The Great Southern, part 2
Day three, state three.
Albury railway station clock tower from the corridor window of the Great Southern outside our compartment. The NSWGR built some beautiful stations, many of which are still standing.
After a bumpy night, the border town of Albury was reached by 6:30am, The train sat for a while, before crossing the Murray River into Victoria. Once over the border we both made use of the shower in our compartment, before heading down to breakfast as we continued south through Wangaratta and Glenrowan. It was a pleasant morning watching the world pass by the window, and the occasional train heading in the opposite direction including a late running Sydney bound XPT. Our first set down stop of the day was at Broadmeadows on Melbourne’s northern outskirts. From here passengers disembarked for several Melbourne sightseeing options, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a walk around the CBD laneways, and the Eureka tower, with others, us included, choosing to remain on to Inverleigh, west of Geelong.
In contrast to the Northeast, the scenery from Broadmeadows to Werribee through Sunshine and Brooklyn is certainly not what anyone would describe as pretty, and many of our travelling companions certainly didn't!
With its fair share of dumped and burnt out cars, and all other manner of rubbish scattered amongst the thistles, it's not a visual highlight, or something to entice visitors to Melbourne. To be fair, we did traverse some of the more industrial parts of the west, and it’s rare for a railway to travel through a leafy green corridor into any city.
Once out of the wastelands, the scenery gave way to the plains between Werribee and Geelong, with the You Yangs dominating the view to the north. Swinging through North Geelong, the train climbed up through Lovelybanks, crossed the 1862 built Moorabool river viaduct, before leaving the Geelong - Ballarat railway at Geringhap, to head west to Inverleigh.
The Great Southern locked away at Inverleigh as we depart on a coach to Clyde Park winery. The remains of the station platform, and station, a standard Victorian Railways portable building on the right.
The Inverleigh siding is primarily used as a works siding, with a considerable pile of ballast, and not much else. The trains are well set up for low level platforms (or in this case nothing at all), with additional steps provided by the crew.
Clyde Park Winery, on the edge of the Moorabool valley.
Tasting some Clyde Park wine amongst the vines with owner Terry explaining the different wines and grape varieties they grow.
From here, coaches transferred us to Clyde Park winery at Bannockburn, which is perched on the edge of the spectacular Moorabool river valley. A wine tasting, including a visit to the vineyard before lunch was a nice way to relax before rejoining the train with the Melbourne day trippers, and heading off towards Ararat, and South Australia. We liked the winery and lunch so much we’ve been back twice since!
Sunset out near Maroona was stunning, with old and new wind power out the window from the train.
Our last dinner on board was lit up by a stunning sunset followed by some live music and a couple of drinks before heading off to bed for an even bumpier night's sleep - Janelle even woke up laughing at one stage as we were treated to a jumping castle ride on the rough track to the SA border where things improved.
Back across the Murray River, and into Adelaide.
I woke up early with the sun just before the crossing of the Murray River at Murray Bridge, which had burst levee banks as the October floodwaters headed to the ocean. No time for a photo unfortunately, but I made up for that later, which I’ll share in another post.
Dozing for a bit, we headed down for breakfast as we travelled through the eastern side of the Adelaide hills, before descending the winding track down into the suburbs and Adelaide Parklands Terminal, formerly known as Keswick for an 08:45 arrival.
Adelaide Parklands terminal, the end of our rail journey.
Platinum passengers had transfers to their accommodation as part of the package, so it wasn't too long until we had ourselves checked in for a few days stay in Adelaide.
Some of our other travelling companions had booked add on tours with Journey Beyond to the Barossa wine region and other destinations, but we had decided to do our own thing until we caught The Overland back to Melbourne the following Sunday morning.
Would we do it again?
The food was great, level of accommodation really good, and the off train experiences super enjoyable.
There were quite a few people we had spoken to who had 'done' other Journey Beyond trains, and others who have travelled on long distance trains overseas.
This was our first trip on a travel experience train. Other long distance overnight trips we have been on are, or were at the time, genuine passenger services, transporting people between destinations.
We had a great time, but aren't sure we're ready for the cruise lifestyle just yet.
This isn't a criticism of the whole experience, just where we're at currently.
However, the Ghan from Darwin to Adelaide looks like a good trip…