DOWN UNDER with TT-ONR-NRN (+ other overseas ventures)

[hexagon789]

Pah! Not one spot in the UK comes close to some of the places I’ve seen in the past few weeks, whether you value the overrated Yorkshire Dales or Scottish Highlands or not, haha.

We'll have to agree to disagree

 

[railfan99]

Pah! Not one spot in the UK comes close to some of the places I’ve seen in the past few weeks, whether you value the overrated Yorkshire Dales or Scottish Highlands or not, haha.

As an Australian, we lack the wonderfully historic English villages: generally, no thatched rooves in Oz.

And (thankfully) one can't visit Tyburn where many Catholic martyrs were executed (history I know, but under European settlement Australia is a young nation).

On a more pleasant note, we don't have Whitby that like Tyburn I've visited, with its Captain Cook museum (a wonderful navigator, God bless).

The Scottish Highlands are great scenery, but different: I wouldn't compare to Australia: each is beautiful in some parts, as TT correctly said about Oz.

Australia is way ahead for variety of flora and fauna, including birds. I have native plants in my garden and they're wonderful (not that I'm knocking your European plants).

I suspect Australia beats England UK on food (freshness, including fruit and veg., and variety, but from trips to the UK I believe your food has improved), availability of dairy products (how could UK have so little flavoured milk available, and even fresh milk), ease of road travel (though Sydney and Melbourne becoming more difficult by road, but probably still easier than to/from London by car) and (though declining) Oz's public healthcare system (which TT can use as we have a reciprocal agreement).

I'm sorry, but as the Japanese know, Australian meat is of superior quality. Beats 'British beef!'

It's unfair to compare on rail fares as UK is a small island with 65 million plus inhabitants; outside of the east coast and conurbations like Perth in the west, Oz is sparsely populated by your standards.

You beat us for density of railways, partly due to population and also history. We lack alternative routes for many freight trains: not as much a problem in England.

Clearly UK wins on number of preserved railways and patronage of these, plus the number of volunteers. Wonderful to see even if the feeling is younger people aren't interested in stepping up: I reckon they will in future years.

We also beat you hugely on general living standards such as (what used to be) significant backyards in houses (again, as land prices rose until a few months ago, not as good as it used to be).

Agree we beat you on beaches but Philippines is among wonderful nations for white sand beaches so it beats Australia!

Pub culture is a tie as you have your super attractive historic pubs and we have our arguably more relaxed drinking culture (by that I mean due to the warmer weather, more can occur outdoors in 'beer gardens.' You can do same in only a fairly short period of the year.

Beer probably a tie as both nations have large numbers of craft breweries: in September 2022, I enjoyed a Quantock Brewery Pale Ale on board a West Somerset Railway train. Wine: Oz well ahead. Spirits: Scotland wins.

You win with the high speed Eurostar (plus eventually? HS2) that Oz regrettably lacks.

You win at Christmas as clearly it's meant to be celebrated in the West in snow or cold weather/short days, not summer as it is in the Great Southern Land.

 

[Pakenhamtrain]

Ahh so many comments, thank you very much!

To be honest though, they certainly look rather older than the 159s due to the metal stainless-steel fluted coating a la V and K Set/Melbourne Comengs.

The Endeavour/Xplorer fleet came out of the same factory as the Comeng fleet.

Commonwealth Engineering Dandenong was sold to ABB in 1990. That subsequently became Bombardier and now Alstom.

 

[railfan99]

TT, did you see my post re Transport Heritage NSW trips that you might consider travelling on?

So many have replied you've been a busy lad answering everyone.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

TT, did you see my post re Transport Heritage NSW trips that you might consider travelling on?

So many have replied you've been a busy lad answering everyone.

I have, thank you for the suggestion. I took a look but most tours take place when I should be in New Zealand, and while they’re reasonably priced for what they are, and look very nice, I wouldn’t personally pay much more than a normal train fare for a steam journey as I’m not big on steam haul

 

[railfan99]

TT, if steam doesn't interest, NSW also has The Rail Motor Society with its historic CPH rail motors and 620-720 railcars.

These conveyances once ran over much of the state, including many now freight-only or long closed branchlines. For instance the CPHs used to connect with the mail trains that operated six nights a week from Sydney and typicaly for each destination had a wooden sleeping car and at least one sitting car, plus a postal sorters' van. I was lucky enough to travel on these (plus many branch line connections) in the early 1980s when young.

The website is old fashioned but there's a tours page (although it never seems all tours operate - as in UK, some are cancelled):

Rail Motor Society Tours Page

It's based at Paterson, north of Maitland on the NSW North Coast (Sydney-Brisbane) line.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

TT, if steam doesn't interest, NSW also has The Rail Motor Society with its historic CPH rail motors and 620-720 railcars.

These conveyances once ran over much of the state, including many now freight-only or long closed branchlines. For instance the CPHs used to connect with the mail trains that operated six nights a week from Sydney and typicaly for each destination had a wooden sleeping car and at least one sitting car, plus a postal sorters' van. I was lucky enough to travel on these (plus many branch line connections) in the early 1980s when young.

The website is old fashioned but there's a tours page (although it never seems all tours operate - as in UK, some are cancelled):

Rail Motor Society Tours Page

It's based at Paterson, north of Maitland on the NSW North Coast (Sydney-Brisbane) line.

Thank you. Mail trains I believe ran partially on what is now Dulwich Hill Line 1 Light Rail, I believe?


I’ve had an absolutely fantastic day today and while walking through a park was joined by TWO WILD KANGAS, so I’m very happy. I’ll write the next report on the sadly very long journey home, which I’m awaiting the first leg of now (hello to a 01:30 return time home!)

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Having not known the inspiration behind the username, I had the shock of my life at seeing @XAM2175 written on the side of the 20:42 to Melbourne:

 

[XAM2175]

Having not known the inspiration behind the username, I had the shock of my life at seeing @XAM2175 written on the side of the 20:42 to Melbourne:

I was wondering if you'd see it at some point

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Day 29: Dangar Island, Woy Woy & Ettalong - with a little Central Coast unit bash on return

I do always like a ride on the Central Coast Line so I decided that I would spend my day off (Wednesday is the only weekday where I have no uni) going to a few destinations along the CC, Dangar Island being one that had caught my attention after reading about it somewhere. So at about 11am I got up - I very nearly didn't actually, as per the text conversation with my mother "Hi, what are you doing for your free day?" "Going back to bed I'm p*ssing exhausted" - but after rolling over and snoozing for ten minutes, I thought of how depressing it'd be to wake up in the evening knowing I had wasted my only free day this week, so I got up, packed the usual Mac (I only take this on long journeys), a towel, trunks, sun mist and power-bank, and got ready to hurry to Newtown.



Here's the Waratah (B2) arriving at Newtown in place of the booked Millennium set on a stopping service to Leppington, which I boarded en-route to Strathfield and then got increasingly pissed off by yet another bare-feet-on-the-seats man. I don't give a damn about feet on seats if someone's got (clean) shoes on personally, some of you tend to overreact about that, but I think if the shoes are clean relax (a stranger's ass is to me more gross than their shoes and they're fine to go there) but bare feet is just vile and unhygienic. And like the filthy vile guy on the Canberra train (although he was worse and pressed his soles against the windows), this one was rubbing them all over the moquette. Nasty wrinkly old sod. I discreetly filmed it and shamed him on social media. I've had a good few 1 Mil+ viewed videos and I frankly think he deserves the disgust of 1 million indignant viewers. I'd not long ago woken up and hadn't had a Red Bull yet so I had a weak feeling stomach as it was. Enough attention wasted on him, the train called at Ashfield, Burwood and then Strathfield, where I changed onto an OSCAR H Set that would take me to Hawkesbury River - about an hour from Strathfield.



