Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Great Ocean Road, Adelaide, Uluru (Ayers Rock), Cairns, Airlie Beach & Whitsundays

We flew into Sydney and had just enough time to see the Opera House and Harbour by night, before picking up our hire car and setting off on the coast road to Adelaide. We only had four days for this part of the journey, and it turned out that we had seriously underestimated the distances and had to drive as much as 10 hours on some days, which didn't leave much time for sightseeing!

Apart from a few nice beaches at Wollongong and Eden, the route from Sydney to Melbourne was fairly unremarkable as the road was often some distance from the coast and the landscape was pretty dry and barren in places.

We discovered just how variable the Australian weather can be when we arrived in a wet and windy Melbourne, the day after it had enjoyed a heatwave. We had dinner with Sascha's ex-colleague Dave and took in a few of the city's sights the next morning (including the fabulous Victoria market where we ate lunch and stocked up on food). From there we headed to the Great Ocean Road, starting at the famous surfing beach, Bell's Beach. The views were incredible in places, including lots of interesting rock formations that have broken away from the mainland due to the weather and the waves. It was a long day, and we arrived in Mount Gambier after dark which meant we had to be very careful not to hit kangaroos on the road - one ran right in front of the car!

After some brief stops at a vineyard in Coonawarra and some caves, we made it to Adelaide. Here we enjoyed the parks, river, museums and galleries and also had a few hours at the beach.

Next we flew to Ayers Rock, where we walked 10km around the base of Uluru and also drove to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). They were both amazing sights, but nobody warns you about the thousands of flies you are covered in as soon as you set foot outside! Unfortunately there was a rain storm on its way, and the cloud cover meant that sunset was unremarkable, but at least it meant an end to the unrelenting heat.

A quick stop in Palm Cove, near Cairns gave us a day to recharge our batteries beside the swimming pool, before an overnight bus trip to Airlie Beach where we arrived on Christmas day and ate pizza on the beach for lunch. On boxing day we took a boat to the Whitsundays - Hamilton Island (where the British guy won 'the best job in the world') and Whitehaven Beach - which had the most stunning white silica sand and turquoise sea.