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Published: March 14th 2016
Train
Off loading at Two WellsIt doesn't seem to matter how much you prepare before you leave home, something always goes wrong at the last minute.
Sylvia and I (well mostly Sylvia) had spent five weeks cleaning the house in preparation for our house-sitter's arrival. We had carpenters to repair the rail on the back deck. A handyman repaired the kitchen drawers. An electrician installed a new fan in the lounge room. All of the carpets were cleaned. We even got someone to come and clean all our windows, inside and out. The house had never looked better, even when it was new.
We were all packed up and ready to leave. Our friend Gary had arrived to drive us to the train station. I went into the guest bedroom to turn off the main light. As I did so, there was a loud POP and the light exploded! Nothing we could do about or we would miss our train to Sydney. I hope the house-sitter is a practical person.
We stayed the night in a Youth Hostel just across the road from Sydney's main railway station. It was very basic – bed, chair, table, shower and toilet – but very friendly. After
a meal in Chinatown, we spent the rest of the evening chatting with a guy from Germany who was touring Australia.
Next day we did a bit of last minute shopping in Paddy's Market and had a Chinese massage to get us ready for the long journey ahead. At 2 o'clock we made our way to the station to board the Indian-Pacific train to Perth.
The journey takes three nights and four days so we had booked ourselves a sleeper in Gold class. All meals and drinks are included in the fare, as well as excursions off the train at various stops along the way. There is nothing else to pay for. While were waiting to board the train, we were served canapes and wine on the platform. Very civilised.
The cabin has two single bunk beds, a shower, a toilet, a wardrobe and a safe. It is roomy enough, though, and has a wide, panoramic window. If you leave the door open, there is a good view to both sides of the train. It is cleaned each day while we are at breakfast and the beds are made up each evening while we are at dinner.
After all the work we have done over the last few weeks, we feel very lazy not doing anything except eating in the dining car, drinking and talking with other passengers in the lounge car and generally having fun.
The food is superb and we have to watch how much we eat. Each meal has a choice of three entrees, three main dishes and two desserts plus tea, coffee and wine/beer/spirits. We have to watch how much we drink, too!
The train left at 3 o'clock and wound its way through the suburbs of Sydney headed for our first stop, Broken Hill, 14 hours away. We climbed up through the Blue Mountains with their spectacular views and sped through the cities of Bathurst, Orange and Parkes. Unfortunately I had neglected to charge my camera battery so there are no photos of this section. As darkness fell we had our first dinner on the train, met a few of our fellow passengers over a drink in the lounge car and then headed for bed. We were pretty exhausted after a long day.
Sylvia and I have been to Broken Hill before so we didn't take the
city tour. Instead, after an early breakfast, we went for a walk along the main street pretending we were exercising. It used to be one of Australia's major mining areas but the mines have now closed and there is a feeling of forlornness about the place. Many of the older buildings have been preserved or restored which gives the centre of town an ambience which has been lost in many other places. Broken Hill has long been an artists town – something like St Ives in the UK – so there are many galleries and art shops but it is still a long way from anywhere.
One story I recall from our previous visit. Broken Hill is the only place in Australia where shots were fired in anger during the First World War. Some Turkish miners decided to side with Germany and shot up a train full of people going on a picnic (it was a public holiday). Look it up if you want to know the full story.
Leaving Broken Hill, the train crosses the border into South Australia and the clocks are put back an hour. Although there is a three hour time difference
between Sydney and Perth, the train runs on its own time until we eventually get to the correct time when we arrive in Perth. It gets a little confusing.
The country is mostly saltbush with the occasional stretch of mulga (stunted, spindly trees). Lamb fed on saltbush has a distinct taste of its own and is highly regarded by up-market restaurants. Some local farmers have invented a method of harvesting it and turning it into pellets which can be sold to other sheep farmers as feed for their sheep. Very enterprising.
