The train pulls up in the middle of the plain. This is in theory a station called Watson. There is nothing but small grassy clumps and red soil. An aboriginal woman and her small child step down from the train together with a steward with their bags. I overhear their conversation at the door. She…

The country outside Adelaide is initially greener than I imagined (no drifting sand dunes or camel trains yet.) However the ubiqitous red soil is there; and after some time you realize the landscape is impercetibly changing. The last distant low uplands slide away and the perspective is of a vast surrounding tabletop. Small scubby plants…

It’s a strange sensation to wake up in a train carriage, especially when you are on the outskirts of Broken Hill. The previous night the train was delayed because of ice on the tracks in the Blue Mountains, not the kind of delay you expect in Australia. The hills are grey and ghostly in the…

We are travelling out of the endless Sydney suburbs. Out in the West there seems to be little of the flash cosmopolitan city and more of the dusty cramped bungalows and industrial sprawl. We are checking it all from the “Red Kangaroo” cars with the seats, not the bunks (i.e. we are in the cheap…

On Saturday 17 July, we embarked on our overland train trip from Sydney to Perth. The journey really begins at Circular Quay station, where Julie breaks her tooth on a candy bar. Luckily it doesn’t seem to cause too much pain but is not a good omen for our 63 hour transcontinental journey that is…