G'day All,

Well after a good nights sleep it is a full day on the Nullarbor that we are looking forward too, the first stop is a little place called Cook, this little siding has a population of 4 and are the only people left of a town that used to be a Railway town where repair crews lived and worked on the Nullarbor this was one of many old sidings . Now it is a watering stop it cost just as much to cart the water in per litre as it cost the diesel fuel and driver change stop, as they are going to finally destroy it return it back to the way it was and relocate the people.

As the locals say they live in a town of over a million Flies and at night a million stars and plenty of dingo's (wild Dog), we had a walk around the old town looking at the lock up (Gaol, Jail) and school and pub then the whistle stop tour was over an back on board the train for some rest before Lunch as we are going to be stopping in the Gold town of Kalgoorlie tonight we have decided to take a whistle stop tour of the town an see the super pit for the mine in operation.

We arrive in Kalgoorlie at 8pm local time and get on the town tour bus as we are driven around the guide stops and shows us some of the local parks etc they look really great nicely preserved (we could not see a bloody thing as it was pitch black) then we took off up the road to the biggest Gold mine in Australia this operation is one of the largest in the world . They have been mining gold here now for over a century and still fining more as the pictures show it is an open cut mine and is very big and deep, with Gold being worth over $1000 USD a troy ounce it is very profitable to keep digging so any one with gold fillings that are over 20 yrs old then your mouth now is worth a fortune.

Back on board it is a case of having a drink in the lounge bar then off to bed and another ride on the flat tyre bed (Nancy swears they are flat as she feels every bump of them), I sleep like a baby (hm one has to wonder why we say that when a baby wakes every few hours).



Next morning is the last day on the train as we come into Perth and watch the country side change from a bush environment to Vineyards and orchards then houses and finally suburbia its self, at long last at 9am on a beautiful sunny day we finally arrive at the Perth terminus of the Indian Pacific . hoo roo
Stewart and Nancy


Hello All,
Tis me you know the bushy tailed furry thing Cedric the intrepid reporter, I can tell you i am never ever ever going to try and eat anything that that idiot says he likes he is a masochist.
well we are now out in the middle of nowhere and i mean that there is not a tree to be seen plenty of low growth but no trees even the wedged tail eagles have to use the surveyors tripods as nesting sites, when the eagles are not using them the other birds do as well so it is sort of like a creche on stilts for the birds, these tripods were deliberately left after they surveyed the new train line so that the birds had a high point in which to nest.

We arrived in a Placed called Cook and i thought oh goody another good meal but was told no sorry but this is a railway town a stop over for about 40 minutes while they refill the water tanks, i was out that door like a rat up a drain pipe, man was i glad to stretch my legs, but no sooner than i had vacated that carriage that i felt a terrible weight on my shoulders the pushing down sensation and a buzzing in my ears and soon i was coughing and snorting as this thing flew up my nose and i swallowed a fly ewwwwwww spat it out pulled the other out and ran back inside the train there were millions and i was told that this was nothing as it was the end of the heat and they would be millions more .
The idiot and Nancy went out even tho i warned them of the horrors that would befall them but nooo would they listen to a seasoned traveller like me no so off they went on their own, soon they were back and Nancy was still snorting as she blew a couple of flies out of her nose, and we were off again towards Kalgoorlie the gold town we arrived there after a day of looking out the window spotting Wedged tail eagles and a few Emu's (pronounced E``` Mew's) in the distance soon it was dinner time as we were due into Kalgoorlie just after dinner so it was a case of eat and run and when we arrived at the Train station we were told that the bus to take us on our tour was waiting so off we toddled, well talk about the blind leading the blind here it was night time and he was pointing out parks and who and why they were named after and then buildings that were just a murky shadow, soon we were at the Pit as it was called this is where they extract the gold bearing ore from and have huge trucks and machines to cart it back up to the surface to be loaded into the sorting bins .

Back on board the train we rush onto Perth and when the sun arises in the morning we will be about 4hours out of Perth and the end of this marvellous journey that has taken us 3 nights and nearly 4 days and over 4,352 kilometres across this vast country,as the train pulls into Perth the country side changes from lowland scrub to vineyards and orchards and then to pastoral areas as we approach the suburbs we stop to pick up[ the quarantine man he is there to take any fruit nuts meats off you as they don't want any bugs from the eastern states into this pristine wilderness called Western Australia.

The next thing i know is there is a knock on the door and i nearly died and started to shout out that i was naked but they went away whew could u see the look on their faces when they see a naked squirrel, opps um what am in on i am Naked any way oh well the next thing the door opens and the idiot sticks his head in the door grabs his bag of travel mix and says these have nuts and fruits in there an he says it is ok i am only after unprocessed nuts, well i look down and see mine and think hang on mine are unprocessed better hide and the idiot starts to say hang on Cedric has some and i kick him in the shins and the inspectors says what was that and he says sorry nothing and comes in side and i say "thats a fine mess you nearly got us in ollie" and he looks at me and i said u were going to tell him about my nuts weren't u and he said "no i was going to ask about the apples i have if i can eat it now", and i say "well too late i ate it for breakfast". We pull into the Perth station and we have finally arrived at the end of a marvelous trip on a train.

Goodbye little ones talk soon
Cedric