The train ride from Perth to Adelaide is described as 3 days and 2 nights which is absolutely correct, only the 3rd day is a very short one as we arrived and disembarked in Adelaide at 07:20
We’d had another dreadful night so were awake well before dawn and more than ready for our fruit platter which was duly delivered.
Having got off with our hand luggage we then had quite a long wait for the suitcases to be returned. We'd planned all along to make the short 1km walk to our Rydges Hotel instead of bothering with a taxi (we thought we'd be ready for a walk after 2 days on a train). When the cases finally arrived we double checked our route and were given completely opposite directions. We headed off but were struggling to find a path (didn't want to push cases in the road) and about to give up and go back to the long taxi queue, when Ian suddenly spotted a minibus with our hotel's name on it. He walked over to ask for directions whereupon the driver promptly offered us a lift. We just thought he (David) was just being incredibly kind but it turns out the hotel offer a complimentary shuttle service within the CBD (central business district of Adelaide). So we were whisked to the hotel to drop our cases (far too early to check in) and then David drove us to the shopping area and to a pharmacy so we could stock up on cough remedies. He also booked us in his diary for tomorrow to take us to collect the hire car.
What fortunate timing (for once!)
We found an extremely helpful pharmacist who suggested all kind of pills and potions and we readily said yes to anything she thought might help. From there we went to a mobile phone shop to buy a 30 day SIM card so we could a) keep in touch with Toby, b) monitor the fire situation and c) have Sat-Nav directions for our 4 day road trip. It was a fairly long winded process but one of the trainee salesmen was from Liverpool and we had a good chat whilst waiting for the SIM to activate. It didn't, but apparently it can take up to 24 hours so he was confident all would be working before we departed Adelaide tomorrow.