Hey Guys,
Sorry for all of you that are suffering from lack of blog entries (especially it seems my mum and Rach). We know we’ve been rubbish but we’ve been incredibly busy in our spaceship and then visiting Uluru.

Lets (quickly) go right back to the 12th/13th/14th April, our last days in Sydney before the Spaceship. We spent the Sunday shopping in Sydney as we figured that not much would be open with it being Easter Sunday. This was pretty much all we did. On the Monday we planned to go to Manly but we got up and it was raining so we decided against this, as basically we were going to Manly to see the beach....pointless in the rain. So instead we visited the Maritime museum and this time we went round the boats. The Endeavour (pirate ship) was really interesting and there were guides on the boat to explain about how things would have been when Captain Cook was sailing the boat. We also looked round a Navy warship (not very exciting) and a Submarine (very compact but cool). In the evening we met up with Elaine and Mike, two guys we met on our disastrous sailing trip.....at least one good thing came of the trip! The next day we wandered over to Kings Cross and Paddington. Took in a few of the sights, did a little bit of shopping and had afternoon tea in a very nice bar (I kid you not it was afternoon tea, well ok no it wasn’t it was a cocktail in a tea pot – fantastic). We sat in the bar having a conversation about our imaginary grandchildren and pretending that we really were having afternoon tea, good job we were the only ones there. We went round a cathedral on the way back to the hostel in which Sam was very tempted by the “Reconciliation” Booths. Thankfully for the priest they were shut. She also refrained from dunking her hand in the font on the way out.......but only just! In the evening we packed for our exciting road trip.

Now for the fun bit, our two week adventure in S.S. Nomad aka Noddy! We picked him up at 10am on the 15th and although Sam didn’t feel very well in the morning, the mean person that I am I made her drive out of Sydney. We navigated our way very skilfully out Sydney with no major disasters and decided to head to Wollongong on the coast for a last glimpse of the sea for a while. The only near miss we had was that as good drivers naturally we wanted to be in the left hand lane, seems sensible huh? Well yes until you stumble upon a load of people using the left hand lane as a car park......cue some very speedy braking and a lot of chuntering and this was the first near miss we had (thankfully one of the only ones). After successfully missing the parked cars we made it to Wollongong and sat and had lunch watching some kids play in the sea. We got back into Noddy, picked up some supplies for the next week and headed off in the direction of Canberra. Now with the Spaceship we got quite a comprehensive map with campsites and allowed camping locations. After numerous discussions about where we wanted to stay that evening we decided upon a nice sounding (free) campsite located next to a lake just outside of Canberra. Only upon driving past said lake (which actually we couldn’t see) there was no campsite.....the smart amongst you are going to say that we were obviously going in the wrong direction but I can promise you this wasn’t the case. At this point we were coming very close to reaching Canberra and so the only option left was to camp at Canberra Exhibition ground. We followed the signposts and turned up at this campsite only we then couldn’t find anyone to pay, after driving round for a bit we realised that we’d actually snook in a side entrance but upon finding the main entrance the office wasn’t manned. We decided to camp anyway and pay in the morning being the honest citizens that we are. We promptly found a good spot (main priority its levelness) and commenced our first meal on the camping stoves......for simplicity this was pasta. We got on remarkably well and were soon wolfing down our dinner as by now it was rather late. At this point I must just mention haw fantastically well equipped the spaceships are. We had a fridge freezer, which I didn’t realise worked as both and so managed to freeze all of our tomatoes in one fail swoop. We had two cookers and a metal platform thing to cook on outside the passenger door. We also had a DVD player and 4 DVDs – for entertainment! There was also plenty of storage space to store all of our rubbish in. By this point we were fairly tired and so decided to head to bed.....now with it being the first night we then had to figure out how to make the bed.....simple enough but with limited headroom it was made somewhat trickier. Getting the duvet cover on was also a challenge but eventually we made it.

In the morning we headed off fairly early and really confused the guy when we tried to pay to camp on the previous night. I successfully drove into Canberra only making one small error.....driving the wrong way down a one way street.....right outside parliament house....oops! We had a guided tour around Parliament house and got to sit in the House of Representatives and Senate House. We also went on the roof which was grassy and got some amazing views of Canberra. We then went to an exhibition on the Canberra, how it was created, who designed it, etc. Quite interesting. Then we went to the Museum of Australia and I saw my first drop bear (photo on facebook to prove it). All of this was free and so we didn’t actually spend a cent in Canberra. We then drove to Cooma and camped at Mount Gladstone lookout. Right next to an Austrian teahouse run by actual Austrians. It was freezing when the sunset but we had to brave the cold to cook our tea. A nice lady from a very posh campervan asked whether we’d like any hot water but that doesn’t really go very well with Ratatouille lol! Nice of her all the same though. We were in bed by about 7pm and so decided that we’d watch a DVD!

The next day we got up early (practically with the sun) and drove to Jindabyne in the snowy mountains. We got some info about walking up Mt Kosciuszko and decided that we didn’t have enough time that day so we’d do it the next. We walked by the side of Lake Jindabyne and headed to the campsite about 3pm (passes to the national park were 24 hours and so we figured this would give us enough time to climb the next morning). We stayed at a gorgeous campsite with a lovely kitchen (including pool table – which of course we had to play) and very nice showers. We abused the kitchen and cooked ourselves a lovely fry up (well ish eggs beans and tomatoes).

