Xmas in our book is a time for being with family and friends, being halfway around the world makes seeing the family bit a difficult but thanks to Johns very generous invitation to spend Xmas with his family up in the Blue Mountains, PLEASE NOTE ONE CAKE = ONE BOTTLE BRANDY (BACK TO HIS E.O.E WAYS!)
it was like being at home, with 13 of us crowded around the table for a hearty meal of barbecued steak & salmon followed by Pavlov and Jan’s summer fruits bread & butter pudding with raspberry wine very nice, we did manage to find Jan’s cookery skills tucked safely away in the bottom of her backpack just under the book on housework which we put back in the bottom of the bag perhaps we’re get that one out in a few years time. OUR CARDS FROM HOME
Thanks John for a very enjoyable Xmas, now after spending eight months with us on the road from London to Sydney we think you deserve a well earned break, so we will leave you in peace while we go off and explore your wonderful country. The wonders of computers meant that we were able to talk to and see the family through MSN messenger and the web cam on the 27th after Stephanie organised a three continent reunion with Charlotte being in Canada, the family in UK and us in Oz mind you our Xmas had finished and theirs was still in full flow as we could tell from Stephanie’s red wine glass that kept having to be topped up (it’s nice to see that the people back in England are still doing there bit to prevent the red wine lake from over flowing). Back into Sydney, tracking down Christine and her husband Mick one of Jan’s ex work colleagues who emigrated out here two years ago now living in the northern suburbs, we spent a lovely day with them having an excellent meal and a swim in the pool followed by a walk by of all their 
neighbours Xmas lights (yes it’s not just in England that this spectacle occurs), the whole street is decked out and they have raised some twenty five thousand dollars for the children’s hospice as people travel from miles around to look at them, but it’s still very strange having to wait until nine o’clock when it gets dark and wandering around in shorts and T shirt to look at Father Xmas and the reindeer lights, you would think he would have put his Bermuda shorts on down here instead of his big red coat!! We head down to south Sydney trying to get into a campsite near the city centre ready for the New Years fireworks but so too is everyone else, we managed to squeeze onto a site near the airport and by the way they are cramming the campers in you would think that it is airport parking, providing you don’t want to sit outside your van it’s fine.
It turns out that we are not far from an address that I have for Mandy Page, Mandy used to be the catering manageress for the fire station some 14 years ago before emigrating out here with her husband Chris & family,
we set off in search not sure if the address is her current one but ever hopeful, with the help of google maps we soon locate it only a 15 minute drive from the campsite but nobody’s at home, chatting to the neighbours leads us round the back in search of her lodger Clare, who tells us that Mandy’s gone up to Queensland for Xmas and New year (perhaps she heard we were coming and thought she get out while she could) Clare gives us Mandy’s number and I make the call to let her know we are sitting outside her house she’s not getting off that lightly, it was good to talk and thanks to Mandy’s friendly generosity we end up staying at hers until we leave Sydney on the 5th. New Years fireworks were awesome the display & atmosphere, 
coupled with the fact that the temperatures didn’t go below 18 degrees made for a great evening we found a quiet’ish spot just down from Darling Harbour after forgoing the queue to get into the Botanical gardens which would of been at least four hours just to have your bags searched, there were about one and half million people there probably about the same as the home crowd for a Ipswich Town match!! (well perhaps one day) We settled ourselves down after calling in at the bottle shop for some red wine to help us through the end of the year, apart from the crush to get on the train at Town Hall on the way home which lasted about ten minutes the rest of the journey both in & out was stress free and we were very impressed at their whole organisation especially Jan who as most of you know just loves crowds and queues! Back into Sydney the next night for a farewell meal with JT & Jo the couple we met on the Mekong river trip and ended up bumping into for the rest of the journey, including Koa Tao where JT done his diving course at Davey Jones Locker the same as us and Jo taught Jan to swim with her head under water (co-ordinating her breathing not turning into a mermaid unfortunately or we’re all be rich) we wish you all the best with the return to UK and hope you have settled back in to the chilly UK way of life brrh!! Captain Cooks landing place at Botany Bay not far from Mandy’s house is our next port of call, when Cook landed the natives had to be scared away with musket shot shame 
Mandy hadn’t emigrated here then, he would have certainly got a friendly welcome & a hearty meal. This takes us up to Mandy’s return from Queensland, I had offered to pick her up from the airport as Claire wasn’t feeling too well but Mandy insisted that her friend would pick her up, I think she was worried that I would have to drive her car and who knows what might happen! ME, JAN, MANDY & CHRIS
But anyway it was good to see her although perhaps a little greyer ( but who am I to speak) and once we settled the unpaid mess bill of one pound twenty for a dinner 14 years previously everything was fine,
towards Mollymook stopping off at Kangaroo valley, again another lovely place, we pitch up close to the fence line in a camping ground unbeknown to us this happens to be the main thoroughfare for wombats at night entering the campsite, so it was quite nice to sit their having dinner watching these three wombats happily munching the grass just in front of us,
it wasn’t until the early hours of the morning that we realized just how active these little critters are, and at about 0ne in the morning the whole van starts rocking as one of these wombats decides that our back bumper is the ideal scratching post for his back, not content with waking us up, he then leaves us a small warm parcel on the steps to see if he can trip us up in the morning must remember not to park on their access way in the future.
