I was scheduled to travel on The Overland from Adelaide to Melbourne on Sunday. I’d set the alarm was set for 5:30 am but I was up and having coffee by then. Check-in for The Overland was supposed to close 30 minutes before departure (7:45 am for my train) So I thought that I had to be at the station by 7:15 am. My taxi was scheduled to pick me up at 7 am. I slept a bit restlessly thinking I’d be late, on one hand and thinking that for the cost of this trip, they’d adapt, on the other. Since I sent the box to myself at home, I found that my suitcase did close more easily and my packing was done in time for me to be checking out of the hotel by 6:50 am. I was able to text my cab that I was ready early and he picked me up a few minutes before 7. It took maybe 8 -10 minutes to get to the train station in the very light morning traffic; I was in line to check in with plenty of time to spare.

The Overland was once a vital rail connection between a lot of small towns and the two state capitals, complete with luxury cabins and an overnight service, but eventually, the economics of rail travel could not compete with road travel. While the train does still run, it runs only twice a week and only makes about eight stops. The Overland journey takes about 11 hours and feels like a continuation of the Indian Pacific train, complete with breakfast and lunch served at your seat.

It’s curious to think that I’m about 62 days into this trip – more than halfway through. I found myself thinking that I could go on like this for quite a while longer. I’m a home body in some ways and a traveller in others. I like solitude a lot – and when traveling, one can be comfortably alone in a crowd of people. I know that the emphasis in that sentence should be on the word “comfortably”. My knee hurts even when sitting, but I was in a comfortable train seat, watching the towns and scenery flow by, listening to a train employee relate the history of towns that the train passed through or talk about the Australian Gold Rush and how the labor shortages affected cities and settlements throughout Australia. There were fields with sheep or cattle and a lot of fields clearly emptied after harvest – it is Fall in the Southern Hemisphere, after all. I smiled thinking, “I’m having my favorite season twice this year – now and when I return home.” I’d prepared for a lot of trouble before I left the US: getting a Paxlovid prescription before travel in case I caught COVID, having travel insurance which would cover ending my travels for any reason, packing extra prescription meds and a doctor’s note covering them in case I got stopped at customs in some country etc. Instead, I have not been sick or homesick; my journey has been smooth and comfortable. And though I would have liked to have walked around and seen more, I’ve traveled by foot, bus, train and plane to see a lot. My main thoughts throughout the journey to Melbourne were not ones of worry about home, my knee or the future, but rather that I’m a lucky man, living a good life.