The Indian Pacific, Perth to Sydney: April 25th to 28th
Seats on the Indian Pacific are large and comfy with plenty of leg room. I am sat next to an older gentleman, perhaps seventy, with sharp eyes and a few tales to tell. He is a Bush supporter and one of those men who it's not worth arguing with. After suburban Perth the train passes through gorge-like bush land and I spot some kangaroos lazing in the sun. I pass the nine or so hours to first stop, Kalgoorlie, with with writing, peanut butter sandwich eating, and listening to my Bill Bryson audio book. For some unknown reason, the train stays in in Kalgoorlie for four hours and
so we are let off the train to roam around this mining town. It is 10pm and I stop at a hotel(Aussie for bar or pub) and have a very chilled and delicious pint of Little Creatures ale. Alisdair (from Melbourne) passes an hour with me on the phone. I chat to two drunken miners out on the street who inform me that in fifteen years, Kalgoorlie will be mined dry and everyone will leave the town. This is a strange thought. I decide to make my way back to the train, and
the roads of the town, outside of the main street, are completely deserted so I put some loud music in my ears and quite literally dance and sing my way back to the station.
I decide to sit, for the first time, in the lounge car and do a crossword. A blonde girl about my age and a good looking young guy both sit on nearby seats but before I decide on a good conversation starter, the boy offers both me and the girl a rice cracker. This is all the encouragement any of us needs and before you know it we're chatting and laughing freely, making missions down the train to spy in first class, and poking fun at one another. The girl is
named Lara and is a twenty year old solo traveller from Germany, the guy is from Brisbane, and it a nineteen year old flight attendant working for Qantas. Lara and I immediately decided that his name, Shane, is far too masculine for a flight attendant, even a supposedly straight one, and so we re-Christen him with the suitably androgynous 'Kim'. At 3.30am it's bed time and so Kim, the lucky bastard, goes back to his cabin while Lara and I get a few hours upright kip back at our seats.
I am woken by the sun rising over the Nullabor Plain, a desert areas of considerable size with just a few ghost towns scattered along the railway line. It is around 6am and so I make myself another peanut butter sandwich and listen to a little Bill Bryson. Lara is stealing some shut eye in the lounge car and so I go out and chat to Tamara, a twenty three year old mother of two who grew up on the Nullabor. The train slowly awakes and I meet a family who boarded in
Kalgoorlie and are sitting behind me, mother Jo and daughters Hannah (5) and Hayley (2), travelling to their new home in Adelaide. These kids are absolute diamonds and Lara and I spend most of the day playing with them, watching movies, cooing over drawings, and giving piggy packs. All it took to cement our friendship was to accept a Bratz sticker in return for some biscuits. Kids, they're awesome.
The Nullabor flashes by out the window, endless flat orange covered in low browning shrubs. 'Nullabor' is an Aboriginal word meaning 'no trees' and the plain certainly lives up to its name. Mid-afternoon we reach the town of Cook, population: 4. It is nicknamed 'The Ghost City Of The Nullabor' and is little more than an assortment of houses, some abandoned, an old school building, a disused mini golf course and two wooden gaol cells set next to a shop selling assorted paraphernalia that only opens when the train comes through, which is twice a week from both
directions. Kim, Lara and I mess around, taking photos, swatting at flies, and sitting in broken down vehicles before we depart again for Port Augusta, a town five hours outside of Adelaide and the next stop.
The two men in charge of our class during the day, Ben and Simon, have clearly warmed up to our constant jesting as they save us a hot dinner and apple strudel each for free this evening, a meal that would have cost us A$15. It is heaven to eat hot food after two days of peanut butter. Tonight, Dean, the night manager, lets me, Lara, Jacob and Laura sleep in the lounge car, though it's usually forbidden. Jacob and Laura are two friendly gap year-ers from Wales who help pass our evening with chatter and card tricks. I fall asleep around midnight on a four foot cushioned bench (the only available space) before Dean wakes us up at 6am a couple of hours outside of Adelaide. On arrival, we bid farewell to Jo, Hayley, Hannah, and the Welsh couple then get a taxi into town. Our driver is clearly several sandwiches short of a picnic and rants on for a good twenty minutes about how Adelaide was built for defense (against what? Penguin attacks from the Antartic?) and how we should get a cab everywhere or the concrete will hurt our soft
feet. Weird in the extreme. Two hours later, after checking Lara into her YHA (she is staying in the city) and making a few purchases, Kim and I are back on the train.
Last night Kim introduced me to a middle-aged New South Wales couple also travelling to Sydney and it is these two we pass our day with. He, coincidentally, is called Kim, prompting an immediate change in Shane's nickname to 'lil Kim'. His wife is named Diane. They are truly good-hearted and interesting people. The scenery today is the best so far, tiny towns, rolling hills, immense plains and a bright sun to splash it all with colour. We stop that evening in Broken Hill, a gold rush town, and all go for a cold beer together that wasn't drunk a moment too soon. The night that follows in uncomfortable and long. The staff changed in Adelaide and so there is no lounge snoozing tonight. To make matters worse, a strange little male passenger has gotten very drunk and spews in the ladies' toilets, yells through the movie, abuses passengers and is eventually removed in the dead of night by the police.
