Blog 10 The Ghan Journey from Adelaide to Darwin

Day 1             

Our day started at about 9:30 am when we got a taxi to the Parklands Railway Terminal, the home of the Ghan.  Check-in was quick and easy and we were soon seated in the comfortable lounge area.  The trip started with champagne or mimosas.  By 11:30 we were boarding the train.  The train is so long that it is divided into 2 sections.  Our car was D and was located on platform 2.  To get to the platform we had to walk through a tunnel under platform 1.  There are 38 cars on this train with 2 engines.  Ours was the 7^th car from the back.  The weight of the cars, excluding the engines, is 902 tons.

The start to our train journey

One of the Ghan carriages

On board we quickly located our compartment and tried as best we could to put away as much as our stuff as possible.  We had to take only what we needed on this trip as our big suitcases would travel in the baggage car.  So we each had a carry-on suitcase and a cloth bag full of clothes for 3 days.  The room is very small.  The beds are bunkbeds and the bathroom is the shower.  Once we unpacked and met our room attendant, we walked to the next car which was the lounge.  Drinks are included in the price of the trip so we started off with a glass of wine.  Then it was time for Brunch.  The dining car has (very cramped) tables for 4 so we had a lovely chat with a couple from England.  I had the kingfish and a lavender and honey cheesecake, while Bill had the ploughman plate which consisted of smoked meats, pickled calamari, olives, cheeses and crackers with Chocolate ice cream for dessert.

My lavender and honey cheesecake

Our room

Lounge Car

After lunch I worked a little on the computer (unfortunately no internet until we reach Darwin) and then walked into the lounge to watch the scenery go by.  As we traveled from the rolling green pastoral land and trees of Adelaide, the scenery turned to scrawny trees and little bushes and the soil gradually changed to the red color of the outback.  We will not officially reach the outback until sometime tonight, but the landscape as we traveled turned very desolate and barren.  We stopped in Port Augusta (about 2 hours out of Adelaide) to change train drivers.

Green hills outside of Adelaide

Mallee scrub as we left the rolling hills behind

Beaches of Port Augusta

At 6:30 we were back in the dining car for dinner – I think we are going spend the better portion of this trip drinking and eating!  We sat with a lovely couple from Toronto, Canada.  I had the pork and prawn dumpling and the lamb dinner with a chocolate and peanut butter mousse for dessert.  Bill had a duck salad, the lamb dinner and chocolate ice cream for dessert.  As we were watching the scenery go by, we saw some silver-back and brown kangaroos and a few wallabies.  We also passed a large salt flat that at one time in the 1930s was the best in Australia.  We also enjoyed a wonderful sunset over the outback.

Salt flats

Kangaroo (he is in the bottom right corner

Sunset on our first night on the train

Sleeping is going to be interesting tonight.  The train is really rocking and rolling.  It is very hard to even type.  Bill says he is going to sleep on the top bunk.  We will see how that goes.  Once you get up there it will be fine – they have a railing that folds up to ensure that you don’t fall out, but if you have to go to the bathroom, that may be a problem.

Tomorrow will be an early wake-up.  The train will stop near the small town of Marla so we can watch the sunrise.  They will have tables of coffee, tea and breakfast sandwiches set-up outside the train.  Hopefully, they will scare away the snakes.  But if the train motion does not decrease from what it is at 8 PM, neither of us is going to get much sleep!

Day 2

Well, last night started on a bad note and did not get much better all night.  Bill was in the room trying to climb up the ladder to the upper bunk.  He assumed the ladder was hooked to the wall, but apparently it was only resting on the wall clip.  As he tried to reach back and hold on to the bunk, the ladder went back with him and they both landed on the floor.  Fortunately he was not seriously hurt – only a scrape under his eye and on his arm.

Once we were both in bed, there was a loud metallic rattling coming from Bill’s bunk.  I finally got up, lifted up his mattress, and pounded on the wooden floor of the bed and luckily the rattling stopped.  It was very rocky that night so it was difficult to fall asleep.  Then Bill had to get up twice to go to the bathroom and on came the light.  Finally at 3:00 am, the train stopped at the area where we would get off at 6 am and watch the sunrise over the outback.  Well, Bill decided he had had enough sleep, so he got up again, turned on the light and proceeded to sit down on my bed where my legs were to get dressed.  Then he went out to the lounge to wait until it was time to get off the train.  About ½ later, he realized that we still had about 2 hours before disembarking so he came back to bed.  Needless to say, we finally did get up at 5:45, we were both very tired.

