Training across the Nullarbor 23-24 Sept.

I’m writing this in our cabin on board the Indian Pacific train whilst crossing the Nullarbor Plain in the section that is dead straight for over 460km, the longest straight stretch of train track in the world. We left Perth yesterday bright and early, having our car at the station before 8 am; in fact we were the first arrival. Once we had taken our luggage and signed the paperwork we headed into the station to get some breakfast since we didn’t want to waste time cleaning up and packing anything but the basics in the morning. We had a lot of waiting around after this since we weren’t boarding until 11.30am but the time passed fairly quickly and soon we were being welcomed aboard the train and able to stow our luggage in our cabin; M-7&8, and see the nice little toiletries bags and information about meal sitting times etc. Chris, our conductor, came in and gave us a rundown of where everything was, where we could go to get a cuppa and biscuits any time we wanted at the end of our carriage. We chose the late meal times because that way getting up for breakfast wasn’t so early even though we agreed to have a cuppa brought to us at 6.30am! Ours was the Swagman’s Lunch which was at 2.15pm but before that they made an announcement over the speakers to invite us all to a Gold Service Reception in the Lounge Car. I should add here that we are travelling Gold Kangaroo which is like first class so it’s a bit more special. It was the best option if you want to take your car with you as they discounted the car transporting and then all meals are included as well as having a cabin with an ensuite.
At the Gold Service Reception, all those who chose the late lunch (Blue Card) sat around and were given a glass of either champagne or orange juice then the staff introduced themselves and asked each of us to do the same. It was quite a good way to get to know some of our fellow passengers especially since we ended up staying to chat for a little while after. We were also asked to let the staff know if we wanted to do the night tour while in Kalgoorlie that night and pay for it also. It was $25 a head and we decided that even though we had been to Kalgoorlie it might be worth the effort and it would fill in some of the time between stopping there at 10.20pm and leaving again at 1.40am. After this we went to the dining car to have lunch; well I went back to our cabin to the loo because at that stage I hadn’t realised there are toilets at the end of the corridor as well, and when washing my hands in the fold down basin the water spurted out as though there was an airlock and it was all over my shirt so I had to change shirts. Lucky I was in our cabin as it turned out! The dining room was beautifully set up with white table cloths, an orchid in a vase, silver cutlery and white china and we had a choice of two or three main courses and dessert, tea or coffee. You can buy cold drinks if you would like something other than water or hot beverages. We sat with an young English woman, a teacher, who is here on holidays and chatted to her over lunch.
After lunch, most people went back to their cabins to read ( I bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in Fremantle the day before), look out the window at the scenery, sleep, etc but some chose to go to the lounge bar or take a walk up and down the length of the train. Actually, you can’t walk the entire length; some areas are out of bounds to passengers and obviously you can’t get out where the cars are but it is enlightening to see how the other passengers are travelling. There are the Red Kangaroo passengers who don’t have a smaller cabin with no ensuite, the single cabins for one person – very small, and the people who are sitting up the entire journey. YUK! That would be awful; terribly uncomfortable and hard to sleep although some people were doing their level best to do so. The photo shows Fin holding the doors between carriages open. It goes: pull, pull, push, push to get through the four doors between. The photo of the cabin is with the bunks made up ready for bed.
After a long afternoon of rolling along watching the country side go by & reading we finally go to our allotted dinner time of 8pm. This time we had a choice of two entrees, four main courses and either dessert or a cheese plate, tea & coffee. The food was very nice and the servings a good size; not too much like some of the restaurants we have been to lately. We sat this time with a couple from Sydney who have been campervanning around. When we got back to our cabin after dinner, the upper bunk had been pulled down and both lower and upper had been made up ready for bedtime. This made it difficult to sit comfortably as before so I got up on the top bunk and read my book and Fin stayed down underneath on his bunk until we got into Kalgoorlie where we would disembark for our night tour.
We decided to do the tour thinking it would be informative being a guided one and also to see the Super Pit at night but we both felt that it was not really good value ($25 each) and would have not done it had we realized what it would be like. The pit at night is not that spectacular; in fact it is quite dark and difficult to see the real size and contours of the pit itself. I think the people whose only chance to see it was the night tour missed out really. Apart from showing us the street where the bordellos are and pointing out some of the hotels in Hannan Street with a little history that was the whole tour and we would have been better to get to bed earlier instead of being out so late and not getting enough sleep. I slept surprisingly well actually; it must have been the gentle rocking that helped.