train travel | organised castle

Do you remember when there was no online booking of travel or swiping of cards or devices to pay for tickets on the go?

Well, this is a bit of a blast from the past. Our paper tickets for a return trip to Adelaide.

We are off to Adelaide at the end of the month for a few days and although it is simple enough to drive from here to Adelaide in one day we have decided to take a slightly more circuitous route and turn the journey into a bit of an adventure.

The first leg is to catch the train from Castlemaine to Swan Hill. We will arrive around lunchtime so are staying in a cabin at the caravan park which is conveniently located between the railway station and the river. We will have time to have a look around the town and enjoy the river scenery.

The next day we catch a coach to Adelaide and will arrive by 6pm. Our accommodation is conveniently located in the city centre and only a few blocks from the coach terminal.

Our return journey will be the same in reverse.

It will be something a bit different.

We live in Victoria and today we took a trip to New South Wales. The Murray River forms the majority of the border between these states and the southern bank is the actual border so once you are on the river you are technically in New South Wales.

Castlemaine is about 20 minutes drive from home and the railway station there is on the main line from Melbourne to Echuca. When we catch the train it is generally to Melbourne but today we headed about 130km north to Echuca.

About 18 months ago regional travel was made significantly cheaper so with our seniors fares we can travel all day for a mere $5.30. However, this week is Seniors Week and there is free travel anywhere in the state for seniors. We noticed that we we not the only ones taking a day trip to Echuca.

It is about 1.5km walk from the station to the old river port historical precinct. It was a gloriously sunny day and we stopped along the way to admire some of the old buildings and beautiful gardens. Many buildings have plaques which provide great information about the history and previous uses of the buildings.

lunch in one of the many cafes we headed down to the wharf for a cruise of a paddlesteamer. The river seems so benign but we know that this is not always the case. In fact, almost exactly 2 years Echuca endured on of the worst floods on record with the river peaking about 7 metres higher than the level it is at today.

One several paddlesteamers which offer short cruises from the Echuca wharf.

The PS Pevensey at the wharf. This was the one we went on.

The PS Pevensey was rebranded as the Philadelphia for a starring role in the 1983 television miniseries, ‘All The Rivers Run’ and this room included various pieces of memorabilia from the series which was one of my favourites.

Finally, another traveller kindly offered to take our photo on the boat.

No day out is complete without an ice-cream so we indulged on our way back to the train.

During our walking around the town, I spotted an op shop at the Anglican church and they had a terrific selection of cotton fabrics in large and small pieces. I was quite restrained but did pick up these for $5.