Some Misc Photos...

Here's some snaps taken whilst one the road. It's been quite tricky (read: annoying) uploading so many so please, enjoy and savour them cos I'm not gonna do this again in a hurry.

What was it mum called them? "Stuffed pillows hangin round in trees..."

or something like that...

Great Ocean Road, Victoria - Aus

Kirsty and Sarah at some pretty place.

Great Ocean Road, Victoria - Aus

wooaaa!... It's a GIANT MOUSE with six legs! Australia's weird!

Hanging Rock, Victoria - AUS

Arrrr....

Hanging Rock, Victoria - Aus

Paragliding is easy...

Helmets on!

Bright, Victoria - Aus

...saddle up and clip in...

Bright, Victoria - Aus

... just run off the mountain...

Bright, Victoria - Aus

...and she's away...!

Bright, Victoria - Aus

Sarah's the speck on the left

Bright, Victoria - Australia

The 3 Explorers

Singapore

Speaks for itself?

Botanical Gardens, Singapore

Apparently not in Scotland...?

Singapore Botanical Gardens

Struggling with the Coconut.

Singapore

Have bike will travel.

Outside the Olembia (hostel) in St Kilda

St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria - Aus

They Shoot...
Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne - Aus

They Scored!

The demons are on fire! (despite losing in the end to Geelong)

Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne - Aus

Kirsty and Sarah, and some apostles.

Great Ocean Road, Victoria - Aus

A few of the 12 Apostles.

Great ocean Road, Victoria - Aus

Colorful Beach Front Shacks, Brighton at Sunset.

Brighton Beach - Melbourne, Victoria - Aus

Happy & Sunny. Relaxing in Hammock with Shantaram.

Bright, Victoria - Aus

JAZZ HANDS!

The look of joy after doing his first few k's on a bike after months out of the saddle

Bright, Victoria - Aus

Melbourne GP!

AND THERE THEY GO!!!!

here's one for the history books...

I MTB'd around the whole of the melbourne grand prix course...

I don't know what my lap time was though as I thought I'd started my watch timer and hadn't... so...

...
...

I'm gonna do it again!

WEEEEEE!!!!

oh... I came first... :)

Yes it's been a while! Thailand to Oz

Well... I thought that whilst we were in Thailand mainly diving and stuff that it would probably be best to not keep posting posts that went along the lines of...

"went diving today... saw some fish... improved bouyancy control, finning techniques... etc..."

Thought that that might get a little dull quite quickly... hence the radio silence.

But what HAVE we been doing???

Well.. in brief.

• Diving in Ko Tao - Building up dive time whilst Simon been doing his Divemaster training...
• Eating - thai food mainly
• Sun bathing
• Swimming
• Sleeping
• Travelling

Left simon in thailand a week or so ago and left Thailand (via a quick stop in Bangkok) and flew into Melbourne... in Australia.

So I'm now officially the furthest I've ever been away from home which is a bit weird cos it's not that much different. I'm sure those that have been to Oz will no doubt agree.

We're staying in a hostel in a part of Melbourne called St Kilda.... it's like a little Brighton in that it's next to the sea, full of cafe's and trendy 'metrosexuals'... and according to locals there's about 4 girls to 1 guy and most of those guys are gay... so if you're straight and female, then finding a guy can be a bit tricky...

Been here for a little under a week now and it's a nice kinda town but we were keen to get out, and then easter happened!

Did everyone have lots of nice easter eggs? The Ozzys take easter quite seriously, not necessarily from the religious viewpoint... more like the fact it's a good holiday break for them... the last ditch at summer I suppose. Yes, the temperatures are dropping here, and whilst not exactly arctic conditions (or UK summer) it's a helluva lot colder than Thailand... put it this way, my fleece and softshell jacket has come out from the bottom of the rucksack.

We spent easter w/e in a village called BRIGHT, about 4hours north east of Melbourne in an area called the Australian Alps - which are 'kinda' alpiney... more like the highlands in Scotland - still, made a nice change from the flatness of Melbourne... We were invited up there by Kirsty, sarah's freind from school who's living and working out here now. She and some of her friends had planned a trip to Bright, and well, they kindly offered us to join them. The only catch being we had to make our own way. This involved a 4/5 hour train/coach journey starting at some ungodly hour... but hell... we're now hardened to this kind stuff so we accepted and met them the following day after they had driven up the previous night.

Something I've noticed whilst we've been travelling! I was always under the impression that driving on the left was not that common across the globe? But it seems that every country we've visited so far does... it's a subtle thing, but one that makes me happy when, say, crossing roads... whenever I've been in the states or mainland europe, I always found crossing roads quite unnerving... but well... none of that anxiety at all - yet. Which is nice.

Anyway, that asides. Bright was a nice break... Managed to get some Mountain Biking in! Weyhey!!! Dunno how far I went but I was out for a good 2-3 hours riding around the hills around Bright. Mainly on fire roads, terrain being very similar to places like Coed-Y-Brenin/Glentress... a little bit of single track, and the odd really quite gnarly downhill bits which I avoided... not really being that comfortable with the bike I'd hired to attempt such... A Kona, Cinder Cone, a XC bike with decent bits on it, but a Hardtail, so I struggled at first - it climbed really well, (better than my Patriot anyway [naturally]) and I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed the climbs more than the descents, but I suppose the kind of bike dictates the kind of riding...

Oh, and the highlight of the ride was chasing a 'roo (or maybe a wallaby) along a fire road for a good 1/2 mile or so... stupid dumb things, could have cut off into the forest but stayed boinging away in front of me until I think it realised I was not getting any further away... (I was going downhill at the time) and off it dived into the woods and dissappeared.

You don't get that in wales! ;)

We got back from Bright last night and Simon arrived from Thailand this morning. We have a week here in Melbourne until we head north to Sydney to meet up with Peter (Simons' Brother).

I hope everyone is keeping well, and apologies for the lack of updates.

TTFN!

P.S. Andy (west') - how's that longboard doing? email me some pictures dude!