Sweet Wayfaring

Here's one last shot of the damp misty countryside on the way home and the end of a very enjoyable trip. I dont think we'll be waiting 16 years before our next train ride. For the next week I'll be walking in the Everglades gardens over at the Blue Mountains Journal before coming back here for another short drive"out west".

Soon we were gliding through the green fields again. As the day began to dim a storm began to brew. It was going to be much cooler by the time we got home. The reflections in the glass were a real pest for photography, hence the lack of shots from on the train despite lots of lovely scenery.

It was nearly time to catch the train back home. We saw this sign on the way to the station -- a reminder to those who would be seeing us rush by at a level crossing.

Sorry they are blurry because I photographed them from a great distance but some were so special I had to show you. Going clockwise: 1. There were lots of little birds in the rushes but few would come out far enough for a good shot 2. The swan and her cygnets hurtled down the river on a swift current, I barely caught the image despite running along the bank. In Australia our swans are black, the cygnets will change colour as they grow older. 3. And there were all sorts of parrots high in the trees including in the green ones I have shown you before. 4. The little kingfisher was a tiny bright spot by the water which I grabbed in the hope that the camera would pick up detail I could not see. When I got tired of chasing elusive birds I scanned the ground looking for more static objects. I hope this tiny shell was from a fledgling bird now flying free.

With a few more hours to kill before catching the train home we went down to the river which runs near the shopping centre. It was a lovely spot to sit, contemplate and watch and listen to the birds. I'll show you some of the birds tomorrow.

It was not just the stalls and stall holders who interested me. How are these for local characters?

It was the weekend for the farmers market, so we wandered around looking at the local produce for sale.

The Western Plains Zoo and Old Dubbo Gaol are the big tourist attractions around Dubbo but we had visited the zoo only last year and seen the gaol before so settled for wandering around the town instead. The photo of the old Bentley is for no other reason than I like it. It was parked in the main street.

We stayed at the very pleasant Westbury Guest House. The city was hot and bathed in dust from the massive dust cloud that had reached as far as Sydney so it was pleasant to sit on the verandah and enjoy a cool drink while some refeshing rainfall fell, there was even some light hail.

Dubbo is an inland city with a population of around 40,000. Like most cities, it is a mix of old and new. There seems to be a lot of government offices to serve communities in the far west. This heritage building is one of those government offices. We passed it on our way to the hotel, trundling our bag behind us. The street trees were in flower ... I've not seen this tree before ... very pretty.

Dubbo In the early afternoon the train glided into our destination. It was school holidays so little ones were joyously meeting up with grandparents, anticipating a week of being thoroughly spoilt.

Macquarie River, Wellington I was so interested and excited throughout this trip, looking at places we have visited before from a different vantage point. We have camped by the Macquarie River at Wellington a couple of times so I keenly awaited the railway bridge that I have photographed from the camping ground. My camera was on automatic focus so it went quite mad trying to focus on something as we whizzed past the iron railings.

Orange At the bigger towns I indulged my new pastime of capturing the essence of the people around me as clusters of people joined and left the train. We were to discover when we got off the train a few hours later that a chilly mountain morning had given way to a very warm day. I guess this lady soon discarded those elegant woollens and put on her sun hat instead.

Coming into Bathurst. It's not all green scenes along the track. Blayney . The base for Australia's largest inland container terminal.

Dubbo is west of the Blue Mountains so we were travelling through country I have shown on other Wayfaring trips. I found it difficult to get good shots from a moving train so settled down to just enjoying the view. The pasture land was extremely green from recent rain and new spring growth.

What are they doing casually walking along the track when the train is due any minute? "You going to Dubbo?" they asked. "The train is running 10 minutes late." More impatient waiting ... then here it comes gliding in.

While we were waiting impatiently for the train at Katoomba station, I snapped away. After all I needed a record of this trip ... we'd been thinking about it for 16 years! This building doesn't seem to have any purpose beyond looking antiquated. And I've never spent any time looking at the mural before ... it seems to have a little bit of everything Blue Mountains captured.