He began a year-long exchange at the University of Australia in July, usually in Brisbane, Queensland.
During the semester (July-November), I occasionally took a tour outside. In September, I went directly to the university`s outdoor survey to the Great Barrier Reef Island (I studied geography) and lived in a 20-minute walk. On the small island, every day, sunrise, sunset, and moonrise, the original forest in the island is scraped (measured), the sea breeze picks up the clothes, and hundreds of lurking devil fish are surrounded by the eyes (my poison tongue), it seems that This "sea" is estimated to be enough to play, it is better to change the direction to go west.
Roadmap, but does not include Port Agusta
The Australian hinterland is famous enough, but the train route, first known to connect the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, was seen on Australia`s program in The British Broadcasting Corporation`s Simon Revee. (the documentary on the man`s trip to the UK is also a bit of a name, he said. Take the Michael Palin route, the latter needless to say, from comedians to travel program to the chairman of the Royal Geographic Society. At that time, as soon as I looked at the road map, the desire to take this train was buried in my heart!
It seems that there is no purpose in writing the following words. I would like to share that I am not going to make a hard list of points for interested friends to follow, because first of all, I am very free to do what I want. Meeting some people on the way is equally or indispensable, followed by minuscule feet in the sprawling Australia (train lines are also underdeveloped).
Let`s start with reservations and prices. The train line, Indian-Pacific, starts from Sydney and stops at Adelaide, Brocenhill (Broken Hill), Cook (Cook), Karguri (Kalgoorlie). Four days and three nights later to Great Southern Rail, owned by Paz (Perth),. The company also has a number of shorter routes, can be purchased directly online, there are three categories of fares: Platinum, Gold and Red, in turn are suite bed sleeper, suite sofa (adjustable bed) and ordinary seats, ticket prices are 3890, 2420 and 658 (Australian dollars per person, and the first two are for two people to share a room, Simon students are actually one of the most expensive! The British Broadcasting Corporation this is a very expensive reimbursement system, so when I was preparing to get on the bus at Sydney`s central train Station, I found out that the first two types of people were retired couples. And most of the people who buy seats like me are backpackers and retired seniors who may not be able to fly.
As for my ticket, I booked it late. About a week ago, I suddenly showed a seat of US $4300.Although it was reminded that the seat might be Non-viewing (it was later found that I was not satisfied with the seat, I could sit in random seats), but it was no use. I bought it at once. As to why this special ticket is not shown on the fare comparison. . . I don`t understand. Since I didn`t lose it, I wouldn`t go into it. Ha.
Train appearance, station electronic screen, Red Service interior, advanced compartment
The first day: from Sydney at 3pm on January 8th, I saw a German girl with a gap (a huge German team in working holiday, Australia) while waiting for a car, and talked after I exchanged a few sentences of German. As her father worked for Siemens, she also lived in Hainan for a year. After entering the car, I was quite surprised, first of all, the third type of ticket is not satisfied with sitting! And each location is very spacious, the back can be completely moved to a 30-40-degree look, the bathroom is about the size of the plane. But the problem is that train is very ordinary, a few hours down, train head to save money (listen to flight attendants while eating) slowly drag the long more than 700m long 15 cars proline forward, across Sydney`s west of the famous Blue Mountain Forest Park, Quite like the 19th century gold mining period up the mountain to work. In a word, when I was walking through the mountain path in September, when I saw a column of light coming out of the dark clouds, I marvel at the dark blue hue of the mountains all over the country! But why blue? The car said, because there is a forest eucalyptus tree oil components in the air when the temperature rises, making the blue part of the spectrum more easily spread! Haha, science popularization.
The woods outside the car, the valleys in the distance, the blue mountains taken on a solo trip in September! I think this one
After dinner, one of the attendants at the cafe gave some details of train to some diners, saying it was off-season, so there were fewer cars and the rush hour could be twice as long as it is (more than a kilometer) long. When asked about his workload and feelings by a passenger, he said half-truthfully and half-truthfully:
"you know what? I`m not young. It`s the line from track check to microphone radio. I just want to wait for a few years and I can`t stand it. I stick out my middle finger at this train and say goodbye!"
It can be seen that the beautiful scenery along the road will also produce aesthetic fatigue.
Beautiful, the beauty of dusk!
Talking to German girls, looking at farms along the way, animals and some of the brightly lit towns that occasionally passed after dark, train turned off the lights soon after 10:00. Unable to sleep, looking up at the half-moon in a completely blue-black night, his mind seemed more awake than usual, reminiscent of the scene of the movie Australia Nicole Kidman sleeping in the wilderness with passers-by, and looking around the tracks. The shuttle of a few Optimus trucks broke the stillness and darkness, entering the interior, as the sense of space increased, the sense of desolation became more burdensome.
Former Broken Hill: Securities, Police Station, bench on train Station
The next day: the VIP is eating and drinking, and we all have to buy three meals at the coffee shop in train, a meal of 10 to 14 Australian dollars. After eating their nuts and snacks (less than 6 o`clock), they arrived at the first site, Broken Hill, which was entered by European explorers in 1835 and experienced the prosperity of the 19th century oil minerals and its gradual decline. Like many countless mining areas, it leaves behind dilapidated colonial and mining remains, such as stock exchanges, police stations with British royal badges, and so on, walking into this small town in the early morning, cold and desolate with empty buildings. It`s hard to imagine that at the height of the heyday there were trams running, with a population of 30,000!