Directly outside the beautiful Hawkesbury River station, one will find this adorable little boat to Dangar Island waiting, as seen above. It doesn't take Opal which didn't surprise me at all, as this little thing was quite obviously not state-owned public transport - or so I thought (!) and I believe there are plans to integrate it with the rest of New South Wales' systems. The boat left promptly and I bought a student ticket, and enjoyed a scenic ten minute journey across to the island - here's a Pacific National freighter passing as we pulled away:



Dangar Island is very small and remote, and you can walk around the whole thing in about an hour. There are no roads (well, there's wide paths but cars aren't allowed on them), but there are indeed permanent residents - the island has a population of about 300 and they use golf buggies to get around instead, and as golf buggies don't have a boot (duh) there is a stash of wheelbarrows by the little platform for the boat, in case residents need to transport something heavy to and from the mainland. Here are the wheelbarrows stashed beneath this interesting Fire Danger Rating board, which out of a given "Low-Moderate," "High," "Very High," "Severe," "Extreme" and "Catastrophic" was thankfully pointing to the first.



My wander around the island was very enjoyable, the beach is pretty and the houses really nice indeed - the weather was nice and warm and there were plenty of colourful birds about. I got a snap of one - and a snap of an OSCAR crossing the impressive Hawkesbury River Bridge miles in the distance (sadly it's really blurry so I haven't bothered including it here) and then took an outside seat at the idyllic shop and cafe (I believe the only business on the island?) for a coffee. Please excuse the blurriness which is due to it being a video screenshot from my Instagram story. As I've explained before, the Instagram app camera is cruddy compared to my new iPhone's 14 Pro Max's incredible main camera - take a look at how high the picture quality is of B2 at Newtown is by comparison



Once returning to the mainland and Hawkesbury River station, what I believe was XPT 2004 with partner power car roared through with a Regional service from Grafton to Sydney Central (having departed Grafton just after 5am). Unfortunately I didn't spot it until last minute, so my camera didn't have time to focus properly, so again a very blurry picture - it almost looks like a painting for the blurriness - but in case you want to see here it is.



That's Part One, Part Two will be the next post immediately below

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Day 29: Dangar Island, Woy Woy & Ettalong - with a little Central Coast unit bash on return

Part Two - Part One is the post before, I recommend you read that first!

Day 29: Dangar Island, Woy Woy & Ettalong - with a little Central Coast unit bash on return

That's Part One, Part Two will be the next post immediately below

So here I am, at Hawkesbury River station which I do think is really rather pleasant. It's got the namesake river running both sides, it's not a station on a bridge as the river on the right hand side doesn't begin until after the station has ended, but it's very much surrounded by the beautiful river and I find that very nice indeed.



Unfortunately (or fortunately if you're on it and going further north) the hourly Newcastle express passes through, and you're left to get the slower Newcastle semi-fast, also hourly. The express is typically a V Set and the semi-fast a H Set "OSCAR" (on weekends all are booked for OSCARS), but the 13:45 off Sydney on weekdays is a single V Set, and that happened to be the next northbound service from Hawkesbury. I enjoyed the comfy leather seating of V49 for the half-hour journey to Woy Woy. The train was flagged down at little lonely Wondabyne (see post 73/Day 9's report for my trip to Wondabyne), and as I was in the rear carriage I saw the doors open. About twelve (all very old, and very loud) people got on - surely not common for a station so remote it has no road access - who must have been bushwalking, and then not long after the train arrived in Woy Woy. I got off, tapped out, and had a wander.

It's known as the Venice of New South Wales (perhaps a rather flattering name for what it is) because of the way the nearby rivers wind around the residential neighbourhoods of the town, and it does seem like a nice place. I popped into Woolworths, wondering if I should take a picture for @Intercity110 's benefit, in the hope that they'd sell Red Bull (I'm struggling bad with this, tbh people. I'm currently doing about 3 or 4 250ml cans a day and there's never a moment when I'm not craving it - I'm also noticeably more tetchy without it) alas they did not, so I hopped on a bus bound for Ettalong Beach, which was free as the Opal readers were down, and had a swim at the Ettalong Beach. It was very nice, warm water and I went quite far out because the sea was exceptionally gentle - unsurprising as it was trapped between two coasts rather close together; had I swam for about fifteen minutes (bad idea with the amount of boats about) I'd have got to the other side. THE WIND THOUGH. Oh my god, how it p!ssed me off. It blew sand absolutely everywhere constantly.



On return to Woy Woy, having taken the bus for free again as this one also had a broken Opal reader, I decided I'd have to indulge my Italian pizza craving that had plagued me all week. American crud like Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, even Domino's which once-upon-a-time I liked, is not for me at all, and don't even get me started on the frozen dog sh!t they dish out to drunks at kebab shops (which I'd continue to scornfully turn down even in my mortalest highest post-Uni-night out state it's that bad), but I have a great appreciation for real wood-fired Neapolitan pizza done right. I actually worked as a chef in one of Cardiff's most popular Italian restaurants (responsibilities including braving the enormous oven with the massive flames inside) right up until I left for Australia (and was forced to resign as they refuse to grant 5 months leave, perhaps unsurprisingly, and wow I really do use brackets for extra irrelevant information way too often) and as a passionate foodie I've got very acute tastebuds so I'm very picky about food. What you need to know - and this is relevant to the story - is that I'd had pizza the day before, and the day before that too. I know, what a fat little sh!t, you must be thinking, and it's disgraceful (though I'm a very slim boy so it won't show) but I had had a marvellous classic Margherita on Monday from Newtown's famous Bella Brutta - with extra fresh basil because that's without doubt my favourite food in the world, and I wish someone would make a cologne out of it - and a divine King Prawn and Endive pizza from highly commended D.O.C. in Central Syd, and today I was opting for something a bit more meaty. I adore artichokes, so the option of those with prosciutto and olives appealed, so I ordered that.



Sadly, although the crust was beautifully charred and not too heavy, the dough had been stretched far too thin and the middle overloaded with far too much topping. A good Neapolitan pizza should NEVER have too much mozzarella (one of many reasons where American and Italian pizzas differ), artichokes should be drained thoroughly and lightly pressed to release moisture before used as a topping, and use toppings sparingly because less really is more with a pizza. Basically, we had a soggy floppy base. Disappointing. The prosciutto was quite cheap too. I wonder if they just bought normal ham and renamed it. I'll stick with margheritas for now. Don't get me wrong, I love meat, and I love fish and vegetables even more, but I just can't be doing with stuff like that. Oh, and while I was waiting (20 mins, not bad, pretty much what I'd expect) for the pizza, I did pop into the Indian restaurant for some vegetable samosas. Not because I'm despicably greedy but because I hadn't eaten all day - I tend to skip breakfast and lunch and just have a very big dinner - don't lecture me, you won't change me by telling me what I already know about how bad that is, modelling habits die hard), and they are one of my absolute favourite things. They were very good, if a little chewy...

