Perth

#

My journey begins on Tuesday with a 5h 30m flight to Perth from Brisbane, as we slowly headed south and pulled away from the coast the green of the trees slowly transitioned to yellow dry grasslands, then the brown red of the desert. The flight was smooth and I spent my time staring out the window, listening to music, and watching a few youube videos I had downloaded at the airport.

Once I arrive in perth I met my dad in the terminal before heading out to my grandads car and grabbing a coffee with them before he dropped us back to my grandma’s house. After my long day of travel I settled in, unpacked some of my things before looking at old photos and little bits of childhood memorabilia my grandma had collected.

The following day I woke up to a cooked breakfast from grandma before heading off to explore kings park and the botanical gardens, after exploring the gardens for a while and wearing out grandma from all the walking we grabbed a coffee at the cafe then headed over to south Perth to catch the ferry over to Elizabeth quay then returning for lunch at the Windsor hotel where I devoured a boujee steak sandwich. That afternoon we headed to Scarborough beach and although the light rain and cold weather wasn’t conducive to swimming I did enjoy a coffee and some ship spotting through the binoculars they had along the promenade. Finally that evening we went out for dinner to Bolywood indian in Innaloo where I filled up on papadums, naan, onion bhaji and chicken vindaloo.

On Friday morning I woke up early for my first of many trips to snap fitness along my journey. Despite being unable to locate the hip thrust machine the rest of my workout went smoothly and I was able to navigate the gym and different equipment with relative ease. After Gym me and Dad went out for a game of ten pin bowling and lunch with Granddad. After this we caught up with my cousin Gregan for a bit before heading home for dinner (leftover vindaloo) and a nice early nights sleep so I could get up nice and early for Rottnest.

Saturday we were up early for breakfast and to pack for our Rottnest expedition with granddad. We left for Hillarys boat harbor at 6:30 and after the choppy ride over we were at Rottnest by 8:30. We spent the morning walking around the Island taking photos before we took the old train up to the hills to see the massive guns left on the island from WW2. After catching the train back down again we had lunch dad and I parted ways with granddad so we could go for a bike ride around the island and he could take a nap 🙂. Finally we caught the ferry back over and went to my uncle Curtis’ place for dinner.

On Sunday I packed my bags, caught a train into the city and explored the city and Northbridge with dad before heading back to say goodbye to grandma and so granddad could take us to the train station in East Perth.

The Indian Pacific

#

After saying my goodbyes to dad and granddad I had a few drinks at the terminal as we waited for train boarding to commence. Once onboard the train crew came around to do their introductions before I headed to the Outback Explorer Lounge at 6:00pm for a couple glasses of Chardonnay before being seated at the Queen Adelaide Restaurant. For starters I had bruschetta and arancini for mains there was roast pork with asparagus and saurkraut. For desserts I had a cheese platter before heading back to the Lounge for a Shiraz and to have a chat with some of the lovely folks on the train before heading for a shower and bed at 10:30PM

My first night onboard I slept well apart from waking twice in the early hours of the morning. At 4:30am I got up and dressed and did some light reading before making my way to the lounge at 5:25 to have a coffee before the mornings excursion. I picked the “Curious Kalgoorlie” tour where we visited the Super Pit mine, the boulder town hall and Chunky Timber Co where we most importantly got to pet the workshop dogs.

Once we returned to the train I had another coffee and had a chat with some more passengers before being seated for Brunch. For brunch I had a BLT with poached eggs and hollandaise then poached pair with yogurt parfait before settling into my cabin to start work on this blog, listen to some music and stare out the window at the endless expanse of the nullabor.

That evening I headed up to the restraunt car for an entree of Duck & Green Peppercorn Pate with Pickles, Olives and Rosemary bread. For the main course I had slow cooked beef with sweet potato, sauteed mushroom and jue. Finally for Desserts i had a pistachio tart with plum icecream. After filling myself up I headed back to my cabin to grab my camera and gorilla pod so I could do some night photography.

Once I returned to the Lounge car I had a glass of bubbles as the train pulled into cook for some bonfire and stargazing with a few cheeky glasses of baileys.

On my final day onboard the train I had a nice sleep in and did some reading before heading to the restaurant for breakfast and a coffee. After breakfast I went back to reading in the lounge car for a while before heading back to my room for a nap. I waited until 1pm to go to the restaurant for lunch where I had a plate of charcuterie for my main dish and a banoffee pie with ice cream for desserts. I spent the remainder of the afternoon talking to some of the Welsh and English passengers onboard in the lounge over a few drinks before disembarking at the Adelaide parklands terminal.

I am finishing this post up on July 10th on the Overland right now so to have any chance of this post coming out and me being able to start on the next I will leave things here. Join me for my next post (in a week or 2) for my short stay in Adelaide, The Overland train ride and probably my Melbourne stay…