Adelaide to Somewhere in NSW

 Tuesday, 21 June

This morning Lorraine met her Adelaide friends for a coffee close by the station, while Judy and I did the city sights tour. The bus picked us up around 7.30 for a 2 hour tour. It was a chilly and rather gloomy morning and the bus windows were fogging up, so the driver had to run the air conditioner, which meant it was almost impossible to hear his commentary. 

We circled the city on the East, West, North and South Terraces and saw the beautiful parklands and some lovely old buildings. We were then taken to The Oval where we hopped off the bus and went inside and up to a dining room for breakfast. We arrived about 9.15 and were supposed to be leaving by 9.30 so it was a bit of a rushed repast. A staff member said: “Are you finished with that?” as she whipped my plate away. I craftily wrapped a Danish pastry in a serviette and stashed it in my handbag for later.

When we returned to the train we discovered that the engine had moved so that the back of the train had now become the front. We are now in the first carriage! This is because we were leaving Adelaide the way we came in and you can’t turn the train around. For the first part of the day we were on the same track as when we were on the Ghan. We saw that very long line of wind turbines on top of the hills near Snowtown. There were more of them later on and also a sizeable solar farm.

Just on dusk we arrived in Broken Hill, stopping long enough to change drivers. We were supposed to have an excursion here but it was cancelled before the trip. They said it was to do with the timetabling of freight trains. We were sorry to miss it as we have never been there.

Tonight we have said goodbye to some of the great people we’ve met, as not everyone is going to do the Blue Mountains excursion. The Sydneysiders reckon they can do it any time. The people in our section of the train have been a great bunch - lots of jokes and no one being left out. Those travelling alone have never been without company if they wanted it. Carol, who is in the compartment next to mine, and is in her eighties, has sat with and chatted to practically everyone.

The driver from Broken Hill seems to be in a hurry or else the tracks here aren’t as good as on the Nullarbor because we’re having a very rough ride this evening. That doesn’t augur well for sleeping but I’m going to give it a go because we’ve got another early start. Definitely no internet here so might not post till tomorrow night .