Eventually we arrived at our next stop which was Kalgoorlie. This was a welcoming big town after only driving through small little places. We stayed here for 2 nights, explored around the town and had a nice long lie in. The last long drive for a week was to Perth, where we ended up staying for 7 nights. Perth is a massive city. It is very busy and reminded us a lot of home, but of course the weather is nothing like the UK. The weather in Perth was really warm and sunny. We explored around the shops, went and had a look around a motor museum, had a walk around Swan River looking at its history and also met Brayden for a lovely Italian meal in the city centre. We spent Valentines day in Swan River sipping a nice bottle of Red whilst munching on a BBQ Adam cooked for us. From Perth I wanted to head up North to a little place called Monkey Mia. Whilst driving up towards Monkey Mia we did a couple of stops. One was to a lovely national park where we spent a few hours looking around the grounds. In the park there is a Koala sanctuary which we strolled around watching the Koalas. One of them was fast asleep on a branch being soaked from a sprinkler, he didn’t seem to notice or couldn’t be bothered to move anyway.

When we got to Monkey Mia we paid to have a camping spot with a view of the beach. It was beautiful! The water was so clear and blue, the beach was private and quiet and even better was that there were dolphins which swam along the shore many times in a day. On our first day here it was so warm that we decided to jump in the pool and cool off. Whilst in the swimming pool we watched a pod of dolphins swim past, it was amazing to see. Over the next couple of days we went and watched the dolphins being feed, we were so close to them in the water that they swam right by our legs. We also enjoyed a few strolls along the beach and a couple of cold beers in the pool bar. Monkey Mia is the furthest northern point which we visited in WA. The drive back down towards Perth took us to a few little deserted spots which had interesting beaches and great camera opportunities. One of the beaches was completely made up of little cockle shells, and the water was pure and clear. Another beach was cornered off and protected as it was made up of barnacles which have been living on the shore for hundreds of thousands of years. The next stop was back down to Perth where we stayed in Fremantle. Here we had a look around the town and finally got to go and watch in the cinema Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. It was a very long awaited viewing moment for us. We also had a look at the port situated in Fremantle. Next it was off to the Margaret River Region.

So the journey began once again with a long trip back up towards the middle of Australia. Our first port of call was to visit Coober Pedy. This was just a quick overnight stop before we pushed on the next day to arrive at Uluru. We knew that we would have to pass by our beloved van Bill on the way to get to the big rock. We were unsure as to what to expect when Bill came into our sights. Sadly he had been stripped bare and also had his windows smashed. Adam found a few of our possessions still left lying in and around Bill which he rescued, the missing half of a pair of flip flops, a few books and his Spork. But not much else was left.

After we had said goodbye to Bill we finally arrived at Uluru. The sight was amazing as we drove up towards the camping area where we were going to be staying for three nights. The huge presence of Uluru is certainly felt even when you are still miles away from it.  Many many photographs were taken; sunset of Uluru, sunrise of Uluru, in the day time at Uluru, and walking the full 10kms around Uluru. It was breath taking to actually see the piece of rock which I had only ever seen before in books and other peoples photographs.

We went and had a look around the information centre at the foot of Uluru and learnt the aboriginal story which was really interesting. The best part was looking through hundreds of ‘sorry letters’, which are letters from people from all over the world who had come to Uluru and taken away a piece of the rock and then received bad luck. They had then sent the pieces back complete with a sorry letter regretting what they had done. We looked around the other parts of Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park and had a walk around The Ogres. It is defiantly worth seeing for yourselves!

On our way back south we were caught in the tail end of cyclone Yasi and it rained continuously, because of this we ended up staying in Coober Pedy for 2 nights in a caravan instead of Ted the campercar. On the first night Adam was woken up by the caravan leaking drips on him! We were upgraded to a cabin which also leaked, but not on Adams head this time. I was a little gutted about the weather as I had planned to do some more opal noodling but  instead all I did was sit inside and watch movies all day and night.

A two day drive took us over the border to Western Australia to a little place called Eucha. This little place is so remote that it even has its very own time zone. We were very confused about what the time was as the sat nav was telling us one time, the laptop another and then all the clocks we saw in the caravan reception area and toilet blocks each displayed a different time as well. Eventually though with the help of google we worked out the confusion. The weather was still wet and drizzly.

The next day took us across the Nullarbor Plain which means ‘no trees’ in aboriginal tongue. This is a very barren area and includes the straightest road in Australia. This is a 90 mile stretch of pure straight road, but with fog all around us it made for a very long and boring drive. We did however pass some interesting trees which had many objects hanging from the branches. There was a Christmas tree, a clothes tree, a shoe tree, even an underwear tree. This day was yet another 10 hour drive and after crossing the Nullarbor our next destination was Kalgoorlie.

