Plum Smuggling

Hello.

We left Geelong (near Melbourne) last Monday with a vague promise of a couple of night shifts at an onion packing shed in a town called Mannum, about 6 hours away. We arrived here on Tuesday and it turns out we can do quite a few more hours than we originally thought, so that's good. Our first day started at 7am and continued right through until 10pm. That's a long day of lifting sacks of onions for Kev, and throwing away bad onions for Charlotte.

Nevertheless, we're here to work so we've been doing that everyday, even putting in some overtime yesterday. The work's as exciting as ever but the people we're working with seem nice and it looks like we'll be able to stick it out for a while to pay off some debts and save, save, save.

We're staying in a caravan park, right on the Murray river which is very nice. We had a bunch of Possums come and join us on our first night here, and apparently one got into somebody's tent last night and devoured a loaf of bread.

Sometime this week we might be moving out of the caravan park and into a house. One of our workmates has a bit of spare room so he's seeing if we can help him out with that. Here's hoping. It's getting cold down here and it's only going to get colder. We've got the doona (Aussie word for duvet - no idea why) from the car and the other night we dug out our little fan heater which seems to work well.

This is a crappy internet station so we can't upload pictures or anything, so for now, ta ta!

Map update

Melbourne Grand Prix (again)

Hello.

We're still in Melbourne enjoying having things like walls and a roof thanks to Jason and Jacqui. We had a nice weekend, meeting up with Adam who we worked, lived and got drunk with in Gayndah, and a bloke called Edd from England who we vaguely remember having something to do with when we were back home.

The weather's been typically Melbournian - sunshine, wind, cold, hot, rain and snow ...well, maybe not snow.

On Sunday was the Australian F1 Grand Prix, the first round of the 2007 season. The race was good and we managed to get right underneath the podium for the trophy presentation after the race, as you'll see on the photo below! The atmosphere down there was great, as we were stuck between Ferrari fans and bonkers Kimi Raikkonnen fans singing away as their driver won the race.

It was also good to see Lewis Hamilton make such an impressive debut with 3rd place. If he goes on to be Britain's best ever driver, we can say we were there where it all started.

We'll be off into the city to sort ourselves out with some work this week but intend to get away from the city if we can. Working in the city for us would be a bit pointless as it's very hard to save up. If we can get out to a farm somewhere and live on it, that'd be ideal but we'll have to see what's available. Things are different down here to how they are in the Territory or WA.

For now though, we're relaxing and catching up on all the Top Gear episodes we've missed.

The podium celebrations - look how close we are! They're right in the middle of the picture there, that small red dot is Kimi Raikkonennnen:


Us:


Adam and a random stranger who somehow made it into the photo:

A rather long drive

We've done some serious mileage since our last update.

A curious thing about travelling Australia is that distance largely becomes irrelevant. One of the things to see down in the south-west is Wave Rock, a pretty spectacularly shaped rock formation. We left Albany, had a look at the rock and said were suitably impressed, had a bit of lunch and then drove on to the last big town in WA: Esperance.

It was only towards the end of the day that we realised that, this time last year, the idea of a four hour drive to see a rock and have a sandwich, followed by a four hour drive to where we stayed that night would seem a little bit nuts. These days, it's just normal.

We stopped in Esperance for a day and gave ourselves a chance to relax. To be honest, we felt the beaches here were a little oversold in the brochures and they somehow failed to match the stunning places we'd seen elsewhere on the south-west coast. We toured the Great Ocean Drive on the west side of the town, and then visited the Cape Le Grand National Park on the east side, both of which are peppered with white, sandy beaches and turquoise waters.

By the time we got back into town a bloody cold wind was coming off the ocean. We don't know whether the wind came from the antarctic just a few thousand kilometres south of us, but it certainly brought the jackets out. Nevertheless, it was time for an ice cream and a walk down the jetty, where we were treated to a couple of Sea Lions swimming about in the water below, waiting for the fishermen to chuck the scraps over.

