We were off in good time to get to the Melbourne Airport – this time we took the tollway and it was much faster! I do not mind driving surface streets if it is at night like when we arrived at 10 pm however when it was going to take double the time to drive to the airport on the surface streets vs. the tollway, the tollway was the way to go! The rental car company only adds a dollar to the toll, so that is not a bad expense to save that much time. Pretty smooth drive to the airport and we got the car filled up with petrol and returned with no issue.
Moving to check-in – for the domestic airlines in Australia they are REALLY big on self check bagging which is getting more popular in Canada. However if you have a mobility device to check in like a walker, it does not allow you to get your baggage tags! Andrew could get his baggage tag but not me. That requires an agent intervention. Also they weigh EVERYTHING here! They asked how much my walker weighed and I guessed (a pure random guess) 8 kg and she went and weighed it and guess what? It was 8 kg! Good to know! So it got is baggage tag along with my luggage and then the dreaded putting it onto the luggage belt happened. On the luggage belt, which you are supposed to do yourself, it is weight and sized. If it is not correct it is rejected. Our first suitcase was rejected for some unknown reason – however I knew it was the right size and weight – it said it was only 9 kg and I knew it was about 20 kg. We tried again as the agent came back with my walker and magic! It worked! Technician proximity syndrome rules again! The rest of our luggage was onto the belt and whisked away just fine.
Andrew, not sure what planet he was on or if he had not had enough caffeine, returned our baggage cart with my roll aboard suitcase which normally contains my medical stuff, however this time, as we were getting on a train had our clothes for 2 days, and left it on the cart! Another passenger saw it sitting on the returned baggage cart and came and got Andrew to mention that he might want the bag. Oh the trials and tribulations of traveling! Now we are set, bags checked, need to go through security! Security here in Australia is great! They have the more advanced bin system like YVR is putting in where there are 4-5 stations where people line up to put their things in bins and the bins are fed under the table so there is no waiting for them. Also, as I think I already mentioned – there are no walk through scanners or body scanners where you have to hold your arms up – you just stand sideways with your arms crooked and your feet apart between to wide walls and they can tell if you are carrying anything or not. As I carry a battery pack for my phone and laptop, in Australia, it needs to carried on you so I carry it in my purse as it always needs to be inspected after going through the scanner. Overall – very fast process and no laptops or other electronic devices need to come out of bags which is also awesome! Less crowding at the security lines!
I did neglect to mention that we did have a LITTLE issue with seating on this flight. Originally we were assigned seats 15A and B however the computer reassigned us to 27A and 27B as I cannot sit in an exit row due to having a declared disability (using a walker). That is an issue as in Australia rows 16 and higher board from the back of the plane and I was NOT going to climb those stairs! They did find seats for us more forward in the plane which was great – however I was a bit concerned when I first saw our boarding passes!
We arrived at the Adelaide Airport with no issues and picked up our luggage (as we had been her only 5 days prior) so we knew where we were going. It is not a large airport! We had passed the Taxi Stand when picking up our rental car the first time through so this time we just went to the Taxi Stand and got a taxi to take us to the Parklands Train Station in Adelaide to catch the Indian Pacific Train. The instructions for the train were not very specific – I knew that it left at about 10 pm at night, and that they were serving dinner at the train station prior to that, and it was recommended that we check in about 3 hours in advance. It was now about 3 pm so I figured we were pretty early, as when we drove up in the taxi there was no one to be seen such as the counter pictured below! Sure enough though inside the station there were people at the check-in counters more than happy to help us! We got our luggage checked in to Sydney and then the roll aboard checked in which was going to be placed in our train bedroom. We kept our knapsacks with us as at that point they contained my electronics and medication.
