Gullivers Travels

Off on my travels again I decided I wanted to travel another way across to Western Australia, The Indian Pacific. No other journey on earth can present you with the kaleidoscope of colours and contrasting landscapes than the great trains that cross this mighty continent. There is no better way to experience all that Australia has to offer. The Indian Pacific can be traced back to the early 1900's. A standard trip from Sydney - Perth: Sydney - Albury - Melbourne - Adelaide (where I boarded) - Port Augusta - Cook (which is a stop and to change drivers) - Kalgoorlie - Perth. The Journey for me was 39hours in total. From Sydney - Perth it covers 4,352 kilometres!!!!!! The start of my journey in Adelaide was a little disapointing, the train station to one of the worlds most famous train journeys ever could of been anywhere. A pokey, dindgy train station in a small town in England! You'd thing they would tart it up a bit especially as it isnt a cheap way to travel either (unless your me who opted for cattle class)! Frog waved me off which was really nice. We have only known each other two months and have become such goood friends. We have been through a lot in our short time as friends but I know he will be a friend for life. Thats the beauty of travelling you build up such great freindships along the way that you know will last forever. I found my window seat number 41 in carriage R. It was packed out. I was sitting next to a Japanese guy, I love the Japanese they are so cool and always smiling. He looked young and pretty cool so I felt comfortable already. We didnt speak a word the whole way. I got myself settled with my book - Bill Bryson Down Under, a recommended read! and my Ipod which has the best tunes on it EVER! And away we went off into the night on this great adventure. In cattle class everyone has a seat which will recline to 45 degrees. This was it for the next 39hours. It is one carriage with three tv screens spread out on the celling, for everyone to watch the girlie movies that were put on! There are two showers at the front - VERY compact. Clean towels for everyone. And two toilets at the rear. A water machine. Then there is a lounge with tables to hang out in. A cafe style area for eating food with the buffet car at the end of the cattle class compartments. The food was actually pretty healthy and was reasonably priced. I did take some food on myself but also bought a meal and I enjoyed it. My first night on the train a man snored sounding like an orchestra! He had his head on his wifes shoulder the whole time - she must of been deaf to it as she was sound asleep to!! Thank goodness I had my Ipod. Everyone was pretty tired looking and I doubt everyone slept very well. It wasnt a social trip! I am thankful for my Murphy genes as I sleep anywhere. I slept so much it was untrue but yes I did have a numb arse towards the end of the journey from sitting all the time! We stopped in a place called Cook where they changed drivers and we could all get off to stretch our legs, which was great. This place has a population of 4...WHY?! It is in the middle of NO WHERE Have you seen the pics.....The second and last stop was in a gold mining town called Kalgoorlie - for 3 HOURS at 8 at night! A lot of people went on a gold mine tour - it was full by the time I decided I should go on it! So I hooked up with two German girls called Anne and Johanna and we went for a walk round the place looking for a lively bar - we certainly found one! As soon as I went to order a drink a girl with her underwear on asked me what I would like, I took a quick glance round saw LOADS of men and a few other women having drinks so happily ordered a beer. We sat down and took in the atmoshphere as well as the sights. Realising why this was such a lively place. It was cool though not sleezy. This place has a high number of men here as its a mining town a lot of the guys do shift work so its big business here. They must get sick of seeing men all the time! After a while the girl walked round the bar with a collection pot, later the girls one by one took their bras off. We had a beer and a chat and all decided to go and see what else was going on in this place. We went for one more drink to a really cool bar down the street before heading back to the train realising we had 10 more hours to go!! A lot of people got off here and I had two seats to myself so could spread out a bit more. I woke up at 7am - this is when they would turn the lights on (they were turned off at 10pm) and anounce the buffet car to be open for breakfast, so if you were sleeping I doubt anyone was after that. It was pretty cool as they told you lots of history about the places you were travelling through in between girlie movies and banjo playing music = ) I did enjoy this journey it was an experience and I was lucky to have slept and not feel rough and like everything else on this trip I am enjoying every second. I do think they should get better seats tho! We finally came to our destination Perth and Karen and Rob met me at another crappy looking train station! So here I am at the beginning of a new adventure in Perth.........