Clare writes: Well, it's New Year's Eve here already and we're looking forward to tonight's fireworks. The jury's still out on our computer problems but we're managing to get online for a bit most days - apologies to those we haven't communicated with as much as we'd planned. We've done loads of sightseeing around Sydney's massive harbour and beyond - walked out across the Harbour Bridge to Cremone Point, ferry to Manly (Sheila swam from BOTH beaches), and all ...

Clare writes:So here we are in Sydney at last! Rather unfashionably, we took the bus - a mere 23 hours from Adelaide. We were a bit worried what our accommodation (booked back in August) would be like and have been astonished to find ourselves booked into the most hospitable motel in the city, possibly the world! Anthony and Anna-Maria, the management of the City Crown Motel, not only instantly invited us to join in-house celebrations on Christmas Day, but also...

17 Dec We flew to Adelaide on 14 Decemember and checked in at the rather unsalubrious Blue Galah hostel - which had sounded ok in the Lonely Planet and was bright with lots of facilities but has its downsides too: noisy twenty-somethings coming in at 3am, small rooms, and a kitchen permanently packed with Asian students who are there long term and are nice enough but do LIKE to cook. All rooms are off a wide central staircase up from the main communa...

Sheila writes: G'day from Southern Australia (Adelaide to be precise). We've had a wonderful camper van trip through the outback of Western Australia - visiting the Karijini National Park in the north, with its wonderful sandstone gorges - and even managing a refreshing dip in the pool at the bottom of the Fortesque waterfall after an early morning hike around the rim of the Dales Gorge, with fabulous birdsong. Camping overnight in Karijini was uncomfortably ...

Sorry for long absensefrom blog - not lways easy to get intrnet connections.... or keyboards thattype whatyou tell em to! Clare writes: So, we're in Australia and after a few days with friends in Perth - who looked after us soooooo nicely -we have hit the open road in a campervan and arworking our way north from Perth andseeing howfar we get in two weeks! We love our little home fromhome and we have already stayed in some fantastic places, but tonight takesth...