Canberra to Sydney … by Coach

When we added Canberra to our itinerary, we did so with round trip train tickets between Sydney and Australia’s capital city.

Then, a couple of months ago, we were notified by the NSW Link service that our return would be by coach due to track maintenance work scheduled for 9-11 March. We were given the option to cancel … or switch dates.

We considered doing so. Renting a car from Canberra for our onward travels instead of picking up a rental in Sydney as planned was an option. But then we figured, what the heck … let’s just take the bus … add one more mode of travel to our Down Under Adventures.

The good news? We were put on the express bus, with only one other stop to pick up passengers along the way. Faster than the train would have been with multiple stops. It was an uneventful drive that had us leaving Canberra Station as hot air balloons started rising aloft in celebration of Canberra Day.

By the way, heard some news about the Indian Pacific today. That’s the train we took from Perth to Sydney last week. Turns out that the 10 March departure from Perth — which we had considered booking — has been canceled. The reason? Flooding on the Nullarbor due to unusually heavy rainfall. In fact, the area has received almost a year’s worth of rain — 200mm — in just a few days. Not only is passenger and cargo service on the rails disrupted, so is road traffic … the Eyre Highway is closed as well. Service on the IP has been canceled until 17 March. Close call for us!

Tough year along the south of Australia. Yeah, we had to take a bus instead of the train to get from Canberra to Sydney today. But at least we got through with no adverse weather conditions to deal with.Read more