This is Cape Schanck on the Mornington Peninsula which we explored after visiting Marc and Sam last weekend. They treated us to our first truly Aussie Barbecue and a wonderful piece of Lamb. Thanks Guys. This week has been very busy we have driven into Melbourne everyday so far. Monday we drove back from Mornington, Tuesday I had an interview with Verve followed by a property viewing in the area, Wednesday I went in for my second test with UA Creative, Thursday Karen had an interview with runproperty and I did my first bit of freelance Photography for ANCR on the Proximity development. Outcomes of interviews will have to wait until the next post.

This is the new convention centre foot bridge crossing the Yarra River in Melbourne. We have been into Melbourne three times now. First by car, then on foot and most recently by train. The $11 return train ticket from Lara was suspiciously close to the $12 you pay for all day parking near the centre. In general parking in Australia is exceptional. There is always plenty of space and its almost always free. In fact even in Melbourne there are spaces on the street in the centre as long as you don’t mind paying $4 per hour. The train took about 40 minutes from the free car park at Lara. The seats were all taken when we got on but there was still plenty of room.

We have not yet resigned ourselves to working at a Casino again but we decided to take a look at the Crown Casino out of interest. Despite looking every bit like the unwashed homeless travellers we are we walked straight in. It must be said Australia does casinos on a scale Las Vegas would be proud of. Despite the lavish building and the familiar games we decided going back into that life would be a last resort.

I took this shot of the Melbourne Skyline last night. As all Australia’s cities are on water I tried to get the same type of shot I have for Perth and Adelaide. Maybe in 2013 I will publish an Australian Skyline calendar with all the cities in it. We decided to go in on a Sunday as it was the best chance to get free parking near the city. We parked near the Kensington train station and as it was a nice evening we chose to walk into the city. After taking this shot we wandered around the city for a while and found a very reasonably priced place to eat called Equinox. We are now back at our usual truck stop between Melbourne and Geelong and are making the daily pilgrimage to nearby libraries to use their free internet and look for work. I got a response from one today. Its a freelance photography position for the Australian National Construction Review. They seemed more interested in the quality of my camera and if it had a full frame sensor than if I knew how to use it. So its lucky I upgraded to a Canon 5D Mark II before I left for Australia or they would not have been offered me the job.

We saw these Fruit-Bats/Flying-Foxes roosting in a park in the centre of Bendigo on Anzac Day. We have been visiting the Victorian Gold-fields in a search for my Great Great Great Grandfather’s grave who is apparently buried at Moliagul. Unfortunately we did not find a headstone, but we found out gold was discovered at Moliagul in the same month he left the UK bound for Australia in 1852. Although it is unlikely the news would have reached the UK by the time he left he would certainly have heard about it on his arrival in Australia three months later. In 1869 the worlds largest nugget of gold (78kg) was discovered in Moliagul and the ensuing gold rush could explain why he ended up there.

We have left South Australia and followed the south coast into Victoria. This is London Bridge, or at least it was when a second arch connected it to the mainland. In 1990 it collapsed leaving a couple of tourists stranded on Australia‘s newest island. They were later rescued by helicopter.

We are now camped at the Avalon Rest Area which is a truck stop 50km from Melbourne and 20km from Geelong. It is the first free site we have stayed at with warm showers. Geelong faces Melbourne from the other side of the huge Port Phillip Bay. It is also where we have spent the last couple of days making use of the free internet in it’s libraries to look for work.

Melbourne is Australia‘s second largest city, although maybe not for much longer. It has grown by more than Sydney every year since the 2000 Olympics. It is also second only to London in the number of visitors to this blog so I feel duty bound to get some great shots of the city. If any Melburnians know of a good place we can park the Van while I photograph the city please leave a comment.

Since leaving Adelaide we have been exploring the Fleurieu Peninsula. This shot was taken at Goolwa Beach which is the location of Karen’s earliest memories. Her parents, Bob and Val, owned a beach house here 40 years ago. We visited Mannum yesterday and took a couple of ferries across the Murry River to reach our campsite at Narrung between Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert. Next we head towards Mount Gambier.

We have fixed our van and are preparing  to leave Adelaide tomorrow morning. We have had a great time here and have been made most welcome by Val’s friend Blan who took us for a wonderful dinner at The Hackney Hotel. We can highly recommend the Windsor Caravan Park as everybody was really helpful and the setting is lovely. We are looking forward to the Great Ocean Drive down to Melbourne.

This is the Adelaide Skyline looking across the River Torrens. This is similar to the first blog I posted in Australia of the Perth Skyline. We have decided to spend an extra week in Adelaide as the van needs some further maintenance and it makes sense to fix it while we are in a city. We are waiting for a new air in-take hose to arrive from Sydney and our 3 way fridge only seems to work on gas. 12v and 240v no longer chill so its more like a 1 way fridge at the moment. The weather is very warm too.

This is the River Torrens which flows past our campsite and all the way into central Adelaide. We walked into town last week following the river, and have visited the Museum and Gallery of Art with Blan, an old friend of Karen’s mum. It must be said Adelaide has an abundance of parkland. Even the city centre itself is circled twice by a figure eight of gardens. A green belt in the true sense of the word, although I am sure it is a lovely place to live, job opportunities here seem to be fairly limited. We have booked one more week in our current campsite as we still have a few things to see and do in the city. Unless we strike lucky with a job we will probably start down the Great Ocean Drive towards Melbourne at the end of the month.

This is a Wedge-tailed eagle we saw on our way into Adelaide. Unlike the timid Blue Wren, most of the birds we have encountered in Australia seem to be surprisingly unafraid of humans. This Eagle let me get within ten feet to get this shot. I also had this Parrot take a chip off of my plate while I was eating my dinner and I have seen a Gull stealing from an angler. We have moved to a cheaper campsite North East of Adelaide in an area called Windsor Gardens. It is a little bit more cosy and we are on a slight slope but we have a great view next to the river Torrens across a eucalyptus park where Koalas roam wild.