Twenty-seven hours from the Amtrak Station in Solana Beach, California to the main square of Shepparton, Victoria, Australia went remarkably smoothly, perhaps because I slept most of the way and spent the rest of it reading Tim Winton's wonderful novel Cloudstreet. Many passengers got off at Sydney so I was able to slip into a window seat for Sydney-Melbourne. Asutralia's vast - and even this most populated stretch of Australia seemed pretty open! That it was Australia I was seeing kicked in as I noticed a stream looping and twisting extravagantly, leaving the occasional "billabong" (the water in an abandoned loop of river). And I noticed another thing, as some bright greens and yellows flashed out: it's Spring here!
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Arrived!
Twenty-seven hours from the Amtrak Station in Solana Beach, California to the main square of Shepparton, Victoria, Australia went remarkably smoothly, perhaps because I slept most of the way and spent the rest of it reading Tim Winton's wonderful novel Cloudstreet. Many passengers got off at Sydney so I was able to slip into a window seat for Sydney-Melbourne. Asutralia's vast - and even this most populated stretch of Australia seemed pretty open! That it was Australia I was seeing kicked in as I noticed a stream looping and twisting extravagantly, leaving the occasional "billabong" (the water in an abandoned loop of river). And I noticed another thing, as some bright greens and yellows flashed out: it's Spring here!