Sorry, that was far too many words wasted on one pizza, though when I get passionate I tend to write and get carried away without even realise how much I'm going on! Unfortunately the scheduled fast V Set back to Central was missed, as following the pizza I bought a Red Bull from a nearby kebab shop, and then arrived at the station to find I'd lost my Opal card. ARRRRRGH. So a run back to the pizza shop, nope, the kebab shop, nope, the Indian place, nope, the nearby roads, nope, pulled my pizza box from out the bin and inspected it (onlookers probably thought I was a desperate hobo thinking about it, how mortifying, although surely I wasn't dressed like one) - nope. It wasn't until I went back for a second check at the kebab shop where I'd bought the Red Bull that I realised it was there, I just hadn't noticed it lying on the floor when I'd checked the first time. What a pavlova. I'm not going to backspace that because it's quite funny, but I did type palaver (a word my Bolton mother uses a lot) and clearly Apple thought I was talking about meringue. Missing the V Set Express back to Sydney (and only by five minutes!) was very annoying because the semi half-an-hour later (still a fair wait) would A) call tediously at Wondabyne, Hawkesbury and Berowra, and maybe even more as some do, and B) be a less comfortable OSCAR rather than a leather seat, 2+2 and armrested V Set. So I decided to go north instead.

OSCARS H10 and partner arrived in very shortly with an all-stations stopper to Gosford, and I stayed on that to the end, only to go further north on OSCARS H7 and partner, which pulled up five minutes later with a semi-fast Wyong service.

H Set/OSCAR at Gosford

(The usual hourly Express V Sets and semi-fast OSCARS for Newcastle via Strathfield are supplemented with additional all-stations OSCARS to Gosford via Strathfield and semi-fast OSCARS to Wyong via Milsons Point & Chatswood at peaks, giving a good rush hour service on the Central Coast) At Wyong, V2 did pull in with what would be the next southbound Express to Sydney, but it was four cars and packed, and due to the cancellation of the next semi-fast OSCAR, booked to stop additionally at ten more stations, so I thought F_ that, and got off at first stop Tuggerah, where the sun began to set and was a beautiful pinky purple, justifying a full size image I think, or maybe two:




It wasn't long before H27 and H48 pulled in with a northbound service for Newcastle Interchange, taking me one-stop to Wyong and from there it was onto thankfully empty V15 and V19 for a very comfortable and mercifully limited-stop 100 minute run back down to Sydney. Here are those last two trains at Tuggerah and Wyong respectively:



The next day, I was consequentially very tired and made myself twenty-minutes late for my first lecture of the week, but I guess it is what it is.

We are having some incredible, INCREDIBLE weather. Since the above trip on the Central Coast, which was on Wednesday, I have had two wonderful trips, the first being Bombo, Minnamurra and Gorringong on the South Coast, and the second being the indescribably picture-perfect Port Stephens to the north of Newcastle. I can't wait to tell you about them both, especially as they both include some exciting wildlife encounters (and the latter one includes 2.5 hours on an XPT, if that's what interests you). I do hope you'll come back to read those as I publish them very soon.

 

[HarryF]

I have just read this thread and all I can say is wow. Thank you so much TT-ONR-NRN for taking the time to compile it. It really was a nice read after my day.

 

[87electric]

I was wondering if you'd see it at some point

That was my coach back in 2017. Must be common then

 

[XAM2175]

That was my coach back in 2017. Must be common then

There are only eight XAM cars, so your odds of coming across any given one are pretty good

 

[railfan99]

TT, another great report.

The bird you photographed, at a quick look, was a King Parrot. They are often fed by residents in some suburbs. Delightful birds. Naturally they love Australian native plants.

You failed to find a Red Bull at Woolworths Woy Woy because you may have not realised, or momentarily forgotten, that if Woolies is out of stock, in the vast majority of its supermarkets there will be an attached BWS (Beer, Wine and Spirits) liquor outlet. These were spun off by Woolies into a new listed company called Endeavour Group, which has 330 plus ALH hotels and also owns a major liquor chain in Dan Murphy's, referred to in Oz simply as 'Dan's'.

 

[Greetlander]

I’ve only just chanced on this thread - I was ironically in Europe when you arrived here but I live in earshot of the main north line just south of Hornsby. I’ll try to read the rest of the thread tomorrow but I see you’ve reached Dangar Island recently - I like to kayak there via the abandoned sidings near the river bridge. Are you planning on going to Maitland steamfest?

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Day 30: Bombo Headland, Minnamurra, Gerringong and THE SNAKE!!!!!

Following on from a two-hour seminar in a rather warm hall, I was about to take the train back (lazy, it's easily walkable) to my apartment and enjoy the unusual peace (everyone being out at lectures or seminars at that time makes for a nice quiet atmosphere back there), but I couldn't help feeling tempted by the arrival of a pair of Tangaras arriving into Redfern station on the Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra route, one of which was a comfortable former G Set. This service, bound for Cronulla, came in the shape of T3 and T127, so I jumped onto the former and enjoyed the icy air-conditioning for a limited stop journey to the junction at Sutherland.

By the time the Tangaras scooched into Sutherland, the South Coast Express had caught up, formed of single OSCAR H52. It was busy - a single H Set on the hourly Kiama Intercity is bound to be so close to rush hour - but I boarded anyway and decided to head down to Bombo, as I remembered how pretty it had looked when I had passed it on the train on Day 12 (although it was raining at the time and today was around 29/30ºC) when travelling to Kiama. So I settled down for an hour and a half on the OSCAR - passing some of the brand new Intercity D Sets soon to replace OSCARS on this route



()

- until it scuttled into little Bombo, a tiny, very pleasant platform looking most attractive in the strong sun from where I decided to do the recommended 3 mile coastal walk to Minnamurra.



Finding the beach was not easy, and half-running (I was pressed for time) along a busy freeway with very hot sun on my neck, weighed down by a backpack, was not fun, but I found it in the end and it is indeed very nice. I'm far less "practical/physical/hands-on" than I used to be with beaches; unlike a couple of years ago where a proper swim in the sea would have been pretty much essential, these days I far prefer to remain dry and unsandy, and far prefer to stand there or walk alongside and just take in the beauty and the atmosphere, so that is exactly what I did Then it was time to begin the walk.





I'm not a great walker, and much as I'd love to one of the reasons I don't tend to join Forum Walks is because they're usually upwards of six miles, and that's a little far for my quickly-tired legs - I prefer to sprint a short distance than jog a marathon if you get me so while you may scoff at this, this three mile walk in the intense heat (not much breeze despite being by the sea either) seemed a little daunting, but I began it in high spirits nevertheless, ascending a slight hill and turning away from the railway, and finding myself fairly high above Bombo on the cliffs. The view of the cliff edge about 800m from the path was somewhat obscured by thick woodland, which I ventured into to view the headland. The walk was less than ten minutes but with all of the hissing from nearby snakes in the bush, it felt like much longer. Anyway, the famous headland did look impressive. The photos all have me in and I looked awful that day so no can do

I guess the worry about seeing snakes was worth it, I thought as I hurried back down the path, pleased with myself for braving it, and then I shrieked so loudly I'm surprised the trees didn't shake, as an (admittedly rather small) black snake was there on the path about a metre in front (facing away from me/same direction that I was facing), and immediately darted to get off the path. That was me done with the bush, and I sprinted faster than I have in months to get out of the woodland.

