Home brew, beaches and new family on the not-so-Sunshine Coast...

So after our nine day road trip camping all the way from Canberra to Brisbane we finally arrived at Teeny and Rowan's house, in a small town called Mooloolah, around 80kms north of Brisbane.

This part of the world is called the Sunshine Coast and compared to the monstrosity further south, the Gold Coast, it seemed beautiful. We'd gone past the Gold Coast on our way back which surely lays claim to having the highest number of bogans per square mile than any other place on earth. 'Bogan' being the Aussie equivalent of chavvy, maybe more wide-reaching though. It is interesting to witness how such a term of insult can be used in so many different ways, especially in a country that claims to live above the old English class stereotype. Over here bogan encapsulates a whole section of people but most notably the singlet (vest) wearing, rugby league supporting blokes. The Sunshine Coast, it seems, has a lack of them.

We've been here about a week and a half now and have loved every minute. The weather has been slightly tempestuous but where hasn't in Australia! The area we are in, The Sunshine Coast, even made national headlines last Friday after flash foods hit the area after a few days of squalid rain. And boy did it rain.

Despite the rain in our first week here we managed to do and see a lot. We went sea fishing down on Caloundra beach, Caloundra being the nearest beachside town, where I managed to catch a huge crab that flatly refused to let go of the fishing rod. After much persuasion he gave me his entire claw instead, something we were told they can do, all before they grow a replacement!

We've also been lucky enough to borrow Rowan and Teeny's huge 4x4 and go out and explore some of the amazing countryside to the west. This is prime wine producing territory so we managed to have our first wine-tasting experience and due to the weather managed to have the whole place to ourselves. The lady who talked us through the process was actually English and due to the time of year and the weather, was clearly happy for the company. We tasted two whites, an unoaked Chardonnay, another that was a close relative of the Sauvignon blanc, a sweet and fruity Rose, my favourite a good punchy Shriraz and then to finish, a fortified wine that isn't allowed to be called Port. They were beautiful wines and clearly very different to the mass produced variety in the supermarket. We were actually supposed to pay a fee for the tasting but I think she took a bit of a shine to us! Before we left we bought a bottle of the unoaked Chardonnay which, after drinking it that night with the others, was unanimously confirmed as amazing.

I think, again, one of the weirdest things to get your head around are the distances. At home, when we say 'I'm just going down the road to pick up some milk', it literally means what it says. Here, down the road can mean anything upto twenty miles away. Put it like this. Mooloolah, the small town we are staying in is pretty much classed as Caloundra, on the Sunshine Coast, but then we are fifteen miles away from the coast. Look on a local map and it is so far you think they would need to take provisions with them, just in case, but then scale that back to a State map or even a national one and they merge into the same dizzying place. It will never ever cease to amaze me.

At the weekend we made the most of our last weekend in Australia. On the Saturday we drove about 45 minutes north to a local (hmmm) Market at a place called Eumundi. It was a beautiful place full of unique items and more importantly, gourmet food. We wandered around for a while before grabbing some food, shell went for paella, Rowan the tapas, I went for the Malaysian roti and lentil daal and Harry the savoury crepe. I wanted to tell you what we all had to get a sense of the variety on offer, it was beautiful stuff. We ended the morning in one of the local bookshops. As far as bookshops go this one was the best. The four of us were in there for well over an hour. It really was one of those places you could get lost in or choke on the mounds of dust collected in old books.

From there we hopped down to the beach to take in the last of the days sun before scrambling back home to get ready to drive down to Brisbane for a big night out. Unfortunately it would have been a big night out, if Shell and I had remembered our ID's! How stupid! Turns out, even if you are 55 and look 55 they would still ask you for ID. Bloody Australians. In the end we went back to Rowan and Teeny's friend's house, not far from the centre, where we entertained ourselves by making nuclear cocktails, both in look and potency.

