Initial Thoughts on My Train Trip Across Australia

Sorry for not posting this sooner, folks. Over the last 2 weeks, I’ve had my head buried in a major fundraiser and have now resurfaced for air.

As you may know, back in May I took a 4 day, 3 night train trip across Australia from Perth to Sydney on the Indian Pacific. Many friends and family think I’m crazy for having done such a journey, because surely no fun can come of a 4 day trip stuck on a train, right? Wrong…completely wrong. Over the next few weeks I’ll share my thoughts of this trip in detail, but there’s a bit of a summary I wanted to share to show you how “not crazy” this was.

It may not be the Etihad Residence, Qantas First or Singapore Suites, but this is a damn cool experience. I’m on a 4 day journey from Perth to Sydney, stopping in Kalgoorlie, Cook (Population: 4), Adelaide, and Broken Hill on the longest section of straight track in the world. For lunch, I sat with 4 other travelers, all of different backgrounds. One was a native Australian who was a miner, another an Irishman who was moving to Sydney as an academic and the other a British gentleman who lost his wife last year and was taking this trip in honor of her, since it’s something they always wanted to do. Yeah, I may not be flying 30,000 feet above the clouds, and my room may be smaller than my shower at home, but I’m perfectly content with that. Traveling by train will really open up your eyes – you’ll meet other people, watch the scenery go by, and have a chance to visit some little known towns along the way, that I otherwise wouldn’t have ever had the chance to see. Welcome aboard the Great Southern Railway’s Indian Pacific!

Still crossing the vast expanse that is Australia. I have a million dollar view for my birthday! We’ve crossed time zones 1.5 hours ahead of Western Australia time, but because of complexity with meal reservations, the Indian Pacific elects to keep WA time until after dinner tonight, when we’ll set our clocks ahead in time for an early wake up tomorrow as we arrive into Adelaide. We’ll make up the additional half hour after we depart Broken Hill for Sydney tomorrow. Traveling by train is the best way to experience a country’s culture and talk to the people that call this place home – a 5 hour Qantas flight, while certainly purposeful the other day flying from Sydney to Perth, misses the beauty of the landscape, the people and the camaraderie. The passengers on this train have now become one family where we’ve now been accustomed to looking after each other as if we’ve known everyone for years. It’s a remarkable social experiment, and one that I’m glad to be able to take part of.