We even got to check out the room where all the government meets with the opposition to debate with each other. I also accidentally took my swiss army knife into the building with me, and had it confiscated from me at security while I looked around and then returned to me on the way out, you can imagine how that must have looked! As it was late we didn't time to check much else out so we headed back to camp and had an evening watching one of the most impressive lightening storms we have seen yet! Needless to say our tent got soaked AGAIN!!

Monday 18th February

Today we are have spent the morning cleaning all our clothes atthe campsite and drying the tent off. We also went into Qantas today and changed all the dates on our flight tickets so we will now be in New Zealand at the start of June for nearly 3 months, then Fiji for 3 weeks and then the remainder of the year in Thailand. We thought that our ticket was open ended to take as long as we want but we have to be back in England by the 7th November or our ticket will be invalid! We're now having a quick look around Canberra before heading off to Goulborn this afternoon. The plan is to head for Kiama tomorrow and then back through Sydney so we'll keep you all posted in a few days time!