John and Jean visit Adelaide

Caroline's aunt and uncle, John and Jean, visited us this weekend as part of their round the world trip
A whistlestop tour saw us visiting Gorge, Glenelg, whispering wall, barossa valley, mount lofty and the city

We took them to Gorge wildlife park to see the koalas and kangaroos







and even saw a kangaroo hopping amongst the vines in the barossa valley at Jacob's Creek



They flew off to Melbourne to carry on their tour

Moonlight Lantern Festival

We popped down to Elder Park tonight to watch the Moonlight Lantern Festival

Loads of lanterns ....

Trip back to UK

16 months after leaving the UK for Adelaide we decided to go back for a 2 week holiday to see family and friends

A bit of a whirlwind tour but it was great to see everybody

It started off with us picking up the hire car and Caroline going to see Sarah, Donovan and baby Eben whilst I went to see Pete, Jenny and baby Aled and watch Englands dismal display againt Algeria

Eben not looking too happy with the England result!!


The next day we headed back to Peterborough - I was spat on fom the top of queensgate carpark - WELCOME HOME!!!!
We caught up with Catharine, Steve and family as they were putting the finishing touches to their new house and Logan cooked us a full english...



A Pell family BBQ was next at Davids - I got drunk and ended up on the trampoline!









We then drove up to Dumfries to see the family for a couple of days - unbelievably it was 25 degrees + and a great time was had by all especially down at the beach even though we burst the football and I burnt my head













Over the next few days we visited several other friends including....

Natalie, Paul, Joseph and Noah at the Boathouse, Peterborough before heading off to see Pink



Gary and Wandah in Deeping





Caroline in Coventry



The lads in London where Pete brought Aled along for a few beers





Sam and Janine



Becky, Anne, Helen and Limara in East


The Spooners in hunstanton eating fish and chips



Natalie and Lindsey in Peterborough



Nancey and Den at their home in Baston





Finally a BBQ at Catharine and Steves to celebrate them moving into their new house/mansion!!







We also met quite a few other friends but forogt to take the camera!!! and it was really great to catch up with everyone

The big things we noticed or had forgotten were in no particular order...

How green the scenery was, especially the sides of the roads
How long the evenings were - being able to sit outside til 10pm
How cheap the beer was
England are still woeful at football
Sounds of english birds
Smells of english the countryside
How much I miss doner kebabs and Melton Mowbray pork pies!!

It'll probably be another year and a half before we visit again - hopefully the weather will be as good!!

The trip back to Adelaide took forever and there was quite a bit of turbulence on the last leg causing lots of people to throw up!!

Click to see more pictures from our visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/mickpell/sets/72157624342362535/

Dubai Trip

On the way over to the UK we stopped over in Dubai for a couple of nights
It didn't get off to a great start as Emirates left one of our suitcases in Melbourne!!!
We stayed at the Atlantis hotel which is on the top of the man made island Palm. It was an amazing hotel with an enormous aquarium and a brilliant waterpark where we didn't need to get off our rubber rings - although Caroline wishes she did as she endded up with a huge bruise on her bum!

Click Play on the video below to see video of our trip

2nd Anniversary in the Barossa

We went to the Barossa valley to celebrate our 2 years of married life and had a fantastic time cycling around the wineries - we had forgotten how hilly it was!!!

Caroline getting her breath back after cycling up too many hills



Our hotel



view from our hotel




On the Sunday the weather changed and it is now feeling quite wintery but it is good to see the difference in the colours from summer

Caroline at Maggie Beer's Farm looking a bit chilly



roos in the barossa

Gorge Wildlife Park

We visited Gorge Wildlife Park in Cudlee Creek up in the hills today



Brian cuddling a koala



Albino kangaroo



Feeding the wallabies

More touristy stuff with Caroline's Dad

Whilst Brian was here we did loads of touristy stuff including swimming with dolphins just off the coast at Glenelg
All 3 of us got a lot of water in our mouths but got some great views of pods of dolphins who swam up to the boat and played
We were out on the water for over 4 hours and made around 10 stops to jump in the water to swim with the dolphins - you weren't allowed to touch the dolphins and it was up to the dolphins to come up to the boat

The Temptation



Caroline getting ready to join the dolphins




and what we came to see





You can see more info about the dolphin cruise at http://www.dolphinboat.com.au/index.htm