Day 2 on the Indian Pacific...

(Please see post under the Back in a while...post for Day 1 on the IP)

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Monday 15/2

Oh, we did not sleep well! We are very tired today.

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My view out the window, clicketty clack, clicketty clack!

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This is the Nullabor Plain, dry arid and not much to see!

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This is where my phone said we were at 8.30am...

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It was Valentines Day on Sunday, we gave each other cards...

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This breakfast certainly hit the spot...

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We were to have a half hour stopover at Cook, a very remote town, now basically a ghost town.  There are 4 residents - the hospital has been bulldozed, the school shut down, the general store closed.  

Now, here's a story for you.  My blogger friend,Tania  http://outbacktania.blogspot.com.au/ 

messaged me to say her freight train driver hubby, Phil, would be in Cook when we pulled in for a stop.  I rang him and he was there to meet us.  We first met Tania and Phil in September 2014 when we did our Flinders Ranges trip. :)

He kindly drove us around in his 4WD and showed us each building, mostly all derelict now.  There are new quarters for the train drivers to rest and relax in.

Then Phil said "Now I'm going to take you to see someone who knows you." .... what? Who could we possibly know, out of 4 people living in Cook?

It turned out to be a guy, Steve, who used to live in our town and I knew him through my sisters when they used to attend hunts (with horses) and Gus knew him as he had a mechanical business.  Small world (phew, I only just recognised him!)...

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A big thanks to Phil for touring us around.  Other people on the train wondered why we got the royal treatment, lol!

All too soon it was time to get back on board and choof off down the line.  Phil wasn't heading back to Adelaide until the evening.

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Time to eat again!

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The dining car...

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We met a nice couple from the Southern Highlands, NSW - John and Lynne so we had dinner with them both nights. We chatted away about all sorts of things...

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Lamb loin...

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My delicious chicken, so very good!

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Yummy Lamington dessert...cake on top and a chewy, gooey chocolate on the bottom...

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The landscape is starting to change as we get nearer to South Australia...

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Oh, dear - dinner! More food!  This is a goats cheese soufflé - yummy, of course.

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Mullet entrée...

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Vegetarian lasagne with lentils, delicious!

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Pork roast...

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That's all the pics I took that day. Again, we had to put our clocks forward another 1.5 hours to align with SA time.  We headed to bed for an early night to see if we could get any sleep.  As it turned out, we did sleep better. We were up at 6am, showered, packed up and ready to disembark at 7.30am into Adelaide.

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All the staff did a magnificent job.  The staff are the same ones who wake you in the morning with a cup of coffee in your cabin then say goodnight to you as you leave the lounge car after dinner.  Big long days for them, making sure every passenger is happy and comfortable.  We certainly had nothing to complain about at all.
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We taxied to our girl's place, I did loads of washing to repack for our next bit of adventure over on the Yorke Peninsular.

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Cheers - Joolz xx

Back in a while...

...we're off the Indian Pacific but its too hard to blog with internet cutting in and out. Will be back after the weekend with the rest of our trip.

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Cheers - Joolz xx

The Indian Pacific ...

Continuing on from where I left off with our trip to WA

Sunday 14/2

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We're going on a train!  The Indian Pacific will take us across Australia back to Adelaide. It will then continue on to Sydney.

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We had a meet and greet cup of tea on the station platform then we boarded and found our sleeper cabin.

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There seem to be a lot of grey haired people on this train!

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This is our tiny cabin, home for the next two nights...

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Here is our tiny toilet and shower closet...

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Our route, Perth to Adelaide.

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This is the lounge car where you can have tea, coffee, beer and wine anytime. They had a selection of games and jigsaws on hand for those who like that.

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Lunch on the first day and we shared our table with Gherhard from Germany. He didn't speak English very well ... but then, our German was a little rusty too!  :)

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The food was fantastic - my fillet steak ...

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Gus's seared tuna...

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The view out of the window, Australia flying by...

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Dessert - panna cotta and cheese plate. We are full!

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We headed back to the cabin to relax and watch the landscape...I may have had a snooze...Zzzzz!

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The IP stops every so often to allow freight trains to pass. We pull off on a side track then whizzz, a train rattles past us then we get going again.

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Dinner - it looks a bit yuck but it was delicious yabby and lobster bisque...

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Lamb...

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Gus chose fish again - swordfish...

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Choc mousse pudding...

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...and a cheese plate. We share these.

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We rolled into Kalgoorlie at about 10pm.  Here we disembarked and went on a night bus tour through the main street of Kalgoorlie, showing us all the different shopfront facades then out to the Supercut mine.

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A picture of the open cut mine...huge!

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We were given a talk on this huge truck and I blogged all the info when we got back on the train but then lost the blog post so that's why I stopped blogging the trip. So annoying!

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When we got back on the train we had to put our clocks forward 1 hour to ease us  into the 2.5 hour time difference with South Australia. It is now 1am! 

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The wonderful staff had converted our lounge into bunk beds, complete with choccies on the pillows!  Gus got the top bunk!

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We didn't get a lot of sleep the first night, the train is noisy and creaks and groans...a lot!

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Cheers - Joolz xx

WA - Day 7

Saturday 13/2

Time to leave beautiful Rottnest Island ...

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I can highly recommend this island.  It has a very chilled atmosphere, not highly commercialised and is only a 25 minute ferry ride from Perth.  We did what we wanted (Segways, cycling) at our pace. I think everyone was in chill out mode.   Our accomodation was basic beach style but comfortable.  Plenty of places to eat (Dome, Aristo's and Hotel Rottnest).  We shall return!

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We got to Perth around lunch time so we checked into our hotel (the Hyatt had overbooked do we were switched to the very nice Duxton.

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Lovely!

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We found a spot for lunch then the girls went shopping for an hour or two.

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Dinner was at a Thai restaurant called Nunam.  Very nice food but the place was so dimly lit I couldn't see what I was eating!

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Home to the hotel to pack a small bag for our two night stay aboard the Indian Pacific train which will take us back to Adelaide. Excited!

Cheers - Joolz xx