Tasmania

Well, first we had more Mr Bump troubles. Kept conking out. Were not sure if he would make it onto the ferry. New exhaust bits and more tinkering around sorted him out. Grrr!

Tasmania is beautiful. Lots of small windy roads. Very green. A bit English. Lots of woods and wilderness and big trees and small mammals. Curried scallop pies. Stuff like that...

Hobart: amazing views from Mt Wellington overlooking the city! Cascade Brewery...mmmm!

East Coast: had one non-rainy day; went to Freycinet National Park and walked to Wineglass Bay, looked great! Went fairy penguin spotting in the evening: sat in some bushes and flashed our torch to lure the little penguins out!

Western Tasmania: went walking in the hills and national parks and got pretty cold and wet! Brilliant scenery though, and loads of possums and wombats come out at dark, which makes driving in the dark pretty entertaining. Petted some kangaroos and wallbies in a zoo and saw some Tasmanian devils (they weren't scary)

Cradle Mountain: we climbed it! Had a miraculously clear sunny day and took over 7hours to climb up and down it, with some precarious climbing over rocks to get to the summit. Could see at least 70 kms away and could see clouds floating past down below!

Launceston: Boag's Brewery. Like Cascade, but with cheese.

Penguin: yes, we went to a village called Penguin. There's penguins everywhere, though mostly just painted on bins or big penguin statues. The shops were all called 'Penguin Supermarket' 'Penguin Chemist' 'Penguin Meals On Wheels' etc, which made you think that these shops were for penguins only.

Met and stayed with Val and Dick, Rory's long lost relatives (Val is Rory's mum's cousin). They kindly let us stay for a while and were great hosts and guides to the local area. Also met their son, Mike, and his family and their millions of pets!

Sydney to Melbourne along the coast

Lots of scenic lookouts over lovely coastline and all that.

Got attacked by a posse of seagulls.

Climbed a big hill, took 5 hours but the view at the summit was obscured by bloomin' trees aaargh!

Jervis Bay: lovely white beaches, dead sunny weather, went snorkelling - was freezing, saw what we thought might be a large cuttlefish lurking around and got scared.

Visited plenty of wineries on the way. Well it'd be rude not too.

Sydney Opera House

Went to see a posh classical concert in the amazing opera house. Drank a bottle of fizzy red wine before and got cheap seats on the very back row. After half-time (or as they call it in the trade, the 'interval') we sneaked right to the front and nobody caught us!

Mudgee & Wine

Mudgee = a small town over the mountains from Sydney that grows loads of wine nearby. Wine grows on trees around here.

Caz had some research work to do out here (no, really she did). We also did plenty of wine research, mostly on a bicycle! Unfortunately you have to wear daft hats on a bicycle over here. The yin of drink is balanced by the yang of healthy exercise. Yes

It's been a while...

OK, we've been bad and haven't updated for over 2 months. I blame facebook!
Briefly, since Sydney we have been to Tasmania and back, then bombed up the east coast of Oz and we're now in Cairns with only 4 weeks or something left in Oz. There's a bit to catch up on, I've made a start and I'll try to put a few more updates and pictures on in the next few days.... no really, I will!