Hi everyone,

Thursday we left Perth and made the 3 hour coach journey 250km north, to Dalwallinu on one of the 2 coaches that go each week. Its fair to say it got more rural as we travelled and 2 hours in we lost mobile signal! All the communities we came through relied on wheat farming which is the main land use in the area. Along th journey we saw some huge tractors and harvesting equipment and also followed the line of the freight railway where you could see huge storage tanks by the side of the tracks.

The good news is the sun was still shining when we got to Dalwallinu. We were met off the coach by Jerry the bar manager - who was leaving on Saturday. We followed him across the road to the Dalwallinu 'hotel' and met Dennis the landlord and our boss, an older man who is known to be a bit grumpy at times. We will see how we get on with him. Apparently the architecture of the building is typical of a country pub. It is fairly worn down but it has a bottle shop, bar, restaurant, and a TAB machine (gambling machine). The decor is very old but its relatively clean and certainly liveable. Unpacked our stuff into our rooms - it was nice to unpack and get the sand out of my bag! Then we went for a walk around town.

There wasn't a lot to see, there are a few shops and cafes about 3 churches, a medical centre, a fire and police station, a hospital, a high school and a sports complex which has a pool - our saving grace, thats what we have been doing with our days!

Spent the evening chatting to the girls we are taking over from. They didn't exactly sell it to us but we have to make up our own mind, and they have been here for 8 weeks, we aren't planning to stay that long, probably 4 we are thinking now.

The next 3 days followed a similar pattern of getting up late morning, heading to the pool and spending the day there, coming back for something to eat and then sitting in the bar learning the ways of the pub in the evening.

Lydia and Rose had their first shift last night which went well, no hitches and I am due to have my first shift tonight. The pub is relatively quite during the week but its gets busy on the weekends because it is the only place to go.

Will keep you posted on out Dalwallinu adventure.

Hope all is well back home.

Love Hayley and Rose