New Zealand – Auckland

 Day 1 – New Country/New Zealand!!

It was finally time to say our goodbyes to Australia and all of the friends we have made here. We were up at stupid o’clock to get to the airport to catch a 6.00 flight.  It was very sweet as Donna and Tracy got up at 3am to say their goodbyes to us, we then waited anxiously for our cab to the airport that turned up late.

The flight to New Zealand took around 4 hours and with another 2 hour’s time difference (forward) we arrived in Auckland around midday.  We are now the furthest point from home and 12 hours ahead of the UK!

We then caught a bus into Auckland city and after a short walk we found the block of flats where our Air BnB was.  After waiting for someone to come out of the building so we could get to the mailbox where the apartment keys , we then let ourselves into the apartment.

Although the apartment was central, quite big with a balcony it was quite dirty complete with a used condom wrapper under the settee cushion….nice!!

Anyway we quickly unpacked and headed out to check out the city and get our first impressions of New Zealand.  A short walk down the road and we soon found ourselves in an old bar to do our usual toast of being in a new country.

From here we wandered around Auckland checking out a few bars along the way before heading to  a supermarket (Countdown, the New Zealand version of Australian Woolworths), where we picked up some supplies for the next few days.

We headed back to the apartment where we cooked some dinner then spent the rest of the evening watching a lot of episodes of Breaking Bad. We ended up having a very late night whilst Shell washed and dried all the bedding as judging by the cleanliness of the apartment we did not trust the sheets!!

Day 2 – Blogging Day!

We got up fairly late (Glenn not Shel) and cooked a breakfast before spending most of the day doing some serious blogging and research, booked a hire car for 3 weeks and did some research where we were going to head for first.

The weather was not great so the only time we went out was to go to the supermarket to pick up things for our evening meal.

Our evening meal was our Muriel special of lamb cutlets, potato, salad and yogurt/mint sauce, but unfortunately it was not as tasty as when we cooked it outside the van!

For the rest of the evening we continued blogging then watched another bunch of Breaking Bad episodes before going to bed. Sometimes you just need a Sunday type few days when you are traveling!

Day 3 – Groundhog Day

We woke to torrential rain that continued all day, so the day was pretty much spent exactly the same as the day before, blogging, research and TV.

So we basically did not see a great deal of Auckland but did pump out a load of blogs (which you may have noticed if you have been following) which caught us up on Australia.

Also due to the lack of exploring in Auckland I only have a couple of photo’s for this blog, which was the Sky Tower which was just next to our apartment.  Hopefully we may get a chance to see a bit more when we pass back through here before catching our flight to Chile.

Once again we watched a few more Breaking Bad before heading for bed.

Shell's Australia Round-Up

Well, well, well, what a surprise Oz turned out to be. People have always raved about Australia[GA1]  but it’s never really appealed to either Glenn or I. I guess it’s because Oz isn’t ‘exotic’ or ‘foreign’ enough? They speak the same language, eat the same food, look the same etc. so it’s never been on our bucket list of must do’s. HOW WRONG

Australia turned out to be the longest place we’ve stayed and where we clearly burnt the budget (badly!). And we are glad. After 7 months in Asia it was great to be understood and understand others, asking for directions, booking a room, ordering food…EASY. Sharing a Monarch, supermarkets where you can identify the food and pubs PUBS!… HOW GOOD.

Our first kangaroo siting was so exciting, AND exotic. Just a shame it was road kill. But there were plenty more (live ones) to come. The bird life is truly amazing too. I’m no Twitcher but walking to the supermarket you can encounter any number of different types of parrot HOWS THAT?

And to top it all off we got to see cuddly Koala’s, killer Cassourary’s and dodgy dingo’s too. However, it does get a  bit scary when you see the Stinger, Croc, Shark signs just when you want walk across their numerous stunning beaches to take a dip in the ocean but these soon dwindle out and the seas become safer the further you head south.

The best thing about OZ though is the new lifelong friends we have made. We’ve never met such generosity, warm hearts and kindness. We can’t wait to return the favour if our pals ever venture over to London.  That includes the old pals we’ve managed to hook up with. I’m clearly a fair weathered friend as Glenn’s mates all span back to his early school years (mine about 10yrs). It was great to see him catching up and reminiscing with his pals, and they have now become my friends too. TOO GOOD

We’ve been here so long that I’m not going to do top moments as there are too many to recount. All I would say is.

