trains, trains and more trains

Until I went ot Australia, I think the longest I ever spent on a train was half-an-hour from Killie to Glasgow. But when I found out I could save over $600 on fares by getting the train across Oz instead of the bus, I decided it was time I spent a bit more time on them...DAY 1; I was quite excited about my big train adventure by the time I found my way to EAST PERTH train station (not central, tchah!), and when I first saw the Indian Pacific, it was hard not to get a few goosebumps; this thing is BIG, like, twenty carriages long, It was like getting another airplane again, check in an hour and a half before, hand over the luggage, window or aisle seat etc. I didn't even mind having to sit around for all that time while they stocked her up, and the platform was full of excited tourists young and old, walking along the length of the train, getting their picture taken with it. By the time we were ready to board everyone was pretty excited, and even the fact that once on board, the seats were a little old, the windows a bit dirty, it all just seemed to add to the magic of it. Sod's law that it that is I should find out in the midst of all this excitememnt that I'm sitting next to a german girl for two days, typical! And if that wasn't bad enough, the first "in-flight" movie was Ice-Age, as if I didn't spend enough nights at Fettes watching that bloody film. But you can't really ignore someone and stare out the window on long journey like this, so me and Sophie (heh!) were soon sitting chatting away, wandering around and trying to find a car were the air-conditioning was working (ours was bust, but we all got free drinks vouchers to compensate) It only took a few hours out of Perth before the scenery was changing to er, red bush and scrub I guess, attractive enough to look at in an unending kind of way. Apart from our two seating carrrraiges, there was a lounge car with a few sofas, video games etc, a diner/buffet car and smoking car, which I never bothered checking out. It has to be said it's a wonderful way to pass the time, a slow lazy train ride through amazing countryside with a cold beer (although they only had bloody VB and Carlton Draught) I was actually quite annoyed when it got dark and we couldn't really see where we were going anymore. So it was something of a surprise when we got to Kalgoorlie, wild, gold-mining, frontier-type town of the australian wild west that it is. Despite the late hour, such was the prestige of the Indian Pacific that tour buses were ready and waiting to take us round town during our stop. Our guide, Pierre (bit of a poofy name for a gold-miner if you ask me) drove us around at a snail's pace so we could admire the wonderful 19th century architecture of all the bars whilst he cheerfully informed us of all the filthy legends each establishment enjoyed. We were then taken up to the superpit, a vast, 3km wide floodlit hole were all the gold comes from: quite a sight at night (but only Indian Pacific passengers see it like that), but annoyingly difficult to photograph! After that it was down to Hay street for a quick look at some of the infamous, quasi-legal tin-shack brothels (which included a brief visit onto the bus by a transsexual madame) before it was back to the station and our waiting train. Actually, it was another hour before we left, but the station shop stays open late for the Indian Pacific passengers, so...DAY 2; absolutley sod all sleep overnight on the train, I think comfort seats are cleverly designed to be anything but. What made it more annoying was that Sophie seemed to be able to sleep like a log beside me for about ten hours. However, once it got brighter and I could watch the scenery again I was a bit happier. By now we were onto the logest strecth of straight track in the world, a good few thousand kilometres and absolutley nothing to look at, which, conversely, was something to look at in itself. Having finally clambered over Sophie to get my brekkies, I quite happily sat in the loubge car sinking a few cold ones before they put on Garfield-The Movie. But the highlight, (or indeed, the only event) of the day was the town of Cook, strategically placed in the middle of nowhere as an essential refuelling and stocking point for the trans-continental trains. So we were allowed twenty minutes to get off and wander around at our leisure to look at the (empty) school, jail, and post office, and the hospital which consisted of a sign saying hospital, and nothing else. By the time I found the cricket ground I felt they were taking the piss slightly, since the population of Cook is 2, and they're bothe lovely old women who sit in the gift shop and sell lots of amusing souvenirs whenever the train comes through. A miserable existence or a great bit of peace and quiet, you decide. But it did break up the journey nicely on the way to Adelaide...DAY 3; We reached Adelaide early on fri morning, and my first impression was that it was a bit scabby. But you can't judge a city by it's train yards, and we had three hours to look around the train station. Nothing else unfortunatley, cos this was the Keswick terminal, whihc catered exclusively to the three great australian trains, the Indian Pacific, The Overland and The Ghan. But I celebrated my 31st birthday with a superb bacon/sausage butty in the Ghan tavern, then celebrated it again when I got on the Overland to Melbourne and found that, against all odds, me and Sophie had been given seats next to each other again for the trip south. The scenery outside Adelaide was fairly pleasant, lots of vineyards and rolling hills and stuff, but I missed most of it cos my body decided it needed to catch up on all the sleep I was missing from the last two days. I was woken up by Sophie laughing her little german head off at Legally Blonde. so decided to hit the buffet car fro a few cold ones. As it turned out it was pretty quiet, so I ended up sitting talking to Sinaed, the girl working the diner about travel, scotland, life working on the trains etc, a most pleasant afternoon. Sadly it was then announced that we were coming into Melbourne, so Sinaed had to close the bar and I had to back to my seat and start wondering how bloody huge this place must be. It took about an hour by my reckoning before we were rolling into Spencer Street station and absolute chaos; the station is in the middle of a refurb and my god you could not imagine a worse mess, it was as if someone had tried to build half a station in a building site. And as luck would have it, Penny had a prior engagement; though the train was coming in later, could you come and meet me in Frankston, it's easy to find you can get a train out here, only takes 45 mins...as it turned out it takes an hour and 12 mins from Spencer Street to Frankston, which was nothing compared to the journey I'd just done, though my ass did complain a little.

this is the Nullarbor, not much to look at eh?

it's a long way back tp Perth