Friday 9th May - Wednesday 14th May 2008

Hello, I'm down in Melbourne at the mo, staying in a place called St Kilda which is a little town about 10mins from the city centre, we are staying here because we have free parking and I know a guy down here that I met in Coogee, so we are using his hostel facilities for free which is a good bonus

We picked the camper up last Friday 9th May. We sorted a deal out with Wicked Campers which are the ones brightly spraypainted, however I think we ended up with the dullest design which is simply two stripes down the middle and number 53 - supposedly representing Herby...when the lady was taking us over to all the vans you could see this one there and I was thinking dont take us to that one, but nope we got the crap looking one. Oh well never mind it works and people still look at us when we drive down the freeway, but that could be because of the slogan on the back which says Beer doesnt make you get herpies or something along those lines.

Anyhow on Friday we picked up the van and drove around the city trying to get back to Coogee as we left all our gear there. I ended up driving us right next to the Opera House which was nice but I think it took us nearly 4 hours to find our way out of the city hah.

That night we bought tickets to a rugby league game which was oz vs new zealand - a 100 year anniversary since it started so that was a good do. That night we slept in the camper in Coogee.

On Saturday we hit the road for the start of the 6 week road trip. First stop was to be Canberra. I had heard from other people it was abit boring so we werent planning on stopping long. The trip was quite straight forward, I printed out directions off Multimap before we set off to make it abit easier. The journey took around 4 hours. We parked up and walked around Capital Hill and had a look at that and did abit of food shopping but that was it there isnt really anything there so we headed back on to the road towards Melbourne which was a 7 hour drive. We set off around 6ish in the evening, at this time its dark over here so that was abit freaky as the roads were dead and there arent any street lights to guide you along. Along the way we stopped to fry some sausages which tasted pretty good! We stopped at a rest place at around 11pm, adam was already asleep in the front seat by 9pm so it was just me and my ipod on a dead road for a few hours.

The following Sunday morning we continued on our way for another 3 and abit hours. The road was busier now it was daylight so that was cool. Along the way we saw quite a few splattered animals and a dead kangaroo on the road, I guess that's why they tell you not to drive in the evening as they can jump out and you cant see until you splat them down.

We arrived in Melbourne that afternoon and tried to drive around. I was back in the driving seat, left Adam to navigate which he cant do for the life in him so its just a case of following your nose. Did arite at that though and ended up in St Kilda where I was going to meet up with the guy I know. That afternoon we had a wonder around the city and booked some neighbours tours!!

On Monday Adam went for a tour around the MCG stadium, I couldnt be arsed with that Ive got better things to spend $15 on so I went around the city with Neil and went in to some free exhibitions, and had a game of chess hah

Monday evening we went to "Neighbours night" at this venue in St Kilda, its where Karls band plays and a few of the neighbours cast come and meet you and get pics etc. Theres games and loadsa free stuff and trips they give away. We met Steve, Holly Valances sister, Stingray and Dr Karl himself. It was a good evening actually plenty of young people and Adam even met a lovely lady that he ended up sleeping on the beach with!! When I say sleeping I dont know in what sense he means however I guess it is just sleeping...zzzzZZZ

On Tuesday we had a neighbours tour around the studios and Ramsy Steet. We also met Declan, how thrilling

Today we are just chilling around, Adam is in the city doing some shopping, I am sorting some stuff out on here, then tomorrow we move on to the Great Ocean road and on to Adelaide before heading up into Alice Springs. Good times!