Austin Downs (14 August - 30 Sept)

We're living and working on a farming station in the middle of Western Australia, miles from anywhere! Rory is doing farm labouring (mostly putting up and fixing fences) and bombing around on motorbikes and old utes. He's got boots, jeans and a hat and thinks he's some kind of cowboy or something. Caroline is helping out around the house: teaching the kids and tidying the house, and in last few weeks gardening, despite not knowing the difference between a flower and a weed.

We have our own little cottage to live in, which seems like a palace after 6 months of hostels, shacks and dodgy guest houses. However we share the toilet with a gang of frogs who fall from the rim after most flushes and line the bathroom wall.





It's pretty deserted out here (the nearest village is 10 miles away on a dirt road, the nearest big town a few hundred miles away) but great living out in the country. The sunsets are great and the horizon glows for ages afterwards and the stars at night are amazingly clear and bright.




We have also bought a big estate car to travel round oz in. It's pretty big and has a huge 4-litre gas-guzzling engine that might yet bankrupt us, but it's great to have our own wheels and go where we like, when we like. No more waiting aroud for buses for now!