Blogs from Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, Oceania - page 2

So there we are after a very chilly night on the Prom - luckily we could snuggle up in the van where it was lovely and warm, but I did miss not being able to sit outside (never happy!) There were signs in the loos telling people not to leave food in tents as the wombats will rip the canvas to get to the food, it also said in the travel books that the wombats are so tame, they just ignore you as you walk past them. Did we see a wombat? Did we hell! We did see a roadsign of a wombat, which John couldn’t stop to take a photo of - he said we’d see others, but we haven’t so far! But what I did see was really good - I was feeding an ... read more

Flying from Darwin to Brisbane my long journey seemed mostly at an end, as I was picked up at the airport by Genevieve, Edward and Alexander - my sister and her two young boys. A few days later my parents joined us on the Gold Coast, and we celebrated an early Christmas together. So no more would I sleep in bed bug ridden beds, clutching my passport to my chest. No more would I wake up trying to remember how to say in the local language “Where am I?” I was now staying with family, in safe, familiar places, speaking English, eating recognizable food, and catching up with familiar friendly people, some of whom I hadn’t seem for years. I still had a few thousand kms to travel before I was back in my home town ... read more

Firstly...photos are finally up...tomorrow/the next day/in a week...it's all the same to me! Hope you all had a great Christmas, I did! I'm in Bunyip, east of Melbourne, it's a little country town- lots of farms, snakes and tractors! Went surfing on Phillip Island a couple of times with Amy and her cousin, but I didn't even get in the water the second time cos it was FREEEEEZING!! Even when the weather is warm here the sea is cold, it's very different from Queensland! But we had sun and warm weather for Christmas, and it was very strange having a BBQ on Christmas Eve and sitting outside on Christmas morning! Spent Christmas with one side of the family and Boxing Day with the other. Apart from that...have been helping out with Christmas preparations, hanging out with ... read more

Well here we are in Tasmania, and I have finally sat down to update our travelblog! After our first stay in Melbourne, we headed down to Gippsland for 9 days, then returned to meet Alister on March 9th. He came over for the Grand Prix car racing, more on this later! Anyway, Gippsland is really south east Victoria, and probably best known is Lakes Entrance, but there’s lots more! First stop was Philip Island, well known for its famous fairy penguin parade, which we skipped, but we did see penguins nesting at The Nobbies, a wild coastal headland with lots of sea birds and a very good interpretive centre, plus a bitterly cold southerly wind!. We stayed at a quiet backwater coastal village called Rhyll, unfortunately the caravan park there closed the day after we left ... read more

Ryan the pom is leaving tomorrow to head back to sunny England. The A grade season has finished now and I think he's ready to get back. He decided to have an initiation 20/20 cricket match to go out in style. I was asked to play more for a bit of English support I think, but It was great fun and not very serious. We started drinking before the game started and continued throughout play and after till the early hours of the morning. It's pretty tough fielding with a stubby in your hand and even worse when you’re trying to bat. The game ended in a tie as I think the scorer was to pissed to know with any certainty what the scores were. We had a bit of a presentation and then a feed. ... read more