Australia Archives - Seren Holistic Lifestyles

There’s something truly magical travelling across a country by rail. Nearly ten years ago I zigzagged India on many over night sleeper trains, weaving my way from Delhi around to Mumbai in just under three months. I’ve never taken an interstate train in Australia so on Easter Sunday 2014 I left my hometown of Perth to head east aboard the Indian Pacific train.

The Indian Pacific Train ready to leave.

My parents were over from England visiting Australasia for the first time in seven years. I wanted to give them a special experience to remember & to do something new myself. This was the perfect opportunity to do so.

The Indian Pacific travels it’s way from Perth to Sydney via Adelaide twice a week. Its name derives from the oceans it leaves from & departs too – the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Our journey ends in Adelaide, South Australia & will take us just under two days.

Day One – Sunday 20^th April

Leaving Perth at 11:55am right on time from the East Perth rail terminal we check in & are welcomed on board an hour before departure. As usual I have slight stresses about all the rules & regulations over luggage. My on board luggage is 2kg over & is split into three different bags instead of one. No one batters an eyelid or even inspects my bags. However, my check in bag barely weighs 8kg, an all time record for me.

I’m very blessed to be travelling Gold Class in a twin cabin all to my self. (I’m in berth #11 for those who follow Angel numbers!!) My cabin consists of a large sofa type chair which folds out to be the lower bunk. It can easily fit three people very comfortably. I have a compact en-suite with WC, shower & sink, towels, pillows, extra blankets, a safe, cupboard, table, sound system, power points & two fold down bunks. All this just for me! I feel like the Queen of Sheba. There is self-serve tea & coffee in each carriage & filtered cool water. The bar is open from 10:30am & well into the night. Our meals & drinks (including a good selection of local alcohol) are all in with our fare.

My home for two days, berth 11 & 12

After the usual welcome spiels, meeting the train staff, being shown where everything is & booking dinner sitting times etc. it’s time to settle in. I leave my parents in their own cabin two doors down to return to mine to cleanse & clear it. Have Reiki will travel. It’s something I like to do is clear the space I’ll be living in. Especially in a public shared environment like a train cabin/hotel room. You never know who’s been in there before you. Once that is done, it doesn’t take long its time to relax into the experience.

To see if the universe has any guidance for me I pull three oracle cards from my Magical Times Empowerment cards. Destiny, Dreamer & Prosperity comes through. All very appropriate for me right now. Everything I am doing I feel is part of my destiny & I’m on course with my life plan. I’m a huge dreamer. As Einstein said “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” Our outer worlds are created from our inner worlds. Which leads perfectly to prosperity. If I keep following my path life will flow, as it should. I must though make sure I stay positive, as the law of attraction is strong. What you think you become.

Divine guidance for the trip

By this time I’m pretty tired & rather hungry. It’s very unlike me to not have packed any sort of snacks apart from water. The excitement of the morning & the whole adventure must have made me forgetful. Lunch isn’t till 2:15pm so I’m starving! To take my mind of it I meditate. Spread out on the lounge chair, two fluffy pillows under my head, a wool blanket on top & my eye pillow I’m ready to plug in my iPod & get to it.

Wow there is something really special about meditating to the ebb & roll of a train’s motion. Surprisingly I don’t fall asleep. I’ve very conscious & come out extremely refreshed & ready for lunch.

Lunch is served at set times in the Queen Adelaide Restaurant. We’re four cars down & its fairly challenging squeezing through the narrow corridors & crossing the connections between carriages.

We wait for our table (all of 3 minutes) in the comfortable lounge bar. Negotiating walking through the dining car to our table is a task. I nearly end up in someones food. Lunch is three courses. Starting with traditional Aussie damper bread, pepper butter & chilly jam. I select the vego goat cheese & vegetable tart. Washed down with local Vasse Felix sparkling wine. (I’m on Divine orders to let my hair down & be off duty!)

Eating lunch as the Western Australian farmland rolls by is very awesome. Its scary dry out there, brown, sandy & very dead looking. Despite the harsh reality of the season what a view it is. We’ll be travelling through ghost towns, bush & desert, the ‘real’ Australia.

A room with a view!