The run up to Christmas was exciting, we had very kindly been invited to spend it with Sue & Pete and anyone who knows me will release just how much of a child I am when it comes to Christmas, so everyone had to suffer. On Christmas Eve I had the wonderful task of decorating the table ready for Christmas lunch, I had a great time. Adam volunteered to help with the food preparation, he did an awesome job with cooking, the house smelt amazing. On Christmas eve night Sue, Pete, Adam and I all sat down to pizza and to watch Christmas carols live from Melbourne.

Christmas Morning was lovely, we both woke up to a small stocking which “Santa Sue” had left for us, filled with gold chocolate coins, candy canes and a few Australian souvenirs. We all started getting ready and then family started to arrive, the food was cooking and the drinks where flowing. All the girls had cocktails and photos with them. Lunch was served and it was out of this world yummy! For starters we had duck breast with black pepper strawberries on a bed of rocket leaves. For main we had roast turkey, roast pork, roasted veggies and a home-made apricot and pistachio stuffing with home-made cranberry sauce. Pudding was Christmas pudding with brandy cream. It was fit for a king!

After lunch we sat down to open the presents around the tree. We were both very lucky to have so many gifts under the tree. Jo and Brayden’s 3 children where so good handing them out and waiting their turn for their gifts. Adam and I received a huge survival pack from Sue and Pete which contained everything we could need for the rest of our road trip and to remember Australia. After the presents where all opened Adam decided to join the children outside with a friendly game of soaking each other with water pistols. We can safely say that we have never had the opportunity to do this on Christmas Day back in the UK! On Boxing Day we were invited to Brayden’s family get together at his brother’s house which involved a lot more drinking and eating yummy food. The boys all sat outside and watched the Ashes, whilst the girls all sat inside and drank Champers.

The week after we were invited back to stay at Jo and Brayden’s, they took us out to see the Big Rocking Horse. We climbed to the top and got a few pics, there is a little animal park also so we all had a little walk around feeding some of the animals. Then it was back to the Leckies house for an afternoon of playing on the Slip and Slide, and drinking! The children had a trampoline from Santa for Christmas, so as you can imagine once the children where all tucked up in bed the adults let loose.

Before we knew it New Years Eve had approached. I spent the day helping Jo make an amazing cocktail drink for the girls. We needed to buy an eskey to hold it all in (eskey = ice box). The night was a great success, we had duck wrapped pancakes and dim sims to eat. We saw 2011 in with great people! It was perfect. For New Years day we all went to the beach and met up with some of Brayden’s family and had the tradition of chicken and chips on the sand. Adam and Brayden went body boarding whilst Jo, Sue and I sat watching them (the water looked freezing!) . Later on in the week we went and visited some friends who emigrated over to Australia from Walsall; Ade, Kerry, Tom and Katy (Adam’s mate Ash’s sister and family). We all had a great day, a BBQ was prepared and there was splashing in the pool. It was so nice seeing them we had at great laugh with Tom who kept us entertained all day long. Before we left Sue and Pete to carry on our travels, Sue treated us to a trip along the river Murray with Uncle Richard and Maddi.

We headed to the Barossa Valley, went wine tasting at Jacobs Creek and had a yummy wine and cheese evening back in Bill. After the Barrossa we arrived at Wilpena Pound, a natural rock basin which looks like a giant crater. We spent a couple of days here going for a steep walk up to the look out point, this was hard work in 37 degrees temps! Our next stop was to Coober Pedy, the Opal capital of Australia. I had the time of my life here doing something called ‘Noodling’. Noodling is the process of sifting through piles and piles of slag (rocks and dirt left from mining) looking for fragments of Opal. I found some as well! We were able to do this noodling for free as earlier we had gone on a mine tour which showed us how mining happens and we was even allowed to use some of the equipment down there, it was really interesting. (I have decided that I want to be a gem miner!).

Next was the drive north out of South Australia and on to Alice Springs.

The early morning ferry ride across to the Island was smooth and calm. Our first port of call was to Kingscote. Whilst on Kangaroo Island we went and saw a lot of pretty beaches, saw a lot of seals, went to a liquor distillery and surfed on a sand dune. On the island we both made a Christmas dvd for our families, we used one of the many lovely beaches to help aid the dvd. The best campsite we stayed at was called Western K.I. Caravan Park, on the brochure it says that the site is shared with many wildlife. This was definitely the case! Every night we stayed there we saw a different animal, there were kangaroos, birds, koalas, rabbits, ducks and an echidna.

On the last day that we stayed on Kangaroo Island we went to have a look around the National Park. After looking at the hundreds of seals we went back to Bill to find that we couldn’t engage any gears, to cut a long story short the clutch release baring had failed. So the journey back to Murray Bridge was stressful and hard work with Adam having to start Bill whilst in gear just to get him moving and then drive all the way back in one gear. As you can imagine getting Bill onto the ferry was quite a performance. Back in Murray Bridge though we were able to get Bill fixed straight away which was excellent.

