I really enjoyed sleeping late Saturday morning rather than rising to find a tour bus early in the morning. Saturday was a rest day of reading and relaxing, I knew that I’d have to rise early on Sunday April 21st to catch my scheduled Uber to the East Perth Terminal where I would board the Indian Pacific train to Adelaide. Though I would have loved to have stayed in bed Sunday morning, I woke around 5:20 am and made coffee. Packing took some effort and less time than I’d expected, but I really would have to either discard things or send some things home once I reached Adelaide. I was running too late to eat and enjoy breakfast at the Hyatt; check-in for the train supposed to close around two hours before departure. I figured that I’d just grab something at the train terminal.

I have to say that I liked Perth quite a bit. Maybe the pleasant weather or my need for a quiet break from travel were coloring my opinion. Still, the city felt livable and comfortable and the people were easy-going and friendly. I’d go back there to live. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_quality_of_life_indices)

I arrived at the train station by 7:50 am for a 10 am departure; a train with the Indian Pacific logo was already waiting. While looking for a check-in booth, I came across a breakfast spread and waiting passengers enjoying the buffet – I guess I’d come into the terminal from the wrong direction.  I walked on a little further and saw the check-in queue. The process was fairly quick, but I did note that my fellow passengers were of an age – definitely over 60 for the most part – and some seemed a bit easily confused. This slowed check-in but since the demands of check-in were pretty minimal, the slowdown was likewise minimal. I made my way back to the breakfast area with my luggage and picked up some coffee, juice and fruit. There was a musician with a guitar playing pop tunes from the 1970’s and some Australian well-known tunes which I did not recognize; in any case, the passengers were happily singing along. I drank my coffee while listening to him and the crowd for a while, humming along when I could. My assigned cabin was in a car near the front of the train which was far from the breakfast area. I decided to start walking to my train car, since I thought it might take me a while to get there. It was much quieter and calmer at that end of the platform – I couldn’t hear the music and just a few of us waiting to board the train. I just waited there until our car steward said it was boarding time.

The car itself was not as well appointed as the Eastern & Oriental Express car in Singapore but it seemed well-kept and comfortable. Rather than a straight path down the center of the car, the center hall path of the car was a shallow sine wave – maybe to fit in slightly larger cabins, I thought. My cabin was at the other end of the car from the entrance, near the toilets and shower room. It’s the smallest cabin I have had this entire trip but it does have a sink. Gold class it is, not platinum premium.

The car steward came by to tell me about the features of the train car: round the clock access to tea and coffee, shower room/toilet locations and when lunch would be served. I’d been looking forward to this train trip for quite a while; the Indian Pacific is one of the most iconic train journeys in the world. Despite that fact, I really had not looked at my travel documents closely. Of course, when I did look at my documents, I saw this note: “For the comfort and safety of guests, it is recommended that an overnight bag (airline cabin bag or rollaboard carry-on luggage size) is packed for use on train and while enjoying the Off Train Experiences.” My carry-on and backpack just barely fit into the cabin. I got settled and enjoyed the scenery East Perth and suburbs until lunchtime. The dining car was five cars away and walking there with the train motion did strain my knee, but there were unlimited Australian wine and select spirits for the passengers to ease any issues. The musician from the railway station was onboard to entertain people while waiting for our meal time seating. The three other people at my lunch table were all retired Australians on once-in-a-lifetime trips either to Sydney or to Adelaide where they would pick up The Ghan, the train running through the center of Australia to Darwin on the north coast. Conversation was good and the food was excellent. I returned to my cabin after lunch to read and enjoy the scenery of country towns and post-harvest fields of Western Australia’s Avon Valley go by.

Dinner, however, was a little different: the food was still excellent but my table mates were a little dotty. Conversation was a bit of an effort, full of a number of pauses and repeats. I returned to my cabin to rest my knee and await our late evening arrival in the gold rush town of Kalgoorlie. There was a planned excursion into town but I skipped it – my knee was aching and I’d had enough of talking with people for the evening. While I dressed for bed in one of the toilet/shower rooms – a room at least as large as my bathroom at home, the car steward made up my bed. It was a pretty comfortable bed and not as cramped as I thought it might be. I read a while and must have fallen asleep when I woke to hear people returning from the excursion. We do become set in our ways as we grow older: While I like quiet at night before bed, one of the couple with the cabin across from mine was apparently in the habit of listening to the radio before bed. Since they were a bit deaf, the sound volume was high enough to keep me and others awake. It took several requests by me and the car steward for the volume to be set low enough before I was able to fall asleep.