Back to Melbourne

So today (saturday) I begin the epic 27 hr journey back to Melbourne from Jason's house just north of Brisbane. The first, and shortest, of the 3 legs is a coach transfer from Brisbane to Casino, that's 3 1/2 hrs. It's an interesting bunch on the coach an i feel I need to keep up the tradition of making a few humorous observations regarding my fellow travellers. There's a young couple up front with a baby, they really look very very young themselves, id suspect the baby was an accident the grandparents didn't approve of. She has ridiculously strong ginger hair too, come to look at it so does he. Not a great start in life. Looking into the overhead racks I swear there's someone sleeping there. On closer inspection it's just an arrangement of bags but the suggestion is not as outrageous as it may seem. Previously I have seen signs warning against sleeping in the overhead luggage compartments. You'd think that's stating the obvious really. 

Spending the last few weeks relaxing and exploring around southern Queensland was great, definitely a required chill out. Hugely indebted to jason for putting me up and feeding me, hopefully I repaid that somewhat with supplying gallons of ice cream and a brand new ice cream scoop! J has two children, the youngest of which seems intent on constantly calling me "mummy" and everything else "car". Bless her, she's just very confused and foreign! Her present to me on the morning I left was dropping a full nappy on my lap whilst I was eating breakfast. Delightful! 
There slowly getting over their sunburn. Tbh I don't think it's as bad as they claim, if you poke them without their knowledge miraculously it doesn't hurt. The "owww" goes on auto-pilot it seems. 

Now on the train from Casino to Sydney I get approached by the steward who must be a country folk, the Australian version of a Somerset farmer, she admonishes me for being in the correct seat and orders me into the next carriage where I can enjoy a double spread to stretch out on. She was acting in my interests definitely but was rather authoritarian. Thatcher on steroids. Once moved I find myself chatting to Martin from Germany, Joseph who I think is an aboriginal and a Aussie lady, actually glad I moved now, these seem like nice folk for a change. Just after I settle and start to doze off, thatcher comes along again and tells me I can't occupy both these seats because "there's lots of other passengers" coming on later. Later on there are still only 6 people in our whole carriage and I hasn't slept a wink. Bloody idiot! 

By contrast the final leg of the journey from Sydney to Melbourne was absolutely packed, every seat taken. I seemed to land myself in the crying carriage. There was a young toddler bawling and screaming her eyes out in front, parents seemingly not giving a toss much to the disgruntlement of the whole carriage. Then directly behind me was a older child just moaning and whimpering. Shut up both of you!!! There should be rules or provisions for noisy kids on trains. Either ban them or give them their own carriage away from everyone else. I arrive at the hostel around 8pm absolutely exhausted.