Sydney

 I didn't expect to have great signal on the train, and I didn't. The wi-fi in the lounge was excellent, but most of the time there wasn't any signal to pick up.

The Indian Pacific

There was a free light breakfast at the train terminal. The Indian Pacific is, after all, a tourist train.

Train Station in Perth

Train station light breakfast

Our compartment

In the lounge

We had only a limited amount of space in our room, so we checked our two big suitcases through to Sydney; they would be unavailable during the trip. Mostly we chose well, but I didn't have any white plastic electrical tape with me. That would have been useful for two repairs. One, my wristwatch and backpack don't get along, and I had torn the wristwatch band while putting on the backpack. I had temporarily fixed it, but the fix only lasted about half the trip. Two, one of the bushings that holds the scooter seat in place came loose, and I had no way to repair it.

Our first excursion after Perth was Kalgoorlie, the largest gold mine in the world. It is claimed to be the richest square mile on Earth.

At Kalgoorlie we were treated to a short but cute amateur play; I don't think it even had a name.

Amateur play

After the play we were driven around to see what we could of the mine in the dark and, of course, to visit the gift shop.

Huge open pit gold mine

Some mining equipment we went past on the way out

The scenery for the next day was the Outback, specifically the Nullarbor Plain.

Logo in the lounge car

The next excursion, from Adelaide, was by coach (Australian for bus) up into the mountains to see the scenery. The scenery was fog. We stopped up there long enough to have breakfast, and although it started to rain hard when we got into the building, and stopped by the time we left. Paula bought a scarf with a picture of a Kookaburra on it.

Mountain view

Finally, Sydney!

The apartment Paula found, the Meriton, is roomy and really nice. Unfortunately, a lot of stuff, though close, is uphill. We still need to see how well we can get around.

Our room

The key cards for our room are the next level of technology. We put them in front of a reader, the screen tells us which elevator to get on, and the elevator takes us to our floor. No buttons to push. Also, there's a place to put the card next to the room door to turn on the lights, as is fairly common--but other cards do not work. When going out again, the elevator takes us to the ground level.

Corner of Market and Sussex