Season Six of The Nice Southern travels from Adelaide to Brisbane over 3 days and a couple of nights and departs from the Adelaide Parklands Terminal on a Friday. The journey contains three off-train experiences, together with the Grampians Expertise, the Canberra Icons and Coffs Harbour. On its method again from Brisbane to Adelaide, over 4 days and three nights, the experiences embrace Dinner at Coffs Harbour, a alternative between Hunter Valley / Newcastle / Port Stephens Experiences and a Melbourne Expertise.
These experiences are all included within the fare that visitors pay for his or her bookings. (There are some helicopter flights that aren’t included within the fare and have to be paid for moreover.)
This was my first time aboard The Nice Southern and I used to be enthusiastic about spending so many days on the practice, in addition to concerning the two off-train experiences that I might be accompanying visitors on.
Above, pictures from the perspective that’s a part of the Views For Miles Off-Prepare Expertise on the Nice Southern at The Grampians.
We had a wonderful tour information in Ash, who stored the visitors entertained with an insane quantity of trivia and data concerning the Grampians. Together with why among the timber have been pink. It was due to the colour of the fire-retardant used to place out the fires. This explicit fire-retardant incorporates minerals and development accelerant for the crops and timber, so when the subsequent rains occur, the soil can be additional enriched.
The Crew received an in a single day break at Brisbane on the Mantra lodge at Southbank. The lodge has a small strip pool, which is salted along with chlorinated and whereas most of my laps have been these of a flailing fish, I managed to exhaust myself much more for a wonderful night time’s sleep. I’m nonetheless shocked by the variations within the hospitality service that I’m used to from India vs the hospitality service ranges in Australia. This lodge, for instance, didn’t present slippers to visitors, which I wasn’t conscious of beforehand. I don’t suppose I do know of a single lodge in India that doesn’t present slippers! Oh effectively, a lot to be taught!
The breakfast subsequent morning was GREAT, together with some glorious espresso. We boarded visitors at Acacia Ridge and left Brisbane to start some Off Prepare Experiences and to lastly head into Adelaide over the subsequent couple of nights.
Port Stephens was an absolute DELIGHT. The water within the bay was a bit muddy as a result of unprecedented floods that the area had confronted attributable to heavy rainfall, however that did nothing to dampen the spirits of everybody aboard the Osprey Catamaran.
I received to see Dolphins in actual life for the primary time in my life!
Particular shout out to the coach driver David, who has beforehand labored with NASA in Antarctica on their stratospheric balloons mission for over 30 years! He additionally builds his bikes and vehicles and was an absolute delight to talk with. And I’ve to say James and Michelle aboard The Osprey who have been super-professional and took beautiful care of all of the visitors. James made certain that the catamaran’s pitching and rolling was as mild as attainable.
A beautiful day on the golf course with an unimaginable lunch and reside music with visitors.
The Crew received a little bit of off-train time at Inverleigh, Victoria, which has this cute kids’s park with a skating rink AND a swing set, which is the place I spent most of time, consuming a non-alcoholic affogato out of a takeaway cup and swinging away into the sunshine, earlier than we headed again into Adelaide.
This was additionally my first time spending 7 nights on practice and one of many results of that was that when I received again on agency floor in Adelaide, I might nonetheless really feel the movement of the practice for a few days. This is likely one of the most fascinating jobs that I’ve ever taken on in my life, thus far. New challenges and new methods to get to know myself higher.
The practice was much more temperamental by way of motion on the terrain that it covers on this journey.
As all the time, the images above have been shot on the Nikon D810 with a 24-70mm F2.8 lens, in addition to on the Pixel 9 Professional XL. All post-production was finished in Adobe Lightroom.
I’ve additionally beforehand shared my first journey on the Indian Pacific on this weblog and hope to proceed to share from upcoming journeys. As I get extra used to the work, I’m hoping I’ll have extra time to whip out my Nikon and seize the Australian panorama.
Disclaimer : I’m an worker at Journey Past Rail.
For images commissions, contact me on [email protected] or textual content on +61429048917
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