The next day we explored Brisbane city. This would be our fourth major Australian city and in a way, one of the prettiest. Don't get me wrong, they all have their merits, but Brisbane seemed to retain that sense of a large town, even if it's skyline and obvious mining riches suggested otherwise. Although it was a Sunday it was so peaceful. We ventured around the Southbank, complete with 'Brisbane eye' and art gallery and fantastic Sunday markets. I may have said this before about other cities but the resemblance to London was simply staggering. The fact it is on a river and not a bay or harbour gives this even more levity, compared to other Aussie cities. Brisbane also has some fantastically old buildings that seem stuck there in limbo compared to the skyscrapers surrounding them, continually in battle to retain their former glories. It is a horrific reality that the Brisbane authorities, both past and present, seem intent on destroying everything that makes Brisbane great. It's almost as if Brisbane suffers from third city syndrome, where people continually prefer to move to Sydney or Melbourne in search of culture when in a way, they have everything and more right here.

Anyway, we leave for NZ tomorrow. Although the thought of spending 56 nights in a van might make us slightly worried and apprehensive, the adventure, I am sure, will be simply outstanding. A lot has happened over the past seven weeks, in a way we never really thought about what we were going to do in Australia as all we thought about, naturally, was how little we could afford to do! In the end, we have simply had the time of our lives. I don't think we could have seen more if we tried. We have seen the country's four biggest cities, swam in two Oceans and one Sea. We have eaten some incredible food from the four corners of the world in a country that is the world's most sparsely populated. We have made some exceptional new friends and more importantly cemented friends for life with people we already knew. The weather hasn't been amazing but then who cares, it's made things greener, more interesting and you know what, you find out more about a place when things aren't how they are supposed to be. It has problems, lots of them in fact. We know so many people who have made the move out here and I'm sure lots of people will continue to do in the future. If you come out here, you live in the cities, make only British friends and essentially live the life you did in the UK, why bother?? Just move to Milton Keynes.

So on we go, literally to the other side of the world. Time to get all Ray Mears, albeit with a DVD player and comfy shoes....

Much love, Tommo & Shello xxxxx

Cabin fever, underwhelming bananas and a bucket load of coffee........

The next morning we were up early to knock down the miles to our next stop, some 560 kms up the coast to the north. The journey went by quickly, with the helping hand of sour worms and a barrel full of coffee propelling us through the kms.

To get to our destination, Seal Rocks, we had to pass through Sydney once again. Unfortunately the Satnav took us through Sydney's many suburbs to the west. In a way, it was good to see places like this, if only for a bit of grounding. Everyone who makes the move over here seems to think that this country is faultless. Well, it isn't. Sydney's suburbs are like sprawling, grey forgotten corridors of shit. If Katoomba was the Rotherham of Australia then the Sydney suburbs are the Moss side, Hackney and Frattons. Massive social problems, a large ethnic population with obvious integration issues with a State government that would rather polish the Harbour bridge than look after the hoards in the ever increasing suburbs.

In the end, we battled through the Sydney suburbs for nearly two hours before we were once again on our way and heading up the coast. In just over two hours we were pulling off the highway and driving what felt like endless gravel roads until we reached Seal Rocks, a truly amazing part of the world that had that aura that nobody knew about it. We spent a couple of days at Seal Rocks eating, drinking, batting away the turkeys who seemed to want to steal our tents and some good old sea fishing. It was a beautiful place and we all had a blast.

The next day we packed up camp and set off up the coast. We'd planned to travel the seven hours in as little time as possible, setting off early and arriving at an indeterminate campsite in Byron Bay but in the end we stayed for only an hour or so. I was last in Byron five years ago and was determined to go back and show shell what it was all about. Turns out it was not as amazing as I had remembered, probably because I was in a drunken haze for the vast majority of my time there. It was slightly seedy and brash and although we were there during the day it just didn't seem as though it deserved any of it's plaudits, in short it was a but if a let down. Actually before we got to Byron we had chance, just past Coffs Harbour, to visit another one of Australia's 'big things', much like the big sheep further south. This time the big thing was a 'giant' banana that when we arrived turned out to be about as unimpressive as you could imagine. I know it looks big on the photos but let's be honest here, if it's in the national mapbook your thinking it has to be huge. Well it wasn't, hence the photo....