About 200kms out of Broken Hill it started to rain – quite an unusual occurrence – and continued to rain on and off until we arrived in Adelaide that evening.
Sylvia and I had decided we would take an excursion to the Barossa Valley, one of the premier wine-growing districts in Australia. We got off the train at a little town called Two Wells and boarded a bus which took us to the Barossa town of Tanunda. We wandered around the town for a while and then visited the Stewart Street winery for a tasting of their wines. Nothing out of the ordinary was presented to
us but there were a few staggering people when we got back on the bus.
From there we went to Maggie Beer's shop. Maggie is a well known and greatly loved cooking presenter in Australia. She claims not to be a chef – merely a cook. She grows her own food and makes a range of jams, chutneys and other condiments. She is also an ardent advocate for the use of verjuice. Sylvia and I have followed her career for years and are avid followers of her television show “The Cook and The Chef”. Seeing the kitchen where the show was filmed was a disconcerting experience as, although we had never been there before, it was extremely familiar. We had dinner there instead of on the train. The food was excellent – as was the wine, better than at the winery. After we had eaten we were bussed to Adelaide to rejoin the train and continue our journey. There was a big party in the lounge car which went on till late. A lot of new people had joined the train and needed to be initiated 😊. The train line in South Australia is much better than that in
NSW so the train did not rock so much and we were able to get a much better sleep.
During the night we passed through the town of Woomera which was the headquarters for a joint UK/Australian experimentation with rocket flight. There were many launches over several years until the cost of continuing became more than Australia could afford. All of the knowledge gained was given to the United States who incorporated it into their project to put a person on the moon.
A couple of hundred kilometres later we passed through Tarcoola where the train to Darwin – the Ghan – diverges from the track we are on, to go North.
When we were in Tanunda I picked up a detailed map of the train section between Adelaide and Perth. I noticed that the majority of the stations on this section of the track are named after early Prime Ministers of Australia – Barton, Watson, O'Mally, Fisher, Hughes, Deacon, Reid and others. We were scheduled to stop for a walking tour of the abandoned township of Cook which used to be a major refuelling and maintenance base for the railway. When the railway was privatised in
1997, most people moved away and today the population has reduced from over 200 people to four. As we pulled in to the station, the train controller announced that we would not be allowed off the train as the police were searching for a man armed with knives and spears who was roaming the area. They were concerned that, if we got off the train, he might mingle with the passengers and get on to hold the train hostage! So we sat patiently, with a wine or two, until the police captured him and we were able to stroll around in the dry 42C heat. We were quickly back on board.
Northwest of Cook is the aboriginal land known as Maralinga. This where the UK government experimented with atomic bombs during the 1950s. The land is still contaminated and off limits and probably will be for the next few thousand years. Compensation cases are still proceeding through the courts.
The next scheduled stop was Rawlinna where we were supposed to have dinner on the station and view the outback stars. Because of the delay at Cook, we had dinner on the train instead but were still able to
get off for half an hour to see the stars. We were disappointed as the train crew refused to turn off the lights (Occupational and Safety Issues!) so what we saw was less than what we can see from our balcony at home. We did sneak a couple of people off into the “illegal” dark and pointed out the Southern Cross and other stars that they can't see from the Northern hemisphere.
It was early in the morning when we passed through Kalgoorlie/Boulder so we didn't get to see the 3.6 km wide and 1 km deep open goldmine. The rest of the trip into Perth was uneventful and we arrived on time, took a taxi to our hotel, had a wine in the bar and crashed into bed.
Off to Fremantle tomorrow (Monday). I will try to post something about our Perth experience before we leave on Wednesday. Today was 38C and tomorrow is forecast to be over 40C. Glad to have the air-con in the hotel.
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Your are off
What a great way to kick off your massive Round the World adventure...across the guts of Oz in the Indian Pacific...one of the World's iconic train rides. Does this mean you will try as many forms of transport as possible on this trip?