TALES FROM THE INDIAN PACIFIC: KISS THE FLY

If crocodile is not to your taste ....

Delights of Adelaide Central Market

After lunch on Day 2 , the Indian Pacific pulled into Adelaide and we left the train for a few hours to visit the central market.

Many people left the train having completed their journey, while new passengers arrived at the station for the onward trip to Perth. 

Crews changed while the engines shunted train cars and car carriers, rearranging them for the onward journey westwards.  A cleaning crew washed train windows, wiping and polishing methodically as they moved down the platform. And then it was all aboard as the Indian Pacific headed northwest passing Port Augusta at the head of the Spencer Gulf with the Flinders Ranges in the distance.

The next morning on Day 3 we would arrive, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere.

Welcome to Cook - stay awhile!

If you were to pinpoint a place on a map in the Australian outback with the coordinates of 1100 kilometres west of Adelaide and 1500 kilometres east of Perth you would come across the ghost town of Cook.

Located on the barren Nullarbor Plain, Cook’s reason for existence was to support the construction of the Trans-Australian Railway, completed in 1917.  

The jailhouse - warm and toasty for inmates

At its height Cook had a population of 200, a school, hospital, swimming pool, golf course (no grass though), jail, post office and general store. After the railway was privatized in the 1990s, the population dwindled and today there are only four full-time residents. 

Taking on water before crossing into Western Australia

Despite this, the relationship between Cook and the Indian Pacific is an important one - the train brings food, supplies and mail while the residents provide the train with fuel, water and accommodation for replacement crews.

Lying on the longest straight stretch of railway track in the world, Cook brings a whole new meaning to remoteness with the Nullarbor desert extending to the horizon in all directions.

Stepping from the train one cannot help but be struck by a profound feeling of isolation, unless of course you count the voraciousness of the welcoming committee: swarms of persistent flies.

A tour of the town does not take long, even when you've walked to the front of the train for that obligatory picture with the engine!