travelling allrite

After last year's frenetic journeys around Asia 2014 felt more sedate. There were few new places, mostly consolidation and the completion of railway lines. Alex started school, so our travel had to work around school holidays. Flights were marred by a returned fear of turbulence as I encountered more bumps in the air. But there were still many highlights, so lets go through them by month. January The year began in South Coast Line, Mogo Zoo, Luna Park South Coast train from Sutherland Station The year began with Alex and I taking the train down to Kiama and Bomaderry on the scenic South Coast Line.  Tiger at Mogo Zoo Less than a fortnight later we returned to the South Coast as a family, driving down to Mogo Zoo  to see a variety of animals up close. Entrance to Sydney's Luna Park We marked the end of the Alex's "freedom" with a trip to Chinese New Year and Sydney's Luna Park , so beautiful in the night. February Ben Fo...

It's the last day of 2014 and what better way to end it than with a short travel adventure? A very short travel adventure and one not too far from home! I was born in a city famous for its trams and have caught trams in cities across Australia and the world. But I've never before visited the Sydney Tramway Museum , despite it being quite close by. Sydney once had a very extensive tram network that could take you most places you'd want to go in the city. But in 1961 the last tram plied the tracks until 1997 when light rail returned. Now further lines are planned across the city, but to recreate the network of yesteryear would be prohibitively expensive and disruptive. The Tramway Museum, located adjacent to Loftus Station, preserves a number of Sydney's trams from the cable days to the end of the electric network. There are also models from interstate and overseas, including Germany and the United States. Many of the trams are housed in a large shed with th...

The closure of a railway line is always a point of sadness for me   and I always regret it if I never rode the line when I had a chance to. In this case it was to be but a short length of track, a mere two stations. Surprisingly I've only visited New South Wales' second largest city proper once in my life. It was back in 1986, staying in a leaky caravan en route to Melbourne and Adelaide. Yet I remember admiring the trains running straight along the waterfront and into the historic centre of the city. Oh, I've gone through the outskirts of Newcastle plenty of times, driving to Port Stephens or on the XPT from Brisbane. It's a pretty line, but I've long wanted to travel the entire electrified length into the city, just never got around to it. The time for excuses had ended. On Boxing Day the stretch between Broadmeadows/Hamilton and the Newcastle Terminus will be closed . By the end of 2016 it will return as far as Wickham, but the remaining two station str...