In the morning we set off for Sydney a little early so we could explore the city before our 3:00 train. We checked in our bags and started walking a big loop towards the Opera House and Sydney Harbor. On the way through Cockle Bay we were teased with delicious smelling (very expensive) food and saw our first Koala up close! It was outside a zoo and was perched up in a short tree all snuggled up as cute as I had imagined :) We walked right in front of the Opera House, under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and through the Royal Botanical Gardens where we had sandwiches for lunch. I even saw one of the giant bats Jeff had talked about from his last trip here! They really are huge. By the time we got back to Central Station we think we walked around 9k so we were ready to take our seats on the lovely Indian Pacific!
We were happy to find that the train is wider so the seats are a little bigger and there is also more foot room. The seats swivel to face the opposite direction and also recline to almost a full lying position compared to the other trains. The bathroom even has an automatic door and a shower inside of it. Oh, the things we find exciting. After all, we would be on the train for the next 2,720 miles.
Next to us was a guy named Matthew from Poland who was here backpacking for a few weeks and in his way to Adelaide. He told us if we go to Europe we need to include Norway and Poland among many other places. We had a stop in a town called Broken Hill which is an old mining town and got 2 small cups of black coffee for $8. I think my dad would like Broken Hill and all of its history filled goodness so we took a lot of photos. Got to talk to my mom on the phone for a little bit which was really nice. Sometimes a girl just needs to hear her mum's voice :)
On the train again after some new people had boarded we were riding along and I was feeling a bit nostalgic as my music playlist resembled something I'd make in my mid teens. Complete with Northstar, NoFx, NFG, the new amsterdams, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Mad Caddies, Metric, Less Than Jake, Johnny Cash, Thrice, Flogging Molly, Brand New, Alkaline Trio, etc. I was pumped! This group of elderly ladies were enjoying themselves in the bar and on one of their parades through the car one of them stops dead in her tracks in front of Jeff, lowers her sunglasses and says "Nice men... I wish I was younger!", looks him up and down, sighs and walks on. That's right, woman! As you can tell by his choice of dating a younger woman she doesnt stand a chance.
At this point we had seen tons of Emu's from the train but definitely not as many kangaroos (my guess is that it's hotter so they're hiding out in the shade during the day), camels, tons of really red dirt which was actually pretty amazing and a really red sunrise. Also, every time they make an announcement on the intercom on the train it first plays a little xylophone jingle exactly like the one in the movie Grease the lady gets so excited about on their last day of school and they always sound like they have no idea what they're going to say ahead of time. They just push the button, ramble for a bit and abruptly end. Kind of reminds me of how I sound when I leave people voicemails!
Our next "layover" was in Adelaide and we had about an hour and a half to explore before departing again so we wandered into town to get a small preview. I love all of the old buildings there! We also went to the Central Market which reminded me of the market in Seattle and got me excited to return there and explore more on the way back. We didn't have much time so we got back on the train and spent the rest of the evening watching Boardwalk Empire on the iPad.
I'd say we have gotten used to life on the go pretty well! I'm always amazed at how much stuff I can pull out of my one backpack whenever we stop anywhere and also how patient Jeff is as I generally take about 3 times as long to put it all away when we pack back up :) He's a good man. I no longer really care what day of the week it is except for knowing that if it's the weekend we might have a better chance of contacting family. Sleeping on trains isn't so bad when you have great music, a good book, good conversation and ever changing views. *as I'm writing this we are traveling back across the Nullarbor Plain, but I'll say more about that later*
I have my system of what shoes to wear when and what layers work to keep me warm (or cool). Our Virgin Australia fleece blankets are perfect and I'm glad we took ours (even if we weren't supposed to-- whoops) as they are great for pillows, blankets, protective barrier on hostel beds, etc.
I have been reading Bill Bryson's book entitled Down Under during this leg of the journey and will be using excerpts as he does a better job at describing things in a more humorous way. Before I say this next part let it be known that I don't think all 80+ year olds are like this (Nancy and Hedley being quite the opposite), but it's a pretty funny way of describing the situation.
"There is something wonderfully lulling about being stuck for a long spell on a train. It was like being given a preview of what it will be like to be in your eighties. All those things eighty-year-olds appear to enjoy - staring vacantly out of windows, dozing in a chair, boring the pants off anyone foolish enough to sit beside them - took on a special treasured meaning for me. This was the life!"