Anyway as we moved further up the country we decided not to camp in Byron as we would need to pay at least 80 dollars a night for a basic, unpowered pitch. So on we went, travelling due north past the concrete jungles of the Gold Coast, including Surfers Paradise, until we reached outback country, around 50kms inland from Brisbane. It had been a defining feature of this trip, and something we were hoping to find, to stray away from the predictable and the bland in pursuit of the authentic Australia. Somewhere between Ramsay Street and the outback bar scene in Crocodile Dundee. This we got. We joined Teeny's family in a pub out in the country for ten dollar steaks, all washed down with the local favourite, Castlemaine XXXX. stereotypically delicious.

All you had to do was look around at the kind of people eating and drinking in there to know that no backpacker, maybe not even a guy from the next town, had ever experienced this place. There was even a guy on the adjacent table with a long black mullet...permed! Not to compare everything to that famous film but it really did seem that everyone was related to Donk. Google images search; Crocodile Dundee-Donk.

So there we go then. Our great Aussie Roadtrip. Soon enough we were heading onto the highway and up the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane to Rowan and Teeny's, our home for the next couple of weeks before our flight over to NZ.

These guys!!

Much love, Tommo and Flemmo xxx

Road trips, mountain pigs and wiggly worms in the Aussie outback.

This week you find us from the darkest depths of bush-tucker Australia as we were to 'go native' with a couple of our good Aussie mates. We were in Sydney a total of twelve days and like we said before, we had a blast. But we had been in the cities now for three weeks so a taste of the real Australia was calling us, good job we knew the right people then...

First of all we had to get out of Sydney so we said our last goodbyes to Morgan, who we are going to miss big time. I hate saying goodbyes, especially to such close friends. We then hopped on a train to Gosford, around 50kms up the coast. There we would be being picked up by Rowan and Teeny, two guys who we had met in Munich around three years ago and had stayed in contact with. They had both booked off time to come and pick us up and take us on a magical mystery tour throughout the 'real' Australia. We had absolutely no idea where we would be going but I guess that's the beauty of it!

It was great to see them again, I guess despite its many flaws Facebook has some benefits! Anyway, we shoved our bags in the back and set off on our way up to 'the entrance', a spit of land that juts out of the coast with the ocean on one side and a very large freshwater lake on the other. We had planned to get there and set up the tents before dark but the weather, already freezing cold, took a wet turn for the worse as the rain turned torrential. Due to this we changed our plans and booked a cabin instead, a small, self-contained unit where we sat for most of the night catching up and pouring over the huge map of Australia in front of us. At last though, we knew where we would be going!

The next morning we prepared the car, a huge Toyota landcruiser (proper bushmobile!), and headed south and into the Blue Mountains. First stop was to the three sisters, which given their fame were nothing compared to the scene surrounding it from the lookout at Katoomba, a small countryside town. The views were breathtaking from the top and despite the howling wind, you could see as far as your eyes would let you over forest, peaks and countryside without a single building obstructing the views. After buying supplies from the local supermarket we went off to find lunch and found a place that specialises in the Australian delicacy of meat pies, amazing. They were beautiful, the locals not so. It was like a mix between Rotherham and Crewe, all gangly legs and narrow eyes. In a funny way it's a nice feeling to know that special people exist out of places like the above.

Soon after we were on our way, winging around beautiful, desolate country roads until we made it to Oberon, a small country town, where we would be staying for the night. Unfortunately the weather was appalling with the rain coming down in furious clumps with the temperature no warmer than about 4 degrees, not quite the Aussie road trip we had in mind! Despite this, we cracked on, set up camp and munched on freshly cooked spaghetti bolognese, all mustered up by yours truly, not bad going considering the conditions.

