Wanderung 20

Australian Walkabout

May - June 2009

Wednesday, June 10th, Train Trip from Sydney to Brisbane.

Bob:

After a somewhat short night's sleep, we arose early, checked back out, and trundled our gear right back to the train station to catch the 7:45 train up to Brisbane.

Monika:

We had set our alarm clock (also known as my camera) for 6:30 to catch the 7:45 to Brisbane. I had spied a Hungry Jack in the train station the night before, so once we were settled in the train, I went back to fetch brekky (as the Aussies would say) English muffin with egg and ham for me and pancakes for Bob.

Bob:

Riding on the train all day was a good way to see the scenery as it slowly shifted from Sydney to Brisbane. The forests and pastures that predominated north of Sydney became very sparsely settled in spots, which was surprising as we were fairly close to the coastline where I would have expected it to be densely populated. Although Australia had been suffering a long term drought, just as we arrived torrential rains fell in some areas and I saw some flooded fields along the way.

Monika:

The train trip took all day and it was fun watching the land pass by. After passing Hornsby (figuratively waving, of course, to Lyn and Neville as we passed by), we came by a rather large lake. We also crossed a few streams, and it was a challenge for Bob to take pictures between the girders.

Bob:

Later in the afternoon we started rolling along just beside the ocean side and that provided some very different vistas indeed. The vegetation also changed to being far more tropical, and toward the end of the day we saw some banana plantations. The train was fun but after 8 solid hours of traveling it was also a bit wearying. Finally the train stopped at Casino where we all had to transfer to a bus for the last stretch into Brisbane. It was a shame it was dark by then as our route was up and through some low mountains and the driver told us it was very pretty during the daytime.

Monika:

After that the landscape became more rolling hills. That land was mostly used for grazing. In the afternoon, we actually got close enough to the coast of the Pacific Ocean for Bob to take some pictures.

Bob:

Arriving in Brisbane, we checked into the Explorer Hotel, took a close look at our room (bugs!), and decided to immediately check out again. Fortunately we had seen a nice IBIS hotel as we walked through the Central Business district. In fact it was just one block away on Turbot Street, so we simply rolled our luggage down there and asked if they had a room. Fortunately, they did have a room for us because I wasn't sure what other accomodations we would have found at 11:00 p.m. in the evening. So we checked in for the night and hit the sack.

Monika:

It had gotten dark by the time we reached Casino, where we changed to a bus for the last two hours into Brisbane. It would have been nice to have this section in the daylight since we were assured by the bus driver that it was quite scenic. But we finally were at the bus and train station in Brisbane and trundled our luggage the three blocks to our hotel. This was another older hotel with small rooms. But when I saw a bug climbing up the wall, we decided to forego our prepaid rooms and check into the IBIS hotel a block down. The price was more, but boy what a difference, the room and bathrooms were large and clean. We felt comfortable and relaxed enough to get to sleep immediately.

Copyright 2009 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
Index
Prolog Map of Australian Walkabout Epilog

May 2009
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
June 2009
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30

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