The next morning we woke up to a whole lot of nothingness. Really. We were crossing The Nullarbor Plain. The Nullarbor Plain is the largest single block of limestone in the world. It encompasses over 250,000 square km in total and was formed around 50 million years ago. It has no trees, just a few desert looking bushes here and there and yellowish rocks. Let's just say you wouldn't want to be stranded with a broken down car out there! It also includes the longest stretch of straight railway in the world. 297 miles without a hint of deviation! We stopped by a little almost abandoned town called Cook where apparently only 5 residents remain. We had 30 mins to wander around while they refilled the water on the train and it was pretty interesting. Very dusty and abandoned and I wanted to stay and take photos all day! We had talks about how much we miss our families and friends and can't wait to see Bear when we get back. It's not fun feeling homesick but I think something would be wrong if you didn't get homesick after being gone for a while. It's a good thing that we are missing it and it puts things into perspective and helps us to know what is most important to us.
We made it into Perth and navigated our way to Fremantle to stay for the next couple of nights at a caravan park. The park was alright, it had everything we needed as far as a kitchen, toilets and showers. The whole time we stayed there there was a pretty menacing looking spider dangling in its web right above the ladies room door. Of course you can only get in by key so I would try and have it ready so I could get in and slam the door as quickly as possible but of course one time I dropped the key several times in terror that it was going to drop on my head and bite me.
We did a lot of walking in Fremantle as there is a lot to see in a small area. The ocean is really light blue and the rocks are kind of yellow around it. The beach near us was a dog beach so we enjoyed watching all the dogs running around in sheer happiness fetching balls in the waves or chasing each other around and missed Bear. We got $17 fish and chips on the boardwalk (yikes!) at a place with a sign that said "W.A.'s voted best fish and chips" and laughed that it looked like WAS (as in used to be). We met up with Carolyn's son Rob who just moved there for a job and had a few beers at a pub in town. Now this is where Australia (particularly Western Australia) is dangerous for us. In Boise we go out for a few beers with friends and 3 beers each would maybe cost us $25-$30 but here it's $10 a pint so in just a few hours you can spend quite a bit. And that's ordering the cheaper beers we can find! Cocktails are at least $10 everywhere we go so we never get them.
We set off for the next two days in Perth where we had a reservation at another Caravan Park. When we got there we found out they had screwed up our booking and put us on a powered camper site (on cement blocks). They acknowledged that it has been a problem before but since they were totally booked they couldn't switch us to be anywhere else. There was a little dirt patch between two sites so we just set up there and after a few minutes another guest who had overheard our situation in the office offered to let us use his Internet to try and find another place for at least the next night. We did find a hostel in Perth after calling multiple places that were booked. We were just frustrated to pay $42 for a little tiny patch of dirt and the lady didn't offer a discount or anything even though it was a problem on their end. Oh well. They had a pool and it was damn hot so we felt refreshed after floating around in it for a bit. As we were laying out a lady named Britt and her daughter Enya came up for a dip as well. Enya just learned to swim so she was really excited about it and Britt just exuded warm energy so I felt happier within minutes of them showing up. Enya would swim back and forth across this little pool, each time needing less assistance as she developed more confidence and she had everyone cheering for her by the end of it. They were on vacation from Esperance which is Southeast of Perth on the coast. It was really nice talking with her and it reminded me that you never know how far simple kindness will go. Like Xavier Rudd says in his song Messages, "with each gift that you share, you may heal and repair. With each choice you make, you may help someone's day." We had been feeling a little discouraged and felt better just from her kindness. We went on a walk to the Swan River around sunset which is really gorgeous and took a lot of photos. As we were walking along we were greeted by a different breed of flies and giant mossies. Below is an excerpt from Bill Bryson's book describing these flies:
"I had gone no more than a dozen feet when I was joined by a fly - smaller and blacker than a housefly. It buzzed around in front of my face and tried to settle on my upper lip. I swatted it away, but it returned at once, always to the same spot. A moment later it was joined by another that wished to go up my nose. It also would not go away. Within a minute or so I had perhaps twenty of these active spots all around my head and I was swiftly sinking into the state of abject wretchedness that comes with prolonged encounter with the Australian fly.
