The Agrinautica

   In Theory on Monday I'd take the train to Albury, 7.5 hours, and then drive from there to Euston (5.5 hours), and that would be that. Not so simple it turns out.

   In the morning (6:11am!) I found googlemaps directing me not to my local train station but bus stop. I don't know how it knows when the train has been replaced by a bus (or "coach" as they call it to sound more classy) but all one can do is trust google maps implicitly. So road the train-replacement-bus about forty min to an hour in to Waurn Ponds on the outskirts of Geelong, where we were all able to transfer on to a train. Train from there to Melbourne's Southern Cross station (1 hour, 25 min). Had about 40 minutes there (8:45 - 9:26) which was perfect for grabbing a hot cheese-and-ham croissant at a station cafe for breakfast. Then train another hour and a half north to the town of Seymour (10:56). It seemed like half the train's occupants got out here, but a lot of them must have been ending their journey there because only two v-line (train company) coaches were boarding passengers for onward journeys, and the Albury bound (pronounced Aubrey) bus was less than a third full, one person per row-side. Two hours on this bus headed east north east to Albury.

   I thought I'd be popping in to the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) office there to get oriented/inducted/whatever but clarifying it via email I was informed I was just to go to the car rental place there to pick up a car. Which, being as Albury is a substantial distance the wrong direction from my final destination I thought the whole reason I was coming here was because it was the closest DPI office to me. Anyway, walked from the train station to the downtown area to have lunch at a Vietnamese place. Seemed like a nice town, weather was pleasantly in the 20s/70s c/f. Car rental place was 3.1 km out of town, I didn't feel like walking it, for one thing that would add time I couldn't afford to add on to an already long journey. Uber didn't come up with anything so had to call a yellow taxi. The journey up to this point had cost me $18 in train fares, this taxi cost me $23. Hopefully I'll be reimbursed -- the DPI had said they couldn't cover my travel outside of NSW but Albury was in state so..
   Taxi driver was an immigrant from Pakistan (15 years ago). It's funny, being a fellow immigrant, I always get a happy feeling of comraderie from fellow immigrants whereever they're from. We're a secret club.

   Got the rental car, and then it was a 5.5 hour drive from there west to the final destination of Euston, through small towns and small rural highways. I was surprised by how few other cars were on the road, even passing through the small towns the streets seemed deserted. Sun set. I was afraid of hitting kangaroos but didn't see any, just a fox that cheekily crossed the road just in front of me.

   Arrived at the hotel at 20:24 -- 14 hours after setting out! I've been on plenty of 14 hour flights, people act like thats a shocking and miserable amount of time to be on a flight -- I can tell you 14 hours on a flight is sheer paradise compared to 14 hours of coach-train-coach-taxi-car.

The hotel here is gaudy like a casino, and indeed has a section off the spacious restaurant portion full of slot machines (it is after all the "Euston Club Resort," though we're staying in the "Euston Club Motel" section).

Checked in to my room and then returned to the restaurant as i was by now very overdue for dinner. Kitchen was closed of course but there was a very decent large meat pie on a warming rack i was able to get -- but not before being sternly chastised for wearing a hat. I don't know if it's a literal law that hats can't be worn in "clubs" or this is just a piece of etiquette Australians feel very strongly about but, while i don't think it's enforced in pubs or restaurants, anything that quantifies as any sort of "club" will remind you to take your hat off in a tone dripping with poisonous disdain.

And my "schooner" (half pint?) of (alcoholic) ginger beer cost $13 (roo bucks), which i felt was a bit high!

And that was my Monday. Having called and texted our team leader with no success in attempting to find out what we were doing the next day or when and where to meet, I went to bed without having any idea what was in store the next day.