Four Seasons in One Day reached number 26 in the UK charts in 1992.
Remember it? More to the point, what does this have to do with our adventures of late? The City of Melbourne was the inspiration for this song by Crowded House and our ability to pack lightly for all weather conditions we were truly tested last week as we made a trip south to Australia's second largest city. A phrase often heard in Melbourne ... "if you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes" and yes, we did see 'Four Seasons in One Day' but we also experienced some glorious sunny days reaching 25 degrees, not bad for this time of year.
Melbourne is the state capital of Victoria and sits on the South coast of Australia - some 1,780km from Mooloolaba. We took a 2 hour flight and stayed 2 nights in the cosmopolitan city followed by a scenic drive west along Victoria's Great Ocean Road to the city of Warrnambool. What a magical trip. Not only did Melbourne live up to expectations with it's fantastic vibe, vast array of restaurants, hole-in-the-wall cafes, street-art, it's maze of laneways and arcades but the free tours, public transport and iconic trams really topped off our trip perfectly.
The drive along Australia's National Heritgae listed Great Ocean Road provided for some stunning views of the Twelve Apostles natural limestone and sandstone rock formations...
Warrnambool's Holiday Village was home for the next three nights and we spent the days with Jackie's schoolfriend Laura who emigrated to Australia 24 years ago with her family. She has since had a family of her own and meeting up was an absolute dream come true for the two of them. Not only were visits made to local attractions, but there many trips taken down Memory Lane.
Back on Oceans Dream and we're gradually provisioning for the trip north to Darwin. Nigh on 3,000km away and on the north coast of Australia, we need to be there for the beginning of July as we have signed-up for the Sail Indonesia Rally.
(Thanks Google Maps!)
It's a three month program of events across Indonesia with stops including ... Timor, Banda, Lembata, Wakatobi, Flores, Sulawesi, Komodo, Bali, Java, Borneo, Belitung and finally onto Batam or Bintan.
(Thanks sailindonesia.net!)
We hope to slip the lines here at Mooloolaba marina in the next 10 days.
Having both worked hard we decided we should enjoy an exciting and challenging retirement whilst we were young enough and fit enough. To realise this dream, we replaced our monohull with an ocean-going liveaboard catamaran. [...] Through our blog we hope to stay in touch with our family and friends sharing our experiences to ensure others learn from our mistakes!