We departed Sydney, Saturday Sept 19, on Qantas at the very civilized hour of 10:30 for Melbourne - we arrived at the Westin Hotel at about 1:00PM - just in time to wander around Federation Square looking for a quick lunch.  Our stay at the Westin was free, a prize I’d won from T&L Magazine; it included dinner and lunch.

We picked up a hire car on Sunday morning and headed out to the Great Ocean Road - first stop was lunch in Lorne, a very forgettable affair. Then we pushed onto Apollo Bay where we had booked the “Point of View” luxury guest villas for 3 nights. The villas were great, high on a hill overlooking the Bay. From here we visited various vantage points for the 12 Apostles as well as the Otway National Park where we did some hiking.  A highlight was dinner at Chris’ Restaurant one evening.

From Apollo Bay we moved to Port Campbell, further along the GOR, for 2 nights. PC is the best located town for visiting the 12 Apostles. Our accommodation here was in a class of it’s own - Sea Foam Villas, pretty much “caravan park modern”. The weather was also pretty cool and drizzly - fortunately most rain fell overnight. We continued to explore the area getting as far as Warrnambool - probably the largest town on the way to Adelaide. One day we drove via Timboon, famous for a well known Aussie cheese, here we stopped for an excellent lunch at the restored former railway station.

We left PC on Friday and after stopping for a (rainy) bush walk to a waterfall we drove to the Hilton at Melbourne airport.  The drive was very tedious as it poured rain most of the way and we struck Friday evening rush hour traffic heading into Melbourne.  Our stay at the airport was due to a booking mistake on my part - I clicked the wrong hotel on a non-refundable special. Anyway, the Hilton was excellent, particularly for the price of $150 pn with breakfast. On Saturday we took a drive to the Yarra Valley visiting a wildlife park and having a nice lunch at a vineyard. We then headed to Merry and Mark’s place in Elwood arriving just in time to watch the last quarter of the Aussie Rules Grand Final. Mark made paella for dinner and we all had fun catching up on life, the universe and everything.

Sunday - it was back home again.