travelling and stitching: Train Travel tales

Back home from our recent train trip and holiday to Western Australia, so it's time for some pics.
I didn't visit even one craft shop while I was away......how good am I.....but I did manage to have a little look at a bit of textile work in a couple of exhibitions I caught a glimpse of.
Dale Rollerson from The Thread Studio was away on her annual holiday while I was in Perth.....blessing in disguise really as I probably would have broken the budget...... but I would have loved to visit her shop....ah well, another time.

So as I said, the train was a great experience. The food was sensational, the staff were very friendly and it was wonderful to while away the hours doing nothing other than stitching, reading and watching the scenery, and beautiful scenery it was, always changing.

I have to tell you about the time changes going through 3 states. Australia has different time zones depending on what state you're in at any given time, but from October until April, some states have daylight saving time. So we live in Queensland which doesn't have DST, travelled to Sydney (NSW) which does, so the clocks went forward an hour. First stop, Broken Hill which even though is in western NSW, runs on South Australian time, which is 1/2 an hour behind Sydney, so the clocks went back 1/2 an hour. Confused yet, well hang on to your hat because the train then introduces "train time" which meant we had to put our clocks back an hour.....who knows why!!!!
So we travel on train time while we cross the Nullabor Plain before arriving in Kaloorglie in Western Australia where we change time again. Western Australia also doesn't have DST, so the clocks went back 2 hours.......in the finish, I refused to look at a clock and just waited for the "ding dong" meal bell, which told me to head to the dining car!!!

For those who like statistics;- the trip takes 3 days & nights over 4352 klms, the length of the train is about 711 metres & weighs about 1375 tonnes. It's called the Indian Pacific because it travels from the Indian ocean on the west coast to the Pacific ocean on the east coast and it's so long, it won't fit on the platforms in one piece, so it's split in two and takes up two platforms in Sydney. The passengers in one lot of carriages board and then it moves out and backs up to attach to the other carriages. This exercise stops the traffic on four platforms, so it's important it gets done with minimum delay.

So we started out from Sydney and travelled through the beautiful Blue Mountains on our way to Broken Hill called the "Silver City" because of its rich mining history. A brisk walk through the early morning fresh air was all we could achieve as we were limited for time due to the fact that train had a run in with some native animals on our way into Broken Hill which resulted in a bit of a delay. There are some magnificent old buildings in Broken Hill and town and the desert surrounding it are a drawcard for artists. Nearby is Silverton, known for the Mad Max movies. Broken Hill is in far western NSW, very close to the South Australian border, is closer to Adelaide (the capital of SA) than Sydney and as such runs on SA time.

The beautiful Blue Mountains