We crossed the border into South Australia on 26th November. For our first night we stayed in Naracoorie; this little town was quite baron, dry and yellow but it was pleasant enough. We had a look around the Naracoorte Caves which were very interesting, I think we spent a couple of hours looking in one cave trying to do arty things with photos as the lights where so eerie in there. Considering the cave was called “Wet Cave”  it was much drier than outside where it was bucketing down with rain.

The next stop over was to a little town called Beachport, which had such beautiful beach views we stayed for a couple of nights before heading off to Murray bridge. We arrived and had a warm welcome from my Great Aunt Sue and Great Uncle Peter. They certainly knew how to treat us as for tea we had roast beef with Yorkshire pud!

We went and stayed with my second cousins Jo and Bryaden and their 3 children for a few nights before we had the Cooke’s family Christmas. The Leckies house was filled with the sound of children, it was brilliant. Adam and myself fitted right in!  On the Friday night Cooper (6) had a cricket match which we went along to see him play, this ended up in the adults drinking and having a gourmet picnic, it was such a good night! On the Saturday, Maddi (8) was involved in the Mount Barker Christmas Pageant. This felt so strange for Adam and I because we were outside in shorts and t-shirts, wearing sun cream and watching Santa drive by in his sleigh in December. Very different to what we would of seen in Birmingham at Christmas.

On the Sunday it was the Cooke’s family Christmas which was excellent as many members of the family all turned up to Sue and Pete’s and had a huge buffet meal. It really was a lovely day, which went on well into the night as well, with the influence of Leigh, Sally and Sue. We stayed with Sue and Pete for the week and saw Jo and Brayden a lot of the time whilst we were there. Sue took us to the Monarto Zoo one of the days and we saw a lot of animals including Lions, Giraffes and Cheeky Meer Cats. Then it was time to head off to Kangaroo Island.

Welcome to the land of “Vicki” aka Victoria State. We had been warned by many that we should not travel behind anyone who has a Victoria number plate, who is old and wears a hat…. the first person we get stuck behind after we have crossed the border is… yep you guessed it an O.A.P. in a trilby hat with a Victoria number plate. Due to the SLOW drive behind this fossil, we was able to take in the beautiful greenery that surrounded us for the first few days. Our first site seeing was Wilsons Promontory National Park, we found a campsite in a place called Yankie. Whilst staying in Yankie we went and had a little trek around Wilsons Prom and enjoyed some peaceful walks around the park and the along the beach. Took a few photos, and did a little rock climbing (Adam of course not me). We would recommend the park to anyone to go and have a stroll around, well worth a visit.

After Yankie we headed to Philip Island. We stayed at a lovely caravan site, which had a few wild animals roaming about its grounds. At the gates of the park we made friends with a little wallaby who did not seem to be scared of big Bill. We went and had a tour around Philip Island Grand Prix Circuit, this was cool as you where able to look around the control tower and also watch a bike day race happening. Adam was very excited about browsing around here. I was able to see a HUGE Koala, just a shame that it was a fibreglass model and not the real thing.

After Philip Island we spent a night along the Mornington Peninsula. The beaches here are beautiful. We was able to park Bill in a nice shady grassy area right right to the beach.

Our next stop along the way was at The Jukes. Alicia, TJ, Tahlia and baby bump Barry allowed us to stay with them for a week. We had a fab time. One of the days we went back to Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit and watched TJ drive around the race track for a track day. We had a look around Melbourne, it was so nice to have a browse around the shops as all the Christmas decorations and displays were on show. The whole day was spent walking around the town, I think that I wore out a pair of thongs! (thongs in Australia = Flip Flops). It was nice as well that whilst staying with Alicia and TJ that we was able to help out with some of their recent renos. We helped to paint baby bump Barry’s new nursery and also the guest room. It was a lot of fun as Alicia supplied us with Booze, meat and ice blocks (ice blocks = ice lollies). One of the nights we all went out for a Mexican meal which was delicious.

After Melbourne we headed onto our next destination which was to be The Great Ocean Road. The views and the drive were breath taking! I would advise everyone and anyone who ever get the chance to do this drive. Many pics have been taken as I just could not get over how beautiful the ocean looked. We stayed at a few nice caravan sites along the way.

The drive after The Great Ocean Road took us inland to the Grampians National Park and Arapiles. We went on a couple of nice walks throughout the Grampians, one of them was through The Grand Cannon which was an unusual platform of random rock formations and tight squeezes through tiny paths through the rocks. The view at the end of the walk was well worth it, even though at the time I was threatening to punch Adam for suggesting a hill top walk. When we got back to the caravan site Adam went off on a little exploring walk around the area whilst I stayed with Bill to read my book, I looked up over the top of my page to see 2 emu’s walking right by , they were quite curious as to what I was reading it seemed. The next morning Adam was eating scrambled eggs on toast outside, he turned his head and was face to face with one of the emus looking over his shoulder at his plate, it was really funny. We spent a day before driving to the South Australia border at the Arapiles where Adam was able to do some more rock climbing.