A very Victorian Adventure

There’s always a lot of adverts that romanticize the great train journeys across Australia; The Ghan, The Indo Pacific and whatever the name of the third one is. But nobody writes about the Experience of travelling across the South East Corner of Australia. That bit between the two largest cities and over a whole mountain range. Yes, it’s Melbourne, Victoria to Sydney, New South Wales.

I love public transport and I especially love trains. I relish that Sydney to Newcastle delight over the Hawksbury inlets with all its yachts and remote houses. I love even more the London to Edinburgh hop with the changing of scenery when you cross the Scottish Border. It just seems to get a little more beautiful. So on the eve of my 26th year anniversary of arriving in Australia, with romantic ideas of beautiful scenery in mind, I decided I was going to Melbourne to see a show and I was getting the train back home. Experiences in this semi-retirement.

Scenery. Relaxation. Audio books. Editing of my book whilst admiring the view from my moving office. What could be better?

I’ve lived in Sydney for eight, nearly nine years, and for the last few years I have watched the refurbishment of Central Station. Yeah, in some areas, I think they’ve low balled it. A nice underground walkway, concourse precinct with lots of escalators but….

About 2004 my then brother-in-law and his fiancé came to visit Australia, they brought along their two kids and some of her old friends with their three kids, whom they then invited to stay for Christmas.  Its nice to have Christmas with strangers and nice to be able to do a good turn, but the other family were over from the UK spending a year in Melbourne. The reason I am telling you this is that the male in the relationship was an architect and his London based firm had won the contract for the redesign of Southern Cross, previously Spencer Street Station. And he was here to supervise.

I have never seen it since his work was completed and I’d like to say, I think he nailed it.  The customer experience perspective with the variation of shops and retail availability is amazing. It was an open plan, light, waved roof revelation, it had a prayer room, luggage holding area and an enclosed space which said Customer Convenience. This was an enclosed, brightly lit room offering information, the ability to hire some equipment and a library area. And very pleasant. The variety of shops from a Woolies Metro to an HJ was a delight, especially for those about to embark on an eleven-hour train journey.

That was where the wheels started to come off.

Platform one. This is what it said on the board for my train. It also gave instructions of Via Platform 2B and over the bridge.  Well Platform 2 A was readily visible but bugger me if 2B was nowhere in sight. I executed a dodgy back track from where regional trains were supposed to depart from and followed the newly discovered platform 1 signs, but mis-reading an arrow, I found myself at the bus stance and very nearly jumped a Skybus back to Tullamarine.

A brief sojourn into Customer Convenience found me in the right space and I was bloody glad I had opted to arrive early.

On boarding the train, I quickly found my seat. And started looking for the power socket as its always easier to plug everything in early and get set up. Oh, these trays are a little tinny, in fact it’s all a bit tinny, where’s the plug.  There is no plug. Check on the train facilities. No wifi. No power. Are you kidding??

I was nearly beside myself as my phone is set to stop charging at 85% to preserve the life of the battery, and that was last plugged in at 6am. I’d used it a bit by then and I’m down at 73% with eleven hours to go.

Now, it’s fine. Its fine. Really.

Or it would have been if I had actually packed some physical reading material, downloaded a copy of my book onto the computer (instead of hosting it on One Drive), or had a full charge in my computer.  None of these conditions existed!

But more importantly, if I had a little piece of plastic, something we affectionally call a credit card, it would have been fine but no, everything is on my phone; ticket, banking stuff, you name it. In fact, if I could have electronic swipe on my phone to get into my apartment, I’d probably do that too.

So I sent a message to all that love me and would miss me – and when I’d done with mum, I happily put the phone on flight mode and wondered what would befall me after possibly 13 hours nocom.  It hasn’t quite worked like that as I’ve downloaded messages at each main stop – so its easy. Only one that needed more immediate attention.

Now here I am, halfway through the journey with stops at Broadmeadow, Seymour, Benalla, Wangaratta, Albury, Culcairn, Wagga Wagga, Junee and Cootamundra behind me. And so much more of the journey ahead. The good thing is that it’s after 2pm so the second stage is where it’s acceptable to enjoy booze.

I’ve changed seat, courtesy of the lovely conductor, into a quieter, cooler carriage with a starboard side location to keep me out of the afternoon sun, cos of my pale blue Scottish skin. I am next to the buffet car, and the staff have been amazing. Each have stopped to chat with me as they think I am working hard – little do they know.

Whilst I am unable to have access to my book draft, I do have access of other offline functions, such as WORD so started journalling my little adventure. In addition to the fact that I can power my phone from the computer and I am confident that I’ll get back to over 80% before I have to abandon the laptop.

The views have been great, and this is what I remember of Australia. In year one, month one, I drove down from Toowoomba to East Sale. I drove home to Queensland again in Jul/Aug. The difference from Australia being a sun burnt land, to it transforming in the winter months to lush green fields is something I’d forgotten, until today. The sun burnt countryside is all around the train, and whilst interspersed with green patches, a cream/caramel is the predominant colour here. As I enter into my 27th year here, I am reminded how harsh this country is for the people who put the food on our table. The sheer scale of it with its limited, per head population is awe inspiring. Alongside the fact that the majority of the limited population it does have, well, their arses are parked next to the beaches and coastlines.

Power, or no power. Wi-Fi or no Wi-Fi. This was a great idea and a lovely adventure.  I still have half the journey to go and I can see the rainclouds of central NSW ahead of me, but I am happy, relaxed, at peace and simply content at just being alive and able to do this.  Now, it’s past time where its respectable to imbibe alcohol – so that’s next.