In March this year we had been on a brief trip to Adelaide, capital city
of South Australia. Adelaide is about 1250 km from Sydney and is well connected
by air to Sydney. But we preferred to go by train, Indian Pacific that runs
between Sydney and Perth via Adelaide, a total distance of 4352 km. linking the
two big oceans, Indian and Pacific. This is a luxury train with three levels of service, Platinum, Gold and
Red. We have chosen the Gold service and had a spacious twin berth sleeper
cabin with en-suite facilities, for our overnight journey. In each carriage there was a hospitality
staff member, who makes the beds, changes sheets and takes care of other
services in the carriage. Each carriage has a well stocked pantry where tea and coffee can be
prepared by the guests 24 hours. Besides the shower and toilet in the cabins
there is also a common toilet and shower in each carriage. There were nine
cabins in our carriage. For gold and platinum class of guests, there is a special restaurant,
Queen Adelaide Restaurant, where the complimentary meals and breakfast are
served. There is also a special relaxing
lounge for the gold and platinum guests, called Outback Explorer Lounge,
equipped with a bar. The train had facilities to carry the cars of guests and
is so long that in Sydney Central, it is split in two sections and stationed
in two adjacent platforms, and later joined together at the time of departure. At Broken Hill where the train halted for nearly two
hours guests could disembark in stages only. The train is around 700 metres long and has around 25 carriages excluding locomotives and motorail and travels at an average speed of 85 km/hour.
The train runs once a week on Wednesdays from Sydney. On 6th February 2013, we took the
train and it left Sydney at 2:55 pm. The next stop was only next morning at
6:20 am at Broken Hill. The previous night we had dinner at the Queen Adelaide
Restaurant. On our request the chef made
special cheese and salad sandwich, which we preferred to the salad in the menu.
The same way the next day for lunch the chef prepared special vegetarian
noodles instead of the dish on the menu.
On the whole the chef and the staff were courteous and helpful, that
made the journey all the more enjoyable. At Broken Hill, we disembarked and went round the town
for an hour, preferring walking around to an optional whistle-stop coach tour
for an hour around the city and surroundings that Railways offered. Broken Hill is a mining town in the desert, famous
for silver and lead mining. After Broken
Hill, the next stop was Adelaide Parklands terminal only, which it reached at
3.05 pm. It was a very relaxing experience to watch the passing scenery from the
luxury of your exclusive cabin hearing your favourite music. On the whole a very pleasant comfortable journey. The photos of the train journey
and the halt at Broken Hill can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam-sekar/sets/72157632756530088/
In Adelaide we went on two day-tours, which we had booked earlier
through Viator. The first one was Riverboat lunch cruise on Murray River. The tour
coach picked us up at 9:15 am and took us to Murray Bridge, where we boarded
the houseboat, Proud Mary. Proud Mary
has spacious cabins, to cater to those taking 2, 3, 5 days’ tours. It has a
spacious open deck, bar and dining area besides the deck housing the cabins. As
the boat slowly meandered through the river making way to Mannum, another riverside town we just relaxed in the upper deck, watching the
stark cliffs, River Red Gums and the flitting birds. Rajam took a turn at the
steering wheel under the watchful eye of the captain. In Mannum we landed and were taken to a look
out from where we had a grand view of the winding river as well as the boats
and canoes anchored in the shores and plying in the waters. Then after a stroll
round the town and waterfront we got back to the boat for the return trip. We had a buffet lunch on board and were happy
to know that the chef was from Punjab and another kitchen staff was from Sri
Lanka. The return to Adelaide was through
Adelaide hills where there was a brief stop for tea at the toy factory,
Gumercha. 18 metre high giant rocking toy-horse
is the attraction here and one can have a good view of the hills from its top.
Only few climbed to the viewing platform at the top of the horse and Rajam was
one of them. There is an animal park attached to the toy factory where a few
animals and birds could be viewed. We returned to Adelaide at 5:15 pm. The photos of the Riverboat cruise can be
seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam-sekar/sets/72157632756201584/
The next day we went on the day tour to Kangaroo island. It was a 16
hour tour from 6:15 am (hotel pick-up) to 10:30 pm (hotel drop). Kangaroo island is the third largest island
of Australia, and it lies southwest of Adelaide. By coach we reached Cape Jervis, where we
boarded a SeaLink ferry, which runs regular service between mainland and the
island. It is a multi-deck ferry in
which lower deck is reserved for cars and caravans, which many holidaymakers
take with them. The distance between Cape Jervis and Penneshaw, our landing
point is 13 km. At Penneshaw a coach
picked us up for the tour of the island. After nearly an hour’s drive we
reached Seal Bay, which is the breeding colony of Australian sea-lions. It is a conservation park and we had ample
opportunity to watch the seals bask in the sunshine and swim in the sea, in
singles and in groups. A parks officer kept a watchful
eye to see we don’t get too close nor feed them. There is also a lookout which gives a
panoramic view of the sea, sands and seals. From there we went to Hanson Bay to
catch a sight of the koalas and birds, which were just resting on the tree tops
because of the very warm weather.
Because of the hot weather all the way so far, we couldn’t see any
animals on our way. But as we neared the
Remarkable Rocks, it started drizzling.
This made the walk up the steep incline to Rocks a bit slippery and so,
many including Rajam did not take risk to climb up. I took the risk and the
sight was quite rewarding. Only I didn’t go round the rocks because that will
be testing my luck too much. So when it
came to the next rock formation through wind and erosion that was almost
touching the sea, called Admirals Arch, I did not go all the way down to the
arch but was content with a three quarter walk down the winding pathway and then
returned back to another lookout for a glimpse of the distant breeding ground
of New Zealand Fur Seals. Because of the rains, on our return through the
Flinders Chase National Park, we were rewarded with the sight of more than a
score of Kangaroos in pairs, groups and singles as well as the stray Echidna
and Wallaby. My regret is none of them posed long enough for me to catch them
in my camera. The complimentary lunch was
earlier in a Bistro where besides fruits, we had a puff cum cutlet, prepared
specially for Vegetarians, and served on the basis of the special token we were
given earlier. We returned via ferry and coach to the hotel, very tired but
exhilarated. The photos of Kangaroo island tour can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam-sekar/sets/72157632745040397/
We stayed in Hotel Grand Chancellor on Currie, which we had booked
through Webjet. The hotel does not have
an impressive frontage, but the rooms were spacious and cosy and the staff
were very helpful. What is more to our
liking is the hotel is close to Subway, 24 hour McCafe, 3 Indian restaurants,
one of them south Indian, the bus stop and Tramway. The next day, we were on
our own exploring Adelaide by bus, tram and by walk. Being a Sunday it is all-day free-travel, by
bus and tram for seniors, for which we had earlier taken the token. Adelaide is a well-laid beautiful city with
broad clean roads and vast park-lands and walking around it was a pleasure. After walking around
visiting the art gallery and botanical garden, we went on a cruise in the
Torrens River. Then we took the tram to Glenelg, where we relaxed in the
beautiful beach watching the ladies playing beach volleyball and men fishing from the
the jetty. The next day we returned to
Sydney, this time by JetStar flight with lots of happy memories, a few photos
and making plans for the next trip. The
photos of Adelaide city can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sam-sekar/sets/72157632749003430/
--------------------------------------------------------------------