In the morning, after a terrible nights sleep, we all piled back into the van and made our way over to Jenolan caves. This cave network, made up of six main cave systems was simply staggering. We chose the most popular cave and ascended down with one of those eccentric geologist types that could have taught a-level chemistry. He was great and the cave even better, completely silent, atmospherically neutral and huge, with some sections as high as a cathedral. Before leaving we had time for a picnic by one of the huge streams that were overflowing due to the amount of rain that had fallen in the area over the past few months. Like I said in the last post, this part if Australia has had a shocking summer, in fact according to Rowan and Teeny, have had nothing but poor summers for many years.

Anyway, from the caves we faced a 300km drive to the south to the nations capital, Canberra. It was obviously a long drive, almost six hours straight, but the scenery and towns we passed on the way were so beautiful that the time and miles flew past. Although we were in the Australian Highlands we still had to remind ourselves where we were, it could have been North Yorkshire or the Lake District, something we would feel for the next few days. As ever we entertained ourselves with a vast array of music spread over four iphones and three ipods (glampers!) and ate sour worms (unsurprisingly shell's contribution!! Such a kid) until we all started to go sugar crazy. We even stopped for a photo of a giant sheep, Australia loves it's big things, it's famous for them! We plan to visit the big pineapple and the big prawn on our way north...

After five or so hours of driving we arrived in Australian capital territory and eventually to Canberra, quite possibly the strangest city I think we've been to. Before we could get out and explore we headed off to Rowans brother's where we would be spending the night.

The next morning we woke late as we were all shattered from the bone chilling of camping in 2 degrees celcius with an added 6 hour car journey thrown in for food measure. In the afternoon we headed through canberra's infinitely annoying streets first to the mightily impressive war memorial and then to the Parliament building, the biggest building in Australia. Despite the bureaucratic and sterile nature of the city both buildings were impressive in their own right. Their stupid 10 dollar sandwiches not so. We took a guided tour around both houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Essentially an American based political system but with its roots and demeanour firmly British. It was all going fine until she asked if anyone wanted to ask any questions. Turns out the group had lots. In fact some of the questions left us all slightly open-mouthed. Heres a couple;

Question: What do they (the MP's) do if they run out of paper?
Answer: They can ask for more.

Question: Where do they plug in their laptops?
Answer: In the plug socket provided.

Unbelievable.

That night, after smashing a football around with rowan for a while (a good footballer may I add-and he's Aussie!) we ventured out for Thai food which in itself was a pretty strange experience due to it being our first Asian meal outside of Asia!

The next day we were up at six in readiness for our assault on the Snowy Mountains. After driving for about three hours we eventually stopped on the town of Jindabyne. After filling up on water, paying for the national park permit and munching down on yet more delicious pies we were on our way, this time to the base of Mount Kosciusko, Australia's highest peak.

After slipping on our hiking gear the six of us, including Rowans brother and partner Guy, were on our way to smash down the 18kms that would take us straight to the top. Now let's face it, 18kms is a long way, especially up a mountain, but we all raced up there as if being chased by wolves. The sign at the start said it would take around three hours to the top and then two and a half coming down, we managed to knock two hours off that! Shell was loving it and totally up for getting to the top. It wasn't a massive mountain by any means but the scenery both from the track and the summit were extraordinary, almost like viewing the Peak District on a summers day. Whatever it looked like it did not scream Australia. At the top we posed for the usual photos where I, unfortunately, looked like a massive gnome. On the way down, within about a km of each other we encountered yet more Aussie wildlife. This time more of the 'I will kill you with enough venom to kill 200,000 mice' kind of animals instead of the fluffy and harmless variety. We saw a huge jumping spider that seemed intent on attacking Teenys leg plus two small snakes, one of which, the brown snake, has been called the worlds most poisonous. All in all then, a bit of an eventful hike! Despite teeny and shells big blisters they got round without any major problems which was amazing given the fact they'd never walked that far before.

