I'm going in style

I love planning trips and putting all the parts together; the flights I book through a Travel Agent, but the rest (accommodation, visas, transfers, etc) I book myself. Prior to becoming a nurse, I had worked as a travel agent organising the arrangements for group tours through Europe. And I’ve done a fair bit of independent travel, making plans as I go along.


I’m going back to Australia, a country I have visited many times. The first time was on a Working Holiday Visa when I was 19. This trip will be very different because I’m taking my little mobility scooter with me. And because I no longer have the time restraints of limited annual leave, I’m going to see all my friends, who helpfully live opposite ends of the continent. And there is one friend in particular who I want to see again while I still can.


As well as taking the scooter, I’m doing something else differently this time. When I cross the Nullabor on the Indian-Pacific train, on the two days and two nights' journey from Perth to Adelaide, I’m going to have a cabin with a proper berth. And I’m going eat in the Queen Adelaide Restaurant (dining car) and sit in the Outback Explorer Lounge (with a cocktail). I’ve crossed the Nullabor overland five times in all, four by train (always the cheap and cheerful seats) and once by bus. Never again by bus. But not this time. This time I’m going in style.


The Nullabor, an Latin word meaning “no trees”, is an enormous expanse of, to western eyes, nothing, just low bushes and sand. I love the vastness of it. I love how, having sped hundreds of miles while you slept through the night, when you wake up, the view from the window looks the same.

The way I travel has changed over the years, but it hasn’t stopped and those changes have made travel challenging and exciting in a different way. But some things are still the same: the excitement and fascination of arriving somewhere new that’s just waiting to be explored.