1.       Buy a Muriel

2.       Be open minded

3.       Don’t put it off

Thank you Oz, we will be back

Xxx

Notes: the TOO GOOD, HOW GOOD and any other Oz type commentary is courtesy of sharing a home with Tony Ruellan for a few days, lucky it was only a few! J

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 [GA1]

Back to Melbourne

Day 1 – Last Look at Ayers Rock

Due to the urge to check out Alice Springs (pointless that it was) we had to get up very early as we had a 4 hour drive back to Ularu airport.

After an hour or so we stopped for petrol, a cup of coffee and a sandwich at one of the very few garages along the drive through the outback. Also quite interestingly they had an emu farm attached to the garage!!

We spent our time learning a bit of Spanish on our newly acquired language tape in preparation for South America. Donna can now order a cup of coffee in Spanish, even though she has no intention of going to a Spanish speaking country (sorry Donna). Also along the drive we had a chance to have one last chance to see Ayers Rock and The Olga’s before dropping off the car and checking in to our flight back to Melbourne.

The flight back was around 3 hours and then Donna drove us back to her house where we spent the evening chilling out catching up on some of Donna’s junk TV, Married at first sight, Australian Survivor and The Batchelor whilst quaffing some wine before heading off for bed.

Day 2 – Band Night

As we had a pretty hectic last few days and I was suffering with a cold, Shell and I decided to have a relaxing day catching up on our washing, doing some blogging and doing a bit of research on our next destination, New Zealand.

In the evening Donna and Tracy took us out to a bar where a band that their friend was in were playing.   We got there around 8ish and we met some of Donna’s friends including Lydia (who was very lively!) and watched the first band that were doing stadium classics and weren’t too bad.

The beers were flowing and soon the next band were on, they were another cover band doing a number of classics. We watched them until closing time then got a taxi back to Donna’s.

When we got back we continued to party with some red wine for a while before hitting the sack.

Day 3 – Walking Tour

Waking up late, we realised that we had missed the morning Melbourne walking tour that we had planned on doing so we relaxed for a bit before catching a train into town to catch the afternoon tour.

Donna came along as she had not done a walking tour before and was interested to check it out.  When we got to town we went to a nearby shopping mall where we picked up some lunch before going to the meeting point.

The tour started at 2.00 from outside the Melbourne library and Donna was surprised when she was greeted by the tour guide saying ‘Hello Donna, it’s nice to see you again’.  It turned out that one of the guides was one of her friend’s sons.

As usual the walking tour was very interesting and took us around the city to places such as the prison where Ned Kelley was executed, the Melbourne lanes where there was tonnes of good street art and the river area where you got good views of the city.

After the tour finished I was keen to check out the Cherry bar in AC/DC Lane as I had read it was quite a good rock bar.  So Donna showed us the way and we were soon stood in AC/DC lane where once again they had some pretty cool AC/DC themed street art.

Cherry bar had a band on but the lady on the door said she would not charge us an entrance fee as they were just finishing off.  The bar was pretty cool but as it was late afternoon it was quite empty so we just had one beer before catching the train back to Donna’s.

Once again we spent the evening watching bad TV, eating a lot of cheese, pate and biscuits whilst drinks yet more red wine until we went to bed.

Day 4 – Final Day in Oz!

Donna was at work today and the weather outside was pretty miserable so after getting up we spent most of the morning and early afternoon catching up with the blog and doing more research and bookings for New Zealand.

In the afternoon we popped down to the local shopping area to pick up a gift for Donna as a thank you for putting us up (or putting up with us!) for our time in Melbourne.  Thanks once again Donna!!

The evening was again dominated by bad TV, eating and drinking before having an early night as we had to get up at 2.30 in the morning to get to the airport.

After 3 months (we had only planned 2) in Australia we were finally moving country again.   We must admit we have been totally surprised how much we under-estimated and enjoyed Australia and the very generous people we have met here.

Ularu (Ayers Rock)

 Day 1 – The 3 Amigos on tour

Whilst we both wanted to visit Ayers rock, we were told it was “very expensive”, “too far “just a rock” but we didn’t want to come all of this way without seeing such a famous Icon of Oz. We hadn’t climbed Sydney Bridge and we had sold Muriel for a decent price so we thought we could justify the trip.

Interestingly, the flights themselves were pretty cheap. Plus we found a flight that took you directly to Ayres Rock. The accommodation however is where it makes your eyes water! As we’d already secured the flights there was nothing for it. However, we did a lot of research and found the cheapest we could get, although a little further afield.

