You left our intrepid/lazy wanderers as we returned from Tasmania.W e spent 2 very nice days in Melbourne. Lots of markets, lots of bakeries, lots of walking. For the first time in 7 months we slept outside of our van in a hotel in a trendy district.

For both of us, one of the highlights of Melbourne was a tour of the Rod Laver Arena where the Australian Open is played. Our guide was fantastic and considering it was just him and 3 guests, we had lots of time for questions and pictures. Obviously they had seen the footage of us playing tennis back in WA as they put us both up in the media room for a Q&A session. Gruelling, but the public just can't get enough of us.

2 days of city tired us out and our next stop was Wilson Promontory for some much needed hiking and fresh air. Gorgeous views. We were, however, glad to be there in the off season. There are 500 camping sites there. I can't even imagine what a different place it is when school is out. Apparently there's a lottery to find out in June if you can even get a spot in Australia's summer. We have it soooooo good at home!

We ambled along the Victoria coast. One of our more decadent days found us leaving our previous nights stop at about 10am (actually, a relatively early departure for us). By about 11 we had stopped at a lookout over the Tasman Sea to do a little reading and Asia research. 6 hours later we left. When was the last time you just plopped down for 6 hours of reading and snacking? Oh, so decadent. One day we'll think that was just a dream.

There are a LOT of Kangaroos around the coast here. We were constantly treated with their emergence from the bushes every night. As you'll see from the photo, one guy (and I mean guy, not gal) made himself quite at home under our bumper, in the shade. 17 is the maximum number of Roos we've seen at once yet. Fantastic. I took one video that is M18 rated so we didn't post it...yet. I don't know if it's just "the season" but the boys were a little worked up all along our stops. We haven't witnessed actual "sexy" yet and may not but I guarantee I'll be checking youtube when we get home to see how that all works and how that massive tail doesn't get in the way. Hours of entertainment, I'm telling you.

We started the process of getting Max all set for his sale in Sydney. We stumbled across a cute town called Pambula and so booked him in for a service and availed ourselves of the cute bakery, 2nd hand bookshop and various other treats. We've since had to dump even more money into him but we feel comfortable selling the van now knowing that things are really in very good shape. As I type, Baebs is manning the e-mail inquiries. Knowing what a smooth talker she is, she may even have it sold by now. We spent an entire day in a Caravan Park cleaning dust that we probably carried all the way from the nasty punishing roads of Western Australia. Bucket after bucket of dirty red water was poured down the drain but I think we've got him looking pretty smart now.

A little further up the coast on a slightly sprinkly day we were, as we do, reading our books in the van overlooking a nice bay. A lady pulled up in a car next to us and started purposefully making her way over to the van making somewhat frantic gestures. Bravely, I rolled the window down an inch to ask her if she was OK. As it turned out, whales were frolicking in the bay right in front of us two bookworms. For the next two hours we watched these mama whales and their young practicing manoeuvers right in front of us. I 'm talking breaching like you see on travel brochures! The young ones were actually coming right out of the water. Tail and flipper slapping. You name it, they did it. It was so plentiful that we could even lock our binoculars on them which I've never been able to do before in my long history of vacations and whale watching. Until now I've been content with a spew of mist and a "I think that was a fin…or a back…or maybe a wave". Bon voyage whales and happy feeding down in Antarctica.

Well, that pretty much takes us up to the present. We're camped right on the beach in a shire campground just south of Sydney. Today we drove about 30 minutes up the coast to catch the train into downtown Sydney and hope to make the most of our day tickets. I guess that's pretty much it for the great nature shots. We're sad about it too, but we're slowly getting excited for the next stage of our trip. We'll drop a note with our final thoughts of Oz before we head off.

Love to all and miss you like nutz,

Jason & Baebs