Hello everyone, sorry it's been so long. We've been very busy and very lucky since we wrote our last post. Adelaide was fantastic, we met up with Steph's family who moved out here in the 60's and we could not have been made to feel more welcome. Steph has only met her 'great' uncle once before when she was a baby but we really were over whelmed with the level of hospitality we were given. We were welcomed into their homes like old friends and they put together a complete program of activities for all of our time there which made our time in Adelaide really special and we were very sad to leave.

During our time in Adelaide we went on a house boat down the Murray river, visited vineyards in Barossa Valley and Maclaren Vale and walked around Victor Harbour. All this on top of many fantastic meals gave us a 'locals' view of Adelaide that we haven't had in any other city we visited.

Between Adelaide and Melbourne is the Great Ocean Road, a stretch of road literally cut into the mountains along the coast. It was initially a post-war make work program but is now one of the worlds great drives. We hired a Hyundai Getz, which isn't one of the world's great cars but we had a fantastic time all the same. We've also purchased a 20quid tent and have been camping since we left Adelaide. It's very quick to put up and take down which is ideal but it's not really waterproof against morning dew so I wouldn't like to test it out if it rainned. We're in Melbourne until Thursday night when we've got an overnight bus to Sydney and back to hostel bunk beds.

Melbourne has been everything you expect, the trams are a really nice system but as with the Routemasters in London only a tiny percentage are actually the traditional dark red and gold ones you see in postcards. It's a fantastic city to just walk around from coffee shop to tea house without having the iconic tourist sights of Sydney. It's also Melbourne's annual comedy festival at the moment so we've got tickets to go and see Rich Hall tonight (he's the dry sarcastic american guy who is quite often on QI and Mock the Week), one of our faves and we're looking forward to it. Oh and as if the coffe shops and tea houses weren't enough for Steph Melbourne is also famous for Chocolate Cafes.

We're half way through Australia and it's all going too quickly. Australia is actually quite different from England despite sharing a language and I thought I'd include a 'things I didn't know about Australia' list.

1. Hardly anything opens on a Sunday. This was very weird the first time round especially when Asia has no concept of days of the week or weekends. It's also a tiny bit frustrating because it means we can only plan days out 6 days a week.

2. The States hate eachother. we've been told this one alot. It's friendly banter at one level but it can escelate to accusations of stealing water supplys!!

3. Aussies have a very acute sense of their limited history. Every where we go people seem to have the line "Of course not as old as England" This extends to 100 year old houses though, like in England we all live in Normal castles. Explaining that 100 years old is old for a house in England too didn't seem to wash.

4. They put the rubber-crumb stuff from playgrounds on sections of their pavements that are next to trees. This way it moves naturally as the roots grow and they don't have cracked pavements. Bit boring this one but we thought it was a great idea.

5. Woolworths is alive and well. But it's like their Asda.

Hope everyone in the UK is well. We'd like to include a special hello to the Little Thorpe Brandy Club.

Pictures will follow when we remember the leads!

Greg and Steph

xxxxxxxxxxxx