Launceston > Melbourne (and all the way home, thereafter)
Since Wednesday was departure day and the flight was due to depart in the late afternoon we had no specific plans for the day when breakfast arrived. A discussion about our travel intentions resulted in a recommendation that we turn off the West Tamar Highway at Rosevears and follow the road along the edge of the river, undoubtedly the best piece of travel advice we’d received on the trip. Many thanks, Fred...
The two detours off the highway took us past scenes of jaw dropping beauty with a “wow factor” of several million - so high, in fact, that after lunch at Carbone’s Cafe at Beauty Point we decided to do the trip in reverse on the way to the airport. The southbound journey didn’t seem quite as spectacular as the northern leg, but I suspect that the fact we knew more or less what lay in store might have been a contributory factor in that.
On the way north we’d stopped briefly at the Artisan Gallery & Wine Centre, where a hand crafted solid timber wine rack caught the eye (pity we don’t have room for it in the Little House of Concrete) before turning off onto a dirt track that took us under the Batman Bridge, past a stone convict-built Presbyterian church and eventually to Holm Oak Vineyards, where I weakened and shelled out for a dozen of the 2005 Riesling (Halliday rating 94). As I write I’m anxiously scanning the horizon for the yellow Australia Post van...
Since we still had a little time to kill before check in opened, we headed past the airport back to Evandale for a final wander past historic buildings before we left the island.

True to form, the departure was considerably later than advertised, something I’d predicted as soon as we heard that the Virgin Blue flight which would be boarding through the same Gate we were going to be using was going to be delayed. Still, we arrived at Tullamarine in daylight and managed to beat the majority of the mob onto the Skybus, which meant that we got to sit for the twenty-minute trip into the city.
Our accommodation for the next two nights, the newly-refurbished Leo Pacific, was a little too far to walk at that hour, so we took the free Hotel Shuttle from Southern Cross, finding in the process that we were the first passengers our driver had delivered there.
A location in Little Bourke Street a block and a half from Chinatown might be convenient in all sorts of ways but, as the driver pointed out as he pulled up more or less on the doorstep, it isn’t the greatest option for shuttle bus pickups.
Which explains why we decided to hoof it to Southern Cross two mornings later.
Regardless of delayed arrivals, once we’d checked in proximity to Chinatown made it easy to find something to eat, though I’d have preferred it if Madam had chosen somewhere licensed. Still, I thought, there was a bottle shop en route on the way back, so I could drop in there if necessary....
Of course, when the time came, it was shut, prompting a decision that for the rest of the trip I wasn’t eating anywhere that didn’t have a wine list.
Which is not to suggest that I was looking for wine with breakfast at the Cafe Segovia the next morning, or at Knife Fork Bottle & Cork on the Wednesday morning, but the option was there. I’d be more than happy to return to either establishment in the future, but there are plenty of other options to explore in Melbourne’s inner-city lane way.
With breakfast out of the way, there was nothing for it but to head off in search of interesting retail venues with a side trip back into Chinatown for yum cha.
Madam may have rolled her eyes each time she arrived at the agreed rendezvous to find me adding to the CD and literary collections, but I thought that limiting purchases to the recent Byrds box set, a couple of New Orleans collections and the new Richard & Linda Thompson live set meant that my credit card escaped rather lightly from the time I spent in Basement Disks and Greville Street Records. Mind you, she’d have been much more impressed if she’s been able to see how much stuff I’d put back on the shelves. The damage could have been infinitely worse.
That night we headed back to Villa Romana with Madam’s Melbourne Mates for another go at the spaghetti allo scoglio (highly recommended after our previous visit to Melbourne and still as good as ever) adjourning from there to Jimmy Watson’s for a couple of glasses to round out the evening.
Once we’d broken the fast a couple of doors down from the Leo Pacific next morning, there was nothing for it but to haul the luggage across to Southern Cross to catch the Skybus and, literally before we knew it we were touching down in Mackay, contacting the Better Five-Eighths of the Cox Combo, handing over a bottle of Dalrymple pinot noir as thanks and heading homewards.
And, given the fact that a survey of the larder once we’d arrived revealed that the cupboard was bare I guess it’s hardly surprising that we ended up visiting Franco at Pizza Pronto for a family-sized pizza that cost me a little more than my return flight to Melbourne.