A better night’s kip – not quite so cold, but woke up to lowering skies, 15 degree temperatures and the first real rain we’ve had since we arrived in Australia. Plus a bit of thunder.

Managed to get away before 9.30 a.m. – result. Straightforward drive down to Perth, until we got to Perth itself. Plan was to find East Perth Railway Station and check in for our train journey tomorrow as instructed (I thought) by our travel agent. Missed a vital turning on the way, but managed to fight our way back to the station.

Found the Indian Pacific check-in desk – nobody about. However, as I was trying to find a number to phone, a lady popped out from a door behind the desk and offered to help. Upshot was that we didn’t have to check in, but we were on the list and were due to be picked up from our hotel in Perth at 8.30 tomorrow as scheduled. Cue relief all round.

Next stage was to drop the bags off at the hotel and return the car. All accomplished without too much fuss, and I walked back to the hotel. Eerily quiet, as it\’s the Grand Final today. Me neither.

I was a bit sad to see the car go. It has been a good, steady steed for 3,268 kilometers (just over 2,000 miles) in a total of 12 days. However, we can now look forward to our train journey to Adelaide starting tomorrow morning, and we are in another very decent room in the Perth Pan Pacific for tonight.

We will finally be leaving Western Australia, and it has been a truly absolute blast. But we must look to what is upcoming. All good, and very exciting. Cannot wait. So much more to come on this epic journey.

We will be on the train without WiFi for the next couple of days, so comms will be at best intermittent….. Stand by for the next full update once we reach Adelaide. Hopefully.