Australia - Day 9 - Travel Day

28th December, 2008.

Today was a relatively normal day for us.  We woke up early (8 AM), had breakfast and hopped a taxi to the train station to go north.  Our taxi driver was nice enough to offer to drive us the entire way from Surfers Paradise up to Currimundi.  All for the low price of $450.  We decided to take the train instead.  All for the low price of $25.  I think we made the right choice, even though we had to switch trains once and take a rail bus the last hour of the trip due to track repair.

As we came north on the train (and rail bus) we rode through some beautiful countryside.  One thing that struck me as odd:  There were a few houses that had solar hot water heaters on the roof.  And they were pointing north to catch the sun.  Now I know why this is...we're in the southern hemisphere.  Maybe it seems obvious, but I guess my frame of reference is northern hemisphere that I hadn't contemplated that solar panels would have to point north to get the most sun rather than south.  Just one of those "Things that make you go hmmmm." moments. 

We also rode by the entrance to the Australian Zoo, originally started by the Crocodile Hunter himself, Steve Irwin.  Many of the signs advertising the zoo had pictures of Steve Irwin saying, "Crikey!"  I found it a bit odd that his image is still involved in the marketing, but his family still runs the zoo, and I guess it's up to them how much they use his image. 

One side note:  I'm typing this at 4:45 in the morning on 29th December (I couldn't sleep...) and it's already getting light out.  Definitely a contrast to Thailand where it barely starts to get light at 6:00 this time of year.

Otherwise, I don't have a lot to say about today.  Below are a couple pictures of us on the train.  Nothing exciting...
 

One of the trains at the station in Petrie (or something like that).	David and Lowell	David drawing in his journal while we waited for the next train.