We went in convoy around 6:30Am so that we could drop off our hire car and we would have Donna’s car for the return trip. The flight was on-time and took around 2.5 hrs and we were soon touching down in the Northern Territory.

We made it to the front of the queue for the car hire place and the luggage came through quickly so we were soon outside trying to locate our hire car. The first thing you notice when you arrive is the flies! The second thing is more flies and the 3^rd, the deep red earth, green shrubs and then finally your first glimpse of Ularu (the native Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock).

Our accommodation was around 80ks away and was a cattle ranch called Curtin Springs. To give you a sense of the size, the cattle ranch was 10,000 acres with over 4000 head of cattle. And we didn’t see one cow on approach (or after).

We battled through the flies and ineffective fly screen to a little shop which also served as a reception, a petrol pay-point, a general store and a bar and were led to our rooms.

Donna, being a bit last minute had booked online into whatever accommodation was still available. We did offer for her to kip down in our room with a hope there would be an extra bed but understandably and with a lot of common sense, the risk of not having an extra bed and the promise of Glenn’s snoring led her to secure her own.

We were taken to what looked like a load of tin sheds. Donna commented on them looking like a bit of a prison and the hotelier promptly corrected her saying they were originally used for the athletes at the Olympics. Well what’s good enough for the Olympians was good enough for us. Ours were slightly better in that we had an en-suite for Glenn’s midnight dash.

After grabbing a bite, swatting a few hundred flies and wishing we had brought cork hats, we headed to the big rock. We were all impressed with the landscape and the rock. I don’t care what anyone else says, for a rock it’s pretty impressive! We parked up and made our way to find a walking trail.

As we got closer we could see people climbing a side of the rock. It looked really steep but did have handrails to haul yourself up part of the way and I felt I could be up for a challenge. However, when we reached the notice board it clearly told you in several different languages that Uluru was sacred to the Aboriginal Culture and therefore not to climb. Despite this, there was numerous idiots deciding NOT to respect this and climbing (check out the pic!). We each made a wish for someone to fall to a horrible death and went to look for a trail around the base instead.

Our walk went around part of the base where there were signs pointing out what the various alcoves and caves were previously used for when it was a practising place of Aboriginal importance. Plus aboriginal art carved in rock and then finally to a really tranquil stream. We wanted to walk around the entire base but time (and inappropriate footwear) meant we had to cut it short with the hope of coming back later in the trip.

We headed to the sunset view point via a pit stop to pick up a cold drink and swat a few more flies. Arriving at the view point, we noticed that the sun would be behind us and not behind the rock as you looked at it. I wasn’t sure how effective this would be as you are used to sunsets behind things for dramatic colours. I was wrong, when the sun finally began to set Ularu lit up like an amber beacon, would change, dimmer and light up again. A really special place and we each felt honoured to witness it.  

We did however have to cut it a little short as it was 80k back to the cattle ranch and we didn’t want to do too much of it in dark given the big 8ft redback roo’s we might encounter on the road. We did pick up a pic of the final sunset at a distance though.

Back at the ranch, we quickly headed to the bar. Donna was at the front of the queue for a bottle of red wine which is why we have become beautiful friends. We sank a bottle and headed in for dinner before everything closed. Being a cattle ranch the choice was beef, beef, beef or beef sausages. We opted for a T-Bone which was delicious.

We spent the rest of the evening chatting about how lucky we were, planning the next day, and finishing the wine.

Day 2 - The Olga’s – Didactic and Donnas big climb

Waking up at stupid o’clock, I made a coffee and sat outside so I wouldn’t disturb Glenn and was rewarded to a nice sunrise and then a rainbow. As I didn’t fancy flies for b/f I joined Glenn and Donna later after looking at a solitary Emu in a little compound that they had on the ranch, bit sad!

It was around a 90min drive to the Olga’s which were a series of close knit mountains that were in the distance to Ularu. As we approached, we could see they were pretty impressive and stopped off to a climbing point for a better view. We passed a couple of old gals who were stopping every two steps to take pics of the flora on the way to the viewing point. We made it well ahead of them and passed them on our return where we heard one of them in conversation and who used the word Didatic….. we all looked at each other and shuffled onwards and when out of hearing range we unanimously asked “ what the fuck does didactic mean”? Look it up yourselves, I’m not going to tell you but I will say we spent the rest of the trip trying to shoe horn it into a conversation to look impressive!