"Did you hear that shriek?" drawled the leader of a group of American tourists passing me about five-minutes later.
"I wouldn't worry about it," I mumbled, blushing, and joined the path very gratefully. Moving on from here the coast was very nice indeed, and some pictures were taken and lots of water drunk. I did have to go up a revoltingly tall hill but it wasn't the end of the world. Very nice residential area, decent size houses and lovely view, quiet neighbourhood, etc. An absolutely enormous can of Red Bull was obtained from a small convenience store not too far from the "goal," and then a final stretch took me to Minnamurra.

Left: Kiama Downs, en-route to Minnamurra
Below: Minnamurra



Part 2 is directly below - separated to get more pictures in

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Day 30: Bombo Headland, Minnamurra, Gerringong and THE SNAKE!!!!!

OK, Part 2! Right, so we’re at Minnamurra.



I waited about six or seven minutes for H18 and H46 to arrive in with the southbound Kiama service, again enjoying the cool air on-board the train, and the OSCAR took me to Kiama - I've been there before so didn't alight - where the electrification ends. Short journey but very pleasant.



It was onto an Endeavour DMU one stop to Gerringong, where I'd heard has a very nice ocean pool that looks incredible at sunset. This is the stop before Berry, but I didn't go to Berry. I've had it recommended, and thanks very much for your recommendations, but there was no time - and it doesn't appear to be the type of place where I'd come all the way back for specially. So I thought I'd just clear that up before anyone tells me I should have gone one-stop further to Berry

It's a bit of a walk to the coast but the town and local surroundings are quite pretty - I saw some lovely birds and this amusing sign warning of ducks crossing, (which I immediately sent a picture of to Mojo as I'm aware he's a big fan of ducks haha) and then ambled down to the coast, and although the beach is nothing to write home about by Australian standards according to what I've seen here so far (still puts ours to shame), the pool does indeed look very pretty at sunset. A nice couple that must have only been a couple years older than me got talking to me there, and were exceptionally friendly and even offered me a glass of wine! I politely declined, touched as I was by the offer, as I wouldn't want to use up someone's wine when they don't even know me - and we chatted for a while, as their very nice and very energetic dog bounded around us. It was dark by the time I left ready to get the penultimate train back to Kiama, so they tried to insist on driving me back to the town centre or station, but again I politely declined, not one for getting in a car with strangers as friendly and welcoming as they may be.





When it got darker this one was done:



As I might have said in a previous report, an absolute weakness of mine is a proper authentic Indian vegetable samosa, so as I hadn't eaten all day and it was now dark, I was delighted to find an Indian restaurant in the city centre from where I could order takeaway, so two absolutely wonderful (far, far better than those I ate in Woy Woy) were enjoyed along with some aubergine tempura, or eggplant as they call it here (initially I had thought that name was limited to America only, same for zucchini a la courgette - I already knew about capsicum and I promise you I'll NEVER be able to call peppers that). I do like aubergine, and I feel like it's one of those vegetables people never really seem to eat unless they're vegetarian or vegan, which is a shame. I eat meat, pig products such as pancetta, bacon, guanciale, etc. being my favourite, and yet I adore aubergine and courgettes and will happily choose to cook an aubergine parmigiana over a meat lasagne or other meat dish often. I regret not ordering more though, as unsurprisingly this didn't prove satisfactory filling enough as an evening meal when I hadn't eaten all day.

Therefore, after re-joining the Endeavour for the chug-chug back to Kiama and boarding waiting H42 bound for Wollongong (irritatingly not going direct to Sydney, a direct service would come forty minutes after with no opportunity to take a faster train by changing at Wollongong), I left the OSCAR at Dapto and got to Woolworths just before it closed. I don't like the crisps/chips or snacks here in Australia, I'm not one for chocolate and the food to go section was poor in this particular store, so I bought a sadly-small punnet of Australia's fabulously fat, juicy blackberries and ate those on H52 which was the direct OSCAR taking me back to Redfern, where I changed onto a pair of Millenniums (M32 leading M24) for the two-stop journey back to Newtown.

Swiss-ish-esque Dapto

Millennium sets

It was 12:40am by now, and I noticed one of the local Indian takeaways was open until one, so I picked up some more samosas there and walked home. Sadly these samosas were comparatively rubbish, somewhat hard, bitty and spicy, but they did the job I suppose.

Apologies if this report seems rushed and half-hearted to you, I got back very late last night from Sydney Airport (after an admittedly INCREDIBLE day) and I'm currently in a lecture - I have classes all day - with a massive headache. I'm really irritable too, you know when you're very sleep-deprived and just about everyone and everything gets on your t*ts? Welcome to my life this morning :P
(PS: I wrote this at 3pm in the lecture but it’s now 9:30pm as it takes me a while to pick which 18 photos to use so I wrote at uni and finalised back here, and I’m feeling much better thanks )

Thanks for reading and the next reports should be (in this order):

- XPT to idyllic Port Stephens (possibly the best place in New South Wales I've been so far), sand dunes and climbing to the top of Mount Tomarree

- Hobart, Tasmania - a strong reminder of being in Reykjavik Iceland with some incredible encounters with some incredible iconic animals

- If I go to Katoomba and Leura tomorrow as I have considered (far from guaranteed that's what I'll be doing at this stage, we'll see, weather is also a major factor as cloudy skies will ruin everything), then a Blue Mountains report will also follow.

Thanks much for reading.

____

Thanks for your comments, let me just reply to those:

I have just read this thread and all I can say is wow. Thank you so much TT-ONR-NRN for taking the time to compile it. It really was a nice read after my day.

Very kind, and it means so much to know you enjoy reading them. Makes the time it takes to write them worth it

TT, another great report.

The bird you photographed, at a quick look, was a King Parrot. They are often fed by residents in some suburbs. Delightful birds. Naturally they love Australian native plants.

You failed to find a Red Bull at Woolworths Woy Woy because you may have not realised, or momentarily forgotten, that if Woolies is out of stock, in the vast majority of its supermarkets there will be an attached BWS (Beer, Wine and Spirits) liquor outlet. These were spun off by Woolies into a new listed company called Endeavour Group, which has 330 plus ALH hotels and also owns a major liquor chain in Dan Murphy's, referred to in Oz simply as 'Dan's'.

Thank you Great to know the name of the bird. Your country has such a beautiful range of lovely birds. I’m familiar with BWS but doubted Red Bull would be sold there so didn’t actually look. I know they own Big W as well.

I’ve only just chanced on this thread - I was ironically in Europe when you arrived here but I live in earshot of the main north line just south of Hornsby. I’ll try to read the rest of the thread tomorrow but I see you’ve reached Dangar Island recently - I like to kayak there via the abandoned sidings near the river bridge. Are you planning on going to Maitland steamfest?

Welcome to the thread, let’s hope we can convince you to stay I know Hornsby rather well by now. Dangar Island is lovely. Can’t personally say steam is my thing

 

[Techniquest]

Some incredibly beautiful scenes there! I don't envy your time anywhere near the snakes, just the thought of being near one is enough to make me shiver!