Saturday saw us getting up before the sun in preparation for our big climb. We made it all the way to the top of Australia’s highest mountain (Kosciuszko – 2228m), in I’d like to say record time, but unfortunately it wasn’t. We had a great day and the scenery was amazing. By the time we got to the top we realised that we only had an hour and half till we had to be out of the park and we still had about 9km to do till we were back at the car. Thankfully mainly downhill! We got back to the car with enough time (just) to make it out of the park in time, but due to road works on the way down we were slightly late, thankfully they didn’t check your tickets on the way out. We headed back to the Mt Gladstone lookout to camp again as we couldn’t drive directly down from Jindabyne to Lakes Entrance as the road wasn’t sealed.

After another evening where we had to do “team wee’s” due to there being no light in the very basic toilet we headed out of Cooma towards Lake’s Entrance. We took a slight detour on the way to the Snowy Hydro Centre to learn all about the hydro electricity plant they have in the mountains. We tested our pedal power against household appliances and Sam was much better than me, I think I only managed a toaster or something rubbish. The drive was a long one with not many things to see on the way. Eventually we arrived at Lake’s Entrance, I was somewhat disappointed with the scenery, I expected some amazing lakes coming from the sea, but this wasn’t to be. We watched (or rather Sam watched as I ran back to the car to get my camera) some pelicans being fed. I got some photos but not many. We drove on to an overnight rest area and parked up for the night. Now I’ve never seen such hilarious caravan antics in my life. The couple in the caravan that was parked in front of us were very strange. The man reversed the caravan onto a piece of wood to level it up but then decided that it wasn’t high enough. So he put another piece of wood on the top of the other and drove his caravan onto that, cue some very comical caravan wobbling. In the meantime all his wife (this I’m presuming) did was point and shout. In the end they managed to get it level but by this time we were practically in hysterics. We had a very nutritious meal of soup and headed to bed before the weird caravaners could ambush us. They had already introduced themselves to two other couple that were there and so we figured that we might be next and so escaped quickly.

Monday started with a scenic drive along 90 mile beach (well by the side of it anyway). For most of the drive we were the only car on the road. We saw an echidna but Sam didn’t stop in time for us to take its picture  and headed onwards towards Wilson’s Promontory National Park. The drive through the national park to the campground was quite upsetting really. The amount of trees that had been destroyed by fire was amazing and in some places was all you could see. It really made you understand how devastating these fires can be. The campsite itself was lovely. We took a look around the visitor centre and then headed down to the beach to catch the last bit of sun. We spotted (or rather Sam spotted) a Tiger Snake on the way back from the beach. At the time though we weren’t sure what kind of snake it was and so we just took a photo of it and went and asked in the tourist info. They told us that it was a tiger snake, the most poisonous snake in Australia.....nice to know that our first wild snake was the most deadly. We made friends with a couple called Terry and Lorraine who initially we just asked to change two 50cent coins to a dollar for the washing machine. Sam got chatting to them and they seemed really nice. We had a fantastic shower and did some washing. Not a very thrilling evening! We were unsuccessful at Wombat spotting though unfortunately.

In the morning we were given lots of information from our new friends and they even offered us their house to stay in when we went to Melbourne. We politely refused but they did give us some very cool information about a Penguin Parade on Phillip Island which we decided to go to. We spend the morning walking around the national park, taking in Squeaky Beach (unfortunately it didn’t squeak) and then Pillar point. We drove about half way up (as far as we could) the highest mountain in the national park but because we wanted to head to the penguin parade we didn’t climb it. We drove to Phillip Island (basically the Isle of Wight – it has the same place names) and asked about the Penguin Parade, it would be happening at approx 6:30pm but you needed to be there early to bagsy a good spot. We found a cool campsite where we were literally camping on the beach and then we headed off to get a good spot to view the Penguins. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take any photos but the parade was awesome, if not a little chilly. The penguins came out of the water and huddled together by the edge of the sea waiting for the opportune moment to make a dash to the sand dunes. Some were very brave and went alone but this one group of penguins was so indecisive that it took them about an hour to make it up the beach. They kept being knocked over by the waves and scared back into the sea by the sea gulls. Eventually they made it when the group size reached about 20. They were so cute though and after you’d watched the parade you could watch them going into their little burrows and having a chat with their neighbours.

The following day we headed out to see ‘The Nobbies” which is Phillip Islands equivalent of the Needles. We were very lucky to see a little penguin malting but it was so nervous that all it would show me was its bottom and so the photos aren’t brilliant lol! We also visited a beach and watched some crazy surfers and played some silly games before we got bored and hungry. We spent the afternoon driving to Melbourne. On arriving in Melbourne the map once again failed us. It was very good for country roads but when it came to cities it was rubbish. We got very lost and ended up driving right into the centre of Melbourne in the hope of finding the tourist information which would help us decided where to stay the night. You would expect there to be campsites around Melbourne but there wasn’t!!! In the end we got stuck in a massive traffic jam (we chose timing badly – rush hour) but not only did we have cars to deal with we also had to navigate the tram system as well. In the end we ended up along the beachfront in St Kilda and were lucky enough to stumble across a park which had public toilets in the middle. We decided that this was to be our base for the next few days in Melbourne.

Ok guys , although I haven’t even made a dent into what we needed to write to update the blog I have written 2500 words and spent 2.5 hours writing it. Hopefully we’ll be able to write more tmr and tell you about our trip down the great ocean road and into Uluru. Hope you enjoy this small segment of what we’ve been doing in the last few weeks.
Till tmr, goodbye!!
x