Dear diary. Today started with rain during the night, followed by stunning sunshine all day. I forced Kay (against her will - not) to go on a quad bike safari this morning. We saw emus, kangaroos, skink (dead), and some stunning scenery over a 3 hour trip on sand, mud and rock.

Took some excellent pictures, and so did Frank our guide!. Visited hawks head for lunch, and took a walk along the beach back to the camp site:



.. where we saw a pelican on the beach being fed fishing bait by a fisherman.

Finished the day off with a tasty meal at the black rock cafe - where kay ate half a lobster - poor chap. very nice, though she has decided that she prefers crab to lobster. Martyn thinks they are all the same - with shells on and beady eyes!!

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well - I have no idea what martyn put yesterday as I fell asleep the first time he typed it in and then fell asleep again when he read it to me so whatever he put about me its not true unless its good stuff and then he has been modest ! oh unless it was about my toe which is much more gross than anyone could describe - currently less red, vaguely purple with pus filled blobs on - nice. and yes you and the entire internet population did need to know that - be reassured that so far I have managed to stop martyn posting up a picture of it.

very windy last night - bits of tree falling off around our tent - martyn slept through it but then he managed to stay awake longer then kay in the first place ! we were supposed to spend tonight in geraldton but having arrived there at lunchtime , visited the museum and failed to find our campsite we found ourselves on the road to kalbarri which is where we are now - in the dark because we forgot the batteries for the head torch along with kays drivers license so martyn is doing all the driving in his rented tonka truck. he was very pleased that kay found a small muddy puddle for him to engage the 4wd in today - very exciting - if you are reading this and you work for the car rental company it was a sealed road (once).

quad biking organised for tomorrow assuming we get up in time and survive the impending storm - campsite lady very worried that we are in a tent and it is going to be a bit windy apparently - still no huge trees nearby just a large electricity pylon - great !

martyn says I have to go now as we need to do the washing up - boring.
we have managed one picture in amongst the rain showers and windy dust storms of today - sorry but its martyn in the dark in the tent so if you don't want to be scared don' t scroll down anymore !

more tomorrow - maybe news of seahorses , parrots, camels and quad bikes.



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PS. Kay says 'Nan, I have your postcard, just need a postbox now!'

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remind us to tell you about the radio ads we've been listening to in the car- absolutely priceless. Perth arrived last night, slightly delayed due to kay-foot, but after downing some huge tablets, the toe is a little smaller. Hello to the psycho cab driver who told us that everyone who drove north in the summer was crazy...hmmm. Much nicer ex-canadian driver this morning and no tales about death etc. Picked up a tonka truck and sped northwards, stopping near Cervantes to see the pinnacles:



Spotted some kangaroos and emus feeding on the way. Lying writing this in our tent (!) with a pleasant sea breeze and actually not that cold at all currently. Pushed the dinner boat out - had sangers and soup made in the plastic camping cups - NO expense spared. Further north tomorrow, towards Geraldton, more amusing (embarressing) radio ads no doubt.

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I think today is saturday and we forgot to blog yesterday. we were a bit busy because charney and dave took us to the best sweet shop on the planet. unbelievably perfect - any sweet you remember from when you were growing up - in the proper old glass jars - better than willy wonka !
we will be needing a dentist appointment and insulin booster upon our return home !
tried to see snow in the mountains (small hills claire !) but only managed a hail storm and wonderful views.
charney said it was cold so had hot chocolate, martyn walked around in t shirt and one fleece, was hot and so had one pint of banana thick shake in the cozy kangaroo.
we are currently en route to melbourne having had to delay our planned flight. had to visit doctor this morning as kays big toe is much bigger than it should be. martyn has been calling her elephant foot for a day but its okay because he looks like I don't know what but his entire face has to be stuck back on every morning due to excessive peeling ! anyway, treatment for kays toe seems to be 6 days worth of intensive anti-malarial antibiotics but still , all sorted and now on way again. sad to leave charney an dave but looking forward to dolphins. more tomorrow.
oh yes - martyn is on a diet for the rest of the holiday having just consumed a lamington cake the size of kays hand !

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Day erm 6. Awoke bright and early at 4am due to messed up body clocks. The hearty breakfast at seemed like lunch. zooomed down the hume higway from canberra and ate lunch in the rain after stopping to see the 'dog sat on the tuckerbox' - a statue erected in memory of an old australian folk tale about a man with a cart that got stuck, he had a bad day, then his dog did something on his tuckerbox - similar to 'sat' but with an 'h' in there too! - staying overnight with friends for a couple of days before we continue. Forgot the photo today, will put one up tomorrow. - oh and it rained lots , hope that makes you feel better.

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Day 5 - well actually 4 as tuesday didn't exist for us due to crossing date line but anyway ....
Flight very good - slept quite a lot. Link to canberra was tight but we made it. Arrived early morning, and drove to central canberra. Just spent the day wearing out shoes a bit more walking around the beautiful lake that surrounds the city centre, with Captain Cooks memoral fountain reaching over 100 feet high.



Resting and plotting the road journey tomorrow to Yarra. More then.

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Day 3 - well actually its wednesday and we're in canberra but we forgot to blog on monday so i'll do that one and then today !
well basically we cycled round most of san francisco - at least the biggest hills anyway - why do they not show gradients on tourist cycle maps ? we went across the golden gate bridge , down to sausalito, saw giant redwood fir trees and then got the ferry back. We still had somw time left on our one day tandem rental so we made our way to golden gate park to see the bison before hot pedalling it back in time to get our bags and catch our flight - prospect of sitting for a long time was by now something we were both looking forward to - legs ache and definately saddle sore !

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Day 2 - San francisco.

Today we discovered that our hotel is only a quarter of the way up any number of the numerous hills that form this city. Whichever direction you go always seems to be up. Saw sea-lions at pier 39, and wandered around fishermans wharf- followed by a trip into skys on a helicopter tour.

Made up for our intelligence of yesterday by forgetting to take suntan lotion and hats with us. I think we have just about got away with it after liberally coating ourselves with green washing up liquid style after sun gloop that we managed to find in 7 11 store. Oh and martyn looks like a super hero - he's got eye mask lines where he wore his sunglasses all day !

still I have to be nice to him - he bought me crab in the shell for dinner and managed to watch me eat it - I was getting my own back for the helicopter and trip to the palm shop I was talked into.



well , if we can still move tomorrow we are off to hire bikes so more then.


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Discovered why all san franciscans observed so far have big calf muscles - BIG HILLS - and of course our hotel is half way up one - that was fun from the train station with bags ! Still all ready for helicopter tomorrow so more then.

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Day 1 - Here we are - on holiday again. When planning your next trip try and remember not to fly from heathrow terminal one on first day of school holidays - we at least are intelligent enough to have allowed three hours to check in - of which we used two in the queue ! Unfortunately not many people seemed to be as clever as us !
Flight was ok but oddly martyns ears hurt more than kays on the way down and the films were rubbish but kay read harry potter which is cool !
Currently waiting for train so that we can go see the hp garage where it all began - more later as train now here.




Anything to delay martyns planned visit to the palm shop which is apparently open until eleven pm and not on kays schedule !!!

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Wish we could take some of this rain to Australia, they really need the water.



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