Holmwood Guesthouse Cowes

While in Melbourne we found information on an area called Grampians National Park. Decided to give it a try. Arrived in the small village of Hall's Gap. This village has 300 permanent residents and 6000 beds. It also has hundreds of kangaroos grazing just like our deer in the US. They seemed to really enjoy the grass around the campgrounds and the parks. We hiked two beautiful all day hikes while in the area. Met two couples who live in Melbourne ...

... indicating Radio Beacon - or box of satellite trickery), boil in the bag curries, an Esky (or coolbox to Pomms) and a whole head full of advice on how to or even whether to attempt Googs track. We swung by the mobile phone shop to pick up the phones, only Alex's had been repaired, and paid our extortionate $150 bill -$135 with a10% discount! We arrived just in time to take Zoe and Ed to ...

... back. After popping to the Nobbies to see the sealion colony we settled in for the main event - The Penguin Parade. From previous experience I knew how cold it was going to get so we wrapped up warm and sat tight waiting for the penguins to return from there time at sea. After an hour or so they started to arrive in groups of about 10, fighting the waves to get on shore before waddling themselves up the beach right past ...

... elephants.<br><br>So what have we learnt from the great Aussie experience, apart from the correct pronounciation of 'Geelong' and where to find the light switch in an Oz bathroom ('Jer-LONG' and inside). The importance of water and fire (too little of one, high risk of the other, unless you're in Queensland where it has been the other way round), that an English accent does not instantly spell 'tourist', how big places can be and ...

... after all and we do get to have a good tidy up! that takes up most of the day. we have accumulated sooo much gear whilst here - most of it camping stuff which we hope maz,s new owner will take off our hands. dont fancy having to get rid of that mattress.. the charity shop gets a bagful of stuff that doesnt fit anymore (diet plan really didnt work) and with ...

... chicks came rushing around a mound and ambushed him. They literally penguin-piled the poor guy who eventually had to threaten them with some nips to the head before he escaped. Of course I eagerly rushed around the boardwalk trying to witness as many of these encounters as possible or choosing a small pack of marching penguins and following their route home. So cute. ----------------- Also went out to ...

Wow...I can't believe its only been a week. The days seem to drag on, but the week itself has been a blur. I already can't remember not being here. You fall into the groove really quickly. You have to. It was nice to wake up this morning and the weather had cleared. The people at the hostel gave us free "breaky". Pretty decent- well it was free. Took some eggs and fruit and made lunch out of it later. Im ...

Tomorrow we hit the road. 1st June and the first day of winter - a good benchmark if nothing else. Sod's law the weather is diabolical at the moment: thunderous gails and a violent hailing rain - a godsend for the state of Victoria, having suffered the driest something or other in 56 years, and a pain in the **** for us road-hungry west-headers. Coupled with a nice rap of flu that's been doing ...

... forced to book into an onsite cabin (as we could not quite tough-it-out J) We spend the next morning walking around Geelong's main street and foreshore before heading to Melbourne. Nick and I spent some of the morning looking around the National Wool Museum - where countless volunteers guided us through the informative museum housed in the old Geelong Wool store build in 1872. This was where the most expensive bale of wool ever was sold in the 1995. K&amp;N xx

... starting with a lengthy blast across the Nullarbor and down to to the far south west, before coming up to Perth. From there I'll be heading right round and eventually making it back (hopefully in one piece) to where it all started - here in Melbourne. The trip itself will take some months so I'll be working my way around ...