Esperance was the last major town in WA and we left there on Monday. Our next mission included crossing one of the most remote, longest and straightest stretches of road in Australia (and maybe the world?). Crossing the Nullarbor isn't difficult - the road is good all the way and the only real dangers are hitting some of the wildlife or falling asleep. There is enough traffic so you don't need to worry about finding help if you have car trouble, and it's one of those Aussie things that you must do. As a result, people do it in all sorts of ways from pushbikes to wheelie bins.

We started with an easy drive to Balladonia where we met up with Kev's uncle and had a couple of beers. At dawn the next morning we began the serious part of our long drive to Melbourne. Just to add a bit of interest to the day, the remnants of Cyclone George that had hit the north coast with deadly effect last week had arrived down our way. The wind and rain started and didn't stop for the next two days.


We kept each other amused but the only thing to do when you're driving is try to avoid the kangaroos that come to drink from the puddles on the road. Several hours later, we crossed the border into South Australia, then after about 10 hours of driving we stopped for the night at a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere.

The next day was the same, a 10 hour drive featuring straight roads, kangaroos and even a dingo. We stopped that night just north of Adelaide. Then yesterday, after another 10 hours we arrived in Melbourne.

Last night, we slept extremely well. Since leaving Perth we'd covered well over 4,000km, and probably half that was in the last three days.

The biggest reward is that we can now say that we have driven all the way round Australia!

The Pinnacles:



We've seen 3 pink lakes but this one was amazingly pink:


Our trusty steed overlooking the Indian Ocean near Kalbarri:


The Valley of the Giants tree-top walk near Denmark:


The bottom left of Australia, where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean (in case you can't read):


Inside Ngilgi Cave:


The lighthouse at Cape Naturaliste:


A sunny Sunday afternoon and everyone comes down to the river in Mandurah:


Taking our picnic down to Thistle Cove near Esperance:


Kev waves at Wave Rock:


A blue whale skeleton at Whale World (former whaling station and now museum) in Albany - and a small one, apparently:


The absolutely beautiful Greens Pool, in the William Bay National Park near Albany:


Conspicuous Cliffs, a stunning beach between the Valley of the Giants and Albany:


This fella gave us a bit of a shock as it ran out as we folded up the tent - it was about as big as Charlotte's hand (Adelaide):


The WA / SA border:


Somewhere on the Nullarbor:


The Sea Lion begging for food at Esperance:


At the Whistling Rock in the Cape Le Grand NP (very disappointing, it didn't whistle):

Perth to Albany

Hello.

We are currently in Albany, on the south coast of Western Australia and heading east. The car's in the garage having a service so we're just killing time in the town... err sorry, city centre.

After our last update we spent a week with Kev's relatives in the beautiful Mandurah, just outside of Perth (well, an hour away but that's 'just outside' in WA terms). Most of our time was spent sitting on the settee and watching DVDs - two luxuries we haven't had for a very long time.

Living with bricks around us and a proper roof over our heads was extremely nice, and we were treated out to a meal by Kev's cousin Gareth too, so that was excellent. Everyone there was busy doing their own thing most of the time so that gave us chance to get out a bit. We popped to the beach and had a swim, met up with Adam and Keri who we met in Broome who are also down that way now.

We also had an encounter with the biggest Huntsman spider we've seen so far. Kev tapped it on the arse with a pencil, expecting it to do as all spiders do and run away. But no, this thing turned around and grabbed hold of the pencil, prompting Kev to fling it across the bedroom.

It was there again the next night and a more successful attempt to remove it was made with the aid of a big cardboard box. We may be a long way from the land of crocs now but even in the city you just can't escape Aussie wildlife.

We left Mandurah on Monday and headed into the south west corner of Oz, and we've been cruising along this way up to now, enjoying some of the most beautiful parts of the country. It's surprising that this part of Australia rarely gets mentioned but it is absolutely stunning, and it's also much quieter than the east coast. We'll get pics on when we can in case you don't believe us.

All being well, tomorrow we'll be starting the first of our big drives, up to Wave Rock and then down to Esperance. From there onwards, it's just miles and miles of nothing. We'll probably be covering the length of the UK again but this time in just a few days.

And that's why the car's being serviced right now...