05 | March | 2025 | Where shall we go to next?

Daily Archives: March 5, 2025

Day 2 on the Indian Pacific. Go big or go home.

Posted on March 5, 2025 by julieallen36

Hm……sleep. Discuss. Well , it wasn’t easy but I’m pleased to report that Jane, despite her back, did get a fair nights sleep on the lower bunk. However, up on the top bunk it was terribly hot. The bed, although pretty narrow, was quite comfortable. However, the train itself was v rickety and noisy as it rattles along at about 80mph. At times, in the blue cabin light, it felt like it might fly off the rails and I kept thinking ‘How can it be so bumpy when it’s just a straight rail line?’. I felt like a backseat train driver making sure we stayed on track. All night…..

At about midnight, I needed to come down the ladder to visit the en-suite facilities. I also discovered how to turn off the blue light but I’m not sure the pitch black dark helped with my sense of disorientation. I slept very fitfully until about 5-30am when I was woken by noises outside in the corridor. I looked at my watch and wondered why my alarm hadn’t gone off at 5-15?

Crikey, we now had just 30 minutes to get up and dressed as we needed to be in the Outback Bar ready for our day trip at 6am. Bleary eyed we put on our long trousers, long sleeved shirts and boots as described in our instructions.
We slowly pulled into Kalgoorlie and disembarked. The groups were split up onto coaches for the different tour options. We’d chosen the Superpit Tour which would take us right into the huge working gold mine. I was beyond excited to be doing this as a Geography nerd and Jane happily went along with the plan.

We boarded our coach with Alan the driver whose commentary throughout was somewhat negative. He was very cross with the people who got on with short sleeves and insisted that they’d have to wear overalls which were ‘very unpleasant’. We were all given Hi-Viz jackets and plastic protection glasses and Alan made it clear that we had to wear them when he said as otherwise he would lose his job.

Our first stop was Hannam’s North Tourist Mine. We’d only stop here for a cup of tea and a loo break but Alan said it was ‘ridiculous’ as we could easily spend at least a couple of hours here. The main attractions for us were the big trucks!! These weren’t in use and we were able to climb all over them which was great fun.
Next we drove on and into the Superpit mine site itself. Alan threw lots of facts and figures out about the huge piles of boulders, massive cranes, enormous machinery and of course the monster trucks. I’m afraid it was still a little early and I couldn’t take it all in so you will need to fact-check my statistics of the day yourselves!

My Top 10 AlanFacts
1) Size of the pit. The pit is an oblong in shape 3.5km x 1.5km x 600m deep
2) Amount of alcohol you are allowed in your bloodstream when entering the pit – 0%
3) Number of monster dump trucks going up and down in the mine – 40 at a cost of Aus$ 3million each
4) Date when the goldfields were created 2.6 to 2.9 billion years ago in the Dolerite rock.
5) Number of dump trucks that have enough gold ore in them to be sent to the mill (rather than just dump their 250 tonne load) 1:6
6) The Golden Mile is one of the world’s richest gold deposits and by 2019 had produced how many gold bars? 50,000
7) How much can a big truck driver earn in a year working one week on, one week off? Aus$ 100,000
8) When did they first discover gold at Kalgoorlie ? 1893
9) How many little rocks did Jane sneak into her pocket in the hope that it might contain some gold? None, Alan was very clear that we were all being watched by multiple sources and would be strip searched if they suspected any funny business.
10) Amount of Sodium Cyanide used in the process of extracting gold, globally. 35000 tonnes. I have used Prof Google here and it’s obviously a very touchy subject and on their Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines website, they seem defensive about its use.

We also made two stops at a couple of amazing viewpoints looking right over the Superpit. It was at one of these that we needed to wear our glasses and even a hard-hat. What a treat. It was incredible to see the bands of different coloured rocks and the now ant-like Monster Trucks winding their way up and down.

I must say, Alan did seem very optimistic about the future of the mine saying that there was probably enough gold here to keep the company busy for another 60 years. He drove us back to the train in time for a lovely brunch. The day was only just beginning.

PS Today, even the photos are BIG! I’ve had some trouble making images fit the grid so decided to send the full images today. Let me know which you prefer in the comments. Thanks. 🙏

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Australia, Indian Pacific Train, Kalgoorlie, Superpit | 4 Comments

No Worries, mate!

