The briefing covered most of the obvious bases and contained a fair bit of promotion regarding The Ghan and associated trips operated by Great Southern Rail, but it was over just after seven, and with no further freebies on offer while we were on the edge of a group that had seemingly settled well in for the next hour, so it was back to the cabin and an assault on the travelogue backlog before we were called for dinner at eight.
Eight had passed and we were about to check things out when the announcement arrived, so while the vanguard beat us to the Club Car we were among the first seated at the Tucker Trough.
Menus arrived with extreme rapidity as introduction were made across our table. The elderly couple opposite were, we learned, from Mittagong and had a son now based in Toowoomba, would take a drink if they hadn't already had their own happy hour and there were enough mutual interests to provide a flow of conversation through the rest of the evening's proceedings.
As far as the dinner menu goes, you're looking at three courses, with a couple of options for entree and dessert and four for the main (one of them vegetarian). Initial entree options were a prawn bruschetta or a curry based soup, the non-vegetarian mains covered beef, Atlantic salmon and chicken while for dessert you could have your cheese on a platter or in a cake. Serving sizes were adequate though unlikely to satisfy a hearty eater, but I guess it's a matter of looking after the majority rather than catering for quantity. Fair enough, that was what I'd expected.
Fortunately, that attitude doesn't extend to the wine list, which treads well clear of predictable offerings from the major chains. I had a glass of Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc with the entree and a Mr Riggs The Rigger Shiraz with the main, dragging it out long enough to cover the cheese platter as well. Meals good, wines a cut above the average at reasonable pub or restaurant prices and I returned to the cabin a happy camper.
In our absence the beds had been made up and, given the hour, the lack of anything visible outside and general tiredness it was a case of straight to bed, though both of us took a while to nod off in our respective bunks.