My two-day Kangaroo Island tour was all about fun with the natural world. There was hiking, combing beaches, climbing dramatic boulders perched at the sea’s edge, barreling down sand dunes on boards greased with furniture polish, watching sleepy sea lions & cavorting fur seals, & checking out excellent local products like aromatic eucalyptus oil & delectable honey. It was a fast, fun frolic – too fast, actually, because I would have enjoyed adventure caving and other activities that can be had on KI during longer visits – and I wanted a journal entry that reflected that.

When I first heard the winds' hollow roar as I approached the summit at Kata Tjuta's Valley of the Winds in the Northern Territory, I was startled. They seemed to come out of nowhere, and I immediately stopped to listen. Which was a good thing, and not just because I was nearing the edge of a cliff. As our guide Derek, or D as he liked to be called, told us, the Pitjantjatjara people who have inhabited Australia's Central Desert for some 22,000 years believe the winds will blow out anything bad in your life.

The wildlife fun started early in my tour of Victoria's Grampians range and Great Ocean Road, when our guide stood at the front of the bus with a fistful of magic markers and told us to draw our favorite Australian animals on the windows.

"Don't stop, keep going!" my Ozzie tour mates shouted from the blue Land Cruiser's middle passenger seats as I drove over sand, through water and across rocks on the beach "highway" that hugs the shore on rugged, magnificent Fraser Island off Australia's Queensland coast

"Don't stop in the water, drive through, go FAST!" they yelled as I hit the gas, successfully avoiding getting the vehicle bogged down in salt water (very bad) or soft sand (less bad, but still a nuisance).

Trying to fit in some sunshine (it’s cold in Melbourne at the moment), and a seeing a lot of Australia in a short space of time, I looked online for tours from Darwin to Uluru.  Lost in Australia seemed to be offering the best deal, and even though I was going to be on a minibus rather than in a 4WD truck, I would get to see all of the main attractions en route. The only thing putting me off; the 10 day trip was a combination of three separate tours. I decided to go for it; visas don’t last for ever you know. I was not disappointed.

PART ONE - DAY ONE - An introduction to the bus and the Watarrka National Park (Kings Canyon)

To discover the most of Tasmania I only had one week. Therefore I decided to do this 6-day Tasmania Tour with Lost in Australia. I got some recommendations from friends for this tour and the itinerary appealed to me as it covered the most-known attractions and the route got you through many National Parks. I arrived in Hobart the day before the tour started and at 7:20am the next day I got picked up with four other travelers right in front of my accommodation by our tour guide Renate. We shuffled our luggage into the trailer and climbed onboard the bus. Some tired-looking faces greeted me friendly as we drove around Hobart for another 40 minutes to pick up five more people until all 21 seats of the bus were filled.