Across the Nullarbor

Wednesday 18th March 2009

So this is the day, the trip across the Nullarbor! I'd spoke to a few people about the trip during my last few days in Perth and got mixed reviews about it all. One person loved it and a few others were a little unsure, having good & bad experiences. I'd been warned to bring plenty of food & drink to keep me tide over for the two days so I stock up before I go. There are two classes of transport on the Indian Pacific, Red Kangaroo Class(for all the riff raf) and Gold Class which seems to be occupied by OAPs (paying no less then $1500). Checking in for the trip is like checking in for a flight, you have to be there 1hr before and your luggage gets checked into a hold. Before we board we get a welcome from the crew of the train and as we take our seats I realise that I am one of the lucky few to have two seats to myself, bonus! The trip turns out to be far easier than what I expected, I end up bumping into a few backpackers and locals which makes the couple of days pass relatively quickly. The dining cart on the train is like a little café, the food ain't bad plus they serve booze...this is a lugary trip! About 10hrs outside of Perth we stop off in a place called Kalgoorlie. I am sure most people have seen some documentaries about this place. Its a big mining town which seems to draw, mostly men, from all over to work in the pits. At night they all seem to pack the bars which are served by women dressed in what they call skimpies (women in underware). Anyway we have 4-hrs to kill in this place and arriving at 10pm there is only one thing you can really do, go check out the bars! Its fair to say we got a few stairs walking and you do get that feeling of not wanting to miss the train out of here! If you do miss it, you have to wait 4-days until the next one...that's if you are still alive ;-)
Further on up the line we stop in a place called Cook for a fuel refill. It has a population of 4,mad! Its hard to believe anything exists out it's so far from any form of life. As for the scenery on the trip, well it was pretty consistent...have a look at the video below. This pretty much all we saw for over a day, the rest was mad up the odd tree appearing now and then.