An early morning with the train pulling out of Werris Creek at about 5:30am. After an early shower and first breakfast sitting we spent a long time today travelling on goods lines west to Dubbo then back on the main line south to Orange.
As the drought had broken this year the scenery was wonderful with wheat almost ready to harvest, beautiful Callitris woodlands and all sorts of other fields of lush green and bushlands of flowers.
At Binnaway we actually swapped directions so that the train seemed to be going backwards as our carriage was driving in the opposite direction. All the way along we have had trainspotters along the lines with all sorts of camera gear. One was Darryl in the lovely Ansett Bus, other consistent ones have been the little blue P-plater car and another red sedan car. For some reason we lost the red car today.
By Dubbo the storms that had been around us all day really hit with lightning, thunder, rain, wind, and hail. Luckily we did not have to get out at all.
During the morning I had the opportunity to chat with Simon and Danielle who are the force behind this whole train. An amazing story of co-operation between various people and groups who own parts of trains and have keen interests in actually operating them and keeping passengers happy, busy and calm.
The reason for the early start today was so that we could be on the right siding to allow the XPT to come through on its way to Sydney.
Once we arrived in Orange we were sent in various directions for activities of our choice. One who had no choice was Bruce who had fallen earlier in the day and needed to be taken to the hospital. I chose to go to the Alpaca Mill - Adagio Alpaca - where we were shown the whole process of creating thread from Alpaca fleece.
We were driven too and from the mill in the Ansett Bus then waited around Orang station watching our train in the siding having maintenance checks.
Once back on the train it was straight in to a later dinner when we were entertained by the arrival of the fire brigade and contemplating what was wrong. We still don't know but it was not actually too much of an emergency as no-one seemed to be running anywhere. Then back to our cabins to settle in for the night and listen to the hilarity about shower issues and narrow, winding corridors.
No comments:
Post a Comment