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!

The Ghan and the Kangaroo

Blog 10A   The Ghan and the Kangaroo

The Ghan Journey

The Ghan is considered one of the great train journeys in the world.  It runs from Adelaide in the south of Australia to Darwin in the north, traveling through some of the most hostile and desolate region of Australia – the Outback.  The northbound journey takes 3 days, with stops in Alice Springs in the Outback and Katherine in the Northern Territory.

It was originally called the Afghan Express for the cameleers who came from either Pakistan or Afghanistan 150 years ago and helped build the railroad through the Red Center of the Outback.  Today if you are lucky you can still see some of the wild camels that are descendants from this group of pioneers.  The first Ghan train to leave Adelaide departed on 4 August 1929, arriving in what is now known as Alice Springs on 6 August 1919.

It had to contend with a myriad of problems back then.  Not only was the heat extreme, but there were many instances of flash flooding that washed out the tracks.  And if that were not enough, the tracks were made of wood and were often damaged by termites and fires.  Legend has it that one of the Ghan trips was stranded in a remote part of the outback for two weeks and the engineer had to shoot wild goats to feed the passengers.  In 1980, the old tracks were abandoned, and a new set of tracks, built with termite-resistance concrete sleepers (ties), was built further west of the original tracks to mitigate the flash flooding.

The original Ghan only went as far as Alice Springs.  During the late 1900’s and early 2000’s the tracks from Alice Springs to Darwin were built and on 1 February 2004 the first transcontinental journey of the Ghan left Adelaide for Darwin.  Today the trip covers 1851 miles from the serene, pastoral grasslands of the south Australian plains, through the remote McDonnell Mountains and red soil of the Outback, to the tropical vegetation and dramatic gorges of the Northern Territory.

One of the things I was most excited about seeing were the Kangaroos in the wild, and our train trip through the outback will hopefully accomplish this.  Australia is home to 70% of the world’s 331 marsupial species, so it is no wonder that the kangaroo has become this country’s unofficial mascot.  Other marsupials include the koala, quokka, and Tasmanian Devil.  Marsupials (Latin for the word pouch) first appeared in the Cretaceous period, roughly 90 million years ago.  During that time, they lived in what is now South America (South America and Australia were connected to Antarctica as part of the ancient mega continent known as Gondwana).  It is believed that before geological forces pulled these lands apart, these marsupials crossed over Antarctica’s then hospitable land and drifted or swam through the narrow sea as Australia drifted away from Antarctica.

These animals differ from placental mammals in how their young are born and develop.  Marsupials have a much shorter gestation period (just 4-5 days for kangaroos) and when born they are nearly helpless.  These babies must then spend months nursing and developing in their mother’s pouch.

The largest marsupial is of course the kangaroo.  They can grow up to 7 feet tall and weigh as much as 200 pounds.  With their well-muscled hind legs, they can leap at speeds up to 43 mph. 

Unfortunately, many of these marsupials are highly endangered.  The koala, a much smaller marsupial, was nearly hunted to extinction by early European settlers and now faces the loss (due to farming and urban development) of the eucalyptus tree that it relies on for food.  The Tasmanian Devil is now nearly extinct due to a contagious facial cancer that causes large tumors around the head and mouth, interfering with its ability to eat and thus starving to death.  There is no cure, so scientists hope that by quarantining healthy Tasmanian Devils and a captive breeding program will help save the Tasmanian Devil from extinction.   Today Tasmanian Devils are found in the wild only in Tasmania.  Perhaps, if we are super lucky, we will see one when we visit Tasmania.

Blog 8 Kangaroo Island

The last day of February saw us up bright and early for our tour to Kangaroo Island.  Our bus picked us up at 6:15 am for a 1 ½ hour drive to Cape Jervis where we would catch the ferry for our trip across the Backstairs Passage to Kangaroo Island.  Kangaroo Island, Australia’s third largest island, lies about 8 miles from the mainland.  It is 90 miles long and at its widest point is 34 miles (its shortest width is 1 mile).  It is haven for wildlife viewing with its kangaroos, koalas, sea lions and seals, and multitude of birds.  The crossing on the Sealink Sealion, a large catamaran ferry that holds about 150 passengers and up to 50 cars took about 45 minutes.  Once on the shore, our tour started in earnest.

We were met by our tour guide Gary and started the day with a trip to Seal Bay Conservation Park where a large colony of Australian Sea Lions reside.  We were met by a Park Ranger who took us down to the beach to observe up close and personal these beautiful (and cute) animals.  Once this area was teeming with sea lions, but after years of hunting for their fur, there numbers have declined drastically and they are considered “vulnerable” by the Australian government.  Another reason for their decline is that they are not the best reproducing species – only in about 1 of three tries does a female become pregnant and once born over 1/3 of the pups never make it to maturity.  Gestation time for new pups is 17 months, and as soon as a female gives birth, she will more than likely get pregnant again.  Although pups are easy prey for predators like sharks and eagles, they are also susceptible to diseases such as hook worm.  The ranger said that they are studying ways such as vaccination to try and help increase the number of sea lions.  Some other interesting facts about the sea lions are:

