All Aboard!

Posted on by Laura & Brett

In about another hour, Brett and I will haul our bags over to the East Perth train station, about a 10-minute walk away from our condo, and we’ll check in for our train journey across Australia on the Indian-Pacific train, one of Australia’s great rail journeys. Our bags are packed, we’ve eaten up all the food we bought in Perth, the apartment is clean, and we are ready to go!

We won’t know our cabin assignment until we check in, and the Indian-Pacific is a l-o-n-g train, usually 30 cars long, with two dining cars. The big unknown for us right now is whether we will be assigned a forward- or back-facing cabin. I do not do well riding backwards at all, but all cabins on the train are sold out and there will be no switching. You get what you get (and we had no idea whether we could have requested a forward-facing cabin or not). If we do get a back-facing cabin I will probably be spending lots of time in the club car. Anyway, for now fingers are crossed for a forward-facing cabin – it’s all we can do at this point.

We will most likely be offline for the next few days. Supposedly there is WiFi available onboard but I imagine it will be spotty at best if we do get it. We also haven’t heard from our host in Sydney, but hopefully there will be a message waiting from her when we arrive with instructions for getting into our apartment there. It’s always an adventure!

We’ve had a good rest and a great time in Perth, but it’s time to move on. See you on the other side . . . !

Published by Laura & Brett

Slow traveling the world with a sense of adventure!

12 thoughts on “All Aboard!”

    1. It was an amazing journey, from start to finish. Four days and three nights though are enough on a train – we and just about everyone else was more than ready to get off in Sydney.

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    1. We had a wonderful time – everything was superb. We especially loved having our own bathroom, the room was small but comfortable, and the food . . . WOW! Same for the scenery, although the desert did get pretty boring for a while.

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  4. Very curious about your cabin. We have ridden Amtrak across the US several times (my favorite way to travel) and our cabin has always had one seat facing forward and one backward. There’s nothing wrong with spending time in the club car, either. Our one trip Via Rail (Canada) had a different shaped cabin, but still had chairs facing both directions. I love reading about your travels. Stay well.

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    1. We had the same sort of cabin set-up when we rode Amtrak, but on the I-P there is one long bench on one side of the cabin. Since the whole train can’t be turned around, they made half the cabins front facing for part of the trip, backwards for the second part, or vice versa. By the time we had to turn around I had gotten a bit more used to the feel of the train and didn’t have too many problems riding backwards except when trying to look out the window.

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    1. Thanks, Wendy! I am actually having fun writing about them – it’s sort of been like keeping a journal for me, and I’ve had fun going back and reading about things we’ve already done and places we’ve already visited.

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  6. On my bucket list to take an extended train trip (Sacramento CA to Seattle WA) to visit my son and his family… Won’t be as long as your trip but I am anxious about it 🙂

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    1. You’ll have a great time looking out the window on your trip – the scenery is magnificent (I made the trip back in 1992 and loved it). Will you have a sleeping compartment or a regular seat?

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