February 26
Cessnock to Lithgow
I was awake before the alarm so breakfasted and packed in time for my 08.00 departure. Everything went smoothly and I found my way out of the Hunter Valley and onto the Freeway to Newcastle. For about half of the journey, I sailed along happily but then encountered the Newcastle rush hour. The latter half of the 50 kilometre journey was stop start all the way. Luckily, I was in no hurry and it gave me the opportunity to study the map without crashing.
I found the Budget office with no trouble at all, handed the car over and they found me a taxi to Hamilton Station, the nearest one.
It was reasonably chaotic there as emergency repairs were being performed on the Hunter Valley Line, and no one, least of all the indicator boards, knew what was going on. I had plenty of time, however, and the line to Sydney was OK, so I sat, took a few photos and relaxed.
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Eventually, the Hunter Valley Line re-opened and my train arrived so I was able to take a few action photos. My train moved between slow, dead slow and stop, just like on the outward journey. I wrote my diary and peered out of the window.
We arrived at Central Station about 25 minutes late. It was just as well that I had changed my plans & caught an earlier train or I would have missed my connection.I ordered a sandwich (toasted of course) in a café on the Station, searched in vain for some wi fi, and ate my lunch. The London rail termini have improved considerably over the years. Sydney Central hasn't!Right: The train arrived 25 minutes late |
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I ventured outside the station to the light rail stop on the forecourt. The map showed that it would run up George Street, right past the front door of my hotel. That could save me a 650 metre walk with my bags on Friday and, in all probability, the reverse at breakfast time on Monday.
I returned inside, found my way onto Platform 6 and boarded the train. Once again, it was an old train, not one of the nice new ones. It left on time, however, and we trundled Westwards following roughly the same route that I had come in on just over an hour ago. My former route then swung to the North while I continued to the West, towards the mountains.
After an hour and a quarter, we reached Springwood, where we left the train and poured onto buses. Mine was almost full and we continued travelling West, through a mixture of sunshine and heavy showers.
After another half hour, and after stopping at a number of stations to pick up and drop off passengers, we arrived at Katoomba, where Malcolm and Ronny were awaiting me.
Throughout the journey to date, I had not seen any sign of the fires which had forced the closure of the railway line. This soon changed as I was taken past burnt trees, burnt houses and burnt road signs. In places, it looked like a WWI battlefield. From a moving vehicle, with my camera shut in the boot, I couldn't take photos. This was probably just as well as the images would have been very disturbing.
Almost immediately we left the fire zone, we entered the outskirts of Lithgow. The main employer in the town is the small arms factory and there were many street names alluding to this - Enfield, Rifle and Tank. We reached the house that Malcolm and Ronny have in a retirement village and settled down to a BBQ and conversation.
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