Cheetahs in India

If I'm to believe my local paper, and there's no reason for me not to, it seems cheetahs will be returned to India.

I'm excited and nervous about this story! We were in India a couple of years ago and spent three days trying to find tigers. While we saw paw prints and scratching marks, and monkeys on high alert, we didn't see any tigers. We've spent some time in Africa on safari, so know that is the luck of the draw. But somehow safari in India just doesn't seem as well organised or to be taken as seriously as in Africa and I fear humans and wildlife do not mix.

Living through other people's travel

So, with no travel plans in sight we are currently living through other people's travels! We've been updating our kitchen, so home has been out of control - using the laundry as a kitchen, dishes all over the spare room, dining table in the living room and chairs in our bedroom! It's a mess. The kitchen is just about finished and the house is slowly getting back to normal so I'm starting to think we need to begin organising a holiday soon!

Easter at Venus Bay

Another Easter has come and gone - hard to believe. We always go away with four of our best friends. This year we also had two kids - a three year old and a six month old with us, which added a whole new element to holidaying!

We hired a house at Venus Bay, a beautiful new home not too far from the beach and a short walk into town.

The house was huge, but only had one bathroom - they could easily have fitted another bathroom in the house!

Ah well, mental note, six adults need two bathrooms! (I realise how ridiculous this is in the west we are fortunate to have a single bathroom let alone needing two!)

Anyway, off my moral highground now and back to the holiday.

Surprisingly we have never been to Venus Bay - Wilson's Prom many times, even Cape Liptrap, but never Venus Bay. It's got a beautiful village feel to it. Unfortunately we couldn't fit our bikes in the car, but I imagine it would be a fantastic place to ride bikes.

The beaches are beautiful, even if a little rough (fortunately as it was Easter the idea of swimming definitely didn't enter my mind, however there were quite a few people who did brave the cold!)

Went down to Walkerville to have a look at the limestone kilns, it was absolutely packed. We have been to the kilns before, and there was no one around, this time, the car park was full as was the beach. Few people however took the walk to see the kilns.

The kilns are in varying states of erosion, but they do form an interesting part of Victorian history.

We also visited Bunnerong Marine Park, at low and high tide. Low tide is definitely better! While the rock formations are interesting at high tide, it is far better to be able to walk around the rocks, viewing them from every angle.

At low tide you can also see the flat rocks and the caves. At high tide, these are both covered.

Pardon the Typos

The Books out!
Yes we have finally got our act together and printed a book of our trip to Kenya.
We used Blurb (www.blurb.com) and are really pleased with the results.
Here is a link http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/750848/08fec376ea1bd648e4309263d711ff87

Caravan and camping show

Have just spent the day at the caravan and camping show in Caulfield. Who knew there were so many different kinds of vans?!

We came away exhausted, the weather didn't help much, it was so hot! Autumn in Melbourne and I'm sure it must have reached 30 deg, a little too hot to be shopping for caravans!
We loved the Jayco expanda! Complete with shower and toilet, that's my kind of caravan!

Of course, we had to get our card stamped at all the designated points! What a master stroke by the organisers, it certainly made sure we visited every section of the exhibition - including areas we didn't even know existed!

Never realised they had destinations as well as vans - can't wait to get out their and travel around Australia! We picked up a pile of brochures on WA, NT and Qld. This is something that won't happen for quite a few years, but it's never too early to start planning (and dreaming!)

After the exhibition we went for a walk down Chelsea beach, such a beautiful beach, and the setting sun just set it off perfectly. Beautiful white powdery sand and sparkling blue waters - it takes my breath away every time we head down there.

And this time we tried the gelati in Chelsea for the first time - it was beautiful and worth a visit just for the owner, who is so passionate about his gelati and insisted we try the gelati before we bought anything. The cheesecake gelati is to die for!

Planning the next trip

I did the impossible. Managed to find a rental house for Easter weekend within three months of Easter!
This was no easy feat, hence my general reluctance to take on this task and instead to leave it to my friends (thanks Sam and Emma).

But this year they told me in no uncertain terms it was well and truly my turn to pick and book the accommodation!

At Easter we generally go somewhere not too far from home, last year it was Phillip Island, the year before Apollo Bay. This year I chose Inverloch/Wonthaggi/Venus Bay area to search for accommodation - something that would house three couples and a baby and a toddler.

Stayz.com was my life saver and has now become one of my favourite sites, how easy is it? put in the dates and the region and it gives you various options. My only criticism is that a couple of the houses that the site said were vacant were actually booked out when I enquired about them. But I finally found a house in Venus Bay - three bedroom place with a large games room. Looks beautiful so fingers crossed it will live up to the images online!

We have also started looking around for our next overseas trip. We are planning a relaxing holiday this time - our last two overseas trips were India and Kenya, so this time we are heading to a beach to chill out. We can't for complete chill out as Adrian will get bored within about 10 minutes of lounging on a beach, so we are looking at Malaysia, Cook Islands, Hawaii, or Fiji was thrown into the mix this evening.

I've been to Fiji, and it is beautiful, but I think Malaysia or Cook Islands are coming out on top at the moment. I think the front runner is Kota Kinabalu and Sipadu in Malaysia. Looks beautiful!

Getting the book ready

So, we've been home now almost four months and have finally finished sorting through the thousands of pics!

Unfortunately I haven't been so diligent editing the video footage - eight hours is just too much to try and work my way through!!

We are now working on the book. Ade has finished the layouts and put in all the pics. One written entry left to complete then we can send it off to the printers. Woo hoo!