Indian Pacific

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I left Sydney on Saturday on board the Indian Pacific train. The Indian Pacific train travels the width of Australia from Sydney on the west coast all the way to Perth on the east coast 4352km, it takes 3 days but luckily for me I was only going as far as Adelaide which is a short 24 hour trip.

I was traveling in the Red class Daynighter seats, which basically means you get a reclining seat to sit in for 24 hours. It is not actually as bad as it sounds the seats recline quite far back, there is plenty of leg room and luckily the train was not full so I got to stretch out on two seats.

The best part of having two seats to myself meant I got to stare out of the window as we passed through the Blue Mountains until the sun went down. Then it was time to head for dinner in the Dining Car. The food was okay but the company was brilliant. Seeing that I was sat on my own a group of elderly Australian's from Northern Queensland decided to adopt me and keep me company for the rest of the trip. They were absolutely hilarious they were taking the train from Sydney all the way to Perth. After dinner and a couple of hands of gummy rummy with my new friends, who I think were all card sharks, I decided to head off to my bed and see if I could get come sleep.

It wasn't the best nights sleep that I have had but it wasn't bad considering. We pulled into Broken Hill at 6:40am on Sunday morning bang on time. It took a little bit of time before we could disembark as the platform isn't long enough for the train so all the passengers in Gold class get off first then they move the train along and all the passengers in Red class get off.

We then hopped on a whistle stop bus tour of Broken Hill. Broken Hill is a mining town with a population of 23,000 in far east NSW. Broken Hill has been a major producer of silver, lead and zinc since 1883 hence its tag as the 'Silver City' unfortunately last week they laid 400 hundred miners off. Our bus driver took us to see the monument to all the men who have lost their lives working in the mines of Broken Hill to date it is over 700 men. They also use Broken Hill as a set for lots of films including Mad Max II and Priscilla Queen of the Desert and we saw the pub that Priscilla performs in.

After our tour we had time to grab a quick coffee before we then got back on the train. It was amazing to watch as the scenery changed from the red of the outback to more lush greenery as we reached the outskirts of Adelaide. We arrived in to Adelaide at 3:20pm on Sunday afternoon pretty much on time. We were 30 minutes ahead of schedule until just outside Adelaide where we had to wait for the police to move an abandoned car of the track.

I have spend a couple of quiet days in Adelaide. Adelaide is the capital of South Australia it was named in honour of Queen Adelaide, the consort of King William IV, the city was founded in 1836 as the planned capital for the only freely-settled British province in Australia. Colonel William Light, one of Adelaide's founding fathers, designed the city and chose its location close to the River Torrens in an area traditionally inhabited by the Kaurna aboriginal peoples. Light's design set out Adelaide in a grid layout, interspaced by wide boulevards and large public squares, and entirely surrounded by parkland.
Today Adelaide is most famous for it’s arts festivals and wine. So it is not surprising that I managed to fit in a wine tasting trip to the Barossa Valley to taste some very nice Shirazs. Unfortunately I couldn’t buy any as tomorrow morning bright and early I get picked up for my trip up to Alice Springs via Uluru, The Olgas and King Canyon. Finally I will get to see the 'real' Australia'

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Photos

Long Train
29 carridges

View from Train 2
It's getting greener