Now, you know I’m naturally tight and I don’t part with money easily but Australia is really bloody expensive, especially the supermarkets, we’ve not dared eaten out yet so I can’t comment on that. Hummous, £4.50! Camembert £7! Bananas £2 kg! Everything, 3 x the price. Petrol is cheap though at 75p litre.

First thing I noticed even before landing in Perth….just being on the Quantas flight from Asia – was how big the Aussies are, not just tall but wide too, and my goodness they are friendly and smiley.

We were waived through customs (an innocent looking family) with contraband, yes we snuck in rice and pasta brought with us – well, you didn’t expect me to dump food did you? We picked up our first car in 7 weeks, a lovely Hyundai Tucson, we all love it because it’s “like Spencer’s car”.

Our apartment in Fremantle was lovely, we did ‘a big shop’ at Aldi (yes even Aldi was quite dear) and settled nicely into our new western lifestyle. Fremantle is a great place, we really loved it, family friendly, hip, cool, energetic, sunny, coastal and clean. No wonder lots of Brits move here. We discovered South Beach, community events on the beach are normal fodder here…I liken it to Chinley Village Fete…but every weekend.

We spent a lovey afternoon with Clare and Ronnie, our good friend Helen Wright’s sister who made us feel really welcome with a huge (Crossfield friendly) lunch and lots of tips. We got our first ‘Ute Envy’ at their house. They generously looked after 2 bags of ours whilst we go on a 3 week road trip up north.

I don’t know if you know this but Aus is quite expensive for accomodation too, so to try and balance out some costs we sought out some free camping, our first is near Dongara, on the beach, clean loos, no water or electric, just a few other like minded people, albeit in huge motorhomes. 2 nights on the trot is enough for me. The mozzies are still loving me…there’s not many but the ones that are here head straight to my arse. Arlo loves to use the ‘zapper’ (an anti itch device that emits a small electric shock).

We saw feeding Ospreys, wild beehives and Willy Wagtails.

Kalbari is our next stop, a great apartment with a pool and a huge TV. First days itinerary is to feed the local pelicans, sea snorkelling, gorge walking and kangeroo spotting. Its far too hot to go out in the day so we stay home 12pm – 3 pm, catch up with journals and blogs and then go out again at 4pm.

The weather is still around 30* but being in WA there’s a breeze to take the edge off. Henna still a mermaid in the sea and Arlo’s confidence continues to grow.