We made it to Melbourne after travelling on the inland roads through country NSW and country Vic. We stayed in an inner city caravan park for a bit more than a week. Inner city parks are never as nice as country parks but it suited our needs for the time we were there. We had decided to upgrade our caravan which we did as it is going to be our permanent home for a while.

While we were there we visited my Aunty Simone and my cousin Diana and some of the family. Again we were spoiled with tea parties, fun and laughter.

Melbourne was in a state of grand final madness. We went into town and were completely bewildered by all the traffic and the people. We have become such country bumpkins its scary! While we were driving on our way out of Melbourne Chris drove onto a tram track. All we saw was a train looming down on us. Luckily he just managed to drive the car and the caravan over a rather high kerb and we escaped a tram collision! Our hearts were in our throats. We can blame Mrs Navman as it was her idea to negotiate inner city Melbourne roads with a caravan. Never again!!

Melbourne is a great city with its beautiful buildings, museums, Queen Victoria Market, parks, shops and excellent trains. I would love to stay there a bit longer and explore all the suburbs around the city. It was freezing cold, wet and grey while we were there. The temperature never got higher than 15 deg and most nights it was about 2 deg. Everyone has been loving the rain though as it has been dry for a long time.

After leaving Melbourne we spent 2 days at Philip Island which is beautiful. We loved riding around the place and even managed to ride our bikes over the bridge joining the island to the mainland. We visited the Grand Prix race track - had to do that!!, and went to see the famous march of the fairy penguins from the ocean to their burrows. It was amazing seeing these tiny little penguins waddling a long way across the beach and then find their burrows in the dunes off the beach. Humans can only be in awe of their daily journey to the sea for food in the morning and then back home again at night to feed their little ones. They do this every day of their lives.

We then drove down the Great Ocean Road which must be one of the most beautiful ocean drives in the world. Again it was freezing, and at times very wet and grey but when the sun came out intermittently it was beautiful. The caravan park we stayed in was across the road from the beach and had koalas in the trees. This is one of our favourite caravan parks - we discovered it the last time we travelled on the Great Ocean Rd - Kennett River.

Along the way we stopped and walked through a beautiful rain forest before heading home.

Yes, we are on our way back to Perth!

We have all sorts of things to do in Perth so will be there for a few months before planning our next travels.

We have LOVED EVERY MOMENT of our first time around Australia. We will have travelled about 30,000km. There is still SO much we want to see and we will definitely continue our discoveries at a later stage.

I'll continue some blogging as one never knows what's around the corner!!!

After leaving Bathurst we decided to make our way to Melbourne. We chose the inland roads and drove through all sorts of towns (most of their names I could never remember without looking at the map!) - heritage trust towns, alpine village towns in the Victorian Alps and some rather run down, dying country towns. It is very obvious to see the difference. The heritage trust towns have mostly been well preserved and have become tourist magnets though charming, the alpine village towns have ski shops and chain hire shops everywhere and the dying towns have had all industry dissolve into nothing where most shops are for sale and houses, sheds and fencing are all falling apart. Rather sad!

We also visited The New England National Park in which has the highest point in NSW. We embarked on a rather testing walk but after Chris becoming short of breath due to a bad chest cold and me pulling my back muscles because of a million steep steps we hobbled back to safety!! It was probably a good move as there was no-one anywhere except for an 80 year old pair of lovers that we met at the start of the walk!!

The one good thing that had happened in the recent weeks prior to us traveling through the area was the RAIN!! It was everywhere. Most places hadn't had rain for years and years. Fields, rivers, creeks, parks and often roads were completely flooded. In one small town we had to reverse our caravan back as we couldn't cross a road. Luckily that didn't happen very often. We made sure we asked at tourist info centres which roads were open or not.

