Clare writes: Yeeee hah! We're on the road again!! Lookin round for decent car hire prices in Cairns, Sheila stumbled on a really ood deal on capervans - Traveller's Autobarn charging just $50 a day (that's 25quid) so in a complete change of plan (the means, not the route) we've ot another home-o-wheels for the next 5 weeks down to Sydney. No dearer than the average hostel and complete flexibility about where to go. Petrol is much cheaper than in UK so ... as ...

Clare writes: How wierd! Two hours flight from Alice (40o+, dry, desert) and we're in Cairns - wet tropics - 30o, humid, raining. Sad to leave Alice Springs, which we both really liked for no obvious reason except that it was really laid back. Here in Cairns it's very touristy. The 'beach' here is baby mangroves with crocodile warnings, so everyone swims in a big artifical lagoon between the prom and the shopping centre - we're hoping to do so today! We hadn...

Sheila writes: We're back in civilisation (Alice Springs) after the most amazingly fantastic 8 day tour in the Outback, including the visit to Uluru and 'fossicking' for opals in the mines at Coober Pedy! We've had our requisite 12 hour sleep last night to recover from sleep deprivation after 5 early morning starts in a row (why does everyone want to see Uluru at sunrise? We had to get up at 3.30am to get there in time!!) Other mornings were all 4.30 starts to...

Clare writes:In the immortal words of Tom Waits: 'There's a world going on underground!' There is in Coober Pedy anyway - opal mining capital of Australia, possibly the world. This was one of the places I was most keen to visit since reading about it in bill Bryson's 'Down Under' and it didn't disappoint. Three quarters of the population of this sizeable desert outpost live underground to escape punishing temperatures which range from 1 to 50degrees. In homes, s...

Clare writes: so here we are in Melbourne, the city everyone said we'd love the best but, because our logistics are a bit awkward in January, we're spending the least amount of time in. I know why they said I'd love it - it is bonkers! A mad hotch potch of over-the-top architecture, in-your-face public art and general whackiness... almost too much to take in. There are no rightangles here except in the grid pattern of the streets - every roof that isn't a bulbou...