All aboard The Overland

After a few more days with Mum, it was up before the crack of dawn to catch the Overlander.  I had booked myself  into Premium because, for not very much extra, breakfast and lunch was included.  The Premium carriage was spaciously fitted out and not very peopled.  What the other carriages were like I could not say.  After taking this photo of their disappearing forms

I had nothing more to with the plebs in other carriages.  A bonza sheila  in an akubra hat, shirt and jeans jollily took our breakfast orders in a methodical manner.  The delivery of the breakfasts seemed to take until almost lunchtime and was totally random.  My feta and spinach omelette, however was very good as was the coffee when it finally arrived.  It was lovely 'steaming' out of Adelaide in the early morning, holding up workbound traffic at the crossings, with not a care in the world.  Although there was a family who behaved curiously:  the father seemed unable to sit for longer than 10 seconds and disappeared constantly presumably to explore the train.  He kept his teenage children informed of his discoveries via txt and phone calls.  There is something very exciting about train travel.  It always bring to mind for me previous train journeys so there were flashbacks to France and Wales as the Adelaide Hills unfolded in their autumn glory.

I took this photo of the station at Murray Bridge because it was so unprepossessing - but I hadn't seen Horsham Station at that point.

I like Murray Bridge, not just because giant octopuses try to drag the train into the river,

but because it is the Murray River, and I once lived on its junction with the Darling,

and crossing it by car or train is always exciting after the wheat towns of Victoria.

This time, however, we were travelling into the wheat belt of Victoria and I took no more photos, especially not of Horsham Station.
The absolute best thing about Horsham Station was Sandrine waiting for me and driving me, Claudia Schiffer style, in her VW to Warracknabeal.

That night we went to a party to support and farewell a woman who was sacked when she handed in her resignation.  I took no photos 1) because I was non compos mentis by then after such an early (for me) start and 2) because other staff had been told not to attend any event held for her and were a little wary of cameras... (unlike Claudia Shiffer)