Adelaide & The Indian Pacific

---

Day 123, 12/01/12

Hired a free bike today and cycled along Adelaide river and then turned around and cycled the other way to the beach and back to the town. Had a walk around The Botanical Gardens. Got on the train in the evening and Stuart treated us both to the upgrade to a cabin with 2 beds in it. Played cards, ate dinner, read my book and chatted before going to sleep on a moving train. The train is due to arrive in Perth on Saturday morning (14th) - so a very long journey. As we left Adelaide we were getting further and further into the outback through all the farms before hitting the true Australian outback.



Day 124, 13/01/12

Had a shower on the moving train which was an experience. Saw lots of nothing today as we continued through the outback, although I was just sitting on a train time did seem to go quite quickly. I read, played cards and spoke to a few other passengers. Stopped of at 'Cook' in the morning which is an outback town with a population of 5. It was a very interesting ghost town and I can't imagine why anyone would want to live there. Their job is to maintain the petrol tank for the train to refuel - but again where does the petrol come from? Later we drove through another outback town called 'Forrest' which had a population of 2. Their job was to maintain the emergency runway for all types of aircraft flying over the area.

Had dinner on the train and stopped off at 'Kalgoorlie'. This town was a modern town - still in the middle of nowhere, but it was built up. It is where a lot of the miners live as it is close to the mines. Had a chat to an English couple in the evening on the train before going to my top bunk bed for the second night on the train

---