I wrote this blog about 3 days ago, but have been unable to get internet connection until now.

We are in the Grampians – the first stop on the adventure around Australia. We arrived on Thursday 10th June 2010 and we are leaving on Thursday 17th June 2010. It has been a hard life since we arrived. Sigh. We sleep in until 10am or 11am each day, have a light breaky, shower and then head off for the day exploring the waterfalls and aboriginal art in the area. Then we come back to the camp site, cook up our dinner and then sit around and drink and play games in the tent for the evening (just so you know, I am winning most card games and Kristy has yet to beat me at Monopoly!! It’s hurting her a lot!!). We have done numerous Sudukos (I taught Kristy how to do them, and now she can’t get enough), and I have read a few magazines and one book and half books.

The waterfalls have been fantastic. McKenzie Falls especially stands out in my mind – it was majestic, huge, awesome. Getting there was another thing. The signage stated that the walk to the Falls was STRENUOUS (the bold and capitals and italics is intentional and was there ON THE SIGN!) yet still... we said to each other... “How strenuous can it be???” We saw heaps of people who looked older and less fitter than us coming back from the ‘strenuous’ walk. So we started. It was all downhill getting there. Easy. However, there was that awareness that we gotta come back up the same way. I think I lost half a lung climbing back up. It was VERY strenuous. If you ever go there, BELIEVE THE SIGN!!!!

There are over a hundred aboriginal art sites in caves and on rocks throughout the Grampians, but only 5 are available for the public to view. We have seen all of them. I was in awe, standing there and looking at art work on the rocks and knowing that it had been there for thousands of years.

The van (the Beast) is going well and is sturdy and reliable. I was driving on the main street of Stawell 2 days ago and I hit my first kangaroo!!! In the main street!!! I turned a corner, and there was a kangaroo in the middle of the road and I couldn’t do anything but hit it. It was one of the most awful experiences of my life (and that is saying a lot!). It felt like I was hitting a person. I was so traumatized, I couldn’t stop shaking. The roo hit the bullbar and then went under the van. I heard it bumping under the van, and when I looked in the rear vision mirror it popped out from the van and was sitting up in the middle of the road. But when it went to hop away, it couldn’t, because it had a broken leg, so it dragged itself off onto the footpath. Awful awful awful. The police were called, who called the rangers, who would make a choice whether to get the broken leg fixed, or to put the kangaroo down. We left before finding out what the decision was – I just couldn’t handle facing it!

We cooked up a roast turkey last night, and tonight I put the left overs in a pie (I made my own pastry). The meal was a disaster. It went in the bin. Oh well. The pastry was good, at least.

Nights are getting cold, but we have a heater in the tent, so it is fine and we are snug. The van is so warm to sleep in, except when Kristy gets up to go to the toilet, which is a lot now, as she is trying to drink more water.

Kristy and I have also been doing a ‘100 Day Fitness Challenge’. This involves doing pushups and situps every day for 100 days. On day 1 we did 1 pushup and 1 situp. On day 2 we did 2 pushups and 2 situps, and so on. Today was Day 6. I have moved away from the boy pushups already, but Kristy is still going with them – you go girl! We also do at least a half hour walk a day. Already we have both slimmed down.