Quantas don't really understand budget flights 1 hour flight to Melbourne and Andy had room for his legs and we had food and drink plus entertainment.
After a scenic drive from Melbourne we are staying in a Motel in Apollo Bay it feels like we are in the set of Home and Away. I finally feel like we are in Australia everything is bigger here. (There was a headline in the Melbourne Age newspaper that reminded us of home and the complaints that occur when public transport fails during extremes of weather - however this was because it was too hot rather than our more recent experience of snow and ice). The beaches are bigger than I've seen before. We have walked in the rain forest where the silver birch (sure thats what they were) were bigger than I had ever imagined and ferns with leaves bigger than Andy. Spiders are the size nightmares are made of.
Apollo Bay is like going back in time lots of eating places only open for lunch and dinner so no late lunch for us confused brits. No drunken bars it seems most shut at 11pm and its the height of summer here. We saw the new Sherlock Holmes at the cinema last night. As you can see from the picture it was a bit like sitting in the village hall we weren't sure if we should stack the seats afterwards!!
We have seen our first Koala sitting in a tree by the roadside having a nap - yes we really are in Australia.
The idyllic hut on the white sandy beach fringed by cocunut palms. Ellis Beach in tropical North Queensland. It started off well but then Cyclone Neville came to visit and brought his two close friends wind and rain! Well at least the rain was hot. We took the opportunity of the cooling rain to run along the beach but nearly got cut off - not by the tide but by a wide, deep and swift river that grew from nothing in a matter of minutes as the rain from the nearby hills found the shortest route downhill to the sea and cut a huge channel in the beach. But fear not dear reader we lived to record the tale!
