IP Booked

Grif’s Great Australian Rail Trip was our inspiration.

Actually, we had looked at booking a rail journey in Australia before we watched the six-episode BBC series. But, we weren’t looking at the route that travels between Sydney and Perth. Rather, we were interested in the Great Southern … between Brisbane and Adelaide; and The Ghan … through Australia’s Red Center.

After watching the series, however, we decided to take a look at the Indian Pacific … the "IP" in the title of this footprint. This train service is so named because it travels from sea to sea … or rather, from ocean to ocean. Yes, that would be the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

The Journey Beyond Rail [JBR] website describes the train journey as … “This famous transcontinental crossing will take you through the country’s arid deserts and goldfields, rocky valleys and lush mountains and, ultimately, to three capital cities.”

It all sounded fantastic, but we almost decided against booking the IP. Why? Because the only accommodations available — in either direction; for the duration of our time in Australia — were gold single cabins … with shared facilities. In the end, we decided we could live with separate accommodations and shared facilities for three nights and four days.

This booking accomplished something we’ve been struggling to do thus far. It helped us to figure out a loose itinerary for the overland portion of our time in Australia. Not that the details are fleshed out, mind you. We’ll work on those in the weeks and months ahead.Read more