February 11, 2012

The Overland train

The Overland train, Adelaide to Melbourne

I took The Overland train from Adelaide to Melbourne on Monday with my seven-year-old son James. I wanted a slow journey to connect with James and wean him off computer games for entertainment. The train was perfect. It’s a comfortable 828km trip, departing 7.40am from the Adelaide Parklands station just 1km from our home in Mile End. We had to arrive an hour beforehand to collect pre-paid tickets and check-in our baggage. It was immediately apparent that most of our fellow passengers were elderly, with a smattering of backpackers.

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Queen’s Birthday weekend

A long weekend is coming up to belatedly celebrate the Queen’s Birthday. I’m working on Monday, unfortunately, but we’re planning to visit Gumeracha and drive through the Adelaide Hills on Sunday.

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The Anzac Day holiday

Anzac Day

I don’t get why there is a public holiday on Monday in lieu of Anzac Day falling on a Sunday. It actually seems contrary to the “Anzac spirit”, which wartime historian Charles Bean defined as: “Reckless valor in a good cause, enterprise, resourcefulness, fidelity, comradeship and endurance that will never own defeat.” Although, I suppose [...]

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Alpine Shire holiday

Bright, Victoria

We returned to Mount Gambier today after a lovely two-week holiday in the Alpine Shire region of North East Victoria, where we used to live. The video shows the kids jumping into the Ovens River at Porepunkah. We stayed in a four-bedroom holiday house on the Buffalo Creek Road, south of Myrtleford. It was a [...]

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Mount Buffalo

Visited Mount Buffalo yesterday. Here’s a picture from The Gorge.

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