Then I realise - we’re not moving either. A quick check on my iPad reveals we’re roughly in the region of the derailment announced last night. And so my fertile imagination turns to the wonderful premise of Agatha’s wonderful Murder on the Orient Express, in their case stuck in a snow drift, but the iconic adventure has its parallels. Happily at the time of writing there are still no Murders to Announce!
I’m too excited to sleep, so fidget around for ages, but there’s not even a 2G signal so I only read until I drift off, and then wake later to learn we’re still not moving. We saunter down to the public carriages in search of breakfast, and the manager of our quarter section of the train tells us we’re delayed because the storm prevented the recovery of the derailment. Current estimates are something like six hours behind schedule, which for us is no issue at all, there is one couple whose flight to Brisbane needs to get rearranged.
While we’re stuck on the train let’s look at a few statistics - we are 30 carriages since Adelaide, the train weighs 1350 tonnes and is 770m long, just under half a mile. At either end is staff accommodations and baggage cars. Obviously at one end is engines, only one outbound from Perth two after Adelaide, at the rear is a generator car. On the Perth segment there was also a car transporter with five cars, all left in Adelaide. There are four distinct sections to the passenger domain, the first, third and fourth quarters are designated Gold and the second is Platinum. It’s a marketeers dream to call your poorest section gold, but apparently there used to be Red which didn’t even get a cabin. Each gold service section consists of four accommodation carriages, a lounge / bar carriage and a restaurant / galley carriage and is independently run by a dedicated manager and staff. Most carriages have nine compartments which are exceedingly small, although functional, a few are double sized (gold plus) so there’s around 60 pax per section.
The lucky Platinum people get vastly superior accommodation and services but sadly I’m unable to report on that area as it was fully booked, and our waitlisting came to nought. As it’s part of a complex booking along with flights, hotels and the cruise we don’t know what our train segment cost, but we do know the upgrade to Platinum would have added £2400 - £400 each per night, so presumably it’s quite a nice experience.
At 10:00 we slow down to snail’s pace and observe rail company vehicles keeping pace on either side. A few minutes later we pass the derailed carriage, and a few yards later, a bogey, and then we’re back to rattle and roll. Chatting to our barista she tells us in two years onboard this is only the second time she’s experienced a delay as long as this, however freight derailments are regularly reported, and cleared very quickly.
We now know we’re going to be nine hours late, so our 11:30 arrival will actually be 20:30 arrival unless anything else causes more mayhem, not that it matters to us. A consequence is that we are now unexpectedly provided with lunch and dinner onboard. They are clearly prepared for this, and the lunch options are a mixed meat platter or camel curry once again. We dine with Jenny and Bill from Buckinghamshire, whose extensive knowledge of South Africa and beyond is a great tonic.
The afternoon passes by in the lounge with conversation, booze and latterly a quiz, provided in part by the resident musician and in part by a passenger whose singing talent is a refreshing change. Whilst we get all the musical questions correct our general knowledge is more limited (sport??) so we come second!!
Meanwhile the afternoon passes by, and we take a massive detour South so we avoid the Blue Mountains which are significantly affected by the current bush fires. As we’ve been there before we’re not too disappointed to be missing the experience, but it is a shame for the virgin travellers who might not get to repeat their travel to this part of the world.
We while away another hour or so with our Yorkshire cronies before heading to dinner. It’s the same as last night, which is no shame, and my beef rib-eye is possibly even better, whereas husband has goats cheese and brassica tart, also very good. We’re thrown from pillar to post, as we hurtle towards Sydney at break-neck speed, making holding a drink very challenging, which is a bit of a problem!
Another problem is the 17 doors we have to navigate is order to get from lounge car to our loo, which is necessary as the public ones are all closed because of a recent noro-virus incident. We ordinarily have to traverse five cars and the 17 aforementioned doors, unless as once happened, husband was allowed to visit a cronies’ loo nearby.
We’re now scheduled to arrive in Sydney about 21:00 but it’s a funny day of curious timetables and continuous bouncing around, and the additional nine or more hours extra to the scheduled time. There is a positive - we’ve certainly taken full advantage of our free bar!
Arriving dusty (not literally, I mean travel-weary) we are first out of the train, and in the taxi rank within minutes. However the lady taxi driver refuses the fare, insisting it’s only a few hundred meters, which may be true, but we’re tired, nevertheless we trundle our four precious cases along the high-street to get the few blocks to Rydges, our pad for the next three nights.
Although we’re worn we can’t resist a 3.5 mile round trip to Circular Quay to take in the sights of the iconic sites the Opera House and the Bridge, oh and get an ice-cream, before returning to Rydges. Never was a huge, and stationary bed quite so welcome!
Comments
Post a Comment