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Published: February 14th 2011
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Our last day in Perth!
Arose about 07:30, we needed to pack as we leave Perth today on the Indian Pacific train for Adelaide today. We have not been travelling too long but already I am beginning to hate packing (and unpacking).
We had breakfast, and said our good byes to Cath. Graham drove us to the railway station.
We were truly impressed with Perth, the way of life and particularly the climate which seem to be sunshine each day, which meant no weather dependency, you could plan activities ahead with the knowledge that there was a fair chance that the weather would be sunny and fine.
I have known Graham since Secondary School and our time together in in rock band some 45 years ago. We had drifted apart and then Graham had moved to Australia in the 70’s. I had caught up with Graham again 10 years earlier when I had visited Perth on business for a few days. When I met Graham it was as if we had seen each other only yesterday, the year’s gaps seem to melt away and we got on great. Diane was a bit apprehensive about staying with Graham and Cath, as
she had not met either of them. When we left Di felt like she had known Cath and Graham forever. They had made us really welcome turning over half of the house for our use, helping with our sightseeing and booking s etc.- they could not have been more hospitable
I felt extremely sad saying our good-byes, and intend to keep more in touch in the future.
Graham drop us at he station and stayed with us while we check in our luggage and got our boarding cards. We then had about an hours wait before we could start to board the train at around 11.30, Departure time being 11:55.
As 11:30 approached we were gathered together on the platform to be introduced to the trains staff by the hospitality manager Jos. We boarded the train and settled in our cabin for the journey.
The Indian Pacific route has been in service for 30 years, the train will cover some 2000km crossing the Nullabor Plain to reach the Sothern Australian city of Port Augusta late on Monday evening before arriving at Adelaide early on Tuesday morning. We had scheduled stops at Kalgoorlie and Cook
We were called to lunch
at 13.00 in the Queen Adelaide restaurant car and shared a table with an Australian couple who had travelled the route a number of times. This was great as they could give us an insight into the constantly changing scenery that was passing by our window. We then had a champagne reception where we got to know the other passengers and a little bit about the Indian Pacific route. After this it was back to the cabin for me to catch up with my blog, and for Di to have a read and a short snooze.
Dinner at 18.00 soon came around we shared our table with a couple from Brisbane, again getting an insight in to the Australian way of life, after an excellent meal we retired to the Lounge/Bar carriage to finish off our wine.
We return to our cabin to find that the bench seat had been transformed into bunk beds. We decided to turn in, I got up and got off the train briefly at Kargoorlie, but a delay and a 1 hour time difference meant that we did not get there until 12 midnight, so I did not venture far from the train as the
station was a bit of a distance from the train station, and there was some warnings of passengers being mug. Some people had booked on a guided tour, but we did not fancy a tour at that hour, the tour would not return until 01:30/02:00 a.m
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