The rainy weather created beautiful scenery, picture postcard mountains, hills and fields. We would have needed a very fancy camera to capture the views. Every now and again we stopped at a heritage hotel to have a coffee or a roast lunch.We often meet the owners who are trying their best to make their businesses work. We also love the fireplaces in the small hotels as the further south we we go the colder it gets. Thank goodness we packed our electric blanket that we managed to retrieve from the bowels of the caravan!! Our small fan heater we bought for $12 works like a bomb too!

One of the prettiest towns we stayed in was Bright. So many people had told us not to miss it. It is in "Alpine country" and is known for its rows and rows of English trees with their leaves in autumn. As it was the beginning of spring we saw them in their bare winter dress which certainly has its own beauty. Also in the town are masses and masses of blossoming fruit trees. The flowering shrubs everywhere are also absolutely beautiful - a gardeners paradise - especially coming from Perth where shrubs are often so difficult to grow.

We were very glad to have chosen the inland route as it really is very beautiful. At another time we will explore the NSW coastal regions. The country NSW roads are mostly good - unlike Queensland roads.

Back to a big city again. Hopefully we won't get the grumps!

(For my own reference some of the towns we passed through: Gundegai, Tumbarumba, Corryong, Tallangatta, Wodonga, Rutherglen, Yackandandah, Mount Beauty, Myrtleford, Glenrowan)

Chris's dream. Driving around Bathurst!

One of Chris's wishes has been to get to Bathurst for the V8 super car races. His first wish has always been to get to the actual races but his 2nd best wish is driving around the track in his own car ....and caravan!! Well the 2nd best wish came true. He did it!! The pictures say it all!!

All that I can say is that he was in total awe the whole morning. The only thing he couldn't do was drive through the pits. He tried but the area was closed off and we had to reverse our big "super caravan" back out....and it was his birthday too!!!

Visiting the motor museum was also a treat, as was standing in front of The Golden Guitar in Tamworth on our way to Bathurst. This is one birthday Chris will always remember!! His 2 passions - V8 Super cars and music! Not a market in sight!!!!!!!

A piece of paradise - Bellingen NSW

Bellingen in NSW - about an hour west of Coffs Harbour and 5 hours north of Sydney -is a small piece of paradise surrounded by rain forest, the Bellinger River and rolling hills. Our friends, Felicity and Brian, developed an 80 acre property into a bed and breakfast called, "Lili Pili" - a country house. They invited us to stay with them at the top of their driveway in our caravan. (They would have happily let us stay in one of the beautiful bedrooms but we were very mindful of them preparing all the rooms for hand over when they leave in 2 weeks.) They have sold "Lili Pili" and settlement is taking place on 15th September. The new owners have bought a piece of paradise- all Brian and Felicity's work!

We were in awe of what they had created and kept stepping out of our caravan door snapping pictures of the beauty all around. After their 8 year project they are moving back to Sydney to enjoy their 3 little grand-children. We were so lucky that our visit coincided with their move and we spent the happiest 5 days in their paradise!! We shared spotting the platypuses in the creek at the bottom of their property, Brian's exceptional coffee, lovely homemade meals, lots of wine, Brian's music on his ipod!... and plenty of chat sharing experiences of the past 17 years as that was when we saw them last! Felicity was quite happy to have allowed her hair to silver and we had lots of laughs of how "old" we are getting and have vowed not to let another 17 years pass before we see them again!

Bellingen town is another perfect hippie town. I loved the times we spent walking around the very unusual craft shops and galleries...... and Chris came too and loved it. He always finds unusual people to talk to which suits me fine as I can go looking at other interesting things like art works and local hand crafted jewellery...!!!!

We were very sad to leave but loved every, single minute especially spotting the green tree frogs which lived all over the place. We truly hope that Felicity and Brian will be very happy back in Sydney. As Brian says, it's time to "have a rest and enjoy his children and grandchildren". He achieved his dream of playing "farmer, farmer". We aren't sure what Felicity's grandchildren will call her now. She has always been "Grannyfarm"!!