Hello, Hello!

Well we said a sad farewell to my mum on Friday ( upsetting for me!!) and on Saturday we left Sydney in our hire car and headed for Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains of Australia. We stopped along the way at Canberra and it was rainy, wet and windy so we couldn't really do too much but we did go to the Parliament House on Capital Hill and also to the Old Parliament House just down the road from it, which was interesting and fun. Iain got to sit in the old press gallery and record a demo radio broadcast which you could play back! I also got my go in the Speak of the House chair in black cloak and wig (practice for Judge Charlotte!!).

We got back on the road in the rain and got to Jindabyne which is really a ski resort so we were very off season and about 10km in the middle of nowhere in farm land was our accommodation. We arrivved at 6pm and our key was hanging on th reception door and we found our cabin which had 8 beds!!! and lounge, tv kitchen etc ( oh and it took us a coule of hours to realise that we had our own bathroom and shower!!- we thought we shared the general amenities! - tho we were the only people there!) We went back into town to find everything pretty much shut up for the season except for a pizza shop ( our tea!) and pub/restaurant with 1 internet pc so were sorted!

Yesterday ( Sunday) we went to Thredbo ( the ski capital village) and paid a hefty $54 to get a chairlift 3km up Kosziusko mountain where we had dedcided to do the summit walk - it was blowing a gale, pissing down and with wind chill, the temp had dropped to 2 degrees!! But off we went on our 13km return climb. It wasn't that steep just so hard because of the weather, we got to 5km when a member of the emergency services said we weren't dressed for the weather ( we had board shorts on and open trek shoues with a rain jacket!!) and that it wasn't wise to go the next 1.5km to the top! They had just taken a family of 5 off the mountain with overexposure!! She was from Glasgow so laughed at us and said typical as we carried on up to the summit!! We made it to the top but there was nothing to see coz of the weather but now we can say that we have climbed the tallest mountain in Australia (2,280m high!!)!!! Wooohooo!!

I thought i had frost bit as we came down which seemed harder but we got a hot choc at the bottom and then sat in the car with hot air on full blast!! The rest of the night we chilled in our sleeping bags watching TV trying to get our clothes to try on the tiny radiator in quite a cold cabin ( can't imagine how cold it must be in winter!!)

Today we drove for about 5 hours to Lake Entrance, passing through lots of little towns with one shop etc, all in the middle of nowwhere!! We arrived at our campsite and the weather is still grey down here but we asked how much it would be to upgrade to a cabin but is was $125 so we have stuck with our $45 camp site and have managed to pitch our little tent ( between 2 massive house tents!!) before it rains. We are hoping it doesn't rain or get to windy or we'll be in the car! It is a nice little beach town but not sure what we'll do tomorrow if the weather is s***ty as you can't really sunbathe - it's fleece weather!

Wednesday we will drive past Melbourne on to the Great Ocean Road and spend 2 nights camping at Apollo Bay and then on a bit further for 3 nights camping at Warnambool and then go to Grampians National Park for 3 nights in cabin and onto the Gold mine town of Ballaratt for 2 nights camping and then the spa town of Hepburn Springs for a luxury 2 night stay in a spa resort before heading to Melbourne to drop off the car and spend our last 9 nights in Australia!

We are not sure how many internet cafes we will find before we get to Melbourne so we may not be able to blog too much over the next couple of weeks but will do a catch up in melbourne for you all!

Blog soon

C xxx and I xxxx