We landed in
Perth around 1pm local time. This trip had so many time changes our bodies were a bit confused sometimes, especially in Australia. After grabbing our bags, we hailed a taxi and headed to the CBD (central business district). Our driver said we were the first American riders he transported! I guess since Perth is so remote, not many Americans make it out there.
Our first stop after a bite to eat on the river front was to see was the
Swan Bell Tower.
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| Swan River front |
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| neat cones |
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| Swan Bell Tower |
Next we walked through the Supreme Court Gardens to see the Government House and I just had to pose near the kangaroo statues!
We then hopped on a Transperth train and bus to Rendezvous Hotel Perth in Scarborough across from Scarborough Beach. After we checked into our room, we kept pushing through jet lag and decided to touch our toes in the Indian Ocean. The beach was not much of a swimming beach due to the riptides, but it was beautiful. Once we secured a ride to the train in the morning, we watched the sun set over the ocean. After enjoying dinner, I think we were asleep by 9pm.
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| Rendezvous Hotel Perth |
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| view from our room |
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| Indian Ocean |
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| sunset |
Our alarm went off the next morning (Merry Christmas!) and we took a taxi to the East Perth train station where we were welcomed by the Great Southern Rail staff. We met a family from Perth while waiting to board that kindly shared their Christmas strawberry sparkling wine with us. Finally, after enjoying several cups of tea and chatting, it was time to board and we were welcomed to the Platinum car with bubbles as the journey began.
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| boarding bubbles |
We met another couple from Perth and a UK expat couple living in Nelson, NZ. One of the best things about traveling, other than seeing amazing sights and having fantastic experiences, is the people you meet and what you learn from them. It has been fun keeping in touch too!
We spent most of the time in the Platinum lounge car where we had our meals and watched the country glide by.
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| dining area |
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| hallway |
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| kangaroo! |
The stateroom was great and our comfy beds were pulled down from the wall each night for us.
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| room by day |
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| bathroom |
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| nice toiletries |
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| beds by night |
The food was really tasty and I loved how on each menu there was a map with a line representing the route and a dot to let us know where we were along the journey for that meal.
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| Christmas meal with popper |
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| lunch after visiting Cook |
Our first stop was many hours later that night at
Kalgoorlie (mining town). Keep in mind we are still pushing through jet lag. I felt really bad almost falling asleep during dinner chatting with our new friends. The wife works for a company that rents the giant CAT equipment to mining companies. They totally understood I was tired thankfully. We were bused to a spot for a short play about the history of the town's founding then got to climb all over two giant CAT vehicles.
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| this tire is 2 Amys high |
We were then transported to the super pit overlook. The mine runs 24/7, so even though it was so late (and Christmas Day), we could see the machines hard at work deep down in the pit. It would have been great to see this in the light, but it was still a very neat experience. We learned from our friend that an entire dump truck load contains only a tiny bit of gold dust.
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| those tiny looking lights are the giant vehicles down in the pit |
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| model of the super pit |
I slept like a baby as we rocked along the rails that night. The next morning our breakfast by the train at Rawlinna was scrapped because of rain, but we did have a chance to hop off for a bit and stretch our legs.
We then started the longest stretch of straight track in the world (almost 300 miles long) along the
Nullarbor Plain. No trees and flaaaat!
We saw wild kangaroos and emus along the way. It is difficult to take good photos from the moving train.
The next stop was at
Cook, population 4. It is a town that services the trains crossing the country.
I think after we got going again we adjusted our watches (we were on "train time" so did not always follow what timezone we were in along the way).
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| checking out the other lounge area |
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| seeing trees again! |
After sleeping peacefully, we arrived in
Adelaide to some rainy cloudy weather. We learned from our Kiwi friends that a typhoon (hurricane) had dumped huge amounts of rain at Uluru and the park was closed due to flooding. Thankfully we had several days for it to dry out before we flew there.
We took the city sights bus tour and sadly we did not see much from Mt Lofty, but it was still enjoyable to enjoy "brekkie" up there. There was a crew change here because Great Southern Rail's HQ is in Adelaide. Our Perth friends gave us an Australian sayings book which has been fun to read.
It was time to hit the rails again and Broken Hill was the next stop. It has a base for the
Royal Flying Doctors and a large mining population. We watched a short show that paid homage to The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which was filmed here.
After boarding once again, we had our last dinner and rest.
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| emu |
The following morning I had breakfast as we passed through the beautiful
Blue Mountains. Sadly I could not get a steady photo to document this part.
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| learned how to eat Vegemite like an Australian |
Around 11am we arrived at the Sydney train station and had to leave our lovely train and new friends. The train was an amazing experience and the food was delicious. We covered 4352 kilometers (2704 mi) on the three night/four day journey across Australia.
Next up, Bridge Climb and GBR!
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