Peter finally picked me up in our next campervan which is a 6 berth so a bit on the large size but rather comfy and spacious. It has three double beds so we had one each and the best sleeps ever. We named her Helga, as she is a Mercedes and the staff in the hire depot were all German girls, very efficient and a bit fierce.

We drove south out of Sydney on a 6 lane freeway which was a little busy. We soon turned off and headed into the Blue Mountains. In fact it became so rural that the road turned into an unsealed dirt track. Now this would have been a little difficult in Sid but in giant Helga it was interesting to say the least. We had a book of banned roads from the campervan company but this one wasn't listed so on we went. It wound around a couple of mountains, with shear drops on one side, for about two hours. For quite some time we saw no other vehicle and soon no houses or farms.

All of a sudden I let out a shriek as I saw our first Kangaroos down the bottom of the ravine jumping along the river's edge. It was so exciting. A few seconds later they appeared on the road in front of us. Now neither of us realised Kangaroos where such good climbers. The side of the ravine was quite steep and rocky but they obviously had no problem. After that we kept seeing them. Finally we arrived at our destination, Wombeyan Caves. These are a series of rather impressive limestone caves discovered in 1828. We arrived late so had to wait until the next morning to get in the caves. At the campsite Kangaroos were all over the place some carrying little joeys. They didn’t seem at all bothered by the campervans and tourists. Next morning we waited at the park office for a while but there was no sign of anyone. Finally a park ranger arrived and said they were a bit short staffed but we could go on the self-guided tour of Fig Tree cave and pay afterwards when the office might be open. He gave us a token which opened the door to the cave. It was rather dark and eerie with Common Bent Wing bats (that’s what it said on the info board) flying around. As you walked along a walkway lights came on and occasionally a voice gave you some information. It was quite neat doing it on our own. The cave had some amazing formations including rather impressive shawl stalactites which look a bit like rashers of bacon. They grow like stalactites but only on rocks at an angle. The office staff had arrived by the time we finished the cave visit so after paying we drove away from the park, this time, on a less dramatic road. Even the park ranger had been a little surprised about our route in. It is at this point I should make a correction. The Park ranger advised me that the steep slope jumping Kangaroos we had seen were more likely to be Wallaroos (great name!). A Wallaroo is macropod, intermediate in size between the kangaroo and wallaby.

We drove back towards the coast to a small town called Ulladulla (what a great name) to look at some fossils on the beach (they are known for their fossils). We arrived late afternoon and parked up in a holiday park up on the cliffs. The park was full of permanently sited caravans with homemade side extensions (Aussie holiday homes). After dinner, at low tide, we walked down to the beach and searched for the fossils (tiny ones as it turned out). Once you know what you are looking for it was easy. The rocks are around 270 million years old. This period saw the biggest mass extinction of life recorded anywhere in the fossil world. We found bits of carbonised trees, Sea Fans, Sea Lilies, Lamp shells and lots of other small bivalves. Peter was rather intrigued by the drop stones. These are stones carried by glacial ice which broke of forming icebergs that floated out to sea, melted and released the stones onto the seabed floor. That night we had good Wi-Fi so I google mapped the location of the hotel and campervan drop of in Melbourne. I was a little surprised to find a little box over the hotel and the airport detailing my booking and flight home. How on earth did Google Maps know that! A bit too Big Brotherish for me so I turned the computer off.

Next day we drove south on the Pacific Highway which is quite scenic running through forest after forest, but not very relaxing as it has a lot of traffic most of which is in a rush to get past us. We liked to drive at a nice sedate 80 KMPH or about 48MPH, any faster and Helga felt like a jumbo jet unsuccessfully trying to take off. We attempted another unsealed road but decided the ruts were just too big, so visited a lovely bay, accessed by a nice tarmac road, to see some unusual rock formations.

That night the campsite was full of exotic birds including some white and pink Cockatoos and florescent green, red, yellow and purple Parrots. When we arrived I found a baby bird on the floor under a tree. It had fallen out of its nest and the parents were all over the place squawking. I got the receptionist to call for the grounds man who was obviously a bird lover as he climbed the tree and taking the baby bird from his hat, which I held up, gently placed it back in the nest. I am not sure if its parents appreciated the interference as they just sat around looking at us for a while. Peter had very courageously offered to put it out of its misery, but wasn’t that keen, so happy that the grounds man saved it.

After dinner we went for a walk around the harbour and got accosted by a Council Official who wanted to show us how to use a bit of outdoor gym equipment they had installed. We had to spend 15 minutes doing press ups and the like as she was not at all concerned that we weren’t locals so we couldn’t escape. Just outside town we passed a 'drive in car and dog wash’ and a huge drive through off licence (just a couple of the weird things we have seen).

Next day we just drove not realising how far we were from Melbourne. The day started warm and soon the temperature hit 37.5 degrees, hot, very hot. The Pacific Highway ran through forest after forest for 250Kms. The traffic situation calmed down with fewer cars and trucks and actually became quite a pleasant drive. It was a bit sad as the only Kangaroos we saw were dead ones, two of which were being eaten by giant metre long lizards called Goanna (an Australian monitor lizard).

At around 4.00 we arrived at a sweet little town called Buchan, our plan to see some more caves. The town map indicated a pub which got Peter quite excited but unluckily it had burnt down in April!

The following day we visited the two caves and they were just as impressive if not more so than Wombeyan caves. Most impressive were some very wiggly stalactites and some even more impressive rashers of bacon.

After this we headed to Paynesville to see Koalas. You just can’t come to Australia without seeing Kangeroos and Koalas. A small island just of off Paynesville called Raymond has a small population which are supposedly easy to see (that sounds too good to be true). We arrived and caught the foot ferry over to the island. Peter was excited as he has never been that close to a wild bear although he was a bit concerned about being attacked. I am not sure what television programmes he has been watching but you are unlikely to find anything less likely to attack than the Koalas we saw. Yes we saw 17 in total, sitting in the trees, and most of these didn’t move an inch. Now we thought Australia would always be hot and sunny, it wasn’t, it was raining and cold and they looked quite sad with all their fur wet and dripping. After this it was off to Melbourne.

We spent two days in Melbourne. It is a nice city but not as interesting as Sydney. The tram system is quite fun. It goes all over the place. They have an IMAX cinema with the world’s third biggest screen which is fine if you are not long-sighted. We went to see the film Interstellar but it was a little tedious so after 2.5 hours of zooming through worm holes and around inhabitable planets we gave up and left. We must be getting old!

We enjoyed our week here, it was a good taster if a bit rushed. We may have to return.