Feeling at Home Far From Home

After our long journey we finally arrived on a cool sunny morning at Melbourne airport where we were collected by Cat's friend, Dean. We drove about 90 minutes to his beach house in Rye, in between the beaches of the bay and the ocean. After a home made burger for lunch, we headed to his boat shed on the bay were we had a few beers and wines. The water was also beautiful and clear, but way to cold for us softies used to the warm waters of Asia. It was really beautiful and relaxing and Dean was an amazing host, especially looking after and playing with Flora.
Despite our long, long journey, we managed to get on it and have a very late night sitting outside listening to music, drinking a variety of drinks and more.
During our stay in Rye we had one really hot day when we went to an ocean beach with lots of rock pools. There was a large rock over a deep pool to jump into. As a few adults stood tentatively on the edge, Flora flung herself off into the water below, having little idea of how cold

it was. She emerged from the water in shock and desperately swam to the edge to drag herself out of the water! It was pretty funny. We headed to a local brewery for a couple of craft beers where a group were asked to leave after getting carried away, managing to break a pavement slab in their shenanigans! After six months on the road, changing beds about three times a week, it felt amazing to hang around Dean's house, cook food, snooze on the sofa and watch TV while Flora played with Lego or was in bed.
After four nights in Rye we went to Melbourne to stay for a couple of nights. We checked into our hotel, had a beer in a brewery below Dean's new apartment that he was inspecting, and then went to our hotel to relax. During this time Pedro found he had several bites and didn't feel well enough to go for dinner, so Flora and Cat walked down Victoria Parade and had a lovely dinner in a Vietnamese restaurant.

Pedro had a difficult night and emerged in the morning with almost 20 bites. We got a taxi into the CBD and looked for somewhere to have breakfast and meet Jamie, Cat's friend from when she lived in Perth. We met him at a juice shack during his lunch hour, and whilst brief, it was lovely to see him. We also enjoyed the Christmas set up in Federation Square where Flora met a very convincing Father Christmas, and spent some time in the art gallery gift shop. We walked along the Southbank and then visited a pharmacy where they confirmed that Pedro's bites were bedbug bites.
We wandered back to our hotel via beautiful Fitzroy Gardens, complained about the bedbugs, moved rooms, and then met Dean for an evening of drinks and a very late dinner at a Chinese/Vietnamese

restaurant.
The next morning Dean collected us and took us to the house where he was staying for lunch and a walk along the Yarra river and a coffee at the children's farm before kindly taking us to the airport for our flight to Perth.
Dean was a true champ of a host and made us feel at home. Shame the typhoon in the Philippines made us miss three extra days in Melbourne...