Reaching the Olgas, we had options for several different treks. One being around a 6/7k return. We decided to get the 2^nd viewpoint and decide from there. The terrain was good to start with, tough in parts and the fucking flies didn’t help! There was a moment where we had to scramble up a steep but rounded cliff ledge where Donna and I decided that if this was the way down, we’d rather do the full 6/7k circuit instead!

The scenery did take you mind off the climb, it was like being on a different planet and we were soon at the 2^{nd viewpoint} with the agreement to continue. We clambered down a steep slow and was soon on flatter ground. As the midday heat was up and the flies in force, we were glad to have easier terrain.

We were finally on the homeward stretch and I think Donna was pleased (as she didn’t know what she had let herself in for. Glenn was pleased (as being the only man, had to hold back and be a general walking stick for us). I was pleased as I could get away from these now biting flies!

Reaching the end, we each high fived and I heard Donna explaining to a few passers buy that “oh yes, she had just completed the full circuit, hadn’t they?” J

Back in the car we had about a 3hr car journey and poor Glenn was driving. It was tiring and despite (Donna not Shel’s) offers to take over, Glenn got us to Kings Canyon around 5pm.

We checked into our accom which was a shack with a shared bathroom jobby and quickly headed to the sunset view point.

Whilst sipping our drinks and watching yet another great sunset and seeing what we would be climbing the next day, Glenn spotted a Dingo!. A Dingo a dingo, our first dingo! So it looks like a dog okay but it’s still a Dingo! We were glad to not let our Oz experience go by without seeing one in the flesh, even if it was so very far away.

There was live entertainment so we headed there next. It turned out to be a lone cowboy singing tunes of when he used to be in a better band. Was good though and we had some nice food and listened and chatted until Glenn (not feeling great from a cold and long drive) went off to bed.

Donna and I took our drinks outside and got chatting to a few people and not long after another Dingo came right into camp! A Dingo, a close up Dingo, ok it looks like a dog! I was gutted Glenn had missed it and I didn’t have a camera for a pic! Not long after we turned in. Long trek planned for tomoz

Day 3 – Kings Canyon/Alice Springs

Once again getting up at stupid o’clock  as it was recommended that you started the King’s Canyon rim walk before 9.00 due to the sun factor.

The start of the walk was just a quick 6k  journey down the road, so we got there parked up and started on the trek.

After  a short walk along the path we were faced with the toughest part of the trip, a two hundred metre  steep climb, which was OK for  Himalaya veterans like Shell and I, but I don’t think that Donna was too happy, but she was managing it as long as she didn’t look up or down whilst she climbed!!

Once at the top we were quite surprised to see that again, despite being a big red rock, the rocks and structures were totally different to Ayers rock and The Olga’s.  It had loads of small cracked rock domes all around it and was quite magical.

We walked through all these natural structures taking far too many photo’s until we reached a point named ‘The Garden of Eden’.  Walking along and down some wooden walkways you were plunged into a little oasis of green plants and a waterhole before climbing to the top of the rim again.

From here we carried along the walk taking in the incredible scenery including, colourful cliff faces and more cracked red rock pillars until we started to descend once again to the car park.

Feeling pretty pleased with ourselves by doing the walk in around 2 ½ hour rather than the 3-4 hours stated in the guide we then headed back to the hotel where we thought we would get some breakfast before heading to Alice Springs.

Back at the hotel we found that we had just missed breakfast and the lunch session wasn’t due to start for another ½ hour.  The only option we had was to go to the onsite petrol station where we scored some manky sandwiches and a chilled coffee before we decided to head off.

Heading back to the car whilst finishing off our drinks we suddenly spotted a skinny looking dingo, which was OK when it was 200 yards away, but then it decided to saunter in our direction and suddenly there was a blur of action and all three of us found ourselves very quickly inside the car!!

Happy that we were not going to end up as a dingo’s (yes, it looks like an emaciated dog!!) I then turned the key and we set off for Alice Springs.

I have to hold my hands up at this point and say it was my idea to go to Alice Springs (You have to don’t you??) but at 200km into a 400km journey and after so many long drives I must say I was regretting it.

On arrival late in the afternoon I was regretting it even more as the dusty cowboy town I was expecting was just a modern town with not much character what-so-ever!!

Anyway we checked into our Motel and after a shower and a freshen up we went out to see what Alice Springs had to offer, which wasn’t a lot.  We soon located a bar around the corner from our motel and parked ourselves outside it for the evening and had a few drinks and some food until we thought it was a reasonable time to go home to bed.

