The train picks up speed as it leaves the suburbs. The seats are roomy and comfortable, but you're leaning forward in anticipation as it heads north through South Australia. The train feels like home and you've developed some good friendships with your fellow travelers. You are able to spend your hours chatting, playing cards and dining together... Traveling in air conditioned comfort, you hardly notice the day turning into night. It's dark as you reach Port Augusta the halfway point of your journey. All trains stop here - even The Ghan traveling from Sydney and Melbourne to Alice Springs in the centre of the continent.

From now on it's an almost straight run between the salt lakes of central South Australia heading into the west. You wake to the Nullarbor Plain, the world's largest flat surface. It's a scene of utter desolation with little but saltbush growing... The scenery hardly changes, and over breakfast someone makes a joke about going to sleep, then waking eight hours later to the same view.

To the north are the tribal lands of the Aboriginal people... Maralinga land... Pitjanjatjara land and over 40,000 years of the Dreaming. By afternoon the Indian Pacific reaches the Western Australian border and continues on its remarkably unbending journey along the 478km piece of track known as the 'Long Straight.' The wildlife is sparse, just a few dingoes.. the occasional red kangaroos and the odd wedge-tailed eagle.

Late in the evening, the gold town of Kalgoorlie/Boulder looms on the horizon. Built on the 'Golden Mile,' reputedly the richest square mile in the world, it marks the final leg of the Indian Pacific's journey. There is less than 600km to travel, most of it before sunrise. You retire for one final sleep, awakening on the outskirts of Perth. The adventure is over, but the memories will last forever.

If you'd like to read an interesting and frank article written by B. Elder about a trip he took from Sydney to Perth on the Indian Pacific, see Life on the line.