We arrived in Australia on the 15th December to spend Christmas with our daughter naomi who recently got a job as a Vet in Port Augusta which is  about 300 km north of Adelaide. The journey is very long from Europe and therefore I  probably needed the impetus of visiting our daughter in order to get us to travel here at all. Australia immediadetly gives you an impression of open spaces which we have lost in Europe. On arriving we spent the first night with friends Greg and Jan in Manley. We made a tour of the main sights of Sydney which give an impression of a wonderful physical setting and good architecture. Manley is in a beautiful position at the entrance os Sydney Harbour and one of the best beaches.

Day 2 we picked up the rental car and headed south down the coast and after 5 hours driving ended up in Ulladulla after passing some great beaches and scenery. You begin to get a feel of he vast scale of Australia when you find just what little impact you have made after a day’s driving on a map of the whole country.

Day 3 we tried to drive inland to head south to the Victoria coast. You rise up in through the fotthills of the  Great Diving Range and the temperature began to rise dramatically. By the time we stopped for lunch there was a strong hot wind with tempretaures in the high 30’s - just the wrong thing for bush fires. Driving south towards Cann River we started passing through thick smoke areas which looked like clouds. Finally in Cann river a dark storm like cloud spread over the eastern coast. The road was closed by police so there was no access eastwards towards Melbourne and all rooms in the town were booked. The policeman said last time he did this in 2003 the road was closed for 6 days ! He advised us to head north again and take some small unmade road south east to avoid the fires. A chinese family took his advice whereas we decided to head west and booked a room in a resort called Mallacouta and this turned out to be a good move. Mallacoutta is miles from anywhere on the coast but has a nice friendly atmosphere. The temperature had fallen from 41 degrees in he morning to 12 degrees by the time we arrived as clouds spread in from the sea. It rained hard during the night which was good news for us as the fires were brought under control on the coast as a result.

The next morning the road was open so we headed back the way we came and kept going. There is a vast rain forest on the road stretching 50 miles or so where all the fires had been and you could see many scorched trees. Australia has vast areas of natural forests. We stopped for lunch at Lake Entrance and met the chinese coupe who had parked in front of us. They had had a nightmare drive the night before in the dark with no other traffic down this unmade steep mountain road. they left Cann River at 5pm and finished at Orbost 6 hours later shaking from the experience ! We headed on towards Melbourne and spent the night in St.Kilda’s a nice seaside suburb.