Back on the road we went in search of a riverside campsite and found a perfect bit of ground which had perfect views of the surrounding valley and was completely silent apart from the sound of the river below us. It was amazing to be able to wash in the freezing cold river with not a soul around for miles, real wilderness. We even had a visit from a family of possums who, despite our every effort to pack away food, seemed to find something to get their big furry faces into. They aren't noted for their eyesight either so we were able to get right up and touch them before they escaped up a tree!

The next day, we were to leave the mountains behind. Before that we paid a visit to Thredbo, a small skiing village in the middle of their summer slumber. We found a great place selling delicious local ales and sat outside for a while to take in the fresh mountain air. It was stunning but deathly quiet, kind of like seeing an actor out of costume, maybe smoking a crafty cigarette around the back.

Feeling suitably nourished we hopped back into the car and made our way steadily out of the mountains. Before we knew it we were back in Canberra where we once again headed to Rowans brothers house for a well earnt shower and sleep before which Shell and I repaid the generosity by cooking up some pea and prawn risotto which went down a treat. The mountains section of our trip, for now, would be over.

We have never experienced topography such as this, esepcially in a country where the guidebooks would have you believe it is a country full of arid nothingness. Compared to the rest of Australia though the size of the area we camped through would be merely a pinprick on the map. It's not exactly the area you think of when you think of when browsing through the brochures. Thing is, this area is about the size of Switzerland. Just without the chocolate and obessesion with the time. What a country.

As you can probably tell we are having an amazing time. Shell said she will write some of the blogs but I tried to do it as we were going along. I'm not being greedy!

Much love, Tommo and Shello xxxx

Back 'home' in Sydney...

Just over ten days we had now been in Australia and already it was time to fly on to major city number three. We'd had an awesome time in Melbourne, a truly unique city full of little nooks and crannies to explore and like I said in the last blog, like we have both said in fact, Melbourne is a place you could easily find yourself in permanently. (just for the record, what you want and what you wish for are two completely different things!).

Anyway, we got to check-in just as they were closing the flight, the closest we had ever come to missing a flight and one that if we missed, would mean both a loss of money and a loss of our much-appreciated lift from Sydney airport, provided by Morgan and Kylie, who we would be staying with for the next eleven nights. Earlier in the day back in Melbourne, we had finally managed to track down shells cousin Lee who we had been frantically trying to contact in our last few hours. Amazingly, we managed to spend an hour catching up over coffee in federation square before once again we had to dash off on the train to try and make it to the airport in time for our flight. It was fantastic to see Lee who was the first familiar face we had seen in almost six months.

Anyway, back in Sydney we arrived at Morgans, in rushcutters bay, just down the road from the city. We dumped our bags then headed straight back out to check out an FC Sydney game. Now this is the second time I've been to Sydney after travelling over to stay with Morgan five years ago, where we caught an FC Sydney game for the first time, I can safely say that the quality has not improved. It was the equivalent of watching the third or fourth tier of English football. Abysmal but equally entertaining and far more importantly, shell loved it! She'll be off to buy a Forest season ticket as soon as we're back! Also, just like Melbourne, Sydney has a food heritage as rich as it's skyline. A city that has been populated by such a melting pot of different cultures that has seen a variety of food to match so we gorged on these amazing Naan bread wraps filled with tandoori chicken, sauce and potato, not as unhealthy as it sounds and beautiful with a couple of beers. On the way back we managed to crash a 30th birthday party with a friend of Morgans. We had a couple of beers and managed to help ourselves to some amazing food that was being bright round on wooden platters! It sounds a bit wrong I know but there were loads of people in there and way too much food, you take what you can get-we are budget travellers!!

The next morning we woke late and went out with Morgan for a walk into the city. We walked around the bay and through the majestic Botanical Gardens before approaching the mighty Opera House and Harbour Bridge but as the clouds had rolled in we decided to leave the obligatory photos until a better weather day. From there we walked up into the city and around Hyde Park before walking up to Morgan's, via the bottle shop (off licence), to buy enough beer and cider to last us at least a few days.

