Thursday, July 7, 2011

The Rainbow Train......

It’s a 12 hour train ride from Sydney to Melbourne. I could have taken the overnighter, but I didn’t want to miss seeing the Australian countryside. The pastures, the pastures with cows, the pastures with horses, the pastures with sheep…..more pastures, more pastures with cows, more pastures with horses, more pastures with sheep……. And more pastures, and more pastures with.......; you get the picture. It was like driving to Iowa, only longer. Of course I’m exaggerating, there were occasional trees, Australian bush, rolling hills, and mountains in the distance, but for the most part it was endless miles of open rangeland, punctuated by towns with names that sound like they belong in the old Batman television series, when there was a fight, and the little sound balloons would appear; Cootamundra, Yarrawonga, Wagga Wagga.


It started to rain on and off which brought a pleasant surprise……a rainbow.  I thought that was pretty cool. A little while later I saw another one, then another one. After about the 6th one I thought “Wow that was a lot of rainbows”, but there were more to come; even a double rainbow at one point. I must have seen at least a dozen, if not more, different rainbows during the ride. Good thing I took the day train, it would have been too dark to see them if I had been travelling at night.




The train was running a little late, so I had to call ahead to the motel because reception closed at 8:00pm and I knew I wouldn’t arrive until after that time. They said it was no problem, gave me the access code to the front door, and left my key in an envelope on the floor outside my room. The room does have a microwave, refrigerator and toaster; and they do provide breakfast each day…..two pieces of bread with an individual tab of butter, jam, and vegemite. Vegimite is a brown, paste-like substance made of concentrated yeast extract that you can spread on your toast. Unfortunately my palate is not sophisticated enough to appreciate its’ smell or taste. 

Live like you mean it.

norb

1 comment:

  1. Yeah, I don't like Vegimite either. Must be an acquired taste. Add Marmite to that as well.

    ReplyDelete