Day 28

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location:In Transit
summary:Tour of Kalgoorlie, brief stop in Cook
day:28

Day 27

I took a proper volley of pictures of the train today. We are occupying two double berths, and last night I had to share mine with another passenger, while David and John had one to themselves. I’m told my passenger gets off today so I will have the berth to myself for the rest of the trip. On one side of our carriage is another holiday class carriage, then two first class carriages and the first class lounge and dining cars. The door between holiday and first class wasn’t locked, but a sign on the door said “first class passengers only” so we didn’t venture down that way. On the other side were our own lounge and dining cars. Our dining car was broken into two sections by the kitchen, leaving the majority of the carriage for holiday class tables, and a tiny area on the other side for the economy class passengers’ take-away counter. I definitely would not have enjoyed the journey if I had gone economy.

Day 26

I had heard about Bridgeclimb before we left for Oz, and it took quite some time to work out whether we could afford it. Climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge is not something a person has the opportunity to do very often, and seemed like the perfect end to our stay in Sydney. The cost was around A$120 per person, so it wasn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination. In the end I figured that I probably couldn’t afford it, but hey, why not do it anyway.

Day 2

As the second movie was coming to an end, I looked around the cabin, which was in darkness. In our section of the plane, I could see more than a hundred people, and all of them were asleep.

Day 1

One of the biggest draws Australia has as a holiday destination is simply the fact that it is a very, very long way away. It is actually about as far away as you can get from London unless you have around £14m and are willing to let the Russians blast you into space. This is one of the main reasons I chose it. The other was the fact that David had suggested it some weeks before. In fact, now I think about it, it was probably his idea. Nevertheless, the hugeness of the distance involved is often underestimated, which is why, sitting on a QANTAS flight from London Heathrow to Singapore, I wondered for the sixth or seventh time why I was not blessed with the ability to spontaneously fall asleep whenever convienient. We may be travelling across twelve time zones, but dammit, it’s dark outside and I want to sleep. Essentially, when travelling from the UK to Australia, you get roughly two shorter-than-normal days, depending on what time you leave. On the way back, you get just one monster one. Staying awake, it seemed, was going to be more unpleasant than I had thought.