Day 126 - Melbourne, Ben & Gillian's for lunch & the Penguins of Phillip Island - Sunday 19th February 2012 Arrived in Melbourne at 6.30am, tired, uncomfortable and hot after our 11 hour overnight bus journey but we were looking forward to seeing my mum, brother Stuart and Uncle Derek. We got off the bus grabbed a $1 coffee from the seven eleven shop (it tastes like dish water but is cheap and wakes you up!) and made our way down the street to meet the g...

Day 124, 125 - Adelaide - Friday 17th, Saturday 18th February 2012 We had a much needed lie in and dragged our lazy bones out of bed at about 10am. We had planned to meet Merle in the morning then go into town and onto the beach, so she met us in the hostel kitchen for breakfast. We had some toast then walked down the road to get the tram to the end of the line at the coastal town of Glenelg. We had a quick look around the shops then chilled at the beach for the...

Day 123 - Dutchman's Stern and Claire Valley - Thursday 16th February 2012 Wow, the 4am alarm call was not welcome this morning. I was so tired I couldn't even face breakfast! There is a first for everything……. Once dressed and ready, we all ventured out to the van only to find that we had another flat tyre! This was great news for me as I went back to bed, fully clothed, for another 20 minute nap! Once the tyre was changed we all got in the van and started...

Day 122 - Flinders Ranges & Wilpena Pound - Wednesday 15th February 2012 We woke this morning on a double bottom bunk bed with Stefan on a single bed above us. Stefan's English is really good, partly due to the fact he spent 12 weeks on an Australia farm, but this morning he woke with a slight hangover and probably quite a dry mouth as the first thing he said in the morning was "Oh god, I have a drought in my mouth!" Today the plan was to explore T...

Day 121 - Quorn via the Salt Lakes and Glendambo- Tuesday 14th February 2012 Today was the big driving day, Doc, our new tour guide (he was called Doc because he looked like Doc the mad scientist from Back To the Future) told us that we would be driving in the bus for 8 hours so we could spend the following day at the Flinders Mountain range the following day. So we started early, waved goodbye to Coober Pedy and continue our journey south. After about 3 hours ...