Unfortunately we had an abysmal night; we took it in turns to cough and splutter and in the few brief moments when neither of us was coughing, the jolting of the train ensured we got no sleep at all.
We were scheduled to stop at Rawlinna, a
remote siding on the edge of a 2.5m acre sheep station (70,000 sheep) at 06:30 so we accepted
the offer of a wake up knock at 05:45 but set our alarms just in case.
Good job too as no knock happened (another mis-communication between staff,
like the coaches last night!). But one positive of not sleeping is that
you don't have to worry about not being awake for things. So we were up,
had had a hot drink (water back on!), had showered and were ready to get off.
I think the stop was essential to deliver
supplies to the station and maybe take on water before we crossed the famous
Nullabor Plain, but it also gave the Indian Pacific an opportunity to pretend
it was something of interest. A few random pictures
Definitely a one horse town
Hot bacon and egg rolls were handed out, together with orange juice or tea/coffee and some strange buns which I thought were cinnamon but apparently were vegemite flavoured!!
I think this is the same guy who was on the platform at Perth - he goes from carriage to carriage each evening, but we've not heard him yet.
I'm guessing this is kangaroo spine although I'm not sure what predates on them in this area - dingo, I guess but do they kill or just eat carrion.
At about 09:00 we were back on the train and returned to our cabin to discover the beds had already been unmade. Another miscommunication - we were told at our embarkation briefing that it was important to hang a sign on the door when we left the carriage (for meals etc) and wanted the beds made up. So we presumed if we didn't leave the sign, nothing would be touched!
We managed to get the top bunk down and both tried for a couple more hours sleep.