Assembly place for our outback sunrise

The Ghan parked at Marla

Waiting for the sunrise

Sunrise at last

When we got off the train for our outback sunrise it was still dark and we had to follow a path lit by lanterns to a large assembly area with picnic tables and two bonfires burning.  The train crew had set up tables of coffee, tea and juice, and they had crewmembers walking around through the crowd with what I thought were cinnamon rolls.  And I wasn’t the only one who thought they smelled like cinnamon.  I took a bite and realized that they were not sweet, but more savory with a vegetable taste.  It turned out that the rolls were filled with Vegemite.  Now Aussies may be enamored with Vegemite and think it is the answer to what ails you, but it was terrible.  Vegemite is a thick, black Australian food spread made from leftover brewers' yeast extract with various vegetable and spice additives.  It may be high in protein, but I will get my protein from other sources!  They also had an egg and bacon sandwich but it had a sweet tomato and pickle relish on it.  However, all was not lost.  The sunrise was beautiful and they would be serving a brunch at about 10 am.

When we returned to the train after the sunrise, we tried to sleep for a little, but the beds had already been returned to their daytime arrangement.  So I catnapped on the day bed and Bill lay down on the floor.  The train continued its journey to Alice Springs, our first excursion off the train.  At 10:30 Bill decided to go the brunch and I joined him about 20 minutes later.  Bill opted for the full breakfast, but I chose the lunch menu of grilled chicken.  At 11:00 the train director announced that we had left South Australia and crossed into the Northern Territories.  In the process we gained an hour and it was now 10 am again.

We could finally see that we were in the outback.  Vegetation was scarce and what trees and grass they did have were very small.  The dirt had turn red, hence the other name for the outback – the red center.  We did see a few kangaroos and wallabies, but the day was very hot and most of these animals stayed hidden under what few trees there were.  For the most part it was hours and hours of nothingness followed by more hours of nothingness, punctuated on occasion by a few cows.

Outback or Red Center

Dried Riverbed in the Outback

At about 1 PM we arrived in Alice Springs, a town located very near the center of Australia along the MacDonnell Mountain Ranges.  It was extremely hot (38 C or 103 F) and the tiny flies were everywhere.  You could not escape them.  At this stop we lost about 30 passengers as they were continuing their journey by motorcoach.  We also picked up another large tour from England that would be with us to Darwin.  In total we had 288 passengers enroute to Darwin.

Alice Springs

The Ghan engine

Our excursion in Alice Springs was to the Desert Park, an area dedicated to educating the public on the cultures of the indigenous people who inhabit the area, the trees and plants found in the desert, and the animals that call this area home. There are over 200 desert animals and 400 plants that are found in this desert environment.  The highlight was a free flight show of several of the owls and raptors that reside in the park and have been trained to fly on command (and of course food) around the visitors.  The show was very similar to the falcon halftime performance at the Air Force Academy.  They had a trained magpie, barn owl, eagle, and kite.  The most humorous part of this show was from an interloper – a wagtail bird that kept following the bird trainer around and stealing the food destined for the performers.  We also toured the Nocturnal Building where we were able to observed nighttime animals in their natural habitat.

Alice Springs Desert Park

Wagtail who crashed the free flight party

Barn Owl

wedge-tailed Eagle

From the Desert Park, it was back to the train to continue our journey to Darwin.  It was good to be out of the heat and away from the flies.  We will definitely need a net hat when we come back with OAT.  We had enough time to take a quick shower before dinner.  Dinner tonight was barramundi that is a local fish found in this area.  It was very good.  Then it was time to try and get a good night’s sleep.

Beer Bill was drinking -- I haven't met his other three wives!

