A decision was made: the job hunt is no longer. Vacationing is in store. As you can see here, I am merely a tourist while in Melbourne.

Made it to Melbourne. Great city. Then it was my birthday. Great Birthday. Great Dinner. Great Drinks. Good time had by all.

Alexi and i have an apartment in St-Kilda. It is slightly, if not fully ghetto. But no lease is required. It's close to everything. It's currently home.

Ben Boyd National Park. This is the view from Disaster Bay, about 5 kms from the Bittangabee campground where we spent our last night on the road.

This piece of the campsite/coastline/perfect bit of beach is more than 30kms from a major road/highway. There is absolutely no development around here. It was wonderful not to hear or see or feel people and towns or development. It was so much more peaceful than any bit of coastline I've had the opportunity to set foot on.

This was breakfast just next to the campsite. I was beside myself with glee.

This is the closest thing to a shower he could get.... the beautiful, crystal clear water on a vacant, little, perfect beach in the early morning. not bad at all. we went for a swim here too..... very freezing... but couldn't resist. it was too picturesque not to jump in....

Here I am pictured fleeing from the sea having been attacking by a large crab... i didn't see it. I didn't mean to step on it.

it was soooooo terribly hot on the road this day, that we stopped to swim here, right beside the highway.... gotta love that. the water here was crystal clear and colder than i was used to. The further South, the cooler the ocean.

on the road.

This is the view surrounding Fitzroy Falls....

Fitzroy Falls.

Gambell's Rest, Bundanoon

This is our campsite in Morton National park, just outside of what i thought was the littlest of cute little towns in the world, Bundanoon. They had hot showers at the campsite here... greatest thing ever after spending 4 days, no shower, living in a tent...

After sunset we went on a night walk through the forest to find Glow Worm Glen. This is a picture of the glen, filled with worms whose asses glow at night to attract bugs so they can eat... it looks much more spectactular when you're there. Everywhere you turn you can see these bluish lights on the ground on the banks of hills... quite amazing.

there were many Kookaburras... love these birds... there huge and loud...

....Camping in the Blue Mountains....

This is Echo Point Lookout. It's in the town of Katoomba. After being in the woods without really having to even think about dealing with crowds of people, it was scary to arrive here and be confronted by tour bus crowds and about a thousand cameras going off all around you. Particularly due to the fact that i hadn't showered in four days and felt very unsuitable for public consumption. But the sites were worthy of the fanfare. The three sisters are to the left, and the cliffs and the valley look amazing from here.

Quite the view from the tourist attraction though.

The three sisters used to be seven....

When the morning came, the fog had disappeared... to wake up and see this view is pretty special...

We obviously took advantage of the clear day to see the look outs we had missed on the way into the Blure Mountains.... this amazing site is Pulpit Rock. I could hardly believe that I was looking out at this....

i'm real little....

he ain't so tall now....

very happy non-morning person.....

how nice is this?

In Blackheath near the campsite, we decided to take the Grand Canyon bushwalk... you venture up along the cliffs and continue down deep into the canyon's valley... it was very beautiful... the vegetation changed significantly depending on where we were on the track.... craziness....

it was still foggy and it was still raining, but it was nice cool day to embark upon the 6km hike...

tall, tall forest....

it was really wet and damp and green in the canyon... very pretty...

I may 'look' pretty hardcore camper in this photo, but the truth is... we just finished walking/hiking up a million rock-like steps out of the valley's floor to reach this high point and if it wasn't for the banister, i think i may have passed out... well sorta.

towards the end of the walk the cliffs came into view again... wish it had been a bit clearer...

The blanket of fog returned at in the evening....

And when we arrived at Perry's lookdown, i think i couldn't have been more elated... Free campsite AND the cliff/valley views....

Happy people risking their life to set-up their tent on a cliff...

After admitting defeat and giving up on the whole lookout thing, on route to the next campsite it became hot and sunny suddenly. So we stopped to see Anvil Rock. Glorious!

didn't know the wind could do this sorta thing...

Alexi was happy we could see more than 3 meters in front of us again... and the view...

Wind blow caves at cliff-side...

The next morning the fog hit... and it wasn't just a bit of mist.. it was fully blinding fog.... very upsetting.....

The plan was to explore the Beautiful Blue Mountains, meant to be one of the most glorious National Parks in all of Oz. We had reserved the majority of the day to make use of the many lookouts... ha ha ha.... this was said to be beautiful cliffs, valley, etc etc

After a long drive away from the luxury of our own cabin... we were confronted with this long, long windy, dirt road... parts of the road were missing and when it rains, 2WD cars aren't really meant to drive it... but at the end we were to arrive at our FREE campsite Ingar, Wentworth Falls. It was a 10km drive and we didn't know what the end of the lone would be like.....

But we arrived safe and sound and happy. Save one other person, the entire campsite was vacant... it was nice being alone in the middle of nowhere.. although there were strange sounds coming from the bushes when the sun went down.... we survived...

oh yeah, the greatest part of this campsite was the glorious watering hole available for smelling, sweaty campers who just finished driving through inland NSW in 45 degree weather... good times.....

The Hunter Valley

The expensive portion of the drive down the coast was spent in the Hunter Valley wine region. It's just inland from Newcastle. They make delicious wine in there at over 140ish different vineyards. And when you visit a cellar... they give you FREE wine to taste test while you're there. And I pretended I know about what was "good" from what was "bad"... all of it was "great" to me... well, mostly... Visited quite a few cellars with the help of a wonderful guide Bradley. Should you find yourself in the area check him out at Vinelink ... He was a wonderful host and we had a fantastic personalized tour with him.....

This was the view from the little, cottage, unit, house we stayed in while tasting wine... for two days we treated ourselves... they even brought breakfast to the door in the morning to eat out on the balcony.... no too shabby.