I travelled to Melbourne with my Brompton Bike to investigate the pastry scene in Melbourne. This was no ordinary trip. The pastry tour was to be conducted by Brompton and I would get to Melbourne by train.

The Overland train service between Adelaide and Melbourne leaves twice a week and travels during the day. It has a history of more than 130 years and its current name was given to it 98 years ago. While it stopped being hauled by a steam locomotive in 1950, it is still an enjoyable step back in time. The train I travelled on was a special “mongrel” as it also had a couple of carriages from the Ghan that had been used on the previous trip for Tasting Australia. It was very pleasant to access the Ghan lounge car in addition to the premium carriage.

I rode my bike to the Adelaide Parklands Terminal with all of my luggage in my bag on the front of the Brompton Bike. While there are generous checked luggage limits, any Brompton rider would prefer to keep their bike with them. Fortunately, there is plenty of space onboard the Red Premium carriage to take the bike on board with you. Indeed, the check-in staff seemed reluctant to check in items other than standard luggage.

The price of my trip was about the same as it would cost to fly (at that particular point in time) and enabled me to enjoy the premium service, which included cooked breakfast, fantastic curry of the day and morning and afternoon tea. While Melbourne is around 650 kilometres away from Adelaide the rail route is 828 kilometres and takes about 10 and half hours.