Surving the wombat encounter we head into Mollymook where Bob & Dee, good friends of my father’s live they again make us most welcome and it’s nice to be able to walk down to the beach and have a quick schooner in the bar while overlooking the golden sands that lay out before us, Mollymook is a very nice place and I’m sure my parents will love it when they visit later this year. BOB, DEE & THE EDITOR
From Bob’s it’s a short hop over to Canberra the capital of Australia and what a place for a capital city, deserted and green some people hate it others love it 
but we really enjoyed it, much to see and do with very little cost which always helps, the new parliament building, old parliament building, art galleries and museums coupled with the fact that we meet up with some of Jan’s distant relations 
The snowy mountains is our next stop this is all set in Kosciuszko National Park with some really nice campgrounds one being Geehi where we stayed for one night camped right next to the creek,
suitably refreshed the next morning we set off to climb Mt Kosciuszko which is the highest mountain in Australia, we use the chair lift for the first few hundred metres two reasons really , one we’re getting withdrawal symptoms from not going skiing this year and two it’s a lot easier than climbing, it feels strange getting on a chair lift in January in shorts and without skis on, oh well no skiing this year a small price to pay for the experiences that we have encountered throughout the year, we make the 13 km trek to the highest point in Australia on a wonderful warm clear day,
Thanks John for a very enjoyable Xmas, now after spending eight months with us on the road from London to Sydney we think you deserve a well earned break, so we will leave you in peace while we go off and explore your wonderful country. The wonders of computers meant that we were able to talk to and see the family through MSN messenger and the web cam on the 27th after Stephanie organised a three continent reunion with Charlotte being in Canada, the family in UK and us in Oz mind you our Xmas had finished and theirs was still in full flow as we could tell from Stephanie’s red wine glass that kept having to be topped up (it’s nice to see that the people back in England are still doing there bit to prevent the red wine lake from over flowing). Back into Sydney, tracking down Christine and her husband Mick one of Jan’s ex work colleagues who emigrated out here two years ago now living in the northern suburbs, we spent a lovely day with them having an excellent meal and a swim in the pool followed by a walk by of all their neighbours Xmas lights (yes it’s not just in England that this spectacle occurs), the whole street is decked out and they have raised some twenty five thousand dollars for the children’s hospice as people travel from miles around to look at them, but it’s still very strange having to wait until nine o’clock when it gets dark and wandering around in shorts and T shirt to look at Father Xmas and the reindeer lights, you would think he would have put his Bermuda shorts on down here instead of his big red coat!! We head down to south Sydney trying to get into a campsite near the city centre ready for the New Years fireworks but so too is everyone else, we managed to squeeze onto a site near the airport and by the way they are cramming the campers in you would think that it is airport parking, providing you don’t want to sit outside your van it’s fine. It turns out that we are not far from an address that I have for Mandy Page, Mandy used to be the catering manageress for the fire station some 14 years ago before emigrating out here with her husband Chris & family,THE BIG FAREWELL ALL THOSE YEARS AGO ( & THE BIG GLASSES!!)
