GHAN ADELAIDE TO DARWIN - Part 1

Were now on the way to Darwin aboard the Ghan Train. The trip is 54 hours in total thus we have 2 nights on board.

This train is even more impressive than the Indian Pacific consisting of 29 carriages plus locos and motor-rail, weighs in at 1,485 Tonnes and is some 781 metres in length.

We boarded at Adelaide at 11.15 am and the train pulled out on time at 12.20 pm. Lunch was served in the dining room at 1.00 pm.

The sleeping accommodation is very comfortable and we don’t have any trouble sleeping aboard.

There is not a lot to do on board apart from eat and sleep. We are spending much of our time reading and generally relaxing.

Like the Indian Pacific the train does make scheduled stops along the way and we have a couple of ‘whistle stop’ tours planned. The first of these is in Alice Springs on Monday lunch time for 4 hours and the second in in Katherine.

In Alice we are going for a tour of the town and in Katherine we are off for a boat tour of the gorges.

First Stop Alice Springs:-

We arrived in Alice at 12.30 pm and have now completed our trip around the town. Lovely tour, but for sure I wouldn’t want to live here!

It’s bloody hot here – 38c and humid. At least the coach was air conditioned.

Anyway, first stop on the trip was the Reptile House; learnt plenty about lizards and snakes. Also saw the big(ish) crocodile and saw him ‘perform’.

Next stop was the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Now, that was a revelation. I never realised that their organisation was so big. We saw a movie about them and then took a walk around the museum.

It was a great little visit and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

From there we had a quick trip to the ANZAC memorial; interestingly there are no names on it as at the time of the war the population  (and thus the ‘contribution’ to the war) was so small that no one from Alice died.

The views from the memorial of the township were great.

Our final stop on this 3 hour tour was at the old telegraph station. Again a very interesting visit.

The old buildings are very well preserved and of interest is so far as this station is/was the backbone of the development of Australia in its’ early days.

Considering the time restraints imposed on us it was a great tour and well worth the time spent. It also gave time to stretch our legs prior to the next leg of our trip to Darwin. We leave here at 6.00 pm and travel on, overnight to Katherine where we arrive at 9.00 am and have another 4 hour stop before arriving in Darwin at 5.30 pm and onto our hotel.

The time is now 6.06 pm and we are just pulling out of Alice!