BACK OFF THE RAILS

Well I'm back off the rails, so to speak, and back to feeling like 
I don't have the time to write phlog posts on weekdays. Hence I'm a 
day late with summing up my experiences.

The rest and relaxation aspect of holidays certainly isn't 
something that I've acheived with this. Even though my aim was to 
have an easier day on Sunday just sitting on the train, I was still 
hopelessly tired and unfocused the day after. But if I wanted to 
'recharge' I've always found any sort of travel to be 
counterproductive anyway. The best approach is to sit around the 
house watching movies and messing about on computers, after which 
I'm not only rested but impatient to actually do something 
productive as well. I don't really see where people come from with 
the idea of going on a holiday to relax.

But as an interesting diversion and particularly as an adventure, 
it was quite good. Using the trains definately cut back on the 
cost, albeit at the expense of long travel times (over five hours 
for the 'direct' services home, not including the 1.5hr between 
services at Melbourne). At least that fifty minute late first train 
was the only major delay. The train back along the same line was 
also the only other one significantly (~15min) late, so I guess 
they're just slack around here. Although I only got my reserved 
window seat twice, and once that was becuse it was night, it was 
nice to be able to look at the scenery rather than the road. 
Probably counteracted by the annoyances of other people and the 
broken reserved seating system (the last train had _two_ carriages 
marked "C", of which I picked the wrong one!), but people-watching 
is a novelty for me as well up to a certain point: Endless 
multi-hour phone calls (notwithstanding coverage drop-outs), 
sleeping in public, reading/watching things without getting motion 
sickness - so many things I wouldn't/couldn't do! Again I'm not 
sure whether it would be better or worse travelling with a partner 
either, although there were a couple of pretty women I wouldn't 
have minded joining (likely personality clashes aside).

Walking from Kangaroo Flat to Bendigo stations was harder than I 
thought, not least due to the inaccuracy of walking track routes 
marked on free maps online (I should have learnt to be more 
skeptical of those by now really, I usually rely pimarily on my 
Spatial Vision map books, but I don't have them for that part of 
the state). But it was probably nicer walking through the bush than 
around the city, and a rare chance to do so from a train in rural 
Victoria without needing to backtrack down the same route in order 
to get back to the same station.

Kerang was interesting, especially for me the emptyness at night, 
but rather limited in activities, and I was there at the wrong time 
to see their large museum which only opens on Sunday, although 
there are a few interesting bits of machinery to look at outside. 
The Lake Boga flying boat museum was great, and I spotted a lot of 
old WWII aircraft instrumentation in their displays to match things 
in my own collection. Much improved since I saw it as a child when 
it was just the restored flying boat itself propped up outside by 
the lake. Of course I did come very close to getting stranded by 
taking the time to look through it, so I think I'll ease up the 
ambition of my itinerary for future trips.

Even though it arguably had less to see on paper than anywhere 
else, I think I enjoyed Pyramid Hill the most. It's small enough 
that it can be walked around completely and offers lots of 
interesting buildings and landscapes to see (and photograph) when 
you do. Again the museum there was closed, but the hill itself is 
always there to see, with a walking track running to it from the 
edge of town. Although the first night in the hotel was rather 
disrupted by the music, and the second by needing to get up with 
plenty of time for the morning train, I really liked my stay there 
too. Not least because I finally got my long sought-after bath, 
which I took full advantage of on the second morning when there 
were no other upstairs guests, having got up with an hour to spare 
specifically for soaking. I also really liked the novelty of 
staying in an upstairs room, with a view out to the quiet street 
and the train line, and it didn't turn out all that cold without a 
heater either (there was an old bar heater on the wall of the 
bathroom which I took advantage of for my bath).

Total cost including travel, accommodation, and meals came to about 
$356. For three nights, that makes $119/night, helped a lot by the 
hotel costing about half the motel's nightly rate. So for visiting 
six towns/cities (including Kangaroo Flat and my hour wandering 
around Melboure between trains), that's pretty good. It's also much 
cheaper than going to Bairnsdale for two nights would have been if 
the weather and train services had worked out, because the 
accommodation is more expensive there. I probably wouldn't stretch 
things quite so far with hopping between services again though, 
especially with the need for reservations (although more often than 
not nobody checks the tickets anyway, the length of items on mine 
gave them quite a surprise if they did!).

So in spite of my nerves before departure on the first day, which 
were remarkably relieved just by finally getting on the first 
train, I think it was a worthwhile exercise. I won't do it again 
for quite a while, and indeed my Jag parts arrived from the UK 
yesterday so hopefully I'll have a machine to take me on my usual 
day trips again soon, but I would consider doing it again to one of 
the other destinations sometime. When of course enough train 
services actually manage to work at once again (my taste of bus 
travel definately didn't convert me to that option).

Oh and the Eee PC 701 worked great, the first time I've really used 
it. Well worth the significant work I put into fixing plus setting 
it up fully back when I first planned these trips in the middle of 
the year. For travel by car I'd just take a full-size laptop, but 
on the train it's a perfect fit for light weight and small size 
while still being a sensible design unlike smartphones or tablets. 
I couldn't actually use it on the train for fear of motion sickness 
(and not wanting to join the fight for the one power outlet per 
train carriage, not to meantion the search for a working power 
point in train stations - quite fun to watch though), but it was 
great to have in my room, especially the second room without a TV 
(actually in the first room I didn't get to spend enough time there 
to watch things anyway).

 - The Free Thinker