Had a pretty good nights sleep although the bed was a little firm, but it was nice and quiet and had an ensuite so good value I thought at $55 especially when I was able to arrange a late checkout of 12pm and storage of my gear until the train left for Perth that evening. Had breakfast down the street then went for a short ride along the breezy foreshore which has been redeveloped since the railways used to own it and there is still evidence of train tracks. I was pleasantly surprised with Port Augusta, named after Augusta Sophia Marryat, wife of Young, the first South Australian Prime Minister, and situated on the waterways at the head of Spencer Gulf with a backdrop of the Flinders Ranges.
On checking out the train station I discovered that it is now completely unmanned so one just waits there at the expected train arrival time.
The afternoon was quite hot and I needed a quiet day so sat in the cool of the pub for the late afternoon and into the evening until it was time to head off to the station.
I had called Great Southern Rail to find out exactly where to wait with my gear as there were no staff to ask, however when the train arrived at 11pm it didn't pull up where expected so I had to rehitch the trailer and race back and forth ferrying my gear to the luggage van before securing my bike and being shown to my cabin.
Originally I had booked a seat only but thought better of sitting up for 2 nights (although the seats do recline much further than what I understood) so I upgraded to a Red Sleeper Cabin (basic option) that morning. A bonus was that YHA discount was around $400. I was really happy to find that I had the cabin to myself which was a good thing especially given the size of it. John, the night duty manager who I had growled at when having to ferry my gear at the station, turned out to have a great sense of humour and he showed me how things worked in the cabin before making me a coffee while I played a few tunes my ukulele and then turned in f the night.
