After months of anticipation the day had finally arrived – Monday 23rd Feb – we were off to Australia for 6 weeks.

Being a late flight, we got up at a normal time, finished packing, sorted the money, tidied the house and did some final research for the holiday before having lunch and then travelling mid afternoon to Heathrow by train. Once again Suzanne came up trumps with the chauffeuring. 

Just before 8 we boarded the first plane and made ourselves comfortable. We were in the rear section of the plane and it was pretty much empty, we had our row of 3 seats to ourselves.

It was a seven hour flight to Dubai and we both managed to watch 2 films in-between the napping and eating. Unfortunately in the later stage of the flight we were informed of a 2 hour delay in landing due to fog! Not great when we only had a 2 hour 20 min layover before the next flight. Luckily the pilot must have put his foot down as we eventually landed only an hour late.  With no spare time we made our way to the next gate where we boarded almost immediately.

Taking off 30 mins late, we had a 14 hour flight ahead of us. Again we had 3 seats to ourselves and I think it’s the first time I have ever laid down to go to sleep and sleep I did! This pilot it appears stuck to the speed limit and we arrived 30 mins late. 

It didn’t take long to go through the automated passport control at Melbourne and collect our cases, with a quick text to Colin we met up with him outside shortly after. 

It was a little drive to Colin and Elaine’s house which was in Whittlesea in the suburbs of Melbourne and along route we saw our first kangaroos. 

The weather was a bit overcast but nevertheles after a massive catch up, a tour of their beautiful house and a toastie for lunch we went for a walk at the Tooroutrong reserve where there is a memorial of remembrance dedicated to those who lost their lives in the bushfires on 7th February 2009. The day is now known as Black Saturday and was Australia’s worst natural disaster, killing 173 and burning 450,000 hectares. 

Colin and Elaine’s main job today (Wed) was to keep us awake as late as possible, so we then had a quick drink in their local bowls club and when we got back it was straight into their hot tub before a chicken fajitas dinner and a lot more chatting. With Dave looking increasingly tired we managed to get him through to 9pm and we all promptly went to bed. 

After a lovely sleep of almost 12 hours, we woke to another overcast day. With a leisurely morning ahead of us, Colin gave us a tour of their garden,  shed and caravan all of which would turn most people green with envy. The sun had now decided to make an appearance and it was getting quite warm. When Elaine returned we decided to head out and grab an award winning pie for lunch before going to Aldi to get a SIM card for Dave and then to Woolworths for a food shop for our camping trip on Saturday. 

Bizarrely you can’t buy alcohol in supermarkets so once back home we put in an internet order for some beers to keep us going whilst on our road trip and Colin would collect it tomorrow for us. 

With a little time to kill before Colin and Elaine’s friends were turning up for homemade pizzas Dave went out for a little run. He had time for a quick shower before Doug and Kim arrived. With a little hesitation it dawned on Dave that he actually recognised Doug from their apprentice days at Ford, with Doug, Colin and Dave all being in the class of 1982! 

It was a fabulous evening sitting outside with lots of pizza, laughter and beer and their son Lewis also later joined us. 

We finally rolled into bed around midnight at the end of Day 4 on this great trip.