When the light comes it shows a grey, rainy, misty day over the Blue Mountains. They whip by, turning quickly into suburban Sydney and soon we arrive, tired, smelly, and malnourished at Central. Lil Kim and I bid a fond farewell to Kim and Diane and get a coffee together, sitting and watching the train we just spent three days on being made ready for its return to Perth.
I feel a spectacular sense of contentment and happiness. That was one hell of a ride.
so we are let off the train to roam around this mining town. It is 10pm and I stop at a hotel(Aussie for bar or pub) and have a very chilled and delicious pint of Little Creatures ale. Alisdair (from Melbourne) passes an hour with me on the phone. I chat to two drunken miners out on the street who inform me that in fifteen years, Kalgoorlie will be mined dry and everyone will leave the town. This is a strange thought. I decide to make my way back to the train, and
the roads of the town, outside of the main street, are completely deserted so I put some loud music in my ears and quite literally dance and sing my way back to the station.
I decide to sit, for the first time, in the lounge car and do a crossword. A blonde girl about my age and a good looking young guy both sit on nearby seats but before I decide on a good conversation starter, the boy offers both me and the girl a rice cracker. This is all the encouragement any of us needs and before you know it we're chatting and laughing freely, making missions down the train to spy in first class, and poking fun at one another. The girl is
named Lara and is a twenty year old solo traveller from Germany, the guy is from Brisbane, and it a nineteen year old flight attendant working for Qantas. Lara and I immediately decided that his name, Shane, is far too masculine for a flight attendant, even a supposedly straight one, and so we re-Christen him with the suitably androgynous 'Kim'. At 3.30am it's bed time and so Kim, the lucky bastard, goes back to his cabin while Lara and I get a few hours upright kip back at our seats.
I am woken by the sun rising over the Nullabor Plain, a desert areas of considerable size with just a few ghost towns scattered along the railway line. It is around 6am and so I make myself another peanut butter sandwich and listen to a little Bill Bryson. Lara is stealing some shut eye in the lounge car and so I go out and chat to Tamara, a twenty three year old mother of two who grew up on the Nullabor. The train slowly awakes and I meet a family who boarded in
Kalgoorlie and are sitting behind me, mother Jo and daughters Hannah (5) and Hayley (2), travelling to their new home in Adelaide. These kids are absolute diamonds and Lara and I spend most of the day playing with them, watching movies, cooing over drawings, and giving piggy packs. All it took to cement our friendship was to accept a Bratz sticker in return for some biscuits. Kids, they're awesome.
The Nullabor flashes by out the window, endless flat orange covered in low browning shrubs. 'Nullabor' is an Aboriginal word meaning 'no trees' and the plain certainly lives up to its name. Mid-afternoon we reach the town of Cook, population: 4. It is nicknamed 'The Ghost City Of The Nullabor' and is little more than an assortment of houses, some abandoned, an old school building, a disused mini golf course and two wooden gaol cells set next to a shop selling assorted paraphernalia that only opens when the train comes through, which is twice a week from both
directions. Kim, Lara and I mess around, taking photos, swatting at flies, and sitting in broken down vehicles before we depart again for Port Augusta, a town five hours outside of Adelaide and the next stop.
The two men in charge of our class during the day, Ben and Simon, have clearly warmed up to our constant jesting as they save us a hot dinner and apple strudel each for free this evening, a meal that would have cost us A$15. It is heaven to eat hot food after two days of peanut butter. Tonight, Dean, the night manager, lets me, Lara, Jacob and Laura sleep in the lounge car, though it's usually forbidden. Jacob and Laura are two friendly gap year-ers from Wales who help pass our evening with chatter and card tricks. I fall asleep around midnight on a four foot cushioned bench (the only available space) before Dean wakes us up at 6am a couple of hours outside of Adelaide. On arrival, we bid farewell to Jo, Hayley, Hannah, and the Welsh couple then get a taxi into town. Our driver is clearly several sandwiches short of a picnic and rants on for a good twenty minutes about how Adelaide was built for defense (against what? Penguin attacks from the Antartic?) and how we should get a cab everywhere or the concrete will hurt our soft
feet. Weird in the extreme. Two hours later, after checking Lara into her YHA (she is staying in the city) and making a few purchases, Kim and I are back on the train.
Last night Kim introduced me to a middle-aged New South Wales couple also travelling to Sydney and it is these two we pass our day with. He, coincidentally, is called Kim, prompting an immediate change in Shane's nickname to 'lil Kim'. His wife is named Diane. They are truly good-hearted and interesting people. The scenery today is the best so far, tiny towns, rolling hills, immense plains and a bright sun to splash it all with colour. We stop that evening in Broken Hill, a gold rush town, and all go for a cold beer together that wasn't drunk a moment too soon. The night that follows in uncomfortable and long. The staff changed in Adelaide and so there is no lounge snoozing tonight. To make matters worse, a strange little male passenger has gotten very drunk and spews in the ladies' toilets, yells through the movie, abuses passengers and is eventually removed in the dead of night by the police.
When the light comes it shows a grey, rainy, misty day over the Blue Mountains. They whip by, turning quickly into suburban Sydney and soon we arrive, tired, smelly, and malnourished at Central. Lil Kim and I bid a fond farewell to Kim and Diane and get a coffee together, sitting and watching the train we just spent three days on being made ready for its return to Perth.
I feel a spectacular sense of contentment and happiness. That was one hell of a ride.
posted by Aisling at 9:48 PM
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