The Great Train Journey Adelaide to Perth12 Jan 2006
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sunset from the train
as the sun goes down
The train when we stopped at Cook
...After 1 day and 2 nights on a train we arrived in Perth Saturday morning. The journey wasn't too bad, it was a great way of seeing the countryside. Yes, it was mostly a whole lot of nothing but great to see. Typically I was in the tiolet when we passed a herd of Camels on the Nullabor Plain! It was so amazing to go for such a great distance without seeing anything, apart from the odd dumped car (by the Aborigonies) and a few cows and birds!
The route across took us along the longest stretch of Straight railway in the world (it's ruler straight)of 478km.
After a very uncomfortable first night (the chairs didn't recline much and after a few hours I resorted to curling up on the floor with my head on my chair! Woke up with dead legs after aboiut 4 hours so back to the chair where you get a crook neck!, but hey it was all worth it!) So we arrived in the town of Cook at 8.45am on Friday. This was the strangest experience - the town is virtually 'shut down' and only has 4 people living there! The town closed due to to Privatisation of the Federal Government's railway system in the mis 90s which signalled Cook's downfall as an important railway destination. The town once had some 300 residents most of which gained employment when the train was a steam engine. Now the train stops in Cook to re-fuel. The residents get their supplies delivered weekly by the Indian-Pacific train!
The town was really spread out (dirt surface, no real roads) the school, swimming pool and hospital were all closed and all bar 2 houses were empty. There are no raods to Cook and the flying doctors service is available should they need medical attention (does anyone remember that program!!?)
Well I hope you enjoyed that history lesson!
Friday night we had a 3 hour stop in the town of Kalgoorlie. Slightly bigger than Cook with a population of 32,000, where prostitution is legal this was an interesting 3 hours! We went to a pub where all the girls serving were in bras and hot pants! They then go round with a jug collecting money so they take their tops off! They then serve for about20 minutes topless before re-dressing to later go round getting more money! We didnt pick a seedy joint or anything - this is done in EVERY pub in the town!! Bizarre! I'm sure it was an enjoyable evening for the men anyway!
Back on the train for another night! I think the vodkas helped me a bit more as I managed to sleep a bit better!
We travelled a total of 2659 km on the train! We arrived in Perth 9.10am Saturday and were met by Clare's parents friends, Trish with her son Chris. We were staying with them for 2 nights 2 hours SOuth of Perth in Bunbury.
