Our Great Train Ride WITH PHOTOS!!

Finally! I am able to post pictures. Here are the photos from our Indian-Pacific train ride from Sydney to Perth. I'll put another posting up with more photos from this week and our time in Sydney in a few minutes.

The train! There were 15 cars on the train that included the engine, luggage car, daynighter cars (think airplane seats), 4 or 5 sleeper cars, 2 lounge cars, 2 diner cars, and 2 cars on the end for passenger vehicles.




Our 'berth' by day. It was two rather comfy arm chairs with a wall table. We had a sink and running water that folded down from the wall behind the door. Sorry the picture isn't so great. We were standing against the wall across the hall from our room. What does that tell you about how much space we had?




Our 'berth' by night. The bottom bed folds down from the wall (one chair folds over, the other acts as a footboard). The top bed then lowers down from about a foot from the ceiling. It can only be lowered when the bottom bed is folded down. The ladder made too much noise during the night. Brian first tried to sleep with it but found it took up too much room in his bed. We eventually managed to carefully squeeze it under the bottom bed. We usually found ourselves in bed early, this was for 2 reasons: 1) Once it was dark, the amazing scenery was gone, nothing left to see and 2) The train manager would usually start making announcements and playing commentary between 5:30 and 6am--and we had no way to turn it off!




A view of the eastern side of the Blue Mountains from our window. They're quite amazing--they are called the Blue Mountains because the trees look blue--they are Eucalyptus trees and give off a blue haze.




Brian is watching for kangaroos from our berth window. He sat like this for several hours throughout the trip--kind of like a kid waiting for Santa Claus! Fortunately, we saw 6 or 7 kangaroos (see picture below!)



Kangaroos!



Entering Western Australia. This part of the train ride is considered to be the longest stretch of straight railway in the world. I can believe it! It was actually the smoothest part of the trip too! This was the 'red' part of the outback. Other parts were yellow and/or had more trees.




We're planning to take my dad here when he visits next month. Bring your clubs Dad! You might want to practice with your wedge though. . .seems to be a lot of sand to get around. . . :)




The "Super Pit" in Kalgoorlie, WA. They are drilling holes in the ground so that in a few hours they can blast and mine for gold. This is a nightly procedure at the Super Pit.





Our last morning on the train. This is the dining car. . .they served cold "snack" meals as well as hot meals. Surprisingly not your typical 3 day junk food binge--quite good food for transportation food!




Driving away from the train. . .our first experience driving "on the wrong side of the road". Not as difficult as it seems. The biggest challenge is not turning the windshield wipers on whenever you need to use your turn signal. 5 days into it, we're still struggling with that one!