This isn't where the journey begins. The journey begins at the end of an 8 hour drive from Sydney to Melbourne through the middle of the night....

We (Paul and myself) arrive into the outskirts of Melbourne at about 4am to a light drizzle. Everything I've ever heard about Melbourne weather is instantly reinforced to me and it takes another 4 days of good weather before Melbourne convinces me otherwise. For all those that have not had the "pleasure" of living in Sydney I should explain that Sydney is obsessed with spreading propaganda about Melbourne's weather, and Melbourne enjoys casting dispersion on Sydney's culture (get over it!). Anyway, we found a nice little industrial estate in which to park and sleep. Paul had the back seat so he had a reasonable sort of bed. He awoke the next morning chirping that the peace and quite was better than that found in Artarmon and he had had a great night sleep. Me? Well I had a gear stick, hand brake and steering wheel to contend with! Lets just say by day break I was ready to get as far away from the car as possible and to enjoy a good breakfast. Half of my desires where soon answered. We had breakfast at McDonalds but we didn't get drive through!

After a "hearty" breakfast I started ringing around to try and organise accommodation. The first place I rang was completely booked and the owner reckoned that everything in the area would be booked out at this stage. Since it was the first day of the Grand Prix I figured he was probably right, but. "Luck will always fall upon the disorganised". I mean what else is there for the disorganised to rely upon? The second place I called had just had a cancellation so we snapped it up. It was at St Kilda, which is walking distance from the track, and within stumbling distance back home.

The F1 was four days of fast cars and loud noise culminating in the first ever victory for the Irishman Eddie Irvine and the first Australian victory for Ferrari in more than ten years. The large Italian community of Melbourne were happy with the result and they celebrated by singing along with the Italian national anthem during the presentation of trophies.

Here are some pictures…

Eddie smokes 'em for the crowd

Monday morning after the Grand Prix we packed up our stuff, we were on the road again. We headed down to the south west of Melbourne, through Geelong until we hit the Southern Ocean, Torquay and Bells Beach, the start of the Great Ocean Road. And, may I add, it is a great ocean road.

The first day we drove through to Port Campbell where we spent the night. This is right beside the Twelve Apostles (all eight of them!). We checked into a cabin in the Caravan Park late in the day and then went back up to watch the sunset over the Southern Ocean and the Twelve Apostles. There was quite a hoard of photographers/back packers/retirees there to enjoy the moment. After waiting around until dark to catch that perfect shot we went back down into Port Campbell for fish and chips and beer. Now that is living!

The next day we kept journeying west to Warrnambool where we spent another night before heading all the way back to the East Coast, back through Melbourne, to Lakes Entrance. We stayed here for two nights. This was a good opportunity to hone those incredible golf skills of mine. We played all nine holes of the nine-hole course. This place was not exactly up to international tournament level and, I guess, looking back with hindsight that’s what threw my game out of whack. Paul managed to beat me by about 6 strokes (and three lost balls).

We left Lakes Entrance and worked our way up the East Coast to Sydney with one more overnight stop at Bateman’s Bay.