That hike sounded amazing otherwise, and all you need is practice and patience at perfecting the art of endurance walking However, given your food intake habits (mine are terrible too, so I sympathise hugely and totally understand the dislike of being lectured about changing them etc) I'm not wholly surprised your legs get tired easily. Combined with poor sleep as well, and what would appear to be a fantastic metabolic rate, long walks are perhaps off the agenda for now. Probably a good thing if it means allowing time for studying!

 

[Greetlander]

Another question, how much time did you spend at Wondabyne? I'd like to go there too whenever I can finally go to Australia!

Have you ever seen the Spike Milligan documentary where he visits Wondabyne - back in the days when it had a Canberra bus shelter on the platform?

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Day 32: XPT to paradise Port Stephens: Sand Dunes, up Tomarree Mountain and Wild Kangaroos

Part One: The XPT



On this, the first Saturday of March, the alarm was set for approximately an hour and a half away – ninety minutes sleep is better than none, right – and it was a rush in the dark and rain to Erskineville to begin a reasonably long journey to Port Stephen, a destination on the East Coast of the state that I’d been looking forward to visiting. It’s one of, if not the most, popular domestic destination for Australian holidaymakers in the state. I’m sure no one is surprised to hear a rather dull B Set Waratah was what kicked off the day, to get me to Central, but following on from that I would need to travel to Broadmeadow, about five minutes from Newcastle on the Intercity Central Coast Line.

The old-yet-comfortable V Sets do not tend to work this route on weekends (one was doing a later diagram involving a working to Olympic Park though, due to an event), therefore this Intercity route of about three hours would be dominated by the H Set OSCARs all day, which I’ve used to get around so much recently you must be absolutely sick of hearing about them. Anyway, you know all this by now – they have 3+2 seating, no tables to put a coffee down or work from, no armrests, not great.

Therefore, I had rejected this offering in favour of something rather nicer:
The morning Casino XPT calls at Strathfield, Hornsby, Gosford, Wyong and Fassifern to pick up only, and then the first stop where you may book a ticket to is actually Broadmeadow – not Dungog as I had once thought – and therefore, for only about $18 First which is about £10, I would stick a middle finger up at the OSCARs and enjoy a two and a half hour journey on the Australian HST variant instead, and I had 2004 and 2017 as the power cars.




As with the XPlorer to Canberra, the usual farce of sitting in whatever seat you’ve been allocated (you don’t get a choice be it window or aisle) until you get an awkward opportunity to beg the staff to move ten minutes after departure (and if they say yes, they may pick the new seat for you) ensues, so I took my seat – unfortunately next to some one else and behind a rather loud, reclining (the recline is very generous but therefore very intrusive) member of a group of three friends. That didn’t seem very first class to me, so I wandered into the daysitter coach.

The sleeper carriage as used on Melbourne and Brisbane night service remains part of the XPT set – as it would do, being a fixed formation train – and the berths are converted into effectively your bog standard compartment seating, but if you get one to yourself they’re the epitomy of privacy compared to other ways of train travel in the state. I found an empty one and decided to sit in it as far as Gosford (we’re talking about an hour and a half from Sydney Central here) as it wasn’t booked until then. However, I didn’t actually find it that comfortable. The seats aren’t massively comfortable to me, they don’t recline obviously, and the fold over table (a la emergency exit or bulkhead row on aircraft) was broken, not good when I wanted to do any work. I lay across the three seats and had a bit of a snooze for the twenty minute journey to Strathfield, then I decided it really wasn’t anywhere near as comfortable as it looked and returned to the saloon. I’m sorry @XAM2175 I know you like them and to be honest i think they have a fantastic private atmosphere but the seat is not comfy to me. That said, if I go Brisbane by XPT perhaps I’ll get one anyway just for the privacy.

@hexagon789 this answers your question, yes I have used the daysitters. I think they’re on all XPT routes bar Dubbo because Dubbo is self contained four carriages and the others all interwork even though only Melbourne and Brisbane have overnight routes.

Edit: I’ve since found out the tables were not broken you have to fit them yourself, bit complicated



When a member of staff (not the train manager; the train manager was coincidentally the same as that on my XPlorer to Canberra and a very nice guy) approached checking tickets, a short, staut ginger bearded guy that reminded me a bit of a gnome, I asked to move and had it pointed out to me that my neighbour had moved. That did not change the fact that I’d rather not be behind the loud man who was practically sitting on my lap due to utilising the full 40º (yes, that’s the exact amount not hyperbole) of his seat capability, and I was also right at the front of the coach whereas I like to have a view down the carriage. I personally believe if I’m not offered to choose my own seat, I should be allowed to move to a more-preferable one once on-board if vacant, but this guy got a bit arssey and moaned that he had lots of stops en-route and didn’t want to be moving everyone about. (Either let us pick our seats when booking or fit reservation labels so we can do it ourselves then!) Anyway, he eventually picked a seat for me at the back, and sat “Right, sit there and don’t move.” !!!! It was a nice seat thank god.



This was the first (and to this date one of only two) examples of bad customer service I’ve encountered from the railway here in Australia, which considering how rude and nasty many staff are in the UK these days is good running, so I let it go – not without an irritated tweet to NSW Trainlink of course )) and ordered a cream tea. This time, I did it properly and a cup of strong tea (the stronger the tea, the stronger the character) accompanied the scone rather than an energy drink.


Shortly after I finished this, I felt a bit sticky having handled the heavily jam laden confection, and I went to wash my hands in the bathroom in the adjacent carriage (the daysitter), and what should I find but a shower! Oh dear, I don’t think it was supposed to be used during a daytime service but I grabbed my towel from my bag that was in there in case I want for a swim at Port Stephen, and had a (FREEZING) cold shower on the XPT



I was a bit nervous as the lock seemed a bit dodgy, and I didn’t want the guard yanking door open and getting an eyeful! I only showered for about three minutes especially as there was no shampoo or wash, but it was very funny to shower on a train. That’s a first for me. My hair went very fluffy, big and afro curly from the water so that it didn’t fit under my cap, so I must have looked a sight and a half.

As we continued on down the Central Coast line, I took out a brand new book, reclined as no one was behind me, and really felt relaxed and content at that moment – particularly after returning to the buffet and obtaining a nice can of ginger ale, which is my traditional long-journey drink I was sad to leave the train at Broadmeadow, and would happily have booked to Dungog instead for an extra hour, but the returning Opal service would come six hours after.



From Broadmeadow I did have to downgrade to the slums of OSCAR H16 working the Newcastle bound service to go one stop to Hamilton. This wasn’t a long journey at all. Broadmeadow is right on the outskirts of Newcastle, and Hamilton is so close to Newcastle Interchange that you can see the trains at one station from the other if you look carefully enough. The sun was very intense at this moment, so I got excited, anticipating some glorious photo opportunities with Port Stephen under clear skies. If you ever see clouds in my photos, you can bet ten loonie that I got tw@tted off about it.

I’m lost for words. How do I do this every time? I’ve just looked above and seen the mass of words (1234 to be precise) already typed out and we haven’t even got near to the day’s destination yet! I do rabbit on, don’t I. Perhaps this would be a good time to cease fire writing and curtail this as part one – I’ll get some nice picturey bits added and then I’ll try and get the point more rapidly. I’m on another XPT right now, and it’s on diversion, so I’ve got a fair bit of time until I get off. Don’t you go anywhere without reading on now

Part 2 is below:

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Day 32: XPT to paradise Port Stephens: Sand Dunes, up Tomarree Mountain and Wild Kangaroos

Part One: The XPT

This is Part Two. Part One is above and contains the story of getting to Northern NSW by XPT.