The next day we headed down to Bondi to meet Jai, my oldest friend, who had moved over here with his girlfriend Fi a few months ago. It was great to see him, if not a tad surreal but we had a good day on the beach in the sun. Apparently Sydney has had a terrible summer so far so I guess we were lucky to have had such great days so far, especially after not seeing a cloud for all of our time in Perth and Melbourne. Anyway, it was great to see Jai and meet a couple of his mates. We got invited back to one of their houses for tea and biscuits, how British! Especially when she whacked out the Hobnobs!

The next day the humidity was mental, storms were definitely a brewing. We walked, yet again, for the whole of the day. First to take 'those' pictures of Sydney's famous landmarks. After posing for some great shots we then walked around to The Rocks, a really attractive part of Sydney's heritage. This was the place, around 200 years ago, that Captain Cook and the first band of convicts set up shop within the harbour and decided that this is where they would send those really dangerous criminals that stole loaves of bread or blasphemed whilst hitting their finger with a hammer. I know you don't want to hear about the history, you can read a book to do that, but how ironic that in those days criminals who were sentenced to transportation I.e sent to the colonies, often asked for the death sentence rather than be sent to Australia. Imagine that now...

Its a strange one being here again. Obviously very little has changed in five years but it's just extraordinary how many British accents we have heard. I would be interested to know how many Brits have made the decision to start a new life over here in recent times but it must be a ridiculously high number. Geographically its obviously a huge distance but culturally it's scarily close. All you have to do is just look around, listen to conversations, jokes, supermarkets, even by switching on the tv and things are just so intrinsically linked. Fascinating stuff.

Anyway, the next day we walked up through the trendy districts of Darlinghurst and Paddington to a large pub on Oxford Street, one of Sydney's main thoroughfares. There, in one of the best spots in the city, our friend Ben, an old uni friend, had just become licensee of a new pub. It was great to see him, even better to see that he has landed completely on his feet, I would expect nothing else! Anyway, we were fortunate enough to be spoiled by Ben who treated us to lunch and beers for most of the afternoon (our first steak in six months tasted like heaven). From there, once Ben had finished, we headed down the road to some of the pubs that would be absolutely rammed come this time Saturday night. Sydney's Mardi Gras parade is the worlds biggest and as we sat here in a bar some three days before it was already full of people who had made the special pilgrimage to their beloved site. We stayed in there for the rest of the night, it was great to catch up with Ben and even better to have a good session with a mate, some things you just cannot do without! While we were in the pub the heavens opened, delivering rain and wind in huge proportions. It was so surreal, drinking with a mate who I last saw in a Pompey pub, shivering inside while outside was cold, wet and windy. Had we even gone anywhere??

Unfortunately the aforementioned rain just wouldn't shift, in fact it was so bad that even now as I type away in the sun, New South Wales and Victoria have been absolutely inundated by floods. Outside of the city, apparently, is terrible. It's ok, we only plan to camp in all of these places in the next two weeks...

Anyway, by saturday the rain showed no signs of stopping but the Mardi Gras of course had to go on, imagine the uproar here if they cancelled if they moaned about the name of a penguin! The parade itself didn't start till 8pm so we got up there at about seven to get a good spot which proved pretty impossible given the fact that the crowd was already seven deep, we needed a step! luck would have it that we had brought a couple of milk crates from ben's pub so despite the umbrellas obstructing our in front of us, we managed to get some kind of view.

Despite the rain the parade was typically over the top! It involved about two hundred floats of every conceivable gay and lesbian project, community, occupation and so on, culminating in an appearance by the demigod herself, Kylie. I've never understood the adoration of Kylie by the gay community until I came here, it is absolutely and phenomenally crazy!

