The trip in total

Road to Nowhere
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Sunday, 15/07/2007

So, here we are on the second day of our trip across this great land. Early this morning, we pulled into Broken Hill, once the premier silver mining town in Australia. They call it a city, but the stupid thing is that it has a population smaller than Grantham or Fleet… but the size difference is huge. Suburbia is a huge thing, and you got a feeling that this was once the most important settlement in the business. Truth be told, although the town is currently undergoing some revival as a result of the discovery of more deposits than was first suspected, it still feels half dead. I’m not sure that coming in at 0600 on a Sunday morning in winter did much to improve it. However, it also seems to be a juxtaposition in terms – the houses are, in many cases, constructed of large amounts of corrugated steel, and yet they have a brand spanking-new McDonalds and a Subways. Odd, but somehow it just serves to reinforce that this town is past its best, despite the optimism of the locals. I don’t know though, that might just be my own view. There is one thing however, that Broken Hill must continue to have – a base station for the Royal Flying Doctors Service. That particular base covers NSW, Tasmania, the edges of Queensland and Victoria and much of Southern Australia. They do an incredible job, and only 2/3 of their work is funded via the central government. Beyond that, they have to come up with the cash themselves – yet they never charge for their services. I didn’t get to meet any of them, but if I had, I would have expressed my deep admiration for them and their work in what could be called the challenging circumstances on Earth. Oh, and just so you know, we are currently calling into Peterborough – I had to do a double take when I heard that, because of course I’m more used to hearing it on the GNER line to London.

Sunset on Nullabor
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Anyway, what else is there to do on a train on its way to Adelaide? Look at scenery, you say? Obviously, you’ve never seen the Outback. Well, we seem to have moved more into grassland now, but the Outback is so flat, so hot, and so utterly devoid of life from the confines of this train. And yet, I know for a fact that people have lived there for thousands of years, in total harmony with nature. You might not see it as a white settler coming here for the first time, but it’s there. I mean, there are huge numbers of what the Arabic world call a ‘wadi’ – essentially dried riverbeds. You can see that the rain has fallen recently, as the vegetation, spares as it is, is greener in these areas than elsewhere for miles away. In these grasslands, they are also so very flat, and yet only a few kilometres away, I can see rolling hills. Not tall, but just rolling. You get the idea that they go all the way to the cost. The clouds are sparse, and there are so many fences for keeping out various creatures – dingoes, kangaroos, and everything else in-between. Yet, we just stopped in Peterborough, and if I didn’t know better I’d say that this was just another town, given that I can see power lines, metalled roads, people walking around even in this heat You won’t believe this, but I have heard some local folk complain that it’s too cold. I still struggle with this notion, as I am by my very nature thick-blooded, more suited to the cold climates of Britain. Here, the blood is thinner due to the different climate; they deal with warmth more effectively. I think I’m travelling through some of the more fertile land in Australia, as it’s all very lush, very green and above all it seems to be more heavily populated.

Hmm, behind or in?
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*1950*

So, we left Adelaide about an hour ago, and it’s quite dark outside. I think I may enjoy this section of the journey more - I know the way it works now, and there are less people on this leg. I asked the porter, he said that my carriage is going to be about half full all the way to Perth. Even better, and I had to stop typing in case they glanced over my shoulder, but I have two fairly good looking girls in my carriage. Excellent! Now, I know that this is not what a sensible mature young man such as I should be doing but I can’t help it! Besides, looking never hurts anyone – unless they had boyfriends with them, in which case I may be the one getting hurt. Anyway, as I was saying, I think I will enjoy this part more. I want to be up at dawn tomorrow, to see the train start its journey across the Nullabor Plains, the longest section of straight track in the world (478km, or something along those lines at the very least).

The only tree I saw in over 1000kms
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*2025*

Lol, now they’ve chosen to sit just across the way from me in the lounge. It’s a start!

