We slept in as we had nowhere to be until afternoon. We had
to check out of the Rendezvous by 11am. We were mostly packed last night. That
was a challenge. Great Southern Rail just says wear smart casual without any
guidance as to whether they dress differently for dinner, or what they mean by smart casual. The email they sent
us a day ago gave us 2 choices for our 1 off train excursion tomorrow morning.
We had a choice between a monument to 800 dead miners or a 3-story art gallery.
We decided on the art gallery. No special clothes needed. Today when we boarded the train
the same 2 excursions were on offer. Living Desert Sculpture Park was also listed, but as
having ended on March 31. Clay suddenly had this insight that we were supposed
to get off the train for a sunrise. When our car attendant finally arrived, she
said we could do that one and it was usually in time for sunrise. Clay wanted it because we all had to leave the train
between 6 and 6:30am as we arrived in Broken Hill no matter the excursion. So
we’re committed. As we sat in the lounge having drinks and facing forward, the
train manager came over the speakers and announced if you were going on Living Desert that it
would be near freezing and to make sure you were dressed appropriately. We came
on per instructions with only an overnight bag. Any extra clothes we have
onboard we can’t access so thanks for the heads up. So that covers our packing
woes. In hindsight, I think it was about 11C that morning so it was much ado over nothing as it wasn't that cold at all. And we didn't get to do the Living Desert, only the Sculpture Park and it wasn't very impressive other than the Living Desert site and the fact that we drove about 15 minutes out of Broken Hill, the small mining town that built the park.
We checked out of the Rendezvous about 10:30am to go to a Vodaphone store for
Clay. Evidently he did not buy what he thought he bought in Brisbane in February. We will lose local data on April 24, not August. We wanted to find
cable ties to secure our zippers on days like today. We found them and forgot
to put them on. To eat lunch. GSR told us to check in our luggage from 12:30pm
until 2pm. We arrived around 12:45pm. They took our big bags, then they told us to go have some lunch
because boarding doesn’t start until after 2pm. Honestly! I can’t give GSR high
points for sharing information in a timely manner. We could have done something
else for a half day if we’d known. I told the guy we had eaten lunch. (We had
Cuban breakfast at 11:30am.) Since we were Gold cabin booking level, he offered to let us onto the platform then for a
quieter place to sit. We walked to the furthest available bench which was only
half way down the train to our car. We are assigned car M room 6. It turns out
that in the law of averages we lost and drew a backward facing seat cabin. Such
is life. Sydney's Central Station Platforms 2 and 3 held our train. We were the 11th car from the start of the platform. There was only the engine and car N ahead of ours. The other half of the train was on platform 3. When we left Sydney, we pulled out until we could back up on the other track to pick up the back half of the train from platform 3. It seemed like a really long train.
We had a visit from the restaurant manager and scheduled our
dinner for 6pm and lunch for 12:15pm while we waited for our cabin attendant to
call on us. They asked us to go to our rooms and wait for this visit when we
boarded. We waited an hour plus. We were departing Sydney when she finally arrived. We
had already figured everything out from my exploration and reading all the
materials in the room. So, her visit with us was very brief. She gave a 30-second spiel and got our off train excursion order and hole punched the lanyards you have to wear for those excursions.
Since we didn't like riding backwards, we went back through car L to the lounge car to see if we could find forward facing seats. I guess all the other backward facing rooms had already gotten there. I sat sideways for a while until someone left. But we couldn't both sit together and have a view. We had drinks. GSR is big on included alcohol, all you can stomach. We saw our route through the Blue Mountains again all the
way to Katoomba. It was spectacular but not like we had seen it on Monday, so
it was good this wasn’t our only time seeing it. The lounge shares a train car with our Queen Adelaide Restaurant. When it is our turn to eat, we have to check in with the restaurant manager and when he is ready to seat us, he comes and gets us and takes us through in groups. Tables are small booths for 4. I mean really tight. You have to share this tight space with another random couple or single.
Dinner was good food, but the roughest part of the ride. So
that was unfortunate. There was some more miscommunication over dessert. The
caramel ice cream contained nuts not the honey as advertised. The blood orange
tart was chocolate and contained no oranges. The inaccurate menu descriptions continued throughout our trip. It is good that Clay will eat anything and I don't care about food.
We came back to the room after and the upper and lower bunks were in place and a ladder up against the window wall. Clay braved the shower. He says this bathroom is better than Oceania’s
R ships! We’ll see. (I understand his point, though smaller in footprint, the shower space is larger and functions better without having to fight the curtain.) We went straight to bed because we have to get up at 5am to
be ready to get off the train by 6am for our excursion. Before going to bed though we had a discussion about thinking we would change time zones overnight and why the attendant hadn't mentioned it. Unless GSR ignores it because they had something in the notebook on our table about "train time". After we had fallen asleep, a very loud announcement came over the speakers from the train manager asking us to move our clocks, phones, and watches back a half hour before retiring as the time zone in Broken Hill and Adelaide would be different from Sydney. How hard would it have been to have that discussion with the excursion selection conversation? How much might it have affected the decisions people made? I had gel in my eyes and couldn't see, so Clay got up and changed everything.
The excessively rough ride continued all night. It was as bad as anything Amtrak has between Raleigh and DC. The rough ride was all anyone talked about the next day up to the moment we parted. We are told that there is a difference on the rest of the Indian Pacific track and that it smooths out further west. We'll have to take their word for it. The Broken Hill bus driver claimed that the track we rode last night had been laid for the silver train over 100 years ago and that the tracks on out to Perth going west were new and had been laid specifically by GSR. Maybe. We don't know. We're just hoping the ride is smoother going North on Sunday. We arrived in Adelaide about 15 minutes late at 3:30pm. By 4:30pm, the promised taxi lane at the exclusive GSR train station on the outskirts of Adelaide had still not appeared. Clay called an Uber after the 2nd guy in line ordered one. It was about $10 to the Stamford Plaza and we expected a taxi to cost $10 to $15 so it was fine except for the hour wait before hand. Someone at GSR should have had a bunch of cabs there waiting.
We are in room 1711 of the Stamford Plaza on North Terrace. It is a great location and great views. We can see the ocean and the cruise port from here! It is a big room with a minifridge and coffee making stuff. We'll be fine here. We were hoping for ice service and a guest laundry but no such luck.
We reread our Ghan trip information in detail knowing what we know now and we may have some complications. We stopped when I pointed out the sunset. We went to walk to an Italian place a few doors away and to buy breakfast stuff at a convenience store next door. The Italian place wanted $36 for spaghetti marinara and I balked. We walked around the block and other than McDonald's only found Asian food. We ended up at a cheap Indian place. Mine was all good and a huge serving as a small. Clay liked 2 of 3 things he ordered and he ordered too much and couldn't finish either. We could have both shared my small butter chicken over rice with garlic naan and been full!
We did not find a laundry place and according to Google the closest is too far away to walk so I have 2 days to get small hand washing what is necessary done. I better get to it.
Photos