The next day, to everyones relief, the sun finally made an appearance! With this, we shook off the remnants of our hangover and headed to Taronga zoo, which surely lays claim to the worlds most impressively located zoo. Obviously the animals were immense and when compared to the zoo in Thailand we visited it was like visiting the Savoy Hotel for animals. The real winner here though was the view, simply stunning and the only place in the harbour where you can take in views of all three of the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and the city skyline in one view. As for the animals, we have now learnt that Australia is the only home to eleven of the worlds top fifteen most poisonous snakes. Even better to note that all of said snakes can be found in the places we intend to camp over the next few weeks! At least shell revised the 'what to do in event of snake chasing you' literature. I think it read something like 'don't count on boyfriend to be of any use, just run and cry like he does'....

From the zoo, Kylie (Morgan's GF, not the Locomotion singer) drove us around to Manly, sydney's second most famous beach. By now the wind had picked up and the rain almost within reaching distance but we did manage to get a few photos and a sense of what it was all about. In essence, too touristy and too much like Skegness on a bank holiday. I guess that's slightly exaggerated but compared to Sydney's other beaches it didn't really stand up.

Back at Morgans me and shell cooked up a Mexican chilli feast, at least to repay some of the amazing generosity! It went down a storm and what was even better than eating great food, was getting the chance to be unleashed in a kitchen once again!

With only a couple of days left in Sydney the sun finally came out to play. We took a walk down to circular quay, Sydney's famous city centre ferry terminal, and took a ferry over to the Eastern suburbs, arriving eventually at Watsons Bay. We headed off the ferry and immediately queued for fish and chips as this was, quite famously, Sydney's most well regarded spot. Watsons bay was also the place where I spent most of my time when i was last here, quite freakishly, five years ago to the day. It is a beautiful area with stunning houses and a perfect park running down to the sea. It also has, arguably, the most perfect views of Sydney in the entire harbour.

Sydney was, five years ago, a place that just took my breath away. I had an amazing time here and couldn't wait to come back, especially with shell this time. After six months of travelling it was amazing to be able to kick back with some of our oldest and best friends and not think about moving for a while. We've both loved it here, we can't lie. We're not saying we want to live here forever but you can't rule out the possibility of giving it a go for a while, the way of life is just incredible. The bars, the streets lined with coffee shops, the sport, the fact that everyone in the city seems to leave work to jog home and the fact that despite this health conscious last point, everyone seems to spend every last penny either eating or drinking. It's infectious, not without it's problems but then where is perfect?

So onwards! Tomorrow we leave Sydney to travel to a place called Gosford, to the north. There we will be picked up by Rowan and Teeny, two friends we made in Munich a few years ago and have maintained contact with. We don't really know where we are going but we will be off for about ten days up the coast and into the bush until we get to Brisbane. Time to get all Mick Dundee......

Much much love, Donk and Sheila xxx

Street art, coffee and a cousin in Melbourne.......

After our five day blitz of the west coast over in Perth with Bill it was time to hop on yet another budget flight to check out the sites, bites and smells of Melbourne, we could not wait.

The flight, yet again, was a smooth one. It took us three and a half hours to get from Perth to Melbourne, about the time it would take to get from London to Moscow, but we'd only traversed two thirds of the country. I couldn't look out the window but from what shell was saying it was just an ocean of orange. A dry, semi-featureless land so huge it almost made your head hurt trying to grasp it's sheer size. After a few hours we landed in Melbourne, an instantly appealing city, and made our way to glenhuntly, a short distance into the suburbs, to meet our couchsurfing host Greg. After staying at bills it would be hard to live up to our time in Perth but Greg was a good man, very softly spoken due to his job as a psychiatrist but with almost limitless energy. This guy literally never stops. He seems to be in a comfortable position but if he's not skydiving one weekend then he's on a speedboat the next, all the while hosting appreciative couchsurfers like shell and I.

