We have been in Melbourne for the last 2 and a half weeks where my brother, Bryan and his girlfriend Lani have kindly put a roof over our heads, this is the only advantage of having family spread all over the world. (Thanks guys) Their place is in the quirky beach town St Kilda, 15 minutes from the city, putting us at a great location. Bryan was quick to show us the sights, restaurants and hot spots. Our days during the week were spent exploring the city and various cute suburbs followed by relaxing our bones on the beaches. We took a day trip to Mt Dandenong, about an hour from the city. We were told that there is an amazing view over the city from up there, however due to the rain, we could only see a couple of feet in front of us. Melbourne seems to go from the height of summer to the middle of winter and back again in just a couple of hours. We then went to the William Ricket Sanctuary where the founder and former resident blended clay sculptures of aboriginals into the trunks of trees and surrounding forest, pretty cool. A trip to Brighton beach filled another day. One stretch of the beach has endless multi-colored huts facing the water, where we sat and watched kite suffers do their thing. The weekends weren't quite as relaxed. We were taken to various bars, one being a cool typical Melbourne back alley bar, that was pretty much a shipping container in an alleyway, Greg was in his element. We tagged along to leaving parties, birthday parties, parties just for the sake of partying, festivals and a fundraiser, it was great!

Over Valentines Day, Lani kindly lent us her car and we took off to revisit Wilsons Prom national park for a couple of days. Greg and I went there a couple of years ago and fell in love with the place. It was just how we remembered it, pristine secluded beaches with the finest, whitest sand you'll ever have the pleasure of sinking your feet into, rugged landscape, and an abundance of wildlife. It is only a couple of hours drive out of the city, and yet you feel completely isolated. We had the beaches to ourselves and had lots of private encounters with Kangaroos. We were amazed at how close we were able get to these huge wild animals; I'm talking touching distance. At night we sat on the deck of the cottage gazing at the amazing southern sky, watching the shooting stars, which we came to realize, was just the wine messing with our vision. All in all, a great getaway.

Tomorrow we fly south to visit the devils, of the Tasmania kind, that is. We have been well rested over the last 2 months so we are looking forward to getting back on the road again and ready for some adventure. Bring it on…