At lunch I manage to spill water everywhere (no it’s not the wine!). Just as I pour we go round a corner. I’m sure the staff are used to it. It must take great skill to be the serve staff on a train with the constant rock & wobble.

Feeling nicely full & replenished I return to my cabin to write. It will take ten & a half hours to reach our first stop for a whistle-stop tour of the mining town Kalgoorlie. Home of the massive Super Pit mine.

My intention for this trip is to take some me time to fill my Soul cup. Four hours in I am already feeling topped up. Quiet time sat at my laptop with presentations to plan & blogs to write, all with amazing scenery rolling by. There is no Wi-Fi & sporadic mobile signal so I disconnect from the world. With a whole cabin to myself I can’t complain. I wonder what’s for dinner?

Left: my bunk for the night. Right: the Outback Explorer lounge

Highlights:

A very nice, clean & well equip cabin with everything at arms reach to call home for two days
Space for 100% Soul nurturing
A good selection of food on the menu (Only one veggie, unless you eat fish)
Friendly & happy staff
Organic toiletries provided in the bathrooms
Ever changing views of the Australian countryside
Inspiration, inspiration, inspiration!
Nearly falling arse up negotiating walking through the carriages

Not so highlights:

Too good of a light in the bathroom perfect for picking at blackheads. So much for my pre-trip home facial. (Great for plucking over due eyebrow’s though!)

Check back on Thursday for Part Two of my overland adventure.

Love K xx

Over the past year supermarkets in Australia have really started to get on board with the Organic food movement. I feel Australia has been so far behind other Western countries like the USA in this area for too long. Finally it is becoming so much easier to eat organic without having to go searching too far a field.

What is all the fuss about Organic produce anyway? Organic certified products have been produced without the use of any chemicals. These chemicals are not only harmful to our bodies but also to the environment. The wash off from fields doused in chemicals runs off into rivers that supply our drinking water leading to other problems. Organic products are farmed using sustainable farming methods as well. Many reasons to get with Organic.

Eating from the earth with minimal use of mass produced packaged food is the ideal & best way to eat. Personally I try the best I can to eat this way. Let’s be realistic though & I’m a realistic person. Sometimes I am so dog-tired, time starved & hungry I find that I do need to grab something quick & easy to eat. Take away food is just not an option for me even if I did live near such outlets. I’m very lucky to own a Thermomix that can whip up a quick meal from scratch with a few basic ingredients. There are days though when I’m down to scouring the pantry when the fridge is looking sparse & seeing what I can throw into Thermy. This usually involves pasta, tofu or quinoa.

Packaged & canned food has a lot of down points in being high processed. However they do save us time when needed & I feel there is still a need for such food products. This is where Organic ranges come in. If you have to buy packaged & processed then we should at least go Organic to minimise some of the downsides. Buying organic means there won’t be any hidden nasties or chemicals used in their production.

Woolworths supermarkets have so many certified Organic products on their shelves now. Just six months ago there were a few things in the ‘Marco’ section. Now their own brand Organic can be found on every shelf right by the regular products. Pasta, sauces, flour, butter, yoghurt, maple syrup, jam, rice, nuts, cheese, tofu, canned veg, coconut oil & water the list goes on. Pretty much everything I would eat from a packet (which isn’t that much) I can now buy Organic.

The Woolworths Organic branding is pretty simple & easily recognised. Just look for the purple band. There are other Organic brands too. Make sure you look for the Organic stamp of approval either from Australian ACO, the USDA or your own countries Organic authority.

What about the price though? Yes Organic products in the past have been more on the expensive side agreed. However in Woolworths they aren’t that much more expensive, less than a dollar more. It’s all about keeping an eye out for specials, just like I would with regular products. Eating in season is a must for fresh vegetables & fruit. The other day Organic Kale was cheaper than regular Kale. If non-perishables like canned Organic chickpeas are on offer or rice I stock up & buy in bulk. Personally I prefer to cut back on other things in life to allow a few extra dollars to eat fresh & organic. It just takes planning. Think how much you can spend on a takeaway. A lot more than say an Organic bag of pasta & sauce.

You can easily whip up something quick & easy from the Woolworths Organic range. No excuses. Keep an eye out when you next shop to see what is on offer.

Love K xx

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