5th Feb - It was nice being back in Melbourne - spent the day wandering around then chillaxed all afternoon in the gardens. In the evening i jumped on the tram to St Kilda to visit Brian and Stu's new flat which was really cuty - made a nice change from being in a hostel. We headed out to the Base bar with their two Scottish neighbours. The bar was rammed as it was ladies night - turned out to be a real fun night.

6th feb - Today i was heading north to a small town called Echuca where Holly and Oli were currently working. Holly met me from the bus station and took me back to hostel. Victoria was currently experiencing a heat wave so hostel was pretty hot - the air con had packed in. Holly took me on a whistle stop tour of Echuca before heading off to work. I spent the evening with one of their friends Paige - she was from America but had actually studied at Edinburgh uni for 5years and loved it so we hit it off right away. We spent the evening playing scrabble (not played in years) and a little bit of chess - although im not very tactical!

7th feb - Incredibly hot all night which made sleeping not very pleasant. The town was heaving this weekend as there was a massive waterskiing event on. We spent the day down by the river on a small river bank sunbathing and playing in the water with a ball. it got too hot though so we headed to get a drink/ice cream and ended up staying in the air conditioned cafe for 4hours! Paige and i hit the happening pub in town and qued 30mins to get in for it to be not busy and not particularly fun. We wandered around town looking for a better venue but failed so went back to hostel and watched a dvd.

8th feb - paige and i went for a walk along the river to check out the waterskiing races - we walked right along the river about 8km then got to the enterance and decdied it once again was not very happening so we hit the pub for a few drinks and a whole gang fromt he hostel rocked up - a ncie way to end my time in Echuca. Holly and Oli took me to train station - was 3hours back to Melbourne. tried to check in to hotel discovery where i stayed previously but they were full so ened up at another one which was really nice. Had an early night as catching the 7.30am bus to Sydney.