With one final day with the car I went back to Victor Harbour as last time I was there I didn't have much time because I was en route to the funny farm. Cuthman took me down there and I walked over the pier to Granite Island, there's a splendid walk around the island and at one corner are some rocks with the same formation as the Remarkable Rocks on Kangaroo Island, but here you don't have to run the gauntlet of kangaroos dashing across the road, the expensive ferry crossing and not much else to do. My advice would be skip (ha ha) Kangaroo island and spend a day at Victor Harbour instead.
I returned the car and had just enough time to look in a few galleries and get the tram back to my airbnb south of the city.
North of the city and south of the city are two different places. The northern suburbs, not to be confused with 'North Adelaide' which is lovely, but past that into uninspiring suburban sprawl where people drive like idiots on the main roads, you know someone's doing to do something stupid if they are diving a Holden (Vauxhaul) commodore or Ford Falcon ute. Cuthman refused to be flustered by them, I set the cruise control to the speed limit. But South Adelaide is where people who like nice things live, there's the tram, it goes to the beach, separate cycle lanes, sensible driving, noticeably fewer commodores and utes.
After another lovely airbnb experience my host took me to the train station the next morning which was very kind considering it was 6.30am! The Overlander is part of the Great Southern Rail group of trains but is no where near as grand, I was in Red class. That's ok, the seats were roomy and I had a nice person to sit next to, it's a day service only arriving 6:30pm in Melbourne.
Most of the scenery was flat and the trains maximum speed was 85kph. The sky got greyer and greyer as we neared Melbourne and I kept falling asleep, at which point my neighbour wanted to talk a lot, I was on the brink of slumberland, and whenever there was a gap in transmition I would nod off again and then she would say something else and I would say 'mmm..' to show I was listening albeit it with my eyes shut. She mentioned a friend of hers runs an airbnb but doesn't enjoy it because she wants her privacy and doesn't let guests use the kitchen or cook anything. It sounds like her friends has a traditional BnB but is advertising on airbnb, which is actually a different market. Most guests on airbnb do it because they want to feel at home, can't use the kitchen? don't want to speak to your guests? Don't advertise on airbnb!!! I said her friend had totally missed the point of airbnb which was a shame.
Soon I will arrive in Melbourne and I'll be staying with Josie's Dad -John who I met when we walked the Milford Track some years ago. After a day on the train I'm looking forward to stretching my legs. The train stopped about 2km from the station for 20 minutes at least for no reason. At the terminal I had to get a ticket to Mentone but there were no signs for tickets or information only coffee and coca cola and exit, who designs these frigging places? A sign pointed up the escalator for local trains even though they were clearly all on the same ground level, I went upstairs, along the upper concourse and found the info booth, bought a ticket, went back downstairs and eventually a train on the correct line came and I could leave the station.
Australian train summary: slow. stops for long time without explanation, scenery gets tedious after several hours.
John was waiting at the station, at home there was spag bol, wine and ice cream and converstation. All things good. Time for slumberland...
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