Perth to Melbourne

Hello everyone,

Hope you all had a great NY. We haven't posted a blog for a while due to laziness and limited access to decent computers so this is quite long.

Our Christmas was spent on a beach in Perth eating fish and chips washed down with a bottle of champas. It was bloody hot with a heat wave of 40 degree plus days. Boxing day was spent at Hillary's Boat Harbour cooling off on some waterslides.

From Perth, we left for Busselton, a few hours south. A very nice spot with a long jetty that we jumped off. Crystal clear waters but lots of flies.

Margaret River was next and we spent NY here also. We went on a wine tour which included over 50 tastings. I think Luke had every one of them! We met up with some of the people we met on the tour for a NY celebration at the local tavern. The surf here was pretty big and we managed one session at Redgate Beach. Very messy waves.
We had a nice lunch on NY day with a guy who we had previously met at Pardoo station (he was working with the mines). He and his wife lived on a very nice acreage there and it was here that we had to call RAC (NRMA) for the third time (getting the value out of our membership). Car battery was flat which meant we couldn't even get into the car because of the computerised key.

From here we went to Esperance where we were booked in for a full day fishing charter. It turned out to be very successful with Luke catching the fish of the day, a 70cm snapper and various other big fish. A seal started hanging arouns the latter part of the day eating people's fish as they were bringing them in. It was at this time that i was tangled with another line. Upon untangling it and as quick as a flash the big hook went straight through my finger, in one part and out another. Boy, did i scream. The seal had grabbed on to that other line's fish and that had caused the hook to do what it did. Luckily the barb hadn't gone in and the deckie was able to unpierce it. Ouch!

Kalgoorlie was next and it proved to be a good detour. We saw the super pit (a large open cut gold mine), went underground in an unused mine and saw some gold pouring. There was an old hotel there with skimpies (bar girls who wear lingerie and bring out a titty kitty later on in the night so they get their jugs out). It definately gets the guys in.

Nullabour Plain was next and for three days we crossed it into SA. We've never driven on such a boring road. At one stage for 146.6km it is dead straight, the longest in Oz.

Bypassed much of SA due to time restrictions (wanted to spend most in WA as we it is so far to get to). However, we did check out the Barossa. We didn't think it was as good as Margaret River but it was still a good day.

Again, we passed through most towns and got to the great ocean road. Very nice and will definately come back and take our time with it. We ended up in Melbourne last week and have been staying with Luke's sis, Louise, brother in law Paul and niece Ava. It was great to see them after so long esp Ava who is 11 months now. Luke and i went to the Aus open which was good and we have all been to St Kilda, the city etc.

We leave here tomorrow morn and make our way home via the coast.

The 16 weeks are coming to an end and as much as we have enjoyed every bit of it, we are looking forward to going home.

Bye for now,

Loz n Luke xoxo