G'day people and welcome to Australia. First thing, sorry for not being on here for a while but since arriving in Oz we have been moving around a lot and to be honest have not found a cheap reliable place to use the internet until now. So we arrived in Perth about 5am on the 4th Nov and caught a cab to Cottesloe beach where we stayed for the next 3 nights. First night went for some food and a pint and I have to say I was shocked at the prices. A pint and a single rum and coke cost over $15 which is about 7quid...that's more than London prices! The food isn't much cheaper mind, cheapest things for dinner are fish and chips or burgers which cost about $12 plus...about 6quid! Think we are going to have to tighten the purse strings around here!

As for the weather, it is a lot drier heat so you don't sweat like we did in Asia which is nice but the chance of burning is a lot higher, you almost feel like your cooking! In the evening however, there is a cold breeze that comes in and I never thought I would be wearing a jumper here.

Anyway, Cottesloe was fairly nice though not much there and everyone staying in the backpackers were workers who spent most of their time drinking which was annoying after a while. So we went into Perth and hired a car for a week and made our way down the coast to the Margret River, we stopped off at Bunbury and Bussleton along the way and took in some sights including the largest Jetty in the world at 1.8km long!

When we arrived at Margret River we stayed in the YHA hostel and booked a wine tasting trip. On the trip we visited 4 vinyards a cheese factory, chocolate factory and a brewery. We had a great day and sampled some 30 different wines some good some bad. The chocolate factory had some nice things but once again things were so expensive we just helped ourselves to the free chocolate drops (lauren helped herself again and again and again...). Finally the brewery had a tasting tray of 5 beers which I enjoyed lots and joined 2 other lads in rating them, the Pale ale was the best!

Moving on we visited and climbed the Gloucester Tree which is a massive tree with a winding stair case around it right to the top. I am not scared of heights really but even this made me wobble a bit. That night we stayed in Walpole at the local YHA and were entertained by one of the craziest women I have ever met. She made us play cards with her till early in the morning and looked annoyed when we were tired and went to bed.

Woke up and visited the Valley of the Giants Tree Top walk, a metal walkway constructed in the tree tops of the huge tingle trees. From here we finally arrived at Albany and mooched around for a couple of days. On the morning we were leaving got woken by a huge thunder storm with fork lightning hitting the car park outside our hostel!!!

Now we are back in Freemantle just outside Perth and have just moved hostel after spending three nights in a mad house full of drunk idiots...reminds me of Uni! Going surfing tomorrow then catching our flight to Ayers Rock and a 4 day rock and canyon trip in the outback. Should be fun although not looking forward to the flies!

Missing people back home and socialising back there - there are lots of idiots and nutters around here!

P.S. If you hadn't already realised there were 2 photo albums posted last time, the Cambodia album and the Malaysia / Borneo album. More photos will follow soon!