This is winter?

Sure, we had a couple of chilly nights over the past week as a cold spell went through the area we are in in south eastern Australia. After all, it is winter here!

But yesterday and today have made up for it.

A great source of emergency internet access for travel

We're only half way through the year and we've already been in six countries. And when you travel as much as we do, one of the most important things is access to the internet. We normally buy a SIM card when we arrive in a country, but there are times when it's either not convenient or we arrive at an oddball hour and it's not possible to get internet access right away.

So a company called Keepgo has come out with a fantastic, convenient product for worldwide travelers to be able to access the internet.

Best weather day yet!

Slept great, but boy was it cold when we woke up! They've had a cold spell here in this area the last couple of days, but it looks like that was the last night of the deep cold.

Deep cold around these parts means that the temperature has gone below freezing!

Camping in the bush

I've been trying to post our daily blogs from Australia in the evening here so that it is waiting for our North American readers when they get up in the morning. But Wednesday night we were parked up in the middle of the bush and didn't have a cell signal. That hasn't happened very often this trip!

On Wednesday morning, our hosts Adam and Mary were off to work at 7:30am, and we were up to see them off. They had said we could stay behind and have showers and do laundry and so that's what we did.

Another RV Caravan to Mexico!

We had said that we would decide and announce one way or the other by the end of June, and so here it is...

Yes, once again we will be leading a group of RV'ers to Mexico!

Some animals and birds you might never see in the wild

It went down to -2C (29F) overnight, which is abnormally cold for this area at this time of year. Fortunately, we were nice and warm staying inside Mary and Adam's house!

They were headed off to work at 7:30am, so they left us on our own. The nearest attraction to us is the Healesville Sanctuary, so we decided to head over there.

First dinner out in Australia

We purposely slept in a little bit this morning. We had been fairly late getting to bed on Sunday night, plus we wanted to wait until after the morning Melbourne traffic had died down a bit

So it was almost 10:00am before we hit the road.

Impressions of Melbourne?

We only allowed for the one day to see some of the sights of Melbourne. We would honestly rather be in the countryside doing some hiking and exploring, but figured we had better see some city life while we're in the area.

So we left Bundy and Joyce at around 9:00am and headed in to the big city of Melbourne (pop 4.5 million).

Up to the big city of Melbourne

We left Drysdale area after 10:30am. We planned to get on the road earlier, but we were enjoying time with our hosts. Ruth made pancake breakfast for everyone, and of course with real Canadian maple syrup on top!

Once again, we had some showers in the morning, but it did clear up at times. Still, they are calling for "the coldest temperatures of the season" in this area, and the news media is all over that.

Ready to go. Next stop, Melbourne

Once again, we woke up Friday morning to rain. But this time, it stopped around 9:30am and was cloudy with sunny breaks for the rest of the day. Not great, but not bad!

We have been so busy since we got here to Drysdale that we really hadn't had time to go out and explore the area. So we took a couple of hours off to do just that.

New floor, and another camper modification

Woke up to another on-again, off-again rainy day.

So, with an unlimited supply of internet, I spent much of the morning working on our Mexico RV Caravan trip for next season. It's going to be a very different trip! Details coming next week.

By 11:00am or so, things started to clear up and I went out to finish the floor in the camper.

New floor for Joyce

Well, it was a pretty good day despite the constantly alternating sunshine and showers.

After breakfast, I went right to work to replace the floor in the camper. It was just a laminate flooring, but it had bubbled in a couple of places and it was a very plastic looking woodgrain.

Taking a break from RV'ing for a couple of days.

As forecast, it started raining around 5:00am. We stayed in bed until 7:00am or so, and when it sounded like the rain was letting up a little, we got up and got on the road.

The idea was to drive to the town of Torquay and sit out the rain in the library there.

Too expensive here to be doing any stocking up!

When we woke up Monday morning, the first thing on our agenda was a short walk. We had bumped into a local who told us that we should hike down the path near where we had parked.

He was right!

Our first koala bear sighting!

When we are parked up in the middle of a rain forest and it's a bit chilly at night, it only makes sense when we wake up first thing in the morning to get up and drive... even if it's just for a little bit. This way, we can at least get into the cab of the truck, and it doesn't take long to warm up once the engine is running.

Then, we can hopefully park up somewhere in the sunshine to have breakfast. It doesn't always work out that way, but at least that's the plan!