Flies are of course always irksome, but the Australian variety distinguish themselves by their very particular persistence. If an Australian fly wants to be up your nose or in your ear, there is no discouraging him. Flick at him as you will and each time he will jump out of range and come straight back. It is simply not possible to deter him. Somewhere on an exposed portion of your body is a spot about the size of a shirt button that the fly wants to lick and tickle and turn delirious circles upon. It isn't simply their persistence, but the things they go for. An Australian fly will try to suck the moisture off your eyeball. He will, if not constantly turned back, go into parts of your ears that a Q-tip can only dream about. He will happily die for the glory of taking a tiny dump on your tongue. Get thirty or forty of them dancing around you in the same way and madness will shortly follow.
And so I proceeded into the park, lost inside my own little buzzing cloud of woe, waving at my head in an increasingly hopeless and desultory manner - it is called the bush salute - blowing constantly out of my mouth and nose, shaking my head in a kind of furious dementia, occasionally slapping myself with startling violence in the cheek or forehead. Eventually, as the flies knew all along I would, I gave up and they fell upon me as on a corpse."
As we were packing up the next morning our friend from the cabin who let us use hit Internet wished us a luck and our swimming friends also encouraged us to have a great journey and take care. My heart was about to burst so I left a thank you note on their camper door with our email address.
We made it to Perth at the Old Swan Barracks around 10am and couldn't check in until 1:00. Unfortunately we weren't greeted with the same kindness but they said we could store our bags in a room that looked like it'd be a candy shop for a clepto maniac. We took any electronics and our day backs on a journey to Kings Park where there is an amazing view of the city and the Swan River and had a picnic. It reminded me a little of Central Park in NYC-- very large with a lot of walking paths and statues. We also checked out the aboriginal arts center! After some exploring we headed back to the hostel to check in.
After checking in and showering up we were about to head out again when we had a knock on our door from a serviceman who said they needed to repair our fire alarm because it was broken. Basically we ended up having to sit there for 2 hours while waiting for him to finish working on it before we could go anywhere unless we wanted our room door left open and unattended while he came and went. We weren't too happy about it since it was our last day in W.A. and we didn't get a lot of time to explore Perth.
Let me just tell you a little about this hostel... When we were checking in we were told that we couldn't bring in our sleeping bags if we had any. Now if you have slept in a hostel before you know that sometimes the sheets look as if they haven't been cleaned and some of the people look so as well. They said we can leave them in the room I mentioned before and get them in the morning and weren't even allowed to bring them up even if left in our backpacks. My concern at that point was that our bags would get stolen (not desirable as we pretty much use them wherever we go) but the lady was not keen at all on my idea of bringing them in the room and leaving them in the bag and was pretty rude about it. She then ignored us as she helped the next customers when still needed to get our bags before heading upstairs so when another employee helped us we snuck our damn sleeping bags up to that room and we used them! It's a good thing too, because there was crumbly dirt under and on our blankets that were provided so they were obviously not clean. The halls and bathrooms were pretty filthy and looked more like I'd imagine a frat house to look and the toilets in the ladies room were positioned right next to low windows that won't close and face a public parking lot. So you can have conversations with strangers as you do your business! Around the hostel were various threatening signs everywhere. "unplug your room fan from wall and you will face fines and eviction!!!" or "you're on camera! If you don't clean your dishes you will be fined and evicted!!!" etc. Basically they came across as the type who will try to fine you for everything and anything as a dodgy landlord would during move out inspection. In the middle of the night I went to use the toilet and walked in on a girl doing drugs on the bathroom sink, construction starts outside our window around 7:00 am, we kept waking up in random itch fits and all of the doors slam pretty loud. In the morning as we were packing up Jeff noticed a used condom barely pushed under the edge of the bed that we didn't notice until leaving! Obviously this room hadn't even been cleaned... When we mentioned the last part to reception when checking out she simple responded with no emotion "Oh. I'm sorry. I'll tell someone else. You're all done here." and began helping the next person. The free toast was nice though ;)
We did go on a really pretty walk along a different portion of the Swan River the night before where we saw a badass carnival thing and really interesting playgrounds. They have those giant spider web climbing nets at a lot of the playgrounds here which are pretty fun!
On the way back to the station to head back east I told Jeff the story of when my mom, sister and I all went to NYC and got separated on the subway when we were in our teens. I'll never forget the look on my moms face as the door shut with her on the subway and us still in the platform ;)
Overall, despite the lack of customer service and dodgy accommodation in Perth, we really enjoyed our trip to Western Australia and want to come back some day and really explore! Most people were very friendly and it's a beautiful place to visit.
Now we are off to Adelaide! We will entertain ourselves with episodes of Australia's Amazing Race as we are missing the American season currently. Our friend Julie will have to fill us in when we get back!