Anyway, the next day feeling rejuvenated and refreshed we hopped on the metro and travelled the short distance into the city. Of all the cities we have visited over the years, including my previous visit to Sydney, this is the one that looks most like home. Although over the years huge skyscrapers have been added it still looks as much like London as you could probably get. Even some of the cities most famous streets and landmarks bear the same names, Southbank (which serves the same purpose), Liverpool street, oxford street and Croydon, no signs of any riots here though. In fact the only thing you can see anyone rioting about around here is if they started serving instant nescafe in any of the thousand coffee shops. And here's the thing, Melbourne seems to be top of the list for three things, it's edgy arts and music scene, it's food and it's coffee, why weren't we born here!!!

We simply had an amazing day. I know this is just the centre and you know little or nothing about the rest of the city but what a city this is. Apparently you could dine out at a different restaurant or cafe every night for ten years and still have a few spare. We spent the day taking in a couple of the walking tours which took us around some amazing street art which Melbourne is famous for and drinking a tonne of coffee. We've got these explorations down to a tea, literally, or maybe a coffee. We walk, talk, smile and pop in out of streets and lanes that look interesting. We take breathers in bookshops and try to talk to anyone who looks approachable, even the disgustingly annoying charity workers, who unsurprisingly were British trying to pay for they're trip around this most expensive of countries.

Earlier that morning Greg had left us some money to buy picnic items so that when he returned from work he could drive us down to Brighton beach. This beach, although not the best we had seen on our trip, again reminded us so much of home it was unreal. It's most famous attraction was around thirty beachhuts, all decked out in various colours, passed down from generation to generation. Much like the premium huts in the UK, these small boxes, according to Greg, went for at least 100,000 dollars each, making them by some large margin, the most expensive real estate in Australia, if not the world. Anyway, we went for a swim, the sea was warm but the wind not so but Greg was in there crashing about like a 16 year old while these two weaklings stood shivering, dreaming of eating sandwiches in the warmth...

From there Greg took us to a beautiful lookout of the city, a place where runners past and sports of all kind were being played in the early evening warmth, leading you to believe that everyone in this city plays at least three sports on a regular basis.

After briefly returning to gregs for about an hour, Greg had us again up and about to go and check out another of Melbourne's must sees, the little penguins. These furry little creatures were, up until quite recently, called fairy penguins but melbourne's numerous gay community apparently kicked up a bit of a fuss so had to be scaled back to something slightly less offensive - little penguins! Typical. Anyway, 1200 hundred of these cute little things swim in every night to nestle up in the cracks in the rocks and to pose in front of the waiting tourists. They were awesome.

The next day we started relatively early and headed towards at St Kilda, melbournes trendiest district. This place apparently has, besides melbournes busiest beach, the highest concentration of coffee and cake shops anywhere in the world. Shell was in cake heaven! It was a cool place but way too expensive but a good place to hang around in for the morning. In the afternoon we decided to check out some more of Melbourne's street art and take in melbournes impressive waterfront where its uncanny resemblance to London became even more apparent. We decided to do another one of the walking tours which took us past some fantastic looking buildings but then decided, and we really don't know why, to miss out the last third and take a shortcut across a small bridge to take us over the river and in the opposite direction. It was here, amazingly, that we bumped into Lee, shells cousin, who had been in Melbourne for a few weeks but whom we had struggled to get in touch with. What an absolute insane coincidence!!

The next day, with the promise of scorching temperatures and wall to wall sunshine we headed down to the beach. We stayed there for as long as we could handle before scurrying off, hot bothered and sunburnt to find ice cream and solace from the sun, it was officially 100 degrees, the hottest day we have had yet on our trip.

By day, Melbourne was an interesting and captivating place by night it was stunning. We walked all the through city, ducking into the side streets for food then walking down the waterfront to check out a spectacular fire show that apparently happens every night. Essentially four giant pillars spout giant flames fifty feet into the air, three times a night. The most envious thing about our whole time in Melbourne, especially our last night which was a Friday, was our inability to throw off the shackles of budgetary constraints and eat and drink like a local. Something we were itching to do.

They say that Melbourne is one of the most 'liveable' cities in the world and who can blame them, I would.....

Much love Tommo and shell x x x