By the numbers
2kms walk from hostel
1 long train
The night had been hot and stuffy. I had been in my underwear since I had returned to my room in the hotel / hostel as it was way too hot to wear clothes. While I had plenty to drink I still had a little bit of a headache and had to lie down several times in the afternoon to ease it. No respite from the heat probably knocked me around a bit. My clothing would have been drenched in sweat anyone, so I was saving them from that. My seat that I had been on was damp, my bed sheets including pillow was damp from sweat. Soaking wet was an over statement even if it was pretty close to that. The hotel wasn’t airconned as I have probably said in the past. I don’t usually have a shower after waking up, but I was damp enough that I required a quick one. It was a couple minutes after 5am, and once I was dried off, I headed out to the station in East Perth. This time I did not stop and while it was cool it was still really warm. I took mainly the same route as the day before and encountered no one who would stop me to ask for things.
I made it to the station just after 6am where I had another hour before check in started. I sat down in the airconditioning to relax and recover. The cool down felt really good and I was there well before the train had arrived. Once I was able to randomly check in at the appointed time, the crowd started growing and there were tables and chairs . Drinks and nibblies were provided before anyone could board and when the first few people had checked in, the train pulled up with so many carriages following behind. The best part was my carriage was right in front of where I had checked in. I was told it wouldn’t be cold so wouldn’t need a jumper. I did look at the maps for other trips throughout the WA area that were available and I might be able to do some more eventually like Esperance. I walked the length of the platform on both ends and couldn’t get to the last carriages or the train itself as it had ended. The time to board soon came around and the attendant to our group of rooms came to each cabin to talk about the basics. We were scheduled times for our meals, which were on cards, and told the tour we would be doing was around 9pm and be back at midnight. I kinda like that idea as the beds would be sorted out by then.
To be honest it was nice to be sitting on a train watching the world go by as there wasn’t much you needed to do. It felt great to be in the aircon. That and I didnt need to worry about my bag as I knew where it was. There were several people travelling who were using walkers. When it was my turn for lunch I found the meal to be really nice and filling especially when it included dessert. So far the meals have been really nice. Even though I have wanted to eat on my own that hasn’t really happened exactly. Lunch meant I was with a father and his daughter. She was a teacher in Melbourne and the father retired from York in the UK. Then at dinner I ended up with two ladies one a German from Frankfurt who travels during the Europe winter as she doesn’t like the cold. She is interesting as she was in Hawaii when covid hit and had to get back. The funny thing is she had a bad experience in Auckland as it wasn’t to her expectations, although I know the lack of public transport was one. The other lady is an American who works as a civilian nurse working for the armed forces. She is currently located in Japan near Hiroshima working for the Navy, specifically the Marines. I am happy to do my own things though.
An observation is that people of many ages are travelling including those with walkers. That isn’t really easy getting around the train with heavy doors and several are unable to make it to the dining cart. The landscape does keep changing, although once it is dark you cant see much of anything at all. That was the case of when we arrived in Kalgoorlie. By this time out beds had been put down as dinner service had ended. It was around not long after 9pm at night that we appeared in town. We had passes identifying which cabin on the train we were and the number of the bus. Though it was 2, the number of the bus was actually 68. It was just a touch confusing and there were around 3 vehicles taking us to a show at Paddy Hannlon (spelling might not be correct) museum. We got a view of what the dump trucks looked like and they did a two person theatre show about striking gold. It was actually out here that the Perth mint was talking about with the gold fever. Then later on Allan Bond bought up leases that created the superpit gold mine. They respect him there. We got to see the superpit in the dark even though its a 24 hour running mine, I could see things moving, and the mine was still expanding. Funny how the info board was taking about reducing dust, but the driver talked about more dust. We got a night tour of the town, although pictures don’t come out at night and it was around 1am by the time we got back on the train. There was waiting around for the train as it wasn’t at the station as a goods train was scheduled to come through and with carriages it was too long. The town has a water pipeline that runs from Perth as there is no water out here. While at the station there were a few drops of rain.
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