Going back to the car to catch up (I slept only four hours last night), having lunch with a German girl at noon, I met a middle-aged woman who went to Adelaide, a former Yugoslav American, and came down for a few hours to say something miscellaneous. I remember her repeating: "when I came to Australia, my country was still there, and when I went back, it was divided into six." "if I can choose again, I will not come here with my husband. I still like Europe. "
When she arrived in Adelaide, the German girl also stopped and went on her crazy trip (even oil pepper and so on bought cooking in the youth tour), took a taxi and walked around the center of the city, because there were only three hours to go. I visited the next South Australia Art Museum, nothing special, hurriedly back. After getting in the car, a Slovenian man sat next to me and said that his assigned seat was right here, but he would sit away (too many vacant seats) after driving, and then tell me about his travel and he had left his home. In Spain, Canary Island makes money by making sand carvings, posts the little house behind the restaurant, doesn`t drink trouble, so the police just keep their eyes open and shut, while traveling is just wearing a sleeping bag, sleeping in the streets and swimming. As he made money by selling art, he talked about going to the F1 Melbourne Grand Prix, preparing to renew his signature at the airport, listening to his numerous travel history and not paying much attention to his hometown. Seeing his stout, bruised face, he found the people everywhere in the world admirable, but how frightening what they were going through. People have a sense of comfort, also will have a sense of adventure, compared to him, I have a bit tired of the journey I seem a little delicate. What he really admires me is that kindness. I walked away from my seat in the morning, brushed my teeth and forgot my cell phone, went out to Broken Hill and came back and found that the sleeping seats and the side-by-side seats were missing. It was he who stuffed his cell phone into the bag behind my seat after I walked away to avoid being picked up by someone else. The other day, after dinner, he offered me a salad and chicken legs from the supermarket, but I really didn`t want to put a burden on him after listening to his hard-pressed way of traveling.
Day three: there was little noise in the car at night, but the noise of the wheels and the man who was reading with the light on in the front seat made me fall asleep a thousand times. I went to bed again in the morning, and at more than 10:00 the radio warned that there would be a little rest in a place called Cook (not even the village), train supplies, and passengers could get out of the car and take a walk.
Hot air is drilled into the body at a train. In this extremely empty place, the appearance of this midway station is also due to the passing of the train line. In the past, when we had to transport minerals, tea, and other goods, there were still more than 50 residents here. There are hospitals and schools, and now there are four residents (one of whom is supposed to be the souvenir-seller), and the buildings inside are naturally abandoned, and Cook is like a ghost town.
Cook view, small stalls in the lower left corner for souvenirs, dense ants in the upper right corner, and ants in the bottom right corne
In addition to walking around the ghost city, many people went to train to take pictures after getting out of the car. And I find it interesting to see a beacon next to the track, east to Sydney, west to Paz, and two old-fashioned prisons (the Gaol, is more like a public toilet).
Handsome train head.
Back in the car it was soon noon, and during lunch an old man living in Parth was talking to me. I forgot how it started, and I only remembered that we had been talking for three hours, starting with his grandparents in England. To life in Australia, and to the Queen of England, "plot". The first two points have been verbose enough, but the third thing does sound interesting: he had a relative who had taken pictures of the royal family and for some reason had not returned the photos to the royal family, and once he finally sent the photo over to him. And the Queen replied that she was happy, and at the same time in Australia he was ready to sell one of his house in Paz, although the agent looked at many antique paintings in the house. Very impatient to pressure his price, and just before the day he looked at the house, the old man just went down to the mailbox and found a letter with a royal label, and it happened to be that he had left the letter on purpose. Just as the old man bargained with the intermediary and went out of the courtyard outside, he said that he had forgotten to bring his presbyopic glasses to see if there was a letter in the mailbox and read it by the way. The intermediary opened the letter, and as soon as he read the letter, he was stunned by the name of the messenger. Tell the old man it was the Queen`s letter, and the old man came again and said, "Oh, it`s her again?" Since then, the agent respectfully respected the old man, and the price did not dare to hold down.
The gradient of the land along the way
After the chat, the time also passed 4 o`clock, sat quietly in his seat to rest for a meeting, then arrived at the Kalgoorlie, scale is more than the Cook, but also just a mining city, when walking into the city is already a side-by-side night. In the still hot small town, the afterglow seemed to be out of line with the surrounding desolate, walked a few streets, passed some sculptures, the city hall, the tourist consultation point (all closed) to the border. Some of the miner`s arms could be seen not far away, and in this mine-dependent place, prostitutes were of course bound to see women in miniskirts all the way.
To the left of Kalgoorlie, is Paddy Hannan, the gold prospector.
The city became more and more uninteresting in the dark, and after dinner I went back to the car early, fell asleep while train was still in action (many people did), and read the Hobbits the next way, before going to bed, and, sure enough, I went to bed with the Hobbits who were reading all the way down the road, and I went to bed before going to bed. I finally got a good night`s sleep!
Wheat fields traversed before entering Perth
After getting up, looking out of the window, train finally approached the slightly fertile yellow land on the west coast from the barren land, and the presence of wheat fields and cell phone signals seemed to remind the journey that it was finally coming to an end. The Wheatbelt is surrounded by Paz, 150000 square meters in size, but only 70, 000 people live in it!
All right, that`s all you`ve seen and heard on your journey. Talk about your feelings. First of all, is this route proposed? I have reservations, this long train line is a good place to let you enjoy the scenery all the way, but very few stop sites let me feel still, always follow other people arranged on the line, can not do much free play. Of course, taking a car is not necessarily the freest way. After all, many places are no longer paved (driving in the desert = Dakar Rally). But the feeling in the car still can, after all, can eat can bathe enough space to move. In any case, I can calm down to enjoy and explore the fun of the journey.
By Parslow