Where did we get to again (?) - oh yes, Hamilton. Waratah to Central, XPT to Broadmeadow, OSCAR to Hamilton. God, to think that I could have summarised the journey so far in just those simple nine words and yet I dished out over a thousand. Oh well, I am nothing if not a descriptive (and easily led on a tangent) writer. BUT TO THE POINT – unfortunately the key bus route around Port Stephen, which also happens to be the only bus taking customers from the Newcastle/Hamilton area up to Port Stephen, a fair distance for a bus ride, is only every two hours. To me this seems a little poor considering how loaded it was every time I took it (I used the route five times across the day), but oh well, I can’t change it by moaning. But where this is relevant to the report is that it meant I had about an hour at Hamilton before the bus came.

Well, Hamilton isn’t the most exciting of places, so I wasn’t dawdling there for an hour thank you very much. The station is the junction for the Hunter lines, and so I took a Hunter DMU a few stops to Hexham. I really must point out for the sake of rather humorous coincidences the irony of that journey – as it meant I had just taken a train from Newcastle to Hexham. Well, I’d say many of us here on the forum have probably done that many times, only most likely in the North East of England! Anyway, I found it amusing. The Hunter DMUs are nothing special, think of a single decker OSCAR – I’ve already described them to you before on Day 7 (I think)’s report. They are, however, better than the Endeavour DMUs which also run Hunter line services (albeit not as many of them) and lack passenger information systems, route signage and modern toilets.



From Hamilton it was onto a bus for an hour and a half, which was rather tedious although the seats were comfortable, it went via Newcastle Airport and the first place in Port Stephen it served was Anna Bay, where I decided to bail as this is the home of the famous Port Stephen sand dunes.

Oh, those sand dunes! How knuckle-bitingly irritating that no matter how hard I tried, the sheer vastness and impressiveness of these exceptionally tall, seemingly endless mountains of pure hot, soft sand. The photos really don’t do them justice. They’re absolutely incredible; I’ve never seen anything like it. I had a good climb of them and a good roam, and even a slide down the side of one to the bottom (probably not the most sensible of ideas but thankfully no sand-valanche was caused) The only nasty little shock was the thorny little plants in the sand at the bottom in between where the dunes end and where the beach starts. Small enough to think nothing of them – if you see them at all – but nasty enough to rip my soles to shreds. I put my shoes back on hastily.



Oh, and look at these giant footprints! What on earth could have made those? You can see with my foot looking tiny by comparison below that they weren’t human for sure:



It was ludicrously hot by now, so I decided it might actually be a good idea to buy some sun block from the little café on the Anna Bay beach – they had it displayed in the window – and while I was there I partook in a little light refreshment to cool me down, a la mint, fruit, crushed ice, etc. before I headed to the bus stop to get to the main part of Port Stephen.

The next part of Port Stephen where I alighted was Shoal Bay, just next to the famous Nelson Bay (which I wandered to and preferred Shoal) and whoa: what a ridiculously incredible beach. It was easily the nicest beach Australia had shown me so far, and that is saying something what with how nice so many of them have been here (I have high hopes for Queensland’s) – the water colour really struck me – how turquoise it was, even emerald greeny looking in some parts, and how absurdly clear it was near to the shore as well. The two mountains lurking in the background were oddly reminiscent of The Pitons of St Lucia, and it really did make me feel as though I was back on that lovely Caribbean island. Although, points to Australia, as the Caribbean sea was never that clear on the St Lucian beaches as the sea was here in this part of New South Wales. Some pics are more blurry than others because they’re screenshots from videos I took using the poorer Instagram story camera.




Two Red Bulls later, I decided it would be an outright crime not to climb the taller of the two mountains and get some winning shots with the new phone’s decent camera, and so I set off trying to find how to climb Mount Tomarree. I got a bit lost, so I asked the first person I saw for directions. She said she was going that way, so she’d walk me to the bottom of the path that leads up the mountain, and recognised from my accent that I live in the UK. She’d visited three times as her friend lives there. Well, the interaction that followed next completely astounded me.

“Where abouts in the UK do you live?”
“When I’m not at Uni, I live in Surrey, if you’ve heard of it?” (No that is NOT patronising, you would be SHOCKED at the amount of Welsh people at uni who don’t have a clue, let alone locals all the way down here)
“Oh, I know Surrey very well, My friend lives there – in a town called Farnham.”
“Sorry, WHAT?”

That’s been my home town for well over ten years now.

Anyway, the smallness of the world then became even more weirdly apparent, as the three ladies ascending the mountain up the hot, sweltering track at the same time as me ended up chatting to me. I can’t remember how, one of us must have made a friendly comment about hoping there were no snakes about or something, and I learned that they were exchanges from Europe too, but at the University of Newcastle. One was from Paris, one was from Madrid, and the other from Portsmouth on exchange from University of Liverpool. Well, I said I knew Portsmouth, of course – it’s the home of my beloved Gunwharf Quays – and she asked where I lived and immediately said her best friend from uni was from there. When she told me his name, I was flabbergasted for the second time that evening. No word of a lie, I used to work with him. We were colleagues. I’d make the food, he’d run the food to the customers. What a strange day.

Anyway, back to the mountain, and the view has to have been the most breathtaking I’ve ever seen. The pictures don’t do justice, but here you go.





Following this, I returned to the bus once more and had a choice before the last bus back to Newcastle in just under two hours. I could visit Fingal Bay, one of Port Stephen’s famous holiday destinations, where holidaymakers often swim with dolphins, or I could chance visiting the Nelson Bay Golf Course, a well-known spot for seeing wild kangaroos - but if none materialised I’d have thrown away my chance to visit Fingal for nothing.

Oh well, a beach is a beach! I was in the Hunter Valley (or near enough, anyway), and that’s blessed with many wild kangas, which were what I’d been desperate to see for so long, and they’re hard to see in and around Sydney what with it being so urban and built-up. Yes, I can see them in a zoo, but what on earth is exciting about that? I can see a lion in a zoo at home, it’s nothing to seeing the real animal in the wild. So the golf course it was, and it was absolutely teeming with wild birds. Cockatoos, lorikeets and even several kookaburras. Here, I made some friends – a lovely local girl who took great pleasure in naming all of the wildlife for us, and a lovely girl from Germany who had come to visit for several months like myself, and we went looking for kangaroos together.

“I’ve never been here and not seen some,” she declared, confidently, and then pointed – a giant lizard about the size of two adult human legs pinned together (what a weird thing to choose to compare to, thinking about it) was padding across the bunker and scampered up a tree. “That’s a Goanna,” she explained.



We seemed to have been very unlucky, as despite seeing countless wonderful birds, lizards and rabbits (OK, rabbits aren’t very exotic, but they’re cute) we weren’t having much luck with spotting a kangaroo. Until we were about to give up, and a large and small kangaroo bounded into the bunker together!

