Dispatch #1

Greetings from Adelaide!

I arrived yesterday after a 24-hour bus ride from Sydney (not the longest I've ever done; that honour still belongs to my Newcastle-Darwin road trip).

We came via Canberra, Yass, Gundagai, Griffith, Mildura, Renmark, Berri, Gawler and a bunch of other places you mightn't know - through the ACT and rural NSW, Vic and SA.

Half the journey was in darkness, but during daylight hours I read the first novel in William King's "Warhammer" fantasy series about Gotrek and Felix, "Trollslayer". Suprisingly thoughtful for what basically amounts to hack'n'slash. On par with Dan Abnett's 40K stuff, if not the Genevieve books of Jack Yeovil (Kim Newman).

I spent the night re-humanising at the Mercure Grosvenor Hotel in the city, which wasn't too shabby. Ordered room service for the first time in my life - and the second :-)

Was hoping to do something cultural this morning. Alas, there were no temporary/travelling exhibitions at the state gallery, museum or library that I hadn't already seen elsewhere.

Still have five hours to fill before the train leaves for Alice Springs. Maybe I'll go watch the cricket...