Well im in the land down under! All has been well here in the Blue Mountains, habe now met all the family, old and new, so offically no all my family now! Took 25 years, but i got there. On arrival to the mountains and my new home for the next couple of weeks, complate with a bath, wardrobe and a comfy bed, life was good. Roger and Jane introduced me to all the neccessary neighbours, and getting used to my new name 'lis-gemma', which isnt helped my roger referring to me as his brothers daughter from London, or Lisa's sister. Im nameless! So had a starter tour around the mountains, my new backyard, and they are stunning, such a vast amount of space out here, and they really could do with some water as well!

Then one my first adventuire to see the city I came across the world famous Opera House and Bridge, and trying to get an idea oh how big this place is. Lots of meeting up with old friends who i havent seen in 4 years, so thats always good fun.

The most interesting adventure to date in oz will have to be the past 4 days. So the decision was made to hire a car a visit some past buddies from my travels in south america. Which is all good except one of them lived in a place which is barely on the map and somewhere everyone goes "oh nice, where's that?". So was going to be interesting, especially as on the map as we got nearer the destination of Bylong, the road disappears into dirt, always good in a brand new white car with not a scratch on it and 46 kms on the clock! And by Sam's standards, who has lived in Bylong for all of his life, its was just down the road from Sydney, thats 350km's down the road, and what road might I add?!?

So we made it to township of Bylong, generally looking out for a few shops and a pub, the general make up of a town. But not in Bylong, just the one shop and a church. But credit where it is due, you could buy everything you could possibly need in this little shop. So arrived at the ranch/farm, all 30,000 acres of it! bulls and horses everywhere. Once all the meet and greets where done, we popped out in the truck with a dog in tow to show us what it can do when confronted with a bull. So happily driving round, until Sam spots a bull in the wrong field. Ok, fine thats what the dog is there for right? No, not on this occasion, this is what the big bars on the front of truck are for. So., off we go chasing this bull with the truck around and uneven field at about 50km's an hour. Great fun it was, and beyond scary, its like bumper cars with 700kg bulls and trucks. Rose and Tom had even more fun standing in the back of the truck with the dog, they were a little shaken to say the least!

So after this delightly experience, a regular accurance for them not for people from the safety of London! As if that was not enough to amuse us (twice i might add!) it was time to go down the 'local' for friday night drinks. Now this was either going to be sitting outside the shop come pub, or a friends shed on a farm. It was the latter. And there is no being modest out here, it really was a shed. A fridge to keep the stubby's cold (of up,ost importance), a mix match of stools and some empty drums for tables. To say that the 3 of us pommy's stood out would be one of the biggest understatements i have ever made. We were, more so Tom, were victims of some very amusing banter and story telling about what has happened to previous pom's in this neck of the west.

So now was the arrival of paddy's day. Not too much was done in the day time by us, the heat was a scorcher out here. Justing wondering around the various fields, seeing a bull and walking very fast in the opposite directionand chilling by the pool side. Then the guys decided we should 'pop' to there local pub, 100km's away, for paddy day drinks. So off we all went in a convoy to another random place called Scone, a slightly larger establishment than Bylong. So enjoy the bush prices for drinking and just sat back and tried to yet again blend into the crowd, good luck with that I thought!

Now our journey continued to another set of friends in Dubbo, and land where there is not a singel tourist I dont think! And althought a nice place and a great zoo, can see why it is not on the tourist trail! So a couple of days was spent there catching up, then on the road again, passing through a town called Bathurst, where Rose and I vaguely remember a friend living. All our details were her first name and the fact that she was a police woman, so off to the police station we went, and we succeeded in surprising her to say the least! Then back on the road to Sydney, were we could bleand back in and not be such a novelty for evryone.

This weekend the adventure begins again with a campervan and a map for the east coast . . . .