Day 3

What a difference a day makes!  We went to bed with the barren, red landscape of the outback and awoke to the lush green tropical climate of the upper Northern Territories (NT).  And a good night’s sleep also helped.  After breakfast, we arrived at our final stop before Darwin – Katherine, the third largest city in the NT.  We took a cruise on the Katherine River to admire the tall sandstone cliffs (about 200’ high) of two of the river’s 13 gorges.  Our guide was a member of the indigenous Jawoyn tribe which owns the land where the gorges are located.  It is the end of the rainy season in the NT so the river is somewhat high, but they have not had as much rain this year as in the past.  We took 2 boats, the first from the visitor center of the Nitmiluk National Park.  Nitmiluk is a combination of two indigenous words meaning “cicada country.”  Although this land was given back to the Jawoyn tribe in the late 1990’s, they immediately leased it back to the government so that the land could remain a National Park.  After the first gorge we had to walk about ¼ mile to get to the boat for the Second Gorge as there is a series of rocks and rapids between the two gorges.  The scenery was stunning with grasses, bushes and trees growing out of the rocks, and eagles and osprey flying above us.  Our guide told us of some of the culture and beliefs of the Jawoyn tribe.  They believe that the Rainbow Serpent formed this river valley thousands of years ago and that it still resides in a corner of the Second Gorge which just happens to be the deepest part of the gorge.  As such, the Jawoyn people will not swim, fish or boat in that corner as they do not want to disturb the sleeping serpent.

First Gorge

First Gorge

First Gorge

First Gorge

Second Gorge

Second Gorge

Second Gorge-Osprey

Second Gorge-where Rainbow Serpent is sleeping

Second Gorge-Jedda Rock

After the rainy season, the river is open to fishing and swimming – but not before the park rangers do a 4-week sweep of the river to insure that there are no salt water crocodiles.  There are two types of crocs that inhabit this area.  The first are the fresh water crocodiles (called “freshies” by the natives) that are relatively small – about a yard long – and not a threat to humans as their mouths are long and narrow and they cannot open them wide enough to do any damage.  However, the large saltwater crocs are another story.  They can grow to massive size – the last one caught in this river was in February 2018 and it was 14’ long.  During the rainy season they sometimes wander up the Katherine River in search of food.  Traps are put out and when one is caught, it is tranquilized and removed to a crocodile farm.

Crocodile Trap

Our guide also told us how the Jawoyn people use the plants and trees that grow along the river’s edge.  One tree has bark that looks like paper and is very soft.  This bark is used as a blanket and a way to waterproof baskets, while its leaves are used as an antiseptic for cuts.  He also explained how spears were made before machinery was available.  There are tiny trees along the river that have narrow, straight trunks.  These trunks form the handle of the spear.  Then the people find two hard, round river stones.  They heat one over a fire and use the second one as a hammer to chisel away at the first rock until it is made into a point.  They then use the resin found in another tree to glue the spearhead to the pole, and fashion string from the tall blades of grass that grows along the river to further tighten the point to the spear.

After our excursion, it was back to the train to cool off – the climate here is hot and humid.  Lunch was served about 1 pm – our last meal on the train.  Bill was not really happy with the menu selections as they all had something he did not like.  He finally settled on the curry buffalo (minus the coconut rice).  I had a wonderful Asian chicken salad with wattleseed rolls.  Wattleseed comes from a tree and they use it a lot.  Every night there was wattleseed ice cream.  I did not try any of that, but our tablemates did and said it had a very strange, non-sweet taste.  The rolls were not bad, but I had the little seeds caught in my teeth all afternoon.

We spend the afternoon packing, watching the scenery pass by, and drinking wine until the Ghan finally made it to Darwin at about 5 PM.  Exiting the train was very simple and we did not have to walk far to get out luggage.  Since we were in the 7^th from the last car on the train, and the luggage was stored in 4^th and 5^th cars, unlike our excursions, where because of the length of the train we had to walk about ¼ mile in the extreme heat to get to our excursion buses and then back again at the end of the tour, our luggage was waiting almost outside our train door.  Then it was onto the transfer buses for the trip into Darwin and our hotel. 

Large Termite Hill -- they are all over

Old Train Tracks over the Adelaide River

View of Darwin harbor from our room

We stayed at the Doubletree Hilton located right on the Esplanade by the waterfront.  I had found the name of a steak restaurant in the Virgin Australia travel magazine that Bill wanted to try.  So we made a reservation (good thing because even on a Tuesday night they were very busy) and then walked down the Esplanade to the restaurant.  The sunset was absolutely spectacular – one of the most vivid I have ever seen.  Unfortunately, I had left my camera charging in our room so I can’t show you a picture.  The restaurant, The Char, was very good, but very expensive.  Bill had Wagyu beef eye fillet and I had a Wagyu beef and pasta dish with mushroom sauce.  Mine was so large I could only eat half of it, but Bill had some of my beef.  Then we walked back to the hotel for a really good night’s sleep – no rocking and rolling and no rattles and creaks!