We sat in the lovely waiting area at the train station and eventually a really nice lady named Meg came and joined us – she works for Journey Beyond who runs the various Australian trains – The Ghan (which I have taken to Alice Springs with Karen however it runs Adelaide to Darwin and back), The Indian Pacific (Perth – Sydney and back), The Great Southern (Adelaide to Brisbane and back) and the Overland which is a day train from Adelaide to Melbourne and back. Today, Meg was making sure we had all the pertinent information that we needed for the evening and she also checked in with regards to my dietary needs. We found out that we were actually taking a bus to a winery that was about an hour away for dinner and dancing and then would be returned, with the other train passengers who had gotten off the Indian Pacific at a stop a bit earlier and gotten on similar busses, at the Adelaide station at about 10:30 pm to start our journey to Sydney.
Just before 5 pm the bus driver came and got Andrew and I so that I could get on the bus and he could stow my walker. There was another lady who also used a walker, younger than me, who also was helped onto the bus by her husband. We ended up sitting with them at dinner time. The drive to the winery was lovely – my pictures did not work out though that I took through the bus windows – they are all blurry! The one thing that I did learn was they have two different kinds of wines vines in Australia – they have the vines that go on trellises like we see in North America and then they have “bush” vines which are much older and have come from Germany. Both are hand picked, however the bush variety are harder to harvest and are much more expensive a wine.
At the winery we were lead into another shed – so Aussie – and a beautiful display of the wines that the Seppeltsfield Winery produces. I was also really glad to see they had a unique vintage on hand called Coke Zero too for those who do not drink wine! Andrew was very happy with the wine selection that came with both dinner and the after dinner port! Shortly after arriving, we were seated – first all the people who were on the train were seated in their sections based on the train – there is Platinum, Gold Premium and Gold accommodation. Then there was the table for the “joiners” as we were called – the 18 people, including Andrew and I that got on in Adelaide who were on a separate bus.
The food was exquisite – I have no other words to say – I cannot comment on the “shared platter” food as I was fed my own plate due to the possibility of cross contamination with gluten, however my pesto chicken was moist and tasty – such an excellent job at cooking it for a banquet situation of about 200 people! The “shared platter” food was a selection of roasted beet root, eye fillet beef, marinated chicken with basil/pesto and crispy chicken skin, along with a bowl of potatoes and carrots. The chef then came up on the bandstand and talked about the history of the winery and the food preparation and how it is all locally sourced. Then he talked about the dessert, which were brownies and some other assorted items, however the port that the winery makes was included in the brownies. Now I cannot report in on the brownies, I had a wonderful GF ice cream, fruit and chocolate shavings desert, however Andrew had both the port (mine and his) and the brownie and he did say they were very good! I think really good as check out that last picture! He had no issues falling asleep that night!
The winery then did a demonstration of how they “burn” the cask to age the port to enhance the flavour. The layer of burnt wood acts as a filter stripping away unwanted flavours from the spirit as it ages and mellows any rough edges. As char, it also gives breaking down hemicellulose in the wood surface to form disolvable sugars that create caramel, toffee, nutty and maple flavours. Unfortunately as I was seated, along with the lady beside me, I could not see the demonstration, however Andrew got a picture of it afterwards! They used a flame from a propane tank to do the job.
Then the band started playing and the fiddler who was part of the band came down onto the dance floor and lead the dancers around the dining room as she played along – it was a really fun thing to watch! Along with having to use the loo, which was located outside, I also took a walk at that point across a little bridge to stretch my legs in the still warm air of the evening. On my way back the chef was standing outside in his white jacket, so I thanked him so much for my awesome gluten free meal and that it is so comforting to be able to come to an event like this in Australia and be fed (along with bread), which is a luxury that we often do not get without extra work or advance planning in Canada. He appreciated the feedback!
Soon after I returned from my walk outside, we were lead back to our respective busses for the 45 minute drive back to the train station – this time it would be shorter as we were not going to be in Adelaide rush hour traffic! We quickly boarded the train, met our train attendant named Lily, and got settled into our bedroom! I have more pictures tomorrow of our compartment, tonight it was fairly dark so the only picture I got were from the outside and a very happy train sleeper – not for long though!
Tomorrow, after breakfast, the train stops in Broken Hill, which is a fairly important town in the history of Australia and it’s mining industry – more on that tomorrow!