The train picks up speed as it leaves the suburbs. The seats are roomy and comfortable, but you're leaning forward in anticipation. You can see the Blue Mountains - sheer cliffs dropping off into deep canyons, the blue haze hovering above the eucalyptus forests. Katoomba, Lithgow, Bathurst, Blaney ... Australia's country towns pass by, the landscape changing as the train snakes deeper into the heartland.

The town of Orange is up ahead. With soil red and fertile - spewed forth from a now extinct volcano - it sustains endless paddocks of lambs, pigs and cattle with its fodder crops. Night falls and you dine under a sky studded with thousands of stars. After Condoblin, the track straightens and the landscape becomes less nurturing; the odd tree punctuates the scenery but in the darkness it's hard to see even that. You turn in for the night, awakening to the early morning light shining on red, sandy plains. In the distance, you may see kangaroos grazing and emus running purposefully. You're eager to continue the adventure; a leisurely shower and you're ready for breakfast.

The Indian Pacific slows on its approach to Broken Hill. With some fellow passengers, you've decided to have a quick look around this artificial oasis. The air is clean and crisp, slightly cooler than you would have expected. But then, that seems so right for somewhere so surreal and isolated. Rich mineral deposits nourish this town. There is no well of spring water beneath the green parks and colourful gardens... Instead, there are rich veins of silver, lead and zinc.

You are on board once again ... The Indian Pacific takes a southwesterly path through the wide, open land. Most of the towns on the way to Adelaide are railway towns, with very little visible beyond the sidings. Mingary, Olary, Mannahill, Yunta, Paratoo, Nackara, Oodlawirra - names as foreign as the landscape is desolate. You pass the time with new found friends, a delicious lunch and a movie. Further south, the land appears more hospitable. Around Peterborough, grazing sheep, golden fields of wheat and farm houses dot the landscape. In time, the fields give way to the fringes of suburbia as you enter Adelaide.

A stopover is scheduled for Adelaide, a city of elegant buildings ringed by parklands. You elect to take a bus tour of the sights... Two and a half hours later, with souvenirs in hand, you resume your seat on the Indian Pacific as it heads north through South Australia. The train feels like home and you've developed some good friendships with your fellow travelers. You 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 the halfway point of the journey, Port Augusta. 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 crossing the Nullarbor Plain, the world's largest flat surface. It's a scene of utter desolation with little but saltbush able to grow there. The scenery hardly changes... over breakfast someone makes a joke about going to sleep and 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 and 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