Homeward Bound

I think Bill Bryson sums up Australia perfectly for us – taken from “Down Under”

“The people are immensely likable— cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted, and unfailingly obliging. Their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water. They have a society that is prosperous, well ordered, and instinctively egalitarian. The food is excellent. The beer is cold. The sun nearly always shines. There is coffee on every corner. Life doesn’t get much better than this.”

It’s ANZAC Day today so everyone is in contemplative mood as this is the big remembrance celebration for old soldiers here so we’ll share a moment with our hosts this morning.

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If we could (or rather, when we can!) we’d be back in a flash and stay around for a lot longer.  Australia is such an amazing place and we’re so lucky to have been able to spend such a long time in this country amongst it’s amazing people and able to sample just a tiny fraction of the nature and spectacular countryside in and around Melbourne.  More, more, more… Autumn may not be the headline season for Australia and its tourist adverts but for us the temperate climate around Melbourne during our trip was perfect, it was slightly warmer than usual which was great for us but the region does need some rain.  Summer may be oppressively hot at times, we’re told, but there’s plenty of aircon everywhere so that should also be manageable.  So much more to see and do in a country where every European country as well as several additional US States could be comfortably accommodated within the border of the landmass.  Here’s to the next trip – Cheers!

Predicted journey home is for us to be at the airport by 17:00 to drop off the car, check in to Etihad to drop off our big bags, shimmy on over to and through security, have a gander at the DF shops, chill in the departure lounge before snuggling up for our 12 ½ hours to Abu Dhabi replete with inflight refreshments and our hitec seatback entertainment consoles.  Change at AD with a couple of hours to spare for the final 8 hours or so to Manchester.  Pick up our car at the Meet and Greet carpark and back up the M6 to crash in our own beds on Friday night.  Simples.

That’s the plan, let’s see what happens this time.