Trying train times

Indian Pacific is the train running from East to West, from Sydney to Perth. The ocean south of here is named the Indian Pacific, we don't see much of it from the track. I got on in Adelaide on Thursday evening with my Gold ticket. That means all is inclusive, Platinum gets better and wider choices and cabins, I believe. First there was a nice dinner at Jolleys Boathouse hosted by the train company, where the passengers of Gold or better tickets got to meet up. The restaurant is by the river Torrance that floats through Adelaide. The City gave us a glorious sunset as a farewell present.

I'd booked a single cabin. That means a seat, a table and a sink, and on top a folding down lengthwise bed. Was rather shocked to find the chair faced backwards, some of my friends can relate to that being uncomfortable? Very happy that I got a different single cabin the second day, so my daylight views were forward and good. Plus for large window. At night I can roll up the blind to view lovely stars from the bed. Orion is upside down, confirmed :) But comfortable, not. Chair is ok, and I can put my feet up on my little suitcase - the large one won't be accessible until Perth.

Sleeping impossible on the first night. The train rolls and yawns and bumps, to illustrate you need both hands for your wineglass in the dining car. It's now on the longest straight stretch in the world, so it's the train or the track - my guess is both. The train is quaint - that is to say, old. Upholstery of chair needs repair, mattress on a compact bedframe is painfully thin. The coach has 18 single cabins, 2 toilets and 2 showers and a tea/instant coffee cubby. The noise is old-style train noise, always something rattling and squeaking somewhere. I'm finding Kleenex tissues very useful for wedging rattling doors and tables :)

One can always sit in the bar? Or the dining car? It is all inclusive :) Except the bar service closes fairly early (hours not advertised anywhere), and it has a limited selection and few good seats. Dining car looks nice with white linen and cloth napkins, and quality of food and service is good, but limited hours only there as well. So if you'd like a snack, tough luck. No stops with shops, no fridge. The forced dining seating in Gold section does mean you get to chat with other passengers. They are mostly nice except I'd rather not talk in the early morning.... Didn't bite anyone, at least I believe so.

Lovely bush view early Friday. There's one early stop Friday, on the way to an hour or so in Cook (population 4 - four -) waiting for takeover crew. The view after is a stunning desert, more vegetation than I'd imagined but that's the wet winter and spring this year, I guess. Very flat! Rumour says thousands of camels there but no sightings for me.

Somehow expected a higher quality train. This is something that could have run Bergen-Oslo 40 years ago. I've been told the Ghan which runs North-South is better in all ways, especially service - well except there is no sleep there either, unless you're one of those that sleep anyhow.

Big positive on the journey is lovely Bev, an Australian. We're sisters under the skin except she prefers dogs 😯 Very many other nice passengers too, diverse nationalities. I do believe I'm maybe the youngest passenger in the Gold section bar one, there are a few younger ones on the train in either Standard or Platinum.

Dinner Friday evening was not in the dining car, it turned out. Plank tables and benches, outside the train, starting around sunset. Proper plates and napkins, sausages and lamb roast with veg ok, mint jelly was nice! The single choice red or white wines were good ones. A one man band tried to get the passengers singing along, bad luck with Aussie songs mate, most of us are foreigners. He played just loud enough that talking was difficult. Nice stars just as we were being chased back on board. Meh.

Second night I was exhausted enough to sleep a few hours. Woke again at 4 before sunrise and thought I'd at least have a good chance at seeing some animals feeding at dawn. Train runs into a gully. Stops. No animals. Stays there for around 90 minutes, sun gets far up, animals hide in shade 😒 Breakfast isn't until 7.

Upside: Have seen wild emu and wild kangaroos from the train. Chardonnay was very good, quality of lunch high. And I'm now in Perth.

Album for more pictures is combined with Adelaide and Barossa ones.

Bountiful Barossa

The tour name is Barossa Food and Wine Experience, run by Adelaidesightseeing. I was there for the wine 😃 Admittedly the food played it's part on the way. With the rather disappointing Yarra tour in mind, I tried to keep my hopes down. We were 15 on the bus for this wine trip, a nice number. I stuck close to a really pleasant young couple from Western Australia, who had spent five months driving around the outer edge of Australia with a caravan and now were going to Uluru on their way home. We agreed that saving up for years is worth it.

Adelaide has some beautiful sights, busdriver showed us a house just sold for 7 million AUD (NOK * 6,5). Swimming pool and tennis court included of course, and both the street and house looks lovely. Adelaide has a somewhat stagnant 24.000 citizens inside the central square layout. A little more growth on the outside of it, and Barossa and McLaren valleys are very much turning to wine instead of other crops. Hundreds of vinyards large and small, we only had time and palate for three.

First up was TeAro. Of the seven my vote goes to Pinot Grigio and Shiraz, no surprise. Very happy the portions were small! Lovely converted tasting facility, centrally placed.

