Adelaide, South Australia,

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Wed 4 Feb 2015 10:40
A bit of luxury at long last, and the promise of long awaited sun as well, things just couldn't get any better!
We had 2 nights in a hotel here in Adelaide to get ourselves organised, drop the car off at the storage place and do a few city jobs such as getting a haircut and some highlights done, me only, and a pedicure, both of us actually. It was a nice treat, but they put you in these massage chairs and to say they were a bit vicious is a bit of an understatement. Unfortunately, as everywhere else, the girls working in these places are Asian and their English is limited to "this foot", "that foot" and "you like colour?" So trying to explain that the effect of the 'massage' chair will be more likely to leave you bedridden for a week than relax you is largely impossible.
All jobs done it was time to get on the train. The train can't come into the main Adelaide station as it is too long, so an alternative station has been built to accommodate it. In Sydney, where the train starts, it is actually split in half and put on 2 separate platforms. Our train turned out to be quite short, or so I am told at only 24 carriages and a measly 615 metres long. The maximum is about 48 carriages, and the train can't be more than a kilometre in length.
We had booked into platinum class, the most comfortable way to travel. There were 2 carriages of 5 cabins. The majority of the rest of the train were gold class cabins, only half the size of the platinum cabins and there were 9 in each carriage; and then there were a few 'red service' seats. Bearing in mind the total journey from Sydney to Perth is 65 hours, sitting on a seat seems more like an endurance test than anything else especially when you consider how expensive it is compared to flying.
Our cabin was very comfortable, a sofa which converts at night to a double bed and a large shower room. It was interesting listening into people talking in the dining car later that evening and saying about how wobbly the train was and hard it was to sleep etc. I think that 8 years of sailing will make things a lot easier for us, if you can shower at 45 degrees in a gale, then a train will be a doddle!
The food that evening was delicious. We opted for a table for two, partly to suss out the other guests and partly as we now both have horrid noisy coughs which I am sure other people will not be very happy to catch.
The only problem with a trip like this is that it definitely appeals to the more elderly folk. There is no one under 65, and I think that is being generous! We are on the train now until tomorrow morning when we have a stop at Cook, a somewhat remote outpost on the Nullabar Plains, and then a second stop at the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie later in the day.
One thing that is weird is the concept of 'train time'. The time difference between Adelaide and Perth is 2.5 hours but they change the time one hour on the first night and one and a half the second to break you in gently, good for us as going east to west as we gained the the time ie had extra time to sleep.

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John relaxing in the 'day' cabin

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All set for bed

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The train

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