Can I just say sorry to Shell and Donna for this error in judgement, if you ever go to Oz, really don’t bother with Alice Springs.  Alice! Alice! Who the F!%k is Alice!!!

Great Ocean Road

Day 1 – Clarkeson Eat Your heart Out!

Waking up with a pair of hangovers it was not the best way to head out on one of the allegedly most stunning drives in Australia.  Nether the less we went and it was a pretty long drive of around a couple of hours until we picked up the start of the Great Ocean Road in Torquay.

Once again we were listening to one of our talking books as we drove along, wondering after ½ an hour where the coast was, were we on the correct road??

Eventually the road hit the coast and we were treated to some fabulous scenery with wave swept beaches and plunging cliff’s at every corner we took.  Occasionally stopping at lay-by’s along the way,  so we could take some nice pictures,  we arrived in Apollo bay after a couple of hours where we stopped for a drink.

Checking our guide we found that the 12 Apostle’s (famous picture site) was another 100km up the coast, so after supping up we jumped back in the car and continued along the road admiring the stunning views along the way.

After another hour or two we arrived at the information centre for the 12 Apostle’s and although it was windy and wet we got out of the car and followed the signs for this attraction.

Even though the weather was inclement when we finally got to one of the viewing platforms the sight of this natural wonder was breath-taking.  In fact the weather most probably made the view more interesting with the sea and waves crashing into the rocks below.

The 12 Apostle’s are column’s of sandstone that are free standing in the bay below at the mercy of the tides.  Unfortunately though, there are only about 6 Apostle’s still left as over the years a few of them have eroded and collapsed into the sea.

We walked around taking some great photo’s for a while, well for as long as we could take the wind and cold for, before we headed back to the comfort of the car.  I must say this is a highlight of the Great Ocean Road and should not be missed whilst they still stand.

Back in the car we considered where we were going to stay for the night, we checked the local hotels and found them to be very expensive.  So we checked the weather for the next day to see whether it would be worth returning to visit this when the sun was shining.  Unfortunately it was forecast for the same weather so we decided to head back to Apollo Bay for the night.

Shell had found quite a nice but slightly above budget hotel, but when we went to book it we found we could apply a bonus we had built up through loyalty points on hotel’s.com which meant that we only had to pay £5 for it….result!!

After another 1 ½ drive we checked into the hotel and were very impressed as it was a really nice big room with a Jacuzzi in the bathroom.  Possibly one of the best rooms we have had since Bali and only £5!!!

In the early evening we headed out to a bar/restaurant for something to eat and as it was a bit cold we both went for a winter warmer of pie and mash.  It didn’t look too great when it turned up but it was more tasty than it looked.

We both finished up our bottle of wine pretty quickly as I think we both wanted to get back to our nice room to have a nice Jacuzzi before snuggling down in our large bed to watch TV for the rest of the night.

Day 2 – Road back to Melbourne

Making the most of our room we checked out at the last possible moment before we head back out on the Great Ocean Road.

Just as we made our way out of Apollo bay we saw a number of people at the side of the road. We pulled over and noticed that they were watching a Koala in a nearby tree. We got out and took a couple of photo’s as we thought it might be our last sighting of a Koala for a while!

We took our time driving slowly back stopping at some of the bays and taking in the view before returning to Torquay where we found a viewpoint over the ocean where we could watch the surfers out in the bay.

As it was getting around lunchtime we thought we would find somewhere nice to have lunch.  We walked around town but could not find what we wanted. After checking the internet we found a bistro listed in a bay just down the road.  We drove down there and after a while eventually found the restaurant. Although it was not busy at that time of day we did get some nice food, lamb for Shell and Beef Cheeks for Me, both which were pretty good.

It was just after 2 and we did not want to get back to Donna’s too early (as she was working) so we thought we would go back to the viewpoint at Torquay and chill out for a while.  We parked up and listened to the talking book whilst we watched the surfers and were also to see a few dolphins out in the bay. 

I think we must of relaxed a bit much as both of us took turns in dozing before we thought it was time to make a move.  We headed back to the main town and grabbed a nice coffee and very nice muffin before heading back to Melbourne.

We arrived back at Donna’s around 6.00 and spent the evening having a few drinks, chatting and watching TV before having an early night as we were all due to get up early to catch a flight to Ayers Rock the next day.

Melbourne

 Day 1 – Rock This Town!

