Australia

Well, the weather did clear up for most of our sightseeing. We went up the Sky Tower and had a magnificent 360 degree view of the city and 25 miles beyond, including the Blue Mountains in the distance. We have also been to the Maritime Museum, been on the Monorail, a tour of the Opera House, a walk around the Botanical Gardens, the Domain and Hyde Park, visited St Mary's Cathedral. All of this was a fabulous experience with the Opera House being particularly interesting and an amazing piece of architecture. We have booked tickets for a performance of popular classics and opera on Wednesday 27th Dec which will be yet another wonderful experience.

The Monorail runs round part of the city, including Paddy's Market and Darling Harbour, Chinatown (very similar to that in London) and we particularly enjoyed our visit to the Chinese Gardens, where Bob once again had an opportunity to dress up (you know what he's like!!!!).

Unfortunately Christmas Eve was rather wet, so we ended up in a bar in Darling Harbour whilst the thunder, lightning and torrential rain passed over. We thought we were back in good old UK for a while!!

Christmas Day started off with light showers, but undeterred we headed for Coogee Beach, intent on walking the coastal path (6K) to Bondi Beach. Luckily by the time we arrived the sun was shining and Bondi full of sunbakers (an Aussie term for sunbathing!!) all with their santa hats on!!! Everyone was out all along the coast with their barbecues at the ready - slightly surreal but very enjoyable!!

Back at Cremorne we cooked our Christmas Dinner and had a glass or two of local wine and toasted the health and happiness of everyone we know!!!

Today, Boxing Day has been another scorcher and we went over to Manly to the North Head to watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. It was a magnificent sight to see 80+ yachts, and the surrounding flotilla of watching boats heading out into the Tasman Sea (Pacific Ocean).

After this spectacle we headed to Manly Beach for a few hours sunbaking and swimming.

Having said we only had one more day of torture - what do they go and do but hang on until the 5th day - and being the mugs we are we had to buy tickets for this just before we lost those two late wickets!!!!! So we were forced to spend another half day of pain and abuse, all to no avail!!!

Still, we put up a bit of a show at least and we had fun cheering all the fours and a few sixes until disaster struck!!

Anyway, our last day in Perth was good - we went over to Rottnest Island, a heritage site and home to yet another cuddly animal - the Quokka!!!

We saw lots of these creatures, even though they are meant to be nocturnal in their habit! We also did some more snorkelling but not as good as the Great Barrier Reef. The only downside of Rottnest were the flies - and guess who forgot to take the fly nets????!!!!! The only real opportunity we had to use them and they were back in the hotel!!!

We have now had a good flight back to Sydney and yet again it was raining when we arrived. Our home for the next couple of weeks is Cremorne Point Manor (thank you to Mark Slade for the recommendation - it's great!!!). We are only an 8 minute ferry away from Circular Quay, the Opera House and the Bridge. We have a couple of days sightseeing before Christmas and hope the weather cheers up a bit for that.

Well, the first day of the 3rd Test was good, but unfortunately it did not continue!!! We arrived at the ground early to ensure we saw the start as we had heard horror stories of queues due to security checks of up to 2 hours. As it happened it took 2 minutes, so we were in the ground early and able to see the England players warming up.

The weather has been scorching and our seats have been in the open, so we have cooked, although there has been some respite with what the locals call the "Fremantle Doctor" a nice cooling breeze that blows in from the Indian Ocean. The second day proved to be the disaster we had been hoping would not happen and today, well enough said!!

Luckily we could not get tickets for Day 3, so we have been back to Cottesloe Beach for some more R&R. Again the temperatures have been in the mid 30's, so it was lovely to be able to dip in and out of the sea.

With all this sun we have been using Factor 30, which so far has worked well and neither of us have suffered sunburn, but Bob is somewhat frustrated as it is taking longer for him to achieve his usual tan!!! However, we are still a lot browner than most of the locals - you can tell the Aussies because they are amazingly whiter than white!!! We think they only come out at night!!

