We left Sydney (and the world of Debt Collecting!) at the start of this month after a enjoyable weekend of social action - here's what happened after that.

Melbourne 8 to 11 June 2005
>>>Train to Melbourne - an interesting night journey bringing back memories of South American bus journeys - i.e feck all sleep and some oddball behind coughing his guts out for the entire evening.

>>>Melbourne / St Kilda - hmmm, not sure what to say here - Melbourne just didn't do it for us - a dull city. St Kilda was nice enough and the 'Olde Melbourne Goel' was a good time - featuring the original hanging beam (for all you capital punishment fans). 3 days was enough and we were happy to get our hire car out of there...and onto...

Phillip Island 11 to 12 June 2005>>>A cool place where everyone convenes on the area each night to watch Penguins come up from the sea and make their way up to the beach to their homes. Bloody cold on the beach though.

Great Ocean Road 12 to 14 June 2005>>>Apparently one of the 'great stretches of road in the world' - not sure about that, but it was a good time (it was also here that I realised that Australia has a lot of stolen place names - Killarney and Torquay being two)As well planned travellers that we are we timed our journey through one of Australia's main tourist attractions with a bank holiday weekend - this meant our accommodation in Lourne wasn't the usual fair - in fact, to be completely honest with you - it was a Caravan. Aside from the something dying type smell (which well could of been my new aftershave) it was excellent - and a bargain too. Lourne was a nice town and after a bracing stroll along the beach we hit the tourist trail - Kangaroos and those furry grey things in trees (spelling escapes me) were seen at semi regular intervals. At one with nature we arrived at 'the money shot' - the12 apostles - pretty damn impressive and after a while taking the obligatory pics we headed to some strange backwater town for dinner in a bowling club! (2nd most popular sport after netball apparently! woo hoo). ... The twelve became 11 a few weeks later... one crashing into the sea.

Barrosa Valley 14 to 16 June 2005 >>>The next day was spent driving in the pounding rain for hours to get to our favourite destination - the Barossa Valley - yes  it was wine and port time. The valley is home to Jacobs Creek, Penfolds & many other red & white winners. We stayed in a lovely log fire cottage right in the vineyards (nearly as good as the caravan - but not quite!) & spent the following day testing as much wine as we could get our grubby little hands on. Great couple of days.

Adelaide 16  to 20 June 2005
With a heavy heart & an obscene headache we made our way to Adelaide & dropped back the car (some issue with over charging, but all OK - no dents or anything...). Adelaide's a great little city - not too busy, fairly attractive & easy to get around. After a few enjoyable days there we boarded the Indian Pacific for one of the 'world great train journeys (we do a lot of GREAT stuff don't we?!). It was a two day journey that crosses the Nabboolar (spelling - wrong) plains & takes you to Perth - it was a very strange experience - the same view for miles & miles (or as someone I know put it - "a great stretch of MAMBA - miles and miles of B***er all!")- with only a couple of Kangaroos to add something new - really put across the size of this place. I hope my picture did it justice.