Train Day 2 – Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta

I've known for a long time that I prefer to travel facing the direction I'm going. I hadn't realised before last night that it's also easier to sleep if my feet are at the front of the bed and my head at the back. Perhaps I was so tired by the time I tried putting the pillow at the other end that I would have slept better anyway.

I was awake early and opened the blind to see one of the most amazing star-scapes I've ever seen – the whole sky was ablaze with points of light which slowly faded as the sun rose. I had several attempts at photographing the sunrise – this being the most successful:

Around 06:20, I happened to notice a sign alongside the track reading “Western Fringes Nullarbor Plain”. The train won't turn a corner now for 478km! For the next several hours, the view out of the window would be very slight variations on this theme:

My morning tea arrived as ordered and, having shaved and dressed, I wandered along to the lounge car to await breakfast. As you can see, there wasn't much competition for a seat:

Breakfast was a choice of cereals followed by omelettes or a full Australian breakfast. Not wishing to cause an international incident and risk having my visa withdrawn, I felt it only polite to go for the full Australian.

After breakfast, there was time for some sitting around reading. At one point, we passed through a place (town would be seriously overstating it) called Forrest. The spelling notwithstanding, there is clearly a certain irony in having a place called Forrest in the middle of the Nullarbor Plain. We were informed that Forrest possesses the longest sealed runway in Australia outside the state capitals. Well, everywhere has to be famous for something and I expect if I were flying a small aircraft across the country, I'd be grateful for a refuelling stop. The couple (the entire permanent population of Forrest) who administer the airfield also run a B& B and the train was stopping to drop off supplies. It's hard to imagine that they get much in the way of passing trade for the B & B.


The runway is just below the horizon in the middle of the second picture.

From Forrest, it was but a short run to Cook. Cook has a permanent population of 3½, plus a cat and a dog. The train drivers also change shifts here so there are a couple more residents on a temporary basis.

Cook has clearly never been a bustling metropolis, but there are a few dozen houses and even an old school which have now been abandoned. It was at Cook that the team building the railway west from Adelaide met the team working east from Perth in 1917. The town existed as a base for the gangs building, and later servicing, the railway, but is now just a place to change drivers and replenish water and fuel supplies.

There's no station as such at Cook – the train just pulled into a passing loop and stopped. Little sets of steps appeared so that we could get off and wander around. Not that there's much to see, really. As with most places in Australia, there's a gaol:

It can't have been much fun in there on a hot summer's day – a good incentive to stay on the right side of the law. Here's the main row of houses:

I wandered down to the front of the train to have a look at the engine:

And, while there, took this shot of some of those dead straight kilometres of track:

And this exciting variation on the Nullarbor Plain theme (from ground level this time - you can certainly appreciate the subtle difference):

In the absence of a station and, hence, an announcement system, the train crew sounded the fire horn to summon us back. I had thought of trying to get to the back of the train, but there was no way I was going to risk getting left behind, so I nipped in the nearest door pretty sharply!

This meant I got to walk almost all the way up from the back. Those on a tight budget get to make the journey in chairs:

This can be as cheap as A$313 (£182, €219, US$267) if you've got some kind of youth reduction or as much as A$716 for a full-fare-paying adult. If you really want to make the journey but are on a back-packing budget then it's probably not too bad – the chairs are well spaced and recline, but, when all's said and done, they're still chairs!

The next level up is a red service sleeper. This is basically the same cabin as I have, but with two people sharing. The second bunk lives up near the ceiling during the day.Frankly, this cabin is tight for one; you'd have to be very good friends with someone to share it.

Red service passengers don't get linen table cloths either – there's a sort of canteen arrangement where they can buy whatever they want. It was closed when I went by:

On the way back, by way of a contrast, I stopped to take a picture of the Queen Adelaide restaurant which was now laid for the second lunch sitting:

If I were travelling with a friend, I'd probably have ended up going in a red sleeper, but I didn't want to share a small cabin with a stranger for three nights. In fact, being pampered in gold service is the perfect way to enjoy the journey. It's that sort of journey.

After leaving Cook, I took advantage of having a sleeper cabin and folded down the bed. I nodded off to this view:

which, by now I hope you're beginning to recognise as the Nullarbor Plain. When I woke up, there was great excitement. The view had changed:

I wandered along to the lounge car to get some tea and the sight of trees was all anyone was talking about.