Final week

Melbourne has proven to be pleasant enough and as I discovered on a long but enjoyable day trip along the Great Ocean Road yesterday the surrounding countryside and coastline is well worth making the effort to see too. I'm not hanging around though; I've had a couple of days sightseeing in the city centre and although I could likely stay longer and trail around a few more of the sights the write-up of Sydney in my Lonely Planet is sounding well worth investigating. As a result I'm flying over there tomorrow and seeing what the city with the bridge (that's my self-imposed title rather than anything conjeured up by marketing people) has to offer.

There's not a great deal of aviation competition within Australia. Ansett went belly up a few years ago and on the odd occasion when an airline has been mentioned in Lonely Planet on visiting the company's website there will inevitably be some mention of how passenger flights were halted a few months ago, typically have been squeezed or bought out by Qantas and directed to their website instead. Our saviour from a monopoly of the skies comes in the shape of Virgin Blue. This isn't a range of adult products by Richard Branson but rather his downunder budget airline venture, and most welcome it is. A number of Aussies have told me how before the competition came along Qantas were able to more or less charge what they wanted. Two hardly makes for a crowded market but when both players are fiercely vying for share the prices are kept very much attractive. Once again I've bagged a fine deal from Melbourne to Sydney, not with Virgin Blue, who weren't terribly expensive, but Jet Star won the day with an $89AUS fare, which is a touch over 30 quid. That'll do nicely, thank you, not least as everything else in Australia seems to encourage the haemorraging of cash at every opportunity.

This brings me into the last week of my grand voyage. Ever since I booked the flight home the weeks have been skipping by with a seeming wild abandon but the appearance of the travelling fat lady has come as no surprise. From the outset my intentions were to take the Trans-Siberian, get a feel for Japan and see the almighty sights of China. Thereafter the pressure was off. It might have been nice to see what South East Asia had to offer but I always knew it wasn't likely to be my cup of tea and ditching it for Australia has left me with no regrets, not least as this venture into the land of down under has proven something of a success. It's all a bonus to return home with in my baggage, on my camera and most importantly of all in my memory. But let's not go here quite yet. The fat lady hasn't sung. She's waiting in the departures hall and while I might pass her at the Sydney Airport terminal building tomorrow she's just limbering up with a few days of practice before the grand finale. Yes there's still good time to add to the experiences of the trip and see it off in style. This blog isn't finished just yet. Tomorrow: Sydney!