We’d originally planned to fly to Adelaide from Tasmania and do a road trip to Melbourne to catch our flight back to the UK on 6 March. Then we discovered that 6 March was the first day of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne – sh*t – (1) we would miss the Grand Prix by a couple of days and (2) hotel accommodation was EXTORTIONATE in Melbourne for that week. Add in that a one-way car rental was more than double the price of returning to the same place and it was clear that we needed a Plan B. That new plan was actually better than Plan A – Melbourne first, before GP prices hit the city, and then a loop via Adelaide finishing at Melbourne airport for our return flight – so Melbourne, Great Ocean Road, Adelaide, Barossa Valley, The Grampians and finishing with Yarra Valley (fairly close to Melbourne airport but avoiding the city) – coast route to Adelaide, inland back to Melbourne.

Arriving from Tasmania quite late at night, Debbie was not messing around with public transport – we were getting an Uber directly to our hotel! Citandines on Bourke is an apartment hotel which had been recommended by our friend Lisa, it was central and amazing value at just over £100/night. Before arrival we’d been contacted by the hotel offering us the chance to bid for an upgrade from a studio to 1 bedroom deluxe apartment, apparently worth £75/night. Debbie did a quick check on Booking.com and found that the upgrade was only actually worth £35/night – that annoyed us so we bid just £5/night! And we were successful!!

We only had a couple of days in Melbourne and we had old friends to catch up with, so we probably didn’t even scratch the surface. We felt it was quite different to the major Australian cities we’d visited so far – more ‘arty’, a strong cafe-culture and felt smaller (despite having almost the same population as Sydney and twice that of Brisbane and Perth), and definitely a city where sport is front and centre.

We wandered through the compact CBD admiring the beautiful old buildings, especially the magnificent Flinders Street Station, and the ultra modern additions. Steve managed to keep Debbie out of most of the lovely shops but she did purchase the obligatory UGG slipper boots – it’d be rude not to given they were half of UK prices. The street art was amazing, especially in the area around AC-DC Lane, but it was disappointing that people had started to cover the art with graffiti. The Yarra River runs through the city and we enjoyed a couple of pints at a bar on the banks watching the world go by, with the rowing clubs rather reminding us of Totnes on the River Dart.

We were on the doorstep of Chinatown and as we struggle to find Chinese restaurants in Devon a stupid amount of food was ordered at Hutong, a dumpling place down a lane opposite the hotel – bloody delicious!

As Melbourne is so sports-oriented, a visit to Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) was a must. We took a guided tour led by an ultra-enthusiastic and knowledgable retired lady doing tours as a volunteer. She was also a 50-year member of Melbourne Cricket Club, and what she didn’t know about cricket really wasn’t worth knowing. The ground was amazing – we’d not appreciated how big it was, capacity over 100,000. Nor had we realised that it doubled as an Aussie Rules Football (AFL) stadium in the winter, that this was where The British & Irish Lions had defeated The Wallabies during the last tour, or that Ed Sheehan had played to a record crowd a couple of weeks earlier. And Robbie Williams had entertained the AFL final crowd here in 2022, wearing a shocking pink suit (proudly displayed in the museum) and dedicating ‘Angels’ to the late Shane Warne, who he called ‘one of Australia’s greatest rock stars’.

We had tickets to the Australian Sports Museum at the MCG, and could’ve easily spent half a day viewing the very impressive collection, but decided to focus on the visiting exhibition of Shane Warne memorabilia. The guy was apparently not only as Robbie described, but an absolute hero to Australian (and probably any) cricket fans.

Of course cricket & AFL aren’t the only sports worshipped in Melbourne – Tennis is also huge and the city had recently hosted the Australian Open. The Melbourne Park complex, just across the railway track from MCG, is huge and not at all like Wimbledon.

We mentioned that we’d met up with old friends in Melbourne. Firstly coffee with Conrad, from Steve’s schooldays in Derby and who he’d last seen 44 years ago. And then drinks and dinner with Danielle, who Debbie had worked with and was shocked to discover had been back in Oz for 18 years. She honestly thought that she’d not seen Danielle for 10 years or so, but obviously can’t add up given that Danielle’s kids (Australian-born) are already 15 and 10! It was fabulous to see them both, and Danielle’s partner Paul, a good Northern bloke on missionary work in Oz.

Another Uber, we were not messing around with public transport for the sake of £15, took us to the car rental office at the airport – Bargain Car Rentals again but this time the agent wasn’t an Oscar-winning actor-in-waiting and we didn’t get the horror stories about what would happen if we didn’t take their extra insurance. We were a bit disappointed actually as we’d come to enjoy the performances and ever more creative risks that they highlight. Debbie had booked a decent grade of car as it wasn’t much more expensive than a tiny one – so we were allocated a huge MG5 sedan, with room for both big bags plus our daypacks in the boot, and all for just £240 for 13 days. After a stop at Hungry Jacks (Australian Burger King but far better) we were on our way to The Great Ocean Road….