The other two got very close but I was nervous of being kicked if the tall mother kangaroo decided to sit on her tail and flail those fearsome looking legs of hers at me! I was so, so overwhelmingly happy to finally see roos in the wild (believe me, I’d tried looking for them so hard, even travelling 2 hours out to beyond Macarthur in vain) and seeing them jump was incredible.



After exchanging socials and saying goodbye to my newly-acquainted fellow kangaroo hunters, I picked up some delightful vegetarian samosas (and some, by contrast, disappointing prawn things and onion bhajis) and snoozed on the bus back to Newcastle. It was then on to the 10pm train to Central – by now, the last of the three daily Sydney-bound XPT/Xplorers had long gone five or so hours ago – and it was a weekend, so I had an OSCAR, which stopped EVERYWHERE and didn’t terminate until 1:30am.

Nah, it wasn’t that bad you know, I got comfy lying across the three seats at a bay of six while reading my book in the quiet carriage. Oh, and I ate these bizarre fruits I’ve never seen before - kiwiberries. They look like gooseberries on the outside, but on the inside they look like a kiwi and taste just like one too. I like them to be honest. The last train to Newtown had long gone, but trains to Erskineville run until a fair bit later, and I managed to get the last one there for an easy enough fifteen minute walk home.

It was a great day, really was. At the time, I’d have said it was my best day in Australia so far. The feeling of being at the top of Mount Tomarree, and the emotional sight of wild kangaroos metres from my face were two sensations I shall never forget.

I swear-wording-LOVE Australia, and I’m so glad to be here.

Next report will see me go outside of New South Wales for the first time since arriving! I’m sure you don’t want to miss that, so make sure you’re back I’ve also had an incredible day today (March 11) in the Blue Mountains, so I really hope you’re here to hear about that.

I have a LOT of photos from the past week.
Buh-bye :P

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Day 32: XPT to paradise Port Stephens: Sand Dunes, up Tomarree Mountain and Wild Kangaroos

Part One: The XPT

This is Part Two. Part One is above and contains the story of getting to Northern NSW by XPT.

Just some final photos attached here of things mentioned in the report that I didn’t have room to attach as well as the other two sets of 9 images.

Some incredibly beautiful scenes there! I don't envy your time anywhere near the snakes, just the thought of being near one is enough to make me shiver!

That hike sounded amazing otherwise, and all you need is practice and patience at perfecting the art of endurance walking However, given your food intake habits (mine are terrible too, so I sympathise hugely and totally understand the dislike of being lectured about changing them etc) I'm not wholly surprised your legs get tired easily. Combined with poor sleep as well, and what would appear to be a fantastic metabolic rate, long walks are perhaps off the agenda for now. Probably a good thing if it means allowing time for studying!

The walk was actually really fulfilling, while difficult due to the extreme heat I enjoyed it and saw some lovely views. I am trying my best with reducing Red Bull intake. Yes, I do have a fantastic metabolic rate and it’s a curse as I can’t put on weight so my gym gains are minimal.

 

[railfan99]

The excellent photo of a Rainbow Lorikeet has the bird finding nectar from a bottlebrush tree, an Australian native of which there are many cultivars (Callistemon sp.) I have three in my back garden, and one at the front. That particular one looks like a 'Little John' callistemon, the only one to get regularly 'attacked' by caterpillars. Tedious to remove them from each branch, but if not, they eat many leaves.

Surprising when you did a switch trip to Hexham, you didn't mention coal trains. There are four tracks between just out of Broadmeadow and Maitland: two of these are the 'coal lines' that play host to the most number of coal trains worldwide, as Newcastle NSW is the world's largest coal port. And what a great job both do, supplying wonderful thermal coal to South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, India, Philippines, Indonesia and now increasingly Europe, given the situation in the Ukraine. Shipments have also resumed to mainland communist China after ceasing due to the CCP having its usual hissy fit.

As a minor point, in Oz we never call areas 'woodland': '(the) bush', 'bushland' or sometimes forest' is used. I appreciate though you aren't writing for what you call an Antipodean audience.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

The excellent photo of a Rainbow Lorikeet has the bird finding nectar from a bottlebrush tree, an Australian native of which there are many cultivars (Callistemon sp.) I have three in my back garden, and one at the front. That particular one looks like a 'Little John' callistemon, the only one to get regularly 'attacked' by caterpillars. Tedious to remove them from each branch, but if not, they eat many leaves.

Surprising when you did a switch trip to Hexham, you didn't mention coal trains. There are four tracks between just out of Broadmeadow and Maitland: two of these are the 'coal lines' that play host to the most number of coal trains worldwide, as Newcastle NSW is the world's largest coal port. And what a great job both do, supplying wonderful thermal coal to South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, India, Philippines, Indonesia and now increasingly Europe, given the situation in the Ukraine. Shipments have also resumed to mainland communist China after ceasing due to the CCP having its usual hissy fit.

As a minor point, in Oz we never call areas 'woodland': '(the) bush', 'bushland' or sometimes forest' is used. I appreciate though you aren't writing for what you call an Antipodean audience.

You’re so critical that I now double check my reports for any errors for fear that you’ll spot them As always interesting information though, and I did notice the four tracks actually but they slipped my mind when writing, and I was conscious of how long the report already was Thank you for the information about the birds, they are absolutely lovely and it is fascinating to know what the tree was.

 

[43096]

Surprising when you did a switch trip to Hexham, you didn't mention coal trains. There are four tracks between just out of Broadmeadow and Maitland: two of these are the 'coal lines' that play host to the most number of coal trains worldwide, as Newcastle NSW is the world's largest coal port. And what a great job both do, supplying wonderful thermal coal to South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, India, Philippines, Indonesia and now increasingly Europe, given the situation in the Ukraine. Shipments have also resumed to mainland communist China after ceasing due to the CCP having its usual hissy fit.

The coal trains - taking coals to Newcastle(!) - are an impressive operation. Got a few photos when I was there in 2017.

This one of a pair of Aurizon C44acHi locos gives a good idea of how big the coal hoppers are.

 

[87electric]

You’re so critical that I now double check my reports for any errors for fear that you’ll spot them As always interesting information though, and I did notice the four tracks actually but they slipped my mind when writing, and I was conscious of how long the report already was Thank you for the information about the birds, they are absolutely lovely and it is fascinating to know what the tree was.

Sometimes I wonder whose thread this is.

 

[XAM2175]

it was a rush in the dark and rain to Erskineville to begin a reasonably long journey to Port Stephen, a destination on the East Coast of the state that I’d been looking forward to visiting.

As opposed to the state's west coast?

However, I didn’t actually find it that comfortable. The seats aren’t massively comfortable to me, they don’t recline obviously, and the fold over table (a la emergency exit or bulkhead row on aircraft) was broken, not good when I wanted to do any work. I lay across the three seats and had a bit of a snooze for the twenty minute journey to Strathfield, then I decided it really wasn’t anywhere near as comfortable as it looked and returned to the saloon. I’m sorry @XAM2175 I know you like them and to be honest i think they have a fantastic private atmosphere but the seat is not comfy to me. That said, if I go Brisbane by XPT perhaps I’ll get one anyway just for the privacy.