Then on to Maggie Beer's place, well known to those watching Masterchef Austalia. A lovely place. Just about every single product there was available for tasting, I wanted to buy half the shop! Didn't see busy Maggie. The turtles in the reservoirs have been introduced from other parts of Autralia to keep insect life down in the dams. They migrate from dam to dam nearby, a strategically placed feeding station have them entertaining Maggies customer. We were lucky it wasn't school holidays, Maggies might often turn away tour coaches then since space is limited.

Lunch with tasting at Lambert. A lovely Chardonnay, two nice reds and the delicious Chocolatier port. A tasting platter with the wines, very varied with duck pate to die for. Kaper berries are interesting and sour, pickled beetroot was pink and my thing. Bus driver loved this stop because they never got the same food twice. We got chicken and beef, including the best roasted carrots ever. Nice art too, and a view of the tanks.

Sculpture park and outlook point over Barossa for photoshoot. So lucky with weather yet again except flies. Some Australiana at one private house on the main road.

Last stop at Pindarie for further seven nice wines. Very happy by then that the portions were tiny. Converted stable, loved the yellow cheese, a Tempranillo mix got my vote, others loved the Riesling.

Bus driver drove well and never stopped talking, something he shares with many tour drivers, they should try some silence now and then. All participants were happy on the way home, palate satisfied and many bottles bought. My luggage is stuffed full so I restrained myself to one bottle, with much difficulty.

Conclusion: Every single wine was better than the tour the week before. More pictures if you like, of course, it also contains shots from the train journey.

Rocking Rocks

Found the Adelaide bus station easily. Drive to the ferry for Kangaroo Island takes a couple of hours, nice scenery.

Deposited at East end of the Island, we faces some more hours drive to the places we were seeing. It's one laaarge island, 150 km wide. We did lots of driving, relatively little walking.

Adorable koalas in the eucalyptus trees, including a male who moved around and roared, yes koala males do sound awful :) They sleep 22 hours a day so most of them were fur balls, one or two to each tree. Wonder how they manage to eat 1-1,5 kilos of leaves in just two hours.

Seal bay very beautiful, with lots of seals. Sleeping, nursing, playing in the waves, arguing. One mum occupied a shaded spot under the well constructed walkways, pup so cute, maybe two meters distance. Cool whale skeleton stranded naturally.

Remarkable rocks were totally fantastic, I was last one back to the bus because pictures. They don't convey the fresh air, the clean smell and the sound of the breakers. Iron oxidation makes a red protection layer, like Uluru.

Next to us on the bus was a very nice couple from Melbourne, I adopted her to be my Kangaroo girl 😄

Admirals Arch was nice, and more seals. Lots of ramps and stairs there, which was no problem at all. Workout sessions past two years, payback time!

Food solutions hurried and crowded. Tour driver never stopped talking. He should also learn to stop the bus entirely for pictures - that slow rolling forward kills pictures because autofocus+suboptimal light+through bus windows. Therefore no pictures of: We saw kangaroos along the road, and eagles flew over the bus once. An wild enchidna waddled across the parking lot as star of the day.

Got back to Adelaide very late, this was a 16 hour tour with no time wasted. For more kangaroos, stay overnight. Recommended!

As usual, lots more pictures here.

Have to admit I lost the case and charger cable to the camera. Got a battery charger in Adelaide, and a new cable in Perth, so I can take more shots with the great camera Rita lent me. I'm very grateful, the Panasonic Lumix compact has been the envy of many fellow tourists, so easy to handle and so easy to get good shots. Memory chip fits straight into the PC. I've been posting a few of the best (personal opinion) pictures on Instagram. Besides cutting a few edges, and increasing light on one picture, none of my pictures from this trip have been adjusted in any way.

Adelaide hotel was a bit dated and worn. The so-called free wifi was at 256 kbps speed with a limit of 250 Mbytes per 24 hours! For 15$ (97,50 NOK) per day you get unlimited at 1 - one - whooping 1Mbps transfer rate, nothing better available. The option for in-room massage via the hotel worked a treat, though. Some things cannot be done over Internet.

Games: Seeker's Notes 40/54. A little HayDay. Have been introduced to very addictive Fallout Shelter. All on Ipad.

On the road

Great Ocean Road and the Grampians

It was just as lovely as it looks, except better. I knew the coastal road would be great, but my favourite part was the Grampians (by a hair). Maybe I'm a little homesick after all, it looks somewhat like Norway in places.

The road was long! This trip started very early Saturday morning in Melbourne and ended very late Sunday evening in Adelaide.

Very much worth it, no tough exercise except maybe the steps at Mackenize falls, but we did walk some kilometers, and riding buses for hours is tiring too. 20 lovely young people, from England India Germany Australia Singapore Wales Netherlands and Norway (us). I think they all were under 30 except for us and the guide, that was all fine and I liked the playlist too :)

I have commented on all the pictures in the album, a viewer might need to go to fullscreen display to see that info. Go look!

Games: Seekers Notes level 52/40. Daydreaming about Diablo.