Back from Perth!

The great adventure began on last Monday morning as Dan, my fellow train enthusiast, and I departed from Sydney by air. I was surprised, once again, at the vastness of this country. Our flight plan took us over New South Wales, Southern Australia, the South Ocean (a portion of the Indian Ocean) and then the vast desert plains. The five hour flight was uneventful and we quickly settled into our hotel room and began to plan out the two days that we would be in Perth before embarking upon the train trip. Our hotel was on the east end of the city and a walk in our neighborhood revealed to us that this wasn't Sydney! The streets were wider, the traffic slower and the people less diverse in their ethnicity.

That afternoon we explored the beautiful city of Perth (population of 1.3 million). This city is called the most isolated of Australia’s state capitals. Located in the State of South Australia, Perth is closer to Singapore than Sydney. We spent an enjoyable afternoon and evening getting to know the city amid the 94degree heat. You don’t actually notice the heat because of the “Freemantle Doctor.” This is the name given to the gentle, persistent, cooling breeze which blows inland from the Indian Ocean along the Swan River upon which Perth is built. The Swam flows from the nearby Darling Mountains out to the sea – about 30km from Perth.

On Tuesday, after a delightful breakfast at a side walk café, we decided to take a lunch cruise down the Swan River to Freemantle and the Indian Ocean. We walked to the wharf through a beautiful park along the Swan River. The picture to the left shows the wharf and park as we sailed out of Perth. It was a wonderful trip which provided us with magnificent views of Perth and the homes which line the wide river.

At Freemantle the Swan River empties into the Indian Ocean. If you could look across the ocean you would see India to the west and Indonesia to the north west. The huge harbour receives many container ships from the East loaded with goods, raw materials and cars. The captain prepared us for the sight we would see and as it turned out, there wasn't a single ship in the harbour!

The climate here is described as Mediterranean and the red tile roofs and brick homes attest. They say that in Freementle there are 23 dialects of Italian spoken!

Wednesday morning we took a cab to the train station to meet the famous Indian Pacific of the Great Southern Railway. We had a leisurely breakfast in the "Whistle Stop Cafe" in the depot, which also serves as a station for for the Perth mass transit system light rail trains. At precisely 11:55am the train began its 4,352 km (2611.2 mile) journey across the southern Australian outback. It’s not a fast train. It travels an average of 85kph (about 50 mph) on its transcontinental journey from Perth to Sydney via Adelaide. For the most of the distance there is only a single track. This means that frequently our train pulled on a siding to let another train coming from the other direction pass by. This process went on day and night as we moved across the outback.

The route takes us across the Nullabor Plain where we traverse the world’s longest stretch of straight track; not a curve or swerve for 478 kilometers (292.2 miles). There are two towns in the Nullabor, Kalgoorie (population 30,000) and Cook (population 8). When you look out the window, all you see is flat, scruffy gray green very short vegetation, sand and an occasional kangaroo, camel or wallaby. The area was named Nullabor from the Latin: "nullius arbor" - no trees! I guess so!

The scenery in the days on the train were very similar and made it very easy to read a book. But every now and then a glance out the window of my compartment revealed a magnificent view of this part of God's beautiful creation - especially as night time fell upon the outback.

After two nights and almost two days, we arrived in Adelaide in Western Australia. We detrained here because we couldn’t get passage clear through to Sydney. It worked out well because we really wanted to see what Adelaide (population of 1.2 million) was like. Unlike Sydney and Perth, this city was planned out on an easy to understand and get around grid. It is clean with wide streets and many green parks sprinkled within the grid of streets.

We had trouble finding a hotel in Adelaide when we started planning. Once we got there we understood why. Adelaide was hosting 15,000 visitors for the World Fire and Police Competition. Ended up with a great 15th floor room in a classy hotel that we wouldn’t have otherwise chosen. Our two days there were filled with exploration of the city and the nearby famous Barossa Valley wineries.

On Sunday we went to the local Cathedral to Mass and then headed out to the airport for the trip home. The flight home went well and if we had taken the right bus home, we would have been back to The Centre by 7:00pm. As it was, we neglected to notice that the 400 bus we boarded was going the wrong way until we were almost an hour on the road in the dark. The buses come into the airport on a one way loop so you have to be careful. We realized we were going the opposite direction from what we should be, got off and walked to the other side of the street for the ride back through the airport and to Randwick, where we live.

I was in bed by 10pm! A great adventure for sure!