7th & 8th February 2010
The last time I visited Australia ten years ago, I elected to do an outback tour from Adelaide to Alice Springs via Coober Pedy instead of taking the Ghan. While I don’t regret this decision for a moment, I’ve always still wanted to take one of Australia’s most famous journeys. In the end, it has worked out for the best because ten years ago, I would only have been able to get as far as Alice as the last section of the Ghan from Alice to Darwin has only been completed in 2004. So finally, we’re taking this epic journey on the longest north to south railway line in the world.
Named after the Afghan cameleers who once traversed this route, The Ghan takes three days to complete the entire 2979 km journey from Adelaide to Darwin. It travels at an average speed of 85km/hour (not fast) and the full journey takes 54 hours. However, we would be breaking our journey in the Red Centre of Australia which would mean catching the next train one week later out of Alice and onto Darwin. The train itself has 26 carriages, measures 710m long from end to end and is pulled by two locomotives. There is also a carriage carrying cars. We were booked into the cheap seats right at the back. The platinum class carriges with their mirror windowed sleepers containing double beds and en-suites were at the front.
Leaving Adelaide on a pretty full train, our first stop was in Port Augusta to collect a few more passengers. The train stops periodically to allow trains travelling in the opposite direction to pass, then it resumes its quite slow, gentle trundle along the next section of track.
We take some time out from our day/nighter seats and go and sit in the dinner car to have a cup of coffee. This gives us a slightly different perspective of the views we’re passing through and on one particularly wide bend we can even see the front of the train.
The landscape changes subtley from the obvious bustle of Adelaide city to flat open plains as we begin our journey north to the heart of this vast country. We enjoy our sandwiches for lunch just after our stop in Port Augusta and as we continue our journey northwards the whispy white tendrils of cloud start to creep across the clear blue skies. Lengthening shadows cross the open desert, turning the sand from orange to gold herald the approaching sunset. We go past several salt lakes, their pure white landscapes providing a beautiful stage for the sun which is just dipping below the horizon.
Dusk falls and the plants take on ghostly grey forms stretching for miles into the desert, before darkness takes over completely and we settle in for the night.
The train actually stops in a siding for three hours during the middle of the night. This enables the train staff to perform their duties and also gives plenty of contingency in terms of delays. There are tours which are run from the train, much like when people go on a cruise and arrive in port, so the train operators need to be sure the train will be there to meet the tours on time.
We had perhaps one of our most uncomfortable night’s sleep where I ended up on the floor squeezed between our seat and the one in front (sometimes being small has its upside!) and Ed spent quite some time in the diner car reading, because he couldn’t sleep. We were brought fully awake by the sun creeping over the horizon.
After a refreshingly nice shower in the carrige bathroom, we headed to the diner car for a cooked breakfast which was surprisingly good and watched the sun come up fully into the sky. At 8am, we still had another 6 hours or so before arriving in Alice, time spent reading and watching movies.
On our arrival into Alice we took a taxi to our hotel, right in the centre of town. First order of the day was to upgrade the next leg of our journey to a sleeper cabin - well, we figured we’re only going to do the journey once so why not do it as it’s meant to be done. Mission accomplished, we went for a wander around the shopping mall where I bought a new pair of shorts for our expedition tomorrow. It was then a case of an early meal and bed.
