Sunday, July 20, 2008

The Day Public Transport Didn’t Want to Happen


I knew I wanted to go horseback riding while I was in Oz. First I wanted to go to Glenworth Valley, which looked beautiful from the site, but my friends and I had no way to get there. Then I found Otford Farm, which we could get to by train in just over an hour. Perfect. We booked a two-hour ride through the forest to a waterfall and were ready to go. Oh so ready. Shoes, jacket, sandwiches, camera. Had the train schedule, left the house early. We get to Redfern Station only to find a two-hour-plus delay because of freight on the line. We had to move the trip to the following day.

That night I looked up the schedule to establish our new plan. What do I learn? A car crashed onto the line about five hours after the freight situation! Trains stopped running south. I was pretty distraught, but luckily when I woke up that morning I found the replacement bus schedule that wasn’t so horribly longer than the train would have been. We packed fresh sandwiches and made the best of it.


Otford Farm was really nice, though I wish we had a different guide. She was probably 18, which made for an awkward dynamic with all of us being older but having her in control. The girl wasn’t especially helpful either. She didn't give us a real overview of what to do and how to handle the horse. I am a pretty experienced rider, but my friends weren't. And I’d hoped for someone who’d talk about the area and keep things interesting. It was a really nice day and great surroundings, but two hours was a long while to be mostly quiet. Also, it had been a wet week so the trails were terribly muddy and the horses went extra slow. We had a few chances to canter, but we mostly trudged along.


We did get a nice view of the rainforest and ocean in the distance.


Plus the promised waterfall.


There are a few things I would have changed, but it was overall a good day, and I’m happy it happened at all after everything we went through.

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