The Ghan

The Ghan is a transcontinental passenger line that runs north/south across Australia. I look The Ghan, boarding in Adelaide on Feb. 6 and arriving in Alice Springs twenty-four hours later; spent four days in Alice and environs and then reboarded to complete cross-desert run up to Darwin. What a ride! I'm so pleased I did it. From start to finish the adventure was great.

First of all, I did it on a first class (Gold Kangaroo) service - no day coach for me! I had a small berth to myself, nice sitting area during the day, bed at night. There was also a lounge (read bar) car that Gold passengers could ride in and visit with fellow passengers, have a drink, enjoy the scenery - and a dining car where sumptuous meals were served. Al though most passengers were couples, there were a number of single passengers like myself in Gold and we joined together for drinks, dinner and socializing - lots of fun was had. On the trip from Adelaide to Alice it was about a 50 /50 mix of vacationing Australians and international travellers. The small talk was all around where we've been and where we are going next. Lots of tips from the Australians about their favourite places and extremely helpful advice from other travellers about things they'd learned while travelling across the country. Most of the travellers were like myself, in their fifties, enjoying a work break, and spending a fair bit of time in the country. The backpackers were numerous, but they weren't riding first class! Had good fun with several of them later on while camping.

The Ghan is named for the first 'trains' that crossed the Australian desert - the camel trains that were led by Afghan camel-handlers. They brought explorers and then settlers into the heart of Australia. Once the locomotive trains were running and there was no longer a use for the thousands of camels that had been inported into Australia during the 1800s, they simply let the animals go loose in the desert. Reportedly about three thousand camels were released in the Alice Springs area. Today there are almost one million wild camels in Australia, most of them in the Alice Springs area. Because Australia is so isolated, these camels are free of the deseases that plague camels in the Middle East and today Oz exports camels to Kuwait, Saudi and other eastern nations. And yes, for the record, I did ride a camel in Alice .. more about that when I get to the camping trip. Meanwhile, back on the train...

One of my favourite travelling companions was a retired war veteran named Eddie who had served in the Australian army during WW2. He was in Darwin during the bombing of the city in 42/43. Didn't know Darwin had been bombed during WW2? Well neither did I but I now am quite knowledgeable, thanks to Eddie and other veterans I met. The 66th anniversary of the first attack on Darwin was Feb 19 so many seniors were gathering in Darwin to commemorate what happened. More ordinance was dropped on Darwin on Feb 19, 1942 than on Pearly Harbour just a few months earlier. During the next 18 months, Darwin was bombed by the Japanese a total of 62 times. Didn't learn that in the history books, did we? On the second leg of the trip from Alice to Darwin, the composition of the passengers changed considerably: the majority were returning vets and other seniors who had lived in Darwin during the war, travelling up for the anniversary.

Sleeping in my single bed (which folded down from the wall and left about enough room in the berth to hold one's breath and change clothes) was like sleeping in a cradle that is rocked all night long. It was lovely. Woke the first morning to a beautiful desert sunrise at 6:00. The passing scenery out my window looked like the face of Mars. Red desert with no life. Soon it changed to the scrubby "bush" one often associates with the Centre of Australia and though we passed through hundered of kilometres of similar scenery, it never got boring - in fact it was always mesmerizing. Staring out the window I also got to see wild kangaroo (or wallabee). wild emu, wild horses, wild camels and plenty of sheep and cattle.

On the second leg, desert gave way to tropical forest suprisingly quickly as we approached Katherine, which was swathed in rain. I was able to take on off-train trip to the Katherine Gorge in the rain and did get to see the Aboriginal cave art galleries on the cliff faces of the Gorge, we did not get to go too far up the river as the swelling waters made it too dangerous and the upper gorges were closed to visitors. I know you can't really see it in this picture, but there are Dreamtime rock paintings on these cliffs.

Arrived in Darwin on Feb 12 to a monsoon. And more about that later too...