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Published: February 16th 2004
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The landscape is something that I’ve only seen in brochures, TV shows and postcards. But today, the red desert sands are under my feet as we have a fuel stop at Cook. There’s a souvenir shop and a payphone along with what was a school, but not much else. Here in the Nullarbor, the landscape doesn’t change for a good part of the journey. Or maybe it does, only so subtly, because it’s east to say there’s nothing out here, but there is vegetation, rocks (heaps!), shrubs and the odd passing freight train.
Last night, we were delayed even more when a cow decided it would be fun to walk in front of the train. Bazza had an inspection of the wheels too-after all, we’re on the longest stretch of straight railway: 478K’s of it. At any one time, this train probably takes up about 800m of the track! I think that is how long our Indian Pacific is. The seats aren’t too bad-more legroom as the girl next to me says-the same girl sleeping in the Foxtel Lounge of the YHA! Maybe I should have left a lot later than I did for the train station and sleep
a lot more than I did. But I probably would have done something knobbish like sleep in and miss my train. Something stupid like that.
The one stupid thing the pair of us did was not bringing any money onto the train. Like, how the hell are we supposed to buy food? I’ve run out of my rationed food this morning and Cook didn’t even have anything going for itself so I’m going to have to troop on for another 5, 6 hours before we get to Kalgoorlie. In that time, there’s little to keep me entertained. It’s some dodgy surfing movie (
Blue Crush), my CD has run out of batteries (thanks Owen for your bloody recommendation of battery choice-they lasted from Kerang to WA!), I don’t think there are any radio stations out here and my YHA friend went with her friend for a walkabout somewhere in the train. I’m thinking the last option is to sleep and conserve energy. Bud Tingwell (who we last encountered on this tour at Kerang where Mrs Dewhurst was watching some old movie!) comes over the PA and guides us through the red desert, narrating us through what we should expect in
the next 4-5 hours. They say that we’re behind a defective freight train, but I’m thinking if we really were, they’d use one of those sidings to let us pass. After all, I’m not the only one who needs food urgently.
When we finally get into Kalgoorlie (after watching
SimONE-how the hell did Al Pachino lower his standards for this movie?! And the Spursburry Police Chief from
Super Troopers is playing detective in
SimONE-I couldn’t help but laugh and chuckle!), it’s time to do a little bit of expedition. I’ve got two hours to explore, and what better to do it than in the company of German tourists who are seeking out the red light district. We laugh, we talk, they haggle over prices, but as one of them said, “there’s never enough time.”
I suppose it’s alright to drive around this place at night but if you’re on foot, but walking around a town you don’t quite know in the evening with as many drunks as there were in Adelaide roaming the streets and begging doesn’t put us in the best frame of mind. I stock up enough to go to Adelaide and back three times over
Straight Track
just a section of the 478km straight piece of track. and end up digging into my rations (I ate a mars bar and a supersize hot dog with cheese, bacon and onion: Hot Dog of the tour!) which included another mars bar, a 200g packet of chips and two bottles of diet coke, which I will probably dump before I get to Perth.
In Perth, I’m pretty sure that I won’t be doing the rounds with the OSFers on the West Coast, nevertheless there’s Viv and Bill and also Brooke Chookers! I suppose when I look back at the diaries of the tour last year (
NORTHERN EXPOSURE), I said that Perth was going to be one of the places I had to go to. Someone as company would have been nice; it’s just that you don’t get that these days among the gang (since everyone’s doing their own thing). Viv and Bill sound like they have a lot planned in the 4 days that I will be over and I’ll probably have to have a drink with Brooke in the time that I am over before I leave for Sydney! With each K done on this train, its each K that I’m heading west-more unchartered territory. The train presses
on during the night; you don’t hear much rumble but you can feel the train vibrate as it moves along the rails at high speed. A couple who will definitely feel the clickety-clack is an elderly couple trying to tell me how great it’s been travelling in the Gold Kangaroo section and then I see them heading off to my carriage! Ha! I hope they sleep well though, I won’t be…
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