Ah, see, I don't like to recline and find the seats quite fine otherwise - though the table design is really rather poor, I'll grant that freely. The real value to me is the privacy, and the fact that they work for both night and day occupation. You book them as a sleeper for an overnight run, but you have normal seats until you're ready to sleep, then you have the bed put out (and I'd note that, unlike with Caledonian, the second bunk stays packed away unless it's needed), and then when you wake up you can stow the bed yourself and have normal seats again that you can sit in while enjoying the view from the enormous windows on both sides.

I think I've mentioned before that the first time I travelled in one was an overnight Sydney to Melbourne, in late summer with a full moon. Leaving Sydney just after sunset, I was able to sit there in the darkness with a number of glasses of wine and enjoy the moonlight - and on both sides too, since they turn off all the corridor lighting other than the berth number signs at the tops of the room doors and the aircraft-style aisle illuminators at ankle height. Then, when I woke up in the morning, it was already dawn and I could enjoy the last 90-odd minutes into Melbourne watching the mist burn off as the sun rose.

Try that here on what should be a lovely run into Fort William and you're left having to perch on the side of your bed trying to peer through a tiny porthole that, if you're really lucky, might be half-covered in Contravision anyway.

Oh, and the XPT cabins even have little wardrobes, too.

Annoyingly, the Brisbane route gets shafted by a combination of its distance and the suburban service requirements in both Sydney and Brisbane - it arrives in Brisbane as an overnight service at stupid o'clock in the morning, and then turns back for Sydney before morning peak in Brisbane. The scenery as you go through the Border Ranges and Northern Rivers districts before descending into Casino is very lovely though, and is worth arranging a southbound trip for. I even used to live beside the line a wee bit north of Kyogle when I was very young.

I personally believe if I’m not offered to choose my own seat, I should be allowed to move to a more-preferable one once on-board if vacant

I will confess that I cheated on this point; I had a mate who worked in the Countrylink booking office in Melbourne so I'd pop in whenever I wanted to make a booking and get a free run at the seat reservations.

“That’s a Goanna,”

If you want to be really precise it's a lace monitor (or tree goanna, though personally I never heard that used), which interestingly is a close relative of the Komodo dragon.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

As opposed to the state's west coast?


Ah, see, I don't like to recline and find the seats quite fine otherwise - though the table design is really rather poor, I'll grant that freely. The real value to me is the privacy, and the fact that they work for both night and day occupation. You book them as a sleeper for an overnight run, but you have normal seats until you're ready to sleep, then you have the bed put out (and I'd note that, unlike with Caledonian, the second bunk stays packed away unless it's needed), and then when you wake up you can stow the bed yourself and have normal seats again that you can sit in while enjoying the view from the enormous windows on both sides.

I think I've mentioned before that the first time I travelled in one was an overnight Sydney to Melbourne, in late summer with a full moon. Leaving Sydney just after sunset, I was able to sit there in the darkness with a number of glasses of wine and enjoy the moonlight - and on both sides too, since they turn off all the corridor lighting other than the berth number signs at the tops of the room doors and the aircraft-style aisle illuminators at ankle height. Then, when I woke up in the morning, it was already dawn and I could enjoy the last 90-odd minutes into Melbourne watching the mist burn off as the sun rose.

Try that here on what should be a lovely run into Fort William and you're left having to perch on the side of your bed trying to peer through a tiny porthole that, if you're really lucky, might be half-covered in Contravision anyway.

Oh, and the XPT cabins even have little wardrobes, too.

Annoyingly, the Brisbane route gets shafted by a combination of its distance and the suburban service requirements in both Sydney and Brisbane - it arrives in Brisbane as an overnight service at stupid o'clock in the morning, and then turns back for Sydney before morning peak in Brisbane. The scenery as you go through the Border Ranges and Northern Rivers districts before descending into Casino is very lovely though, and is worth arranging a southbound trip for. I even used to live beside the line a wee bit north of Kyogle when I was very young.

I will confess that I cheated on this point; I had a mate who worked in the Countrylink booking office in Melbourne so I'd pop in whenever I wanted to make a booking and get a free run at the seat reservations.

If you want to be really precise it's a lace monitor (or tree goanna, though personally I never heard that used), which interestingly is a close relative of the Komodo dragon.

As it was much cheaper, my flight home is from Melbourne rather than Sydney - which is nice as I will certainly enjoy being back there again, albeit it will be in very sad circumstances a la leaving Australia - and I really am rather tempted to splash out the $250-ish on the sleeper as I've never done a sleeper berth even in the UK or Europe, but I'm heavily put off by the thought of having a stranger roommate. That really freaks me out. Something like sharing a room with a stranger is far too intimate and scary for me, and that's also a reason why I'll never do a hostel. I struggle to sleep if I can hear heavy breathing or snoring also, unless I know it's someone like my other half.

What also concerns me about booking the saloon is the reluctance of staff for you to move to a nicer seat if you're allocated an aisle seat or in an otherwise unfortunate location, so it's an absolute lottery, perhaps fine for a couple of hours but too bad for such a long journey. I think Virgin Australia may get my business once again for this trip - or Jetstar, who are considerably cheaper and with whom I actually had a very nice pair of flights this week.

I am looking at XPT-ing to Brisbane. No promises, mind, and if Jetstar or V.A. give me a price simply too good to deny then I can't say I won't take them up on the offer.

Very nice detailed response there, always enjoyable to read such chunky comments

 

[XAM2175]

As it was much cheaper, my flight home is from Melbourne rather than Sydney - which is nice as I will certainly enjoy being back there again, albeit it will be in very sad circumstances a la leaving Australia - and I really am rather tempted to splash out the $250-ish on the sleeper as I've never done a sleeper berth even in the UK or Europe, but I'm heavily put off by the thought of having a stranger roommate. That really freaks me out. Something like sharing a room with a stranger is far too intimate and scary for me, and that's also a reason why I'll never do a hostel. I struggle to sleep if I can hear heavy breathing or snoring also, unless I know it's someone like my other half.

Oh, I feel absolutely the same way about that. Thankfully, you can book for sole occupancy by paying a second berth supplement - or at least you used to, but I don't see why that would have changed. You just need to book over the phone or in person to do it.

Personally I would recommend doing that rather than flying for the experience alone, because when the XPTs are gone that will be end of sleepers between Melbourne and Sydney and, with the exception of one or two clinging on in north Queensland, the end of non-railcruise sleepers in Australia full-stop. The Sydney-Melbourne run is also a very comfortable sector length for a sleeper, at a bit over 11 hours, so you leave and arrive at sensible times and you've opportunity for a solid kip in the middle. They may even still offer the checked-luggage service!

Of course, if you're watching your pennies, then yeah, just fly. No contest on that one.

I think Virgin Australia may get my business once again for this trip - or Jetstar, who are considerably cheaper and with whom I actually had a very nice pair of flights this week.

I usually went with Qantas a first choice, as Virgin were pretty hit-and-miss at the time. I don't know how things have changed since Covid, though.

I am looking at XPT-ing to Brisbane. No promises, mind, and if Jetstar or V.A. give me a price simply too good to deny then I can't say I won't take them up on the offer.

My suggestion with this would be to only consider it for the southbound leg, because the northbound timetable - I kid you not - is depart Sydney 14:41, arrive Brisbane 03:53. The southbound is a more manageable depart 04:55, arrive 20:12, which means you'll cover the better scenery in daylight. You may also considered getting the train only as far as somewhere like Coffs Harbour and flying the rest of the way to Sydney.