Access to the Internet has been less easy over the last few days so there are a few to catch up on - here goes. I've also added more photos to the 'NZ - the last bit' Album as only one pic uploaded last time.

31st Jan

This was our first full day in Australia and we spent most of it getting the campervan sorted, buying a load of food and finding our first campground. Words cannot adequately describe my joy at getting this van. Ever since I was a kid I have wanted a campervan and I now had my hands on a whopper of a van - six berth, shower, toilet, kitchen and all the paraphinalia that goes with it. I have truly found my dream home/vehicle. The children thought it was pretty cool and got very excited choosing which bed they would sleep in and all the buttons were like a magnet for meg's little hands. Our first campground was right near Adelaide City and not the most attractive but very convenient to spend three days sorting ourselves out, exploring Adelaide and giving the children time to recover from the journey. They do seem to get extremely tired on the flights, even if they are not long ones. Our first night in the van was fab - sheer luxury compared to the bongo and tent combo we had spent four weeks in in NZ. Just two paces to go for the toilet in the night - what more could you want!

1st Feb

A cracking blue sky greeted us as we opened the curtains and reminded ourselves that we were in heaven on wheels. After the obligatory maths and trip books we set off through the Botanical gardens of Adelaide for the city centre where we perused the shops and in the afternoon spent a few hours in the museum of South Australia. The galleries given over to the Aboriginal history and culture are just fascinating. One feels very humble at the grief the Aborigines were given by westerners in some areas. The exhibits showed just how ingenious the natives of OZ are in every way - storing water (kangaroo skins sewn up to make water bags), communication, hunting, canoe manufacture (canoes made out of huge pieces of bark cut from one tree). The kids loved the displays of animals from various parts of the world, and enjoyed their visit to the discovery centre where they met the infamous red back spiders that they have heard so much about; we have been constantly reminding them to wear shoes outside incase they tread on one!!

We bussed back out to the campground as we felt another mamouth walk just might push the kids over the edge, and got a swim in before dinner!

2nd Feb

Toby needed to go back to the camper van depot to sort out some things, so I took the children into Central market in Adelaide. I always like going to markets as I think you get a real flavour of life, and its always good to see locals in action! The market is mainly food, and we enjoyed looking at and trying some of the local produce. Must admit, we gave the octopus tentacles, snapper heads and kangaroo steaks a bit of a wide berth, but we may get brave...! The kids always love being disgusted on the food front, and the market didn't disappoint! That aside, there was a real buzz about the place, and some larger than life Aussie market traders. The four Miller girls attracted a lot of attention, with me being asked on more than one occasion - "are you going to keep going for a boy??".

We met Toby and retraced our steps so that the children could show him all the things they had seen, and then headed back to the van to journey south on the Anzac Highway to Glenelg. The beach at Glenelg is well known as a great one, and once we got past the 'buck and hen' parties that reminded us of any seaside town on the globe on a Saturday in summer, and got to the beach, we enjoyed swimming, wave catching and just generally having a good time.

Feb 3rd

We headed out of Adelaide today, again driving south and stopped at Victor Harbour for our lunch and an explore. We had read about the opportunity to see 'Little penguins' here, so were keen to take a look. The weather was overcast and drizzly (don't worry, we dont expect your sympathy!!) but the lure of more animals to show the children was big enough for us to walk out on to a causeway to Granite Island where the peguin rookery is. We visited the rescue centre where orhpaned and injured penguins go to rehabilitate and were lucky to be allowed to hold a penguin. The two voluteers manning the centre are from Manchester so we had a good chat about their lives here and why they'd chosen to make the move down under. Our campsite for the night was at Goolwa which is just on the edge of the Coorong National park. This is a wetlands park, probably about the size of the Isle of wight and consists of a sand spit running parrelel to the sea and providing breeding grounds for thousands of birds.

Feb 4th

Today we got our first real taste of the sheer scale of Australia and the some of the roads we will spend a good deal of time on. Endless highway which just disappears into the distance and heat haze make the horizon go all blurry. Our first stop of the day was in Meningies which is on the edge of a salt water lake (an Inlet of the Coorong) to see a flock of pelicans which were standing aloof by the waters edge where the fishermen come in. Pelicans have always held a fascination for me as they are the stars of a film called Storm Boy which my brothers and I used to watch when we younger and is now loved by my own children. The film was shot here in the Coorong National park so this part of the trip was bit of a pilgrimage for us. Our destination for the night was a bush camp right in the park and we found ourselves to be the only campers at the site. It's a bit spooky being holed up in a metal box in the middle of absolutley nowhere with just the wind whistling through the bush. Shortly after arriving in camp we went for a hike through the dunes to find the Great Southern Ocean. To our glee, but not a surprise, we were the only ones on the beach and could see for miles each way with blue sky, wonderful sand and crashing waves. We spent a lovely hour on the beach paddling around, searching for shells and just lapping up the feeling of complete isolation you get at a place like this. The long walk back to to the van just about finished the children off and they all fell asleep quickly giving Michele and I a bit of an evening (well an hour to write the BLOG and plan the next couple of days).

Stop Press - we just saw a load of Kangaroos hop across the track in front of us - hurrah!!