Hello to all you beauties back home, I hope you’re all well. Sorry I haven’t blogged for a while, but if any of you are still following this good on ya - I would have given up after 7mths!! ;-) Can’t believe it’s been that long! Missing ya!

After 2.5mths, I'm spending my last days of Australia in Melbourne. It's gone quickly and it's been eventful including the last few weeks which included partying in Byron bay, checking out Sydney, a road trip into the outback and chilling in the beautiful Melbourne. Read on…

"NEW SOUTH WALES - THE FIRST STATE"
BYRON BAY AND NIMBIN
Byron is a tiny town, full of backpackers either surfing or partying. Unfortunately, the last time I surfed I ended up in a leg brace and on crutches, SO I'm NOT a surfer. Therefore, I was forced into the party aspect. Shock!

Aquarius hostel was one of the most chilled out places I have ever
been - I stayed there a week and never had to use my key once to get
in my room! Quite a contrast to Sydney where I had to use my key to
get in the toilet!! I’m all for security, but if you’re in a rush its BAD NEWS!

The best part of Byron for me was the day trip to Nimbin on Jim's tours. An experience is an understatement...the man is an (ex-)professional stoner and made it his goal to have a funny if not interesting story to accompany every song he played on the short trip to Nimbin. Nimbin is 1 street and filled with the weirdest collection of 'people' I have ever seen. If I tell you there is a marijuana museum in which a cross between Wurzel Gummage and Alan Titchmarsh explained how to
grow weed, detailing choice of land, soil consistency and harvesting techniques, and everyone else looked like offspring of that man then you would have a good picture of the town! For example, when sitting having a luncheon beer an old man with makeshift sunglasses sat down and began chatting away to us. He had one eye in his glasses blacked out with gaffer tape and believed in one thing: "You're either
from planet Earth or you're a Martian." Quite a statement! Before we left he gave us a peak at his pupil and that is my last memory of Nimbin!!

We stopped at some beautiful waterfalls and a crazy man's house called Paulie from California) on the way back. He was wearing a purple one piece gown and lectured us on his collection of tropical plants and the makeup of the universe! Thanks for your insight Paulie! Other sights in Byron were the most easterly point of Australia where I looked out and wondered about all that sea between me and South America (conveniently ignoring NZ!)

SYDNEY
My 1st big city since Singapore was quite a shock to the system after chilling on beaches and not having to stress about a train/tram/taxi. Still it's a cool city with its fantastic bridge and the Opera House in the harbour. The botanical gardens were also a highlight seeing 100s of cockatoos (white with yellow 'fros) flying around at dusk. It certainly wasn't my favourite place in Australia and the best part for me, despite feeling horrible at that time was getting up to watch Arsenal smash Porto 5-0 at 6.30am!! Come on lads!!

ROADTRIP - OUTBACK AND GREAT OCEAN ROAD
We planned a 9 day roam into the outback and then south to drive the coastline that everyone raves about. We left to find a car at 11am in Sydney's Kings Cross. Trying to haggle with Ozzie car rental companies the way that I learned in India doesn't quite work out here.

"Come on my friend, special discount price??"
"F**k off you pom!"

After I pummelled his sorry ass we drove out with a station wagon complete with camping gear and a free mattress. WE WERE ON THE ROAD...well trying anyway, out of the Sydney suburbs for which we had no map! It was 6 when we left Sydney!! 101km away are the Blue Mountains, so we parked up at a lookout to sleep. I noticed 2 things when I woke and stepped out of the car door in my shorts. 1st its pretty cold up a mountain! 2nd was the view - fantastic and for miles. We checked out the lookouts around the mountains including the 3 sisters (3 sacred rocks on the end of a cliff), Wentworth Falls which looked more like falling snow than water, before hitting the road to Hill End - a small (less than 100 people) ex-gold mining town. Max population was 8000 in 1872 during the 'boom.’ Despite the people leaving the Kangaroos had flourished and as it was the 1st time I had seen one there were shouts of “A Roo, A Roo, Get the camera!!” Ironically, I saw 50 more before I got too close and they bounced away into the trees! Oh, and it's true, they do box - I have it on video!! When we eventually parked up for the night we were in the middle of nowhere with only the stars staring down on us. Corny I know! We soon noticed animal bones all around the car. Sitting in the pitch black cooking a chicken tikka masala when you know there is a trained predator tearing up goats somewhere in the trees was a little nerve-wracking!!

By day 4 we were driving the infinity roads of the outback - us and NOTHING else. We reached the town of Wilcannia by lunch which due to some angry Aborigines we had been warned to stop only for fuel! So we did to White Cliffs, an Opal mining town (not the fruits) which like Hill End was also past its boom years (Pop. 100). Due to the heat (hitting 50 in the summer) the residents live in dugouts in the ground - there is even an underground hotel! We learned of a fruit fly exclusion zone just up ahead which meant we had to eat ALL of our fruit. Half a watermelon, a bag of oranges, apples, bananas and tomatoes later, we felt pretty sick - but at least we wouldn't get a fine hey?!! We even managed to trade half a watermelon for a colourful opal! Lucky us! We reached Broken Hill for sunset in the living desert.

Day 5 - 675km to the Grampians. We only stopped for lunch amongst the vineyards of Red Cliffs and I cracked open a cold one - what a life! Eventually we reached a caravan park in the Grampian Mountains and I had the 1st shower of the trip – squeaky clean baby!

After day 6 we had driven 2085km so we decided so we did a bit of trekking/sightseeing in the National Park. The Pinnacle walk was about 3hrs up through the Ozzie Grand Canyon and to the top of a cliff which jutted out over an amazing landscape. There are some cool pics of me sitting on the edge with a 100m drop below me! 'The Balconies' were pretty cool - literally a ledge looking out over the world...you can see the pics if they upload! We made it to Warrnambool - the start of the Great Ocean Road for the best sunset I have ever seen.

"VICTORIA - THE PLACE TO BE"
Day 7,8,9 - The Great Ocean Road
We had driven 100metres when we had our 1st thrill - a huntsman spider
was sitting on the wing mirror which due to a big fear of spiders sent
Anke into a frenzy! We stopped at a nearby cheese factory to recuperate - I found a left handed spatula in there. Every cloud…

Superb weather pretty much the entire way made for fantastic sights...1st stop was a Murname Bay which was beautiful. Some of the lookouts were on cliff edges and we were literally right on the edge! They were endless but I'll leave you to look at the pics! My faves were The 12 Apostles, The Grotto, a Jurassic looking Eskine Falls and a fruitful trip to a pointless lighthouse where we saw loads of Koala bears! I thought I was lazy! We even managed to squeeze in Fish ‘n’ Chips by the seaside – just like home! Yum!

MELBOURNE
When we collected the car the dude said "don't turn up at 5mins to 5 and expect us to check the car over." Well mate, due to a lot of traffic and a lack of a sense of direction that’s exactly when we turned up!! Ha - chin up!!

Melbourne is a buzzing multicultural city and I love it! It's very compact which makes it easy to get around and it's got some chilled out bars and cafes on little alleys off the main streets. Visiting the Old Melbourne Gaol was cool – a prison guard showed us what it was like to be arrested and locked us up. I went searching for a reported Banksy on the lanes dedicated to graffiti and visited the MCG before a big night in the town with some Irish lads I met back in SE Asia!

So that's the end of Australia for me...maybe I'll come back some day (probably when the pound decides to get off its lazy ass!) For now I'll settle on New Zealand...here I come!!