Before I begin telling you all the second part of this fantastic journey around the globe for charity I would just like to say a few words of thanks to some of my sponsors who have very much made this journey possible. I cannot tell you what your kind support has meant to me and all I can say for now is "THANK YOU".
   
    We arrived in Australia on the morning of Thursday the 19th of August, unfortunately the shipping and a few other minor details meant the drive was going to start a little later than first planned. If arriving at Melbourne international at five in the morning wasn't bad enough the twenty two hour journey was it was so early we had to wait about until nine a.m. so we could go straight off to the she P&O line offices to start the ball rolling and get the car out of the holding area to begin the drive.
   
    At nine we got a taxi to P&O and sorted out all the paper work though I should have had the bill of lading which was not given to me before I left England so the actual paper work was delayed by a little but by about twelve oclock all had been sorted out, then it was off to another office to get the customs clearance sorted out and that was done without too much hassle. We then found a place to stay for the night which was a back packers hostel and, once we were settled in we decided to go out and take a look at some of the sights of Melbourne and by late afternoon we found a Italian restaurant and had Pizza for dinner but, it was too much to eat so we took it away with us and had it for breakfast at about seven the next morning. It sounds disgusting but by that time we were not really worried what it was or the time of day I really do have to thank the staff at P&O Line especially Mark Bell and Greg Shields of ACA International for their hard work in getting the cars paper work done in time for me to take it away by Friday evening, that was just after it was fumigated and steam cleaned by the Australian officials. For the first two nights we stayed at a camp site right in the heart of Melbourne which allowed me to sort out the car and trailer. I was so happy to see the car again it was a bit like seeing an old friend for the first time in ages, I had a big smile on my face when I first drove it out of the container and across the court yard.
   
    I for one was really surprised as to how cold it is in this country at this time of year its also raining a lot just about every where. Once the car was all done we decided to leave early on the Sunday morning and get a few miles on the clock.
   
    We headed out on the R.1 heading East though getting out of Melbourne turned out to be a little more difficult than we first thought as the road signs were not all that clear to us Britts, or were we still tired from the flight? "We shall never really know". Anyway we made very good time and the little car really performed well on that day.

   
    The area we drove through was nearly all trees and I mean a lot of them indeed, thick forests surrounded us for some 250 miles and we only saw a very little of the coast on that first day. By the time we decided to stop it was almost dark and what really surprised us was the fact that it gets dark in Australia at about six in the evening and that seems to be the same all over the country and all year round. We ended up pitching the tent and cooking our dinner in the dark at a nice town right near to the sea called Eden, I do believe there was a film made there some time ago called East of Eden. That was day one done and over and we were very tired indeed especially as we had driven some 381.8 miles.
   
    Next day we left the site really early and continued to hug the coast on the R.1 with a fairly uneventful drive though the car did start to get a little hot, I think the petrol we are using is a little rough for my car so when it was time to refill the tanks I filled it up with unleaded fuel and the pinking stopped and the engine began to run a lot cooler than before so now I am mixing the fuel about 60 to 40 with leaded and unleaded, the engine seems to work well like that.
   
    This day we did manage to get all the way to Sydney which really did surprise me as I thought it would take a little longer and once again we were caught out by the time and not remembering the time it gets dark so again we were setting up camp in the dark and dinner too by lamp light. This was probably the worst site I have ever had to stay in in all my life, it was situated right next to a canal which looked as though all life had ceased many thousands of years ago probably before any of the dinosaurs and to top it all we were right on the flight path of the Sydney International airport so it was very noisy too. I was so glad to get out of there early the next morning and headed north for a better site just above Sydney. On the way through Sydney we drove over the famous Sydney harbour bridge right in the middle of rush hour and that was fun too, we also stopped on the other side to take in the view of the opera house "pictures to follow" we did eventually find a good site which was next to the sea at a place called Narrabeen and were actually there before it was dark, this allowed me to do a couple of minor adjustments to the car and get over the last two days drive. I was just happy to be on the road and out of the cities for a change.
   
    The days seem to go by really quickly now and we are making fairly good headway, still continuing north through such places as Port Macquarie and then Coff Harbour. Each stop so far we have been near to the sea and every night James has promised to catch a fish for our supper but its the same old storey every time "you should have seen the one that got away" nearly two weeks now and I am still waiting for that fish. As we are heading even further north the scenery is changing each day and the climate is also on the move as we get higher so too is the temperature though it is still raining each day.

   
    By Saturday we were just about ready for a stop as we had covered quite a few miles. I knew a friend who was staying in a town called Tinana just south of Marlborough and so we made tracks and got to the Riverside Riding School, just in time for tea and a bit of a rest before we went out to buy food for a evening BBQ.
   
    I decided to stop over for an extra day to take a look at the sights and also to promote the car and charity drive with the local papers and TV stations.
   
    Monday morning we were back on the road again and clocking up the miles. We didnt exactly clock up as many miles as I wanted and only managed about four and a half hours driving as the car was starting to lag a little so we pulled in at a camp ground near to Rockhampton and I took a look at the car but as it was by then getting dark there was not a lot I could do to it, I also contacted the local cancer charity fund to see if they would be interested in some form of promotion but in the end I gave up, I just got the cold shoulder and so the next morning we left there a little dejected. Next day the mini was doing fine and we made very good ground but by the end of the 300 mile drive the engine was really sounding like an old sewing machine so we took the first camp site we came to and stopped for the night.
   
    Now we are into September and are at a site in an area called Whitsunday apparently it is a great place for sailors and alike with a wonderful bay and surrounding islands. For two nights we stayed at this site and the owners very kindly allowed us to stay free of charge. I decided to do some fairly major work on the car and decided to remove the cylinder head to see if my suspicions were correct. I thought the valves were burned out as I have been using so much unleaded fuel and the engine was only running properly on about two cylinders. I parked the car under a nice coconut tree as the sun was a little too hot to work in and proceeded to remove the top of the engine, fortunatly for me I brought with me a spare cylinder head and after about three hours or so I had the engine back together again. I also gave several other bits and pieces a service. When Min fired up for the first time I thought I still had a problem but after I found I had put two of the leads round the wrong way it was fine, I was happy now to get on the road again. Today we left that camp site and managed to drive to Townsville which is where we will next turn left and head inland for Tannant Creek. Yes Mike you are right it is left and not right !