16/07/2007

So, here we are on another sunny day in Australia. We’re currently on the Nullabor Plains, and it’s about 0830. We’re heading towards a town known as Cook, population = 4. Yep, you read that right, it’s not a typo, four people alone live in Cook. I dunno why we’re stopping here, but there you go. Nullabor is derived from Latin, meaning no trees. Looking around, I can see what they mean. It’s 10 million years old, twice the size of England, and they tested nuclear bombs in parts of it. Fun, so I could be riding through a nuclear test site… *glances out window, just to make sure there aren’t any bombs.*

I woke up this morning in time to watch the sun rise in a clear azure sky. Hmmm, how poetic of me. Regardless, it is wonderful out here, despite the fact we’re in the middle of the Outback and it’s really flat and barren. I imagine the feeling that once you’re away from the train, it’s totally silent… imagine that, complete silence. I was also able last night to see the stars shining brightly in the night sky, not something you can do in most of the major cities, anywhere in the world. I cannot describe to you how many stars I saw. From East to West, North to South, the sky was literally covered with them, more than I’d ever seen in my life. I kept looking for familiar constellations, such as Orion, or the Great Bear, but then remembered I wouldn’t be able to see any of them. Still, I like to just watch them move. No moon, which was a shame. Why was I up at some stupid time of the night?

It’s very hard to get comfy on this train, even when I’ve got two seats to myself. So, I haven’t slept much on this journey as of yet. By about 1500 today, I’ll have been onboard 48 hours, more than double the time it took to fly to Australia, and over 8 times the time it would’ve taken to fly to Perth. Still, I think I prefer this way- you get to see so much more. I mean, I’m just looking out of the window, and I can see the horizon in the distance, maybe some 30 kms away, it’s that flat. But even then, I’m not sure… it’s all so hazy at that distance. Anyway, enough for now, I’ll let you know more once something interesting happens. Oh, and for those of you wondering about that girl situation, I’ve chosen the one I would go for over the other. And they are alone.

*1230*

Well, we’ve come and gone from Cook. It was so quiet, just as I imagined it would be. Although I don’t think I could live there, I can see the attraction – if you ever wanted to truly disconnect, this is the place to go. However, even here, it seems you can’t escape forever. I was talking to the lady who cleans the worker accommodation, and also helps to run the tiny shop, and it turns out her daughter is part of this Air School, which uses the internet and the radio to help pupils in distant locations to learn as well as anyone else. It’s a good idea, means these isolated communities can still give their children the chance of a good life.

In other news, we just crossed over to Western Australia, and are about 20 hours from Perth, which makes sense given our speed is about 85 kph, and we have one more major stop before we hit Perth tomorrow morning. Still on the plains, which are huge – the woman said they were something along the lines of 25 million square kilometres. I’ve never heard of a figure like that, and I think I’ve barely seen 1% of this place from where I’ve been sat. I guess we’ll never really know, but I wouldn’t want to try and walk across here – temperatures can sit in the low 40’s in the summer, and it’s already 20 odd degrees here. I can see the haze from here… it’s kinda odd.

*1648*

Oh for fucks sake, what was the point in telling us there was a camel that we could see, and it’s just too far for the camera to get a clear shot. Not happy with that – it would be a picture and a half for my collection wouldn’t it, a photo of a camel in the middle of the Australian Outback.

Just stopped to pick up a couple of ranchers – tall, blond and incredibly tanned. When I say tall, I mean in the way of six and a half feet tall, so they make little people such as me feel like midgets. Now I know how Pete felt.

*2138*

So, here we are some 700kms from Perth, in a city called Kalgoorlie, famous for the size of the gold mine nearby. It’s by far the most productive in the word, only having to average 2 grams of gold for every tonne of material extracted. The scary thing is the sheer scale of the thing – it is currently 3kms from end to end, 2kms wide and 500m. They estimate that, by 2017 it will have expanded to 7 x 3 x 700, with the deepest shafts having extended down to maybe 3000m. I mean, maximum respect to the miners – I know I couldn’t go three kilometres underground to mine gold ore, no matter how much money you offered me! I like the sky, and I haven’t seen a single cloud all day! Not something I’m used to, but I could grow to like it.

Anyway, got to go now, lights are being shut off soon, and I need to get myself sorted from tomorrow. Oh, final note of that girl – yeah, no go. Just that simple, decided it wasn’t worth the trouble. Ah well, I strike out once more – a pattern developing I think?