• ·         Sea lions typically live for 8 to 9 years
• ·         Breeding cycles happen only once every 18 months and females will only breed at the site where they were born
• ·         Breeding colonies are located only on remote areas of the coastline or islands and only 66 breeding colonies are known
• ·         Estimated known population of sea lions is between 9,900 to 12,500
• ·         Population numbers are not growing and Australia sea lions are not expanding their range of colonies
• ·         Typically, fewer than 25 sea lion pups are produced annually and this number continues to decline
• ·         Each sea lion colony is genetically distinct from neighboring colonies and other populations
• ·         The death of even a single female can have a negative impact on a colony’s survival, especially if the colony has a very low population

There were several mothers with their pups on the beach.  Most of the pups are big enough to have been introduced to the water and there were some that were playing in the waves.  They seem to especially enjoy surfing in the waves.  Many of the adults were sleeping on the beach.  They go out to sea for about 4 days of feeding and in that time, they do not sleep (they cannot sleep in the water like some ocean creatures).  They must then rest before going back out to sea.

Mother Australian Sea Lion and her pup

Australian Sea Lion Pup

Tracks of Wallabies (the two outside) and seal lion tracks (center)

When we left the seal colony, we drove to a small island hotel where lunch was waiting for us.  We had a nice selection of salads and a piece of chicken and a beef sausage.  Desert was a berry cheesecake, which was outstanding.

From lunch we drove to the Hanson Bay Wildlife Sanctuary where kangaroos, wallabies and koalas roam free, or in the case of most koalas, sleep in the trees.  This area used to be a farm, but the owner decided to turn it into a place of safety for the wild animals.  His wife planted many Tasmanian Blue-Gum trees (one of 106 species of eucalyptus tree) and it turns out that these are favorites of the koalas.  Although koalas were not native to Kangaroo Island, 14 where brought here in the 1920’s and they have flourished.  Today it is estimated that 44,400 koalas live on Kangaroo Island.  They are very territorial and spend their entire lives living in just 2-3 trees.  In fact, if a koala is removed from one tree and place in a different tree, they may become sick and die.  They eat about 2.2 pound of eucalyptus leaves a day, and so, like the elephants with the acacia trees in Africa, they are in danger of killing off their food supply.  Before our guided tour of the koalas we walked around several of the roads where some kangaroos were resting.  When the temperature is as hot as it has been these past several days, kangaroos are not active during the day.  We were lucky enough to see a mother kangaroo resting with here joey sitting next to her.  We then had a guided walk through the eucalyptus trees where many of the koalas were sleeping.  In one tree we saw a mother and her baby.  The baby was about 9 months old and no longer stayed in her pouch, but it was asleep on the branch just above her.

Kangaroo and her Joey

Resting Kangaroo

Koala mother (bottom) and her 9-month old baby (top)

From the Wildlife Sanctuary we drove to Flinders Chase National Park on the rugged southwest coast of the island to view the Remarkable Rocks.  These rocks were created over 500 million years ago during a huge geological upheaval that caused the rock far below the earth’s surface to melt.  This molten rock, or magma, was buoyant and began rising to the surface.  About 6 miles from the surface, this magma began to cool and turned into granite blocks.  As the rocks above these granite blocks began to erode, these blocks began to fracture into sheets or layers.  As these blocks were further exposed to the weather, this granite dome with its blocks of granite rocks appeared.  This rock formation as well as Uluru (Ayers Rock) are know as “domed inselbergs” (islands of rock).  Bill and I both climbed up the rock and admired a beautiful view of the coastline.

Remarkable Rocks

On top of Remarkable Rocks

Scenic coastline as seen from Remarkable Rocks

Our next trip took us past the Cape du Couedic Lighthouse to another display of geographical nature – Admirals Arch.  This distinctive rock bridge was created by thousands of years of erosion.  Stalactites hang from the rocky ceiling of this arch.  To reach the Arch, you have to walk down a long boardwalk and then about 70 steps – the Arch is not visible from the upper coastline.

In the rocks surrounding this arch live a colony of dark brown New Zealand fur seals.  In summer they breed on the land, but the water pools around the rocks are perfect places for the pups to play.  There were quite a few of these seals playing in the water and resting on the rocks.

Cape du Couedic Lighthouse

New Zealand Fur Seal

New Zealand Fur Seal pup

New Zealand Fur Seals playing in the water

Admirals Arch

Out last stop was to the Flinders Chase Visitor Centers for a quick toilet and snack break.  Here I found a lonely koala asleep in a tree, and in a nearby tree a beautiful red and blue Crimson Rosella.  From here we drove back to where we would board the ferry for our return to Adelaide.  We were about 45 minutes early, so our guide stope in the little ferry town of Penneshaw for those that wanted to get some dinner.  Bill got a lasagna to take on the ferry, but I decided to wait and get something on the ferry.  They had a little café and I was able to get a chicken salad sandwich.  Once across the water and back at Cape Jervis, another bus driver was there to take us back to our hotels.  We arrived back at the Riviera Adelaide Hotel about 10 pm, tired but thoroughly happy with our wonderful tour.  There was just so much of Australia’s wonderful wildlife and scenery to see – the koalas, kangaroos (and none tried to commit suicide by jumping in front of our buses), sea lions and seals, the beautiful birds, and best of all, no snakes!!!

Sleeping Koala

Crimson Rosella