We have only one more day of cricket to suffer - sorry - enjoy and then two more days sightseeing. We are hoping to visit Rottnest Island on one of the days and possibly Perth Zoo on the other, but the beach is very tempting ......!!!

Having hired a car we set off for another long journey (280k)south down the coast - this time the west coast to Margaret River.

Having gone slightly wrong (yes it was my fault of course!!!!) we happened upon Rockingham! If Perth was a corner of heaven, this was heaven itself!!!! There were beatiful houses overlooking a wonderful beach with a sand bank out to Penguin Island which you could walk on and another nearby island which was home to a seal colony. We abandoned the journey for a while to enjoy a walk over to see the penguins - the Little Penguins are the smallest of the species and very cute too!!

We got back on track and continued down to Margaret River, arriving before the kangaroos come out to play (they appear at dusk to play on the roads!!!) and booked into a lovely townhouse apartment complete with double spa bath (!!!), balcony and barbecue.

The next morning we were up early (well early for Jan!!) and headed off to the limestone caves nearby. The first cave we stopped at was a self guided cave which required hard hats, torches, ropes and a lot of wriggling through narrow tunnels, so we decided to pass on this one!! We then visited three other more manageable caves, although each one had hundreds of steps down (and back again obviously!!!). Each was very different but all were magnificent and our tour guides were amused us with their interpretation of the many rocks and features there, giving them names etc. Below is our picture of the "camel"!!

Following the caves were the wineries (yes, we sampled their produce of course!!) and then on to watch some expert surfing on a nearby beach. As we drove back into the town it was kangaroo time and we stopped to watch a group in the fields by the roadside. We then had the pleasure of cooking our own meal on the barbecue of local prawns, lamb and steak - delicious! This was washed down with a bottle of local wine and followed by a spa bath - but that's all the details you're getting!!!!

We have now come back to Perth and are settled into Miss Maud's Swedish Hotel - our home for the next 7 days.

Yesterday evening we spent a relaxing day on nearby Cottesloe Beach and in the evening we went to the WACA for a 20/20 match between former Australian and English Test cricketers. This was very entertaining especially as England won!!!!!

Unfortunately the real thing starts tomorrow, so back to reality for us!!!!

We have now arrived safely in Perth and have been so busy we have not managed to fit in an update of our blog until now!!

Perth is a beautiful city!!! We spent two days in a hotel near Kings Park - the largest park in the world. It is magnificent and has breathtaking views over Perth and the Swan River. We spent an afternoon walking round the botanical gardens and the treetop walk and sat and watched the fountains perform!!

We have also been on a tram round the city which was brilliant - gave us a good idea of where everything was and a very interesting as well as lighthearted commentary about the history of the city!! Gerry the driver was a font of knowledge - we think he must have one of the best jobs in Perth!!! We have also been to the Perth Mint, the Museum and the Swan Bell Tower (one of the largest musical instruments in the world). For a city so remote it has many of the "largest in the world" to its name!!!

We also spent an evening at Gloucester Park watching the harness racing. Very entertaining watching the horses and the tiny carriages with a rider perched on them!!! Bob did quite well at the betting, even though he didn't know to begin with what he was doing (the lady at the Tote Desk seemed to think this would be no barrier to doing well!!!). In fact he did do well (surprise surprise) and managed to win enough to pay for the evening!!

We then spent a day in Fremantle - going there by train (very quick, cheap and on time!!!) and returned by ferry - again with a commentary of what we were passing. The view as we came up the Swan River to Perth was amazing!! Fremantle was interesting, with a big working port and a harbour full of wonderful yachts. There were also two indoor markets with lots of stalls to wander round. We even found a micro brewery near the harbour and felt it our duty to sample the local produce - its a hard job but someone has to do it!!

We have also been hashing with the Bridges H3 group which meets at the local bowls club. Quite a low key hash but very friendly and welcoming. They are having their 800th run next week and have invited us along to the run and the celebration meal afterwards!!

Having spent several days exploring Perth we are now on our way down south to visit Margaret River, its wineries (once again, we will feel obliged to sample the local produce to keep you fully informed!!!), and the local caves!!!

More to follow!!