Today we were finally going to hit Melbourne and had about another 300km on the road.  Along the way we pulled into a lay-by for our breakfast of samosa’s before hitting the suburbs of Melbourne around midday.

For the first night we had been invited to stay with a lady named Donna who we had met in The Philippines. Donna had kindly offered to put us up when we hit her city.  Although we were unsure whether to take up the offer, Donna had kept in touch with us via facebook and said she was more than happy to let us stay, how nice is that?

As we had arrived early we stopped at a Bottelo to pick up some ciders and wine so we didn’t turn up empty handed.  We were still going to arrive a bit early so we found a bar about 5 miles away and stopped there for a couple of drinks before heading to her house.

We arrived at Donna's house which was a nice 3 Bedroom house in the Melbourne suburb of Highett. When we turned up we were given a warm welcome and shown to a nice bedroom, once we dumped our bags we then sat outside on Donna’s decking and had a couple of ciders whilst we caught up and got to know each other again.

Later in the afternoon Donna took us by train into central Melbourne so we could have our first look around the city.  Our first impressions were really good and we were soon sitting in an open air bar alongside the river.

After a quick drink we then headed over the river where we found a food court and picked up some take-away food . We took the food outside to eat it by the river whilst we waited for some pyrotechnics to start.  On the hour every hour large bursts of flames were shot out of about 6 towers along the river and was a pretty impressive way of marking the hour.

Food done,  Donna said it would be a good idea to get to the bar early as it was likely to be busy. We caught one of the city’s trams to the area of St Kilda, which was quite a laid back bohemian area.

We headed for the bar and got some beers and sat outside chatting and then Donna’s house mate and old friend Tracie joined us.  Continuing to chat whilst we waited for the band to start we also got chatting to some colourful locals and we found out that pretty few Austalian’s have been to Ayers Rock (where we were due to go in the next few days).

Around 8.30 the band eventually came on and we were pretty pleased that it was a Rock-A-Billy band called ‘The Strays’ who pretty much modelled themselves on the Stray Cat’s and they launched into a few rock ’n’ roll classics.

The band were really good and during the second set the lead singer/guitarist was soon jumping on the bar and getting the crowd really going.  The set, much to my appreciation finished with The Stray Cat’s ‘Rock This Town’ which got me bopping like a good’un.

Once the band finished we all then got a cab back to Donna’s where we cracked open a bottle of red and continued the party.   At some point during the night as Donna had never been to Ayers Rock, we convinced her to come on the trip with us. So whilst we sat there she booked herself the same flights as us.  She may regret that in the morning!!

Canberra/Albury

Day 1 – Rubbish Capital!

Before we continued our trip towards Melbourne we thought it only right to stick our noses into Australia’s capital city, Canberra. So after some breakfast we packed up and jumped into the car for another 2 hour journey.

Along the way it had started to rain heavily so as we entered Canberra it was still raining and our initial impressions was as expected, quite a modern ugly looking city.  With this in mind and according to our guidebook the only thing to look at here was museums & galleries, we headed for one of those.

Checking our guidebook the most interesting museum we could find was ‘The Museum of Australia’ so we found this parked up and went in.  The museum itself (free entrance) was a potted history of Australia and after a brief introductory video of the history of Australia, we then wandered around all the exhibits.  Although some of it was interesting a lot of it was pretty random with not much cohesion to them.

We managed to keep our interest for an hour or so then we had a quick bit of cake and coffee in the museum café before jumping back in the car.

As we were in the capital we thought it was only right that we checked out the parliament building and after a brief detour through a underground car park we found it. We weren’t very impressed, took a couple of photo’s, then thought that’s Canberra done and headed out of town!

Checking the map we found a town called Albury that pretty much broke the back on the drive to Melbourne so we thought we would drive there for the night.  Along the drive we must have come along a road that must be the road-kill capital of Australia. It was the most carnage we had seen on our travels so far with dead wombat, dead wombat, dead wombat, dead roo, dead wombat, dead wombat, dead roo, etc.  We couldn’t believe how big wombats are, about the size of a small sheep!!

With around 150km to go we pulled off the motorway and found a small Hicksville town and a very empty bar where we had a quick refreshment before getting back on the road again.

Arriving at Albury in the early evening we determined that there wasn’t much to this town, so after checking into another Motel we decided to order in a take-away.

We had ordered an Indian but as usual we had ordered too much, so we waded through as much as we could and then settled down with very full stomachs to watch some TV for the night.  It looks like it will be samosa’s for breakfast tomorrow!!