we set off in search not sure if the address is her current one but ever hopeful, with the help of google maps we soon locate it only a 15 minute drive from the campsite but nobody’s at home, chatting to the neighbours leads us round the back in search of her lodger Clare, who tells us that Mandy’s gone up to Queensland for Xmas and New year (perhaps she heard we were coming and thought she get out while she could) Clare gives us Mandy’s number and I make the call to let her know we are sitting outside her house she’s not getting off that lightly, it was good to talk and thanks to Mandy’s friendly generosity we end up staying at hers until we leave Sydney on the 5th. New Years fireworks were awesome the display & atmosphere, coupled with the fact that the temperatures didn’t go below 18 degrees made for a great evening we found a quiet’ish spot just down from Darling Harbour after forgoing the queue to get into the Botanical gardens which would of been at least four hours just to have your bags searched, there were about one and half million people there probably about the same as the home crowd for a Ipswich Town match!! (well perhaps one day) We settled ourselves down after calling in at the bottle shop for some red wine to help us through the end of the year, apart from the crush to get on the train at Town Hall on the way home which lasted about ten minutes the rest of the journey both in & out was stress free and we were very impressed at their whole organisation especially Jan who as most of you know just loves crowds and queues! Back into Sydney the next night for a farewell meal with JT & Jo the couple we met on the Mekong river trip and ended up bumping into for the rest of the journey, including Koa Tao where JT done his diving course at Davey Jones Locker the same as us and Jo taught Jan to swim with her head under water (co-ordinating her breathing not turning into a mermaid unfortunately or we’re all be rich) we wish you all the best with the return to UK and hope you have settled back in to the chilly UK way of life brrh!! Captain Cooks landing place at Botany Bay not far from Mandy’s house is our next port of call, when Cook landed the natives had to be scared away with musket shot shame LOOK IT'S ONE OF THOSE SCARY NATIVES
Mandy hadn’t emigrated here then, he would have certainly got a friendly welcome & a hearty meal. This takes us up to Mandy’s return from Queensland, I had offered to pick her up from the airport as Claire wasn’t feeling too well but Mandy insisted that her friend would pick her up, I think she was worried that I would have to drive her car and who knows what might happen! ME, JAN, MANDY & CHRISBut anyway it was good to see her although perhaps a little greyer ( but who am I to speak) and once we settled the unpaid mess bill of one pound twenty for a dinner 14 years previously everything was fine," NOW HOW MUCH DID I SAY IT WAS, PLUS INTEREST" 
catching up on the years took a few hours plus drinks and those of you who’s ears were burning should remember the old fire service saying that elephants & Harvey never forget, I would like to insert a few words into that saying so that it reads like this “ only elephants, Harvey & Mandy never forget as I discovered when on her farewell do from Suffolk she was dunked in a purpose built dam (can F/Fs still do that these days?) and after I said about getting my hair cut and Chris, Mandy’s husband suggested that Mandy cut it because she always cut his, this was fine until we came to the wetting of the hair moment and I got the complete body soak moment, 
lucky it was summer out here, so for all you people who are thinking of calling in on the Page’s in the future and were involved in Mandy’s farewell dousing make sure the garden hose is disconnected on arrival or you too could be experiencing a refreshing moment but at least I survived the haircut complete with both of my ears (and very nice it looks too, thank you Mandy).
But with all that aside we had a great time with Mandy & Chris and look forward to meeting up with them again at the end of our Australian adventure and hopefully before they go off touring Oz as well?. From Mandy’s we move south down the coast through the Royal National Park
catching up on the years took a few hours plus drinks and those of you who’s ears were burning should remember the old fire service saying that elephants & Harvey never forget, I would like to insert a few words into that saying so that it reads like this “ only elephants, Harvey & Mandy never forget as I discovered when on her farewell do from Suffolk she was dunked in a purpose built dam (can F/Fs still do that these days?) and after I said about getting my hair cut and Chris, Mandy’s husband suggested that Mandy cut it because she always cut his, this was fine until we came to the wetting of the hair moment and I got the complete body soak moment, lucky it was summer out here, so for all you people who are thinking of calling in on the Page’s in the future and were involved in Mandy’s farewell dousing make sure the garden hose is disconnected on arrival or you too could be experiencing a refreshing moment but at least I survived the haircut complete with both of my ears (and very nice it looks too, thank you Mandy). But with all that aside we had a great time with Mandy & Chris and look forward to meeting up with them again at the end of our Australian adventure and hopefully before they go off touring Oz as well?. From Mandy’s we move south down the coast through the Royal National Park VIEW DOWN THE COAST FROM THE ROYAL NATIONAL PARK
towards Mollymook stopping off at Kangaroo valley, again another lovely place, we pitch up close to the fence line in a camping ground unbeknown to us this happens to be the main thoroughfare for wombats at night entering the campsite, so it was quite nice to sit their having dinner watching these three wombats happily munching the grass just in front of us, it wasn’t until the early hours of the morning that we realized just how active these little critters are, and at about 0ne in the morning the whole van starts rocking as one of these wombats decides that our back bumper is the ideal scratching post for his back, not content with waking us up, he then leaves us a small warm parcel on the steps to see if he can trip us up in the morning must remember not to park on their access way in the future.PASSING THROUGH KANGAROO VALLEY
Surving the wombat encounter we head into Mollymook where Bob & Dee, good friends of my father’s live they again make us most welcome and it’s nice to be able to walk down to the beach and have a quick schooner in the bar while overlooking the golden sands that lay out before us, Mollymook is a very nice place and I’m sure my parents will love it when they visit later this year. BOB, DEE & THE EDITOR From Bob’s it’s a short hop over to Canberra the capital of Australia and what a place for a capital city, deserted and green some people hate it others love it US IN FRONT OF THE PARLIMENT BUILDING
CANBERRA, A VIEW FROM MT ANSLEY TOWARDS PARLIMENT HOUSE
but we really enjoyed it, much to see and do with very little cost which always helps, the new parliament building, old parliament building, art galleries and museums coupled with the fact that we meet up with some of Jan’s distant relations JAN, ME, BERNADETTE, CAROLYN & PETER.JPG)
Bernadette, Carolyn and her husband Peter enjoying a couple of meals out with them and getting several tips of where to visit in Tasmania and New Zealand as Peter come from New Zealand and they both lived in Tasmania for three years.