Posted on March 5, 2025 by julieallen36

(Update…..our travels have been continuing but we’ve been on a train and our WiFi v limited. Now that we’ve arrived in Sydney I will try and address the current backlog of adventures! But not all at once! ) So here we go….a few days back…….

Sorry for the radio silence folks. We’ve been holed up in our lovely Country Comfort Hotel in Perth relaxing and recovering. So, we basically enjoyed a day and a half by the pool in the beautiful sunny weather and 30 degree heat! Our only trip out was by Uber to a local pharmacy. Did I mention that we had a ridiculous amount of luggage? Well unfortunately, this had taken its toll on Jane’s back and she is suffering from a serious twinge to her lower back. Eek! This was going to need stronger meds than we have with us….hence the trip out to the extremely helpful pharmacy ladies. The other thing that seemed to work quite well was the jacuzzi by the pool.

We’ve noticed that everyone seems to have a great attitude and whatever you ask for, you get the response ‘No worries, mate!’ And they mean it. This was the case in the hotel reception and restaurant so it was very easy to just stay put! We could explore Perth more when we return.

Yesterday (Saturday 1st) we arranged a late checkout at 12 noon and then had another 3 hrs to kill by the pool before our taxi would pick us up. It wasn’t quite so relaxing today as the kids are now on half term and had taken over the pool with their inflatables and bombing! One particular group amused us by sitting in the jacuzzi blowing up their rash shirts with the jets of bubbly water making themselves look like Michelin men!

When it came time for us to get ready, we had all our stuff in a Conference Room (No worries, mate! ) and we got changed and repacked ready to go. We now each had an enormous suitcase, a holdall bag, a backpack and a suit-bag. I was very worried that they wouldn’t let us on the train with all this stuff.

Our taxi collected us and we drove the short distance to the East Perth Train Terminal where it was very exciting to see the Indian Pacific Train waiting for us. It is absolutely enormous with 29 carriages, 2 locomotives, 30 crew and 20 platinum beds and 182 Gold Beds.

We quickly checked in and were very pleased to say goodbye to our huge suitcases. We’d only see them again 4 days later in Sydney. We were told to go onto the platform where there was some entertainment, snacks and drinks and even some wildlife. So, you can imagine how overwhelmed we were when the wildlife turned out to be a snake (no thanks) and a pair of Koala Bears. We were allowed to go right up close and even stroke its little leg (the koala obv, snakes don’t have legs, silly!) It actually made me well up as it was all so unexpected and lovely.

Next Anne-Marie, the Perth manager, wanted our photo and also insisted on taking our other heavy bags off us and would take them to our cabin!!! No worries mate! Literally, no worries!

We made our way to the refreshments and sat down with Morag and Ian from Dundee. There was some very loud singing going on and although we tried to chat with our Scottish friends, I’m afraid I could only hear about 1/4 of what they said but just nodded encouragingly.

Soon it was time to board (5pm) and we made our way upto coach G where Paul, our host, greeted us and welcomed us onboard. We found our room and admired its host of facilities. These included a bunk bed, an en-suite toilet and shower, a small amount of storage and floor space. We soon got ourselves organised and waited for the train to leave.

Unfortunately, when we did leave it became apparent that our request for a forward facing carriage had been ignored. Oh dear….Paul said he would need to get his manager. He turned up and obviously hadn’t read the ‘No Worries’ memo. There was nothing he could do about the direction of travel but he did reassure that the train would be reversed from Adelaide onwards. He kept asking if we had any other questions but when we did, he just sort of snorted, as if this was all beneath him to have to deal with.

Ah well, he was obviously having a stressful time! Luckily Paul made up for it by giving us a cuddly eagle 🦅 soft toy and Marcello, in charge of the dining car , was an absolutely star in letting us eat earlier than our card said and letting Jane sit in a forward facing seat.

We were joined by Nigel from Chinnor for dinner in the Queen Adelaide restaurant car. Nigel told us that this was a dream trip for him too after a serious illness. He’d also treated himself to an Aston Martin! The food and wine were extremely good and then it was time for bed. The room got made up and I climbed the little ladder up to my bunk bed! We were both very tired and couldn’t suss out how to turn off the blue ceiling light. Let’s see how sleeping goes!