We had a super final service at St Oswalds. The liturgy was very purposely very similar to that which would be used at st Philips and St Cuthberts 8 hours later and it all ended with a rendition of  'For yours is the Kingdom' which would have been more than acceptable at St C's!  We were sorry to leave so many new friends.

Straight after the service we packed ourselves and our luggage into Alan & Lyn's car and set off on more wanderings.  This was to be a very long wander as we had approx 900km to travel to get to Melbourne. Throughout the journey we stopped at some great little cafes in small remote towns for meals and drinks.  The vastness of Australia is awesome - there are miles and miles of straight roads through miles and miles of remoteness with hardly any other traffic in sight.  I was glad we were in the company of expert travellers...and very glad I did not have to drive.  On the first day we made it as far as Mount Gambier before booking into a motel for the night.  This was yet another first for us  - but it was clean, cheap and comfortable and the room had a good TV so we watched some of the Jubilee celebrations. We ordered toast for breakfast and to save money ate cereal that we had brought with us out of a cup with a teaspoon  how 'Yorkshire' is that!
 As we set off early on Monday morning in awful weather and headed for Victoria it really looked like our drive along the Great Ocean Road would be a disappointment.  But far from it - it was amazing.

 
Although it was windy and at times slightly damp, the ocean and the scenery were breathtaking and we stopped at every possible view point ............until it got too dark to see.

We had considered making a second overnight stop but decided to keep going. We stopped at Geelong at a MacDonalds for supper (first McD's meal for many a year) and eventually arrived at Lyn and Alan's home at about 11pm on Monday night.

On Tuesday we were taken out and about to see the local area. The weather in Victoria (and other parts of Australia) had been extreme and as we found to our cost quite afew trees had been damaged.  Graham and Alan had to keep getting out of the car to clear the road and slow progress was made....

 but then...............

 
 ...the only warning we got of this was a small sign which said 'road hazard ahead'  -' road blocked' would have beenmuch  more useful! There was no way of moving it so we had to turn around and go back the way we had come.  It was still an incredible journey ( a bit too exciting for me!) and we saw Emus, Kangaroos. Lyrebirds and deer. We also stopped for a coffee in a lovely bakery at Marysville - a town which is being re-built after being 90% destroyed by the 2009 forest fires. 

Today ( Wednesday) I preached at a local ecumenical service and then we went to a Wild Life Park - I have far too many photos that I'd like to show you - but this one, of a Koala eating his lunch, is probably my favourite

We came home via at the White Rabbit Brewery in Healsville where a very happy Graham got to sample some wonderful real ale....tomorrow we are going to explore Melbourne.