We Made It Coast to Coast!
Yay! We pulled into Perth this morning -- hot and sunny with lots of greenery everywhere. As we wait for our hotel room, here are some of my notes from the last two days. (I'll post more once we get settled into the hotel -- looks like we're in the centre of things -- lots of walkable areas.)
Sunday
For our last day in Adelaide we set out to see the zoo. I decided to walk because one of our hosts from last night's dinner had shown us the route. It was a quick 20 minutes across parkland and along a shady path. Mom and Claire joined me eventually after taking the bus. It's a lovely zoo, small but well kept and with lots of animals in clear view. We saw their bird show, which consisted of two blue and gold macaws in free flight over the main lawn.
Claire and I then set off for the city centre, waited a bit for a bus, then decided to walk along the River Torrens. We chanced upon the Migration Museum, so Claire went off exploring while I toured it for an hour. Excellent presentations! Lots of info and artifacts about people who migrated to Australia over the past two centuries, lots of personal stories. Part of the complex is the former Destitute Asylum and a hospital for indigent mothers. Very poignant stories depicted the orphans and women unfortunate enough to find themselves there in the 19th century.
I met up with Claire again and did a quick tour of the State Library, which was nearby, and the South Australia Museum. In the latter I only had energy for a quick tour of a photography exhibition. The library had in its lower level a small gallery full of aboriginal paintings, so we did a quick scan there as well before grabbing a cab back to the hotel. Still time there for a beer and catchup on email before our ride arrived for the train station. At the station we had lots of time to rest and people watch -- who should show up but three people from last night's dinner to see us off! Cathy, our hostess, plus June and Bill from Florida, came and chatted with us until we boarded the train.
Monday
After an exquisite dinner last night, we fell into our bunks quite readily, especially knowing the wake-up coffee or tea was to be at about 6:15. After a sumptuous breakfast, we spent much of the day crossing the incredible Nullarbor Plain, an apparently limitless stretch of desert, punctuated with saltbush (a grey shrub about 8 inches tall at most) and very occasionally a scrawny tree-like effort. We stopped at Cook, once home to 300 people but now a ghost town with a couple of people running a sparse gift shop. Got a good view of a low-flying wedge-tail eagle before we got back on the train. Under a couple of surprisingly green bushes further on we saw kangaroos, but otherwise no wildlife and very few birds.