Bernadette, Carolyn and her husband Peter enjoying a couple of meals out with them and getting several tips of where to visit in Tasmania and New Zealand as Peter come from New Zealand and they both lived in Tasmania for three years. A SUMMER DES RES PERHAPS !!
The snowy mountains is our next stop this is all set in Kosciuszko National Park with some really nice campgrounds one being Geehi where we stayed for one night camped right next to the creek, suitably refreshed the next morning we set off to climb Mt Kosciuszko which is the highest mountain in Australia, we use the chair lift for the first few hundred metres two reasons really , one we’re getting withdrawal symptoms from not going skiing this year and two it’s a lot easier than climbing, it feels strange getting on a chair lift in January in shorts and without skis on, oh well no skiing this year a small price to pay for the experiences that we have encountered throughout the year, we make the 13 km trek to the highest point in Australia on a wonderful warm clear day, A VIEW FROM THE TOP
I do it in shorts and T shirt (fleece at the top), Jan long trousers, t shirt, two fleece tops & a rain mac well always expect the unexpected (Jans motto),
ending up in another campground that night this one with some rather over friendly kangaroos who had obviously got quite used to visitors and wouldn’t easily be scared away, hence Jan having to drop the washing and make a dash for it when it looked like one wasn’t go to stop before it almost hit her, remembering to have a large stick handy after that just in case they took a shine to our dinner or wine. 
We leave the mountains crossing over the great dividing range dropping down 1000 metres into the heat of the upper Murray valley after the coolness of the mountains we need to adjust to the heat, 
temperatures of 38 degrees at the moment, but our next campsite is again next to a creek & we soon cool down in the refreshing sparkling waters.
I do it in shorts and T shirt (fleece at the top), Jan long trousers, t shirt, two fleece tops & a rain mac well always expect the unexpected (Jans motto), ending up in another campground that night this one with some rather over friendly kangaroos who had obviously got quite used to visitors and wouldn’t easily be scared away, hence Jan having to drop the washing and make a dash for it when it looked like one wasn’t go to stop before it almost hit her, remembering to have a large stick handy after that just in case they took a shine to our dinner or wine. We leave the mountains crossing over the great dividing range dropping down 1000 metres into the heat of the upper Murray valley after the coolness of the mountains we need to adjust to the heat, temperatures of 38 degrees at the moment, but our next campsite is again next to a creek & we soon cool down in the refreshing sparkling waters. A LUCKY SHOT OF A BEACHED WHALE THIS FAR INLAND
Jan again goes off to further her animal loving experiences and comes across in the lady loos a Huntsman spider luckily she didn’t spot it until after she had sat down mind you that didn’t stop her coming back for the camera to get a close up shot.
We are now down in Wagga Wagga NSW, we have just booked our tickets across to Tasmania on the 1st march returning on the 18th so looking forward to that part, next stop Broken hill apparently there are a lot of arty types there so hopefully Jan will feel at home, and then off to the Barossa valley to meet up with some more of Jan’s relations. Thanks once again to John, Christine & Mick, Mandy & Chris, Claire, Bob & Dee, Bernadette, Carolyn & Peter for all your help and hospitality while putting up with us over the few days that we spent with you all. 
Jan again goes off to further her animal loving experiences and comes across in the lady loos a Huntsman spider luckily she didn’t spot it until after she had sat down mind you that didn’t stop her coming back for the camera to get a close up shot. We are now down in Wagga Wagga NSW, we have just booked our tickets across to Tasmania on the 1st march returning on the 18th so looking forward to that part, next stop Broken hill apparently there are a lot of arty types there so hopefully Jan will feel at home, and then off to the Barossa valley to meet up with some more of Jan’s relations. Thanks once again to John, Christine & Mick, Mandy & Chris, Claire, Bob & Dee, Bernadette, Carolyn & Peter for all your help and hospitality while putting up with us over the few days that we spent with you all. 