Mike, Dave & Sue follow the Lions 2013 (10)

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Tuesday was an orientation day for us around central Melbourne. Following a full English we walked to the City Loop Tram, a free circular service around central Melbourne. Old style Tram cars, the rattling accompanying the full recorded commentary as we ran through the busy city streets. The Tram was quiet when we got on and we easily found seats but by the time we'd been round a full circle it was heaving, crammed tight like the tube in London.

Once off the Tram at Federation Square we meandered through the streets and "Lanes"' narrow shopping arcades full of small shops and cafes etc. The afternoon saw us back at the apartment to freshen up for the evening game against the Melbourne Rebels. We walked down to the AAMI stadium early and ate fish and chips and drank beer in one of the bars, chatting for quite a while with two Aussies before taking our seats. Good location, 3rd tier, on the side, over the corner flag. A decent game, Lions came through without major injuries. Rebels 0 - Lions 35. Again a great Lions atsmosphere.

Wednesday and I'd personally had had enough walking in crowded city streets for a while, Sue and Dave felt the same I think or were too polite to say otherwise. So we had a relaxing morning on our iPads and a brief stroll out for supplies and a pop in to Kathmandu (clothing emporium). We ventured out to the close by Melbourne Museum in the afternoon not bad, the drone of the tour guides voice coupled with a comfy chair found me having a 20 minute doze while S&D continued the tour. We then strolled downtown to pick up our hire car, a Suzuki Swift, auto with at least a 1.5L engine. Seemed a bit overkill for a smallish car. Successfully negotiated the trip home and celebrated with Roo steaks and prawns, corn on the cob, salad and baked pots for tea, gotta keep body and soul together😊

Out at 7.30am, Thursday for the long drive down the Great Ocean Road to the Twelve Apostles at Port Campbell. A 5 hour coastal drive took 6 with stops. The road was demanding, sweeping and rolling along the coast through forests and cliffs, small towns and hamlets. We stopped at Lorne for coffee and pastries and photos of Cockatoo's in the trees. Cute to us but a b....y nuisance to the locals as they devour everything they can get, wrecking house fittings and the flora.

At the Apostles visitors centre we had our packed lunch and walked down to the cliff edge for some great views and photos. Weather stayed dry and sunny throughout and spectacular scenery. There are only 7 Apostles these days, some having collapsed and others hidden. We had managed to stay ahead of the tour coaches which disgorged their tourists as we were completing our visit. Hordes of Chinese withe their iPads, phone cameras etc descended on the viewing area as we left. We agreed that 5 hours on a coach to get there would have been purgatory, with the prospect of at least 3.5 hours more travelling on the way back! Having had enough driving, which shows it was hard work as I usually don't mind driving all day, Dave drove home the quick way via good roads to the motorway. It took 3.5 hours and we hit Melbourne in the rush hour but we negotiated our way through without incident, despite some baffling local rules about turning right and left with pedestrians coming from all directions and Trams appearing from nowhere! Pizza Hut takeaway was all we could manage. Bushed!

Friday morning we drove to the Harley City HD dealership in Brunswick for some retail therapy. Spent too much, encouraged by DD. They did have a excellent mini museum stuffed with old HD's and Indians, very good. Then on to St Kilda promenade for coffee etc, you get the idea now? Walking back down the pier we spied a gathering of red, a sure sign the Lions supporters are about. Anyway they were watching a group messing about in the shallow off the beach. As we got there the last of the Lions squad decamped into the indoor pool. They seemed to be avoiding a group of scantilly clad Aussie groupies who had appeared as if by magic! Photos of JD and WG (look them up 😊 We later dropped off the hire car which had been fine except for the Satnav which had software issues and let us down at the most crucial moments - refund please😞 Visiting the nearby Harley Heaven HD dealership for a quick look, no buying😊 standard formula HD shop, nothing exciting other than to see they wanted about £4K more for my bike here in OZ!

We headed down to the South Wharf to attend an Eve of Test soirée. Stopping at the Crown Centre (posh hotels, casino, shops and eateries) we had Asian Fusion platters for tea. The HSBC event consisted of Ian Robertson, ex Lion, Scottish player and current BBC commentator doing Q & A with Richard Hill, Donal Lennihan and Justin Harrison as the sacrificial Aussie! very entertaining evening plus free beer and Canapes for 2 hours. It was held at the Convention Centre, the biggest b....y building in the world! (well maybe not quite that big but you get the idea.) Food, beer, canapés and exhaustion saw us in a Taxi home. Phil: driver was from the Punjab but much better this time although he did speed up when Sue got talking to him!

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