Firstly, apologies. This is not so much about Northern Territory, but more about one way of getting there.
I have just returned from a five-week trip to Australia via Singapore on the way there, and Bangkok on the way back. Rather than try to write some sort of résumé of Oz, which would only be a hopeless scratching at the surface, I have decided to describe one or two aspects of the journey in detail, this one being my trip on the “Ghan” train, from Melbourne to Alice Springs.
WHY A TRAIN RIDE?
Like going on a cruise, a train ride of intercontinental proportions is something that I have always felt I wanted to do, at least to get it out of my system (and possibly never do it again, as with cruising – see my opinion on Airtours cruises).
The Ghan covers the 2300 kilometres in a day and a half, so you can see from its average speed that it’s no Eurostar! OK, it stops for 5 (yes 5) hours in Adelaide, but even so it a bit of a slouch. Still, if you are going for the overnight experience (wey heh!) and the hotel quality catering, who’s in a rush! Besides, you go for the unique and sometimes starkly beautiful scenery.
A perusal of my fellow passengers revealed what I had thought – the club car was full of people of a “certain age” doing the trip because they wanted too! I guess you also get the occasional traveller doing it because that can’t go by air for medical reasons.
THE “GHAN”?
The “Ghan” gets its name from the Afghan camel handlers* whose camel trains used to be the vital ink in supplying the “Red Centre” of OZ with provisions up to and including the building of the first Ghan line from Port Augusta in South Australia to Alice Springs in “The Territory”. The Aussies will abbreviate anything – a fact that dawned on me the other “arvo” whilst nibbling on a Vegemite “sanger” at a friend’s “barbie”
*Beware; Camel Handling comes just below Goat Husbandry and Muffin The Mule in the RSPCA’s ten “most heinous crimes against animals” list.
The first attempt at creating a permanent rail link eventually failed, partly through being incompatible technology (a narrow gauge line), partly through the elements, i.e. every “Wet” saw bits of it being washed away, and lastly because white ants are particularly partial to a nice creosoted railway sleeper, which tends to make holding the rails the correct distance apart a bit of a problem.
Thus, the legend of the Ghan (and its delays) was born.
Lady Passenger to Guard: “Have you anything for morning sickness?”
Guard: “I’m afraid not ma’am. You should know better than ride the Ghan if you’re pregnant”
Lady Passenger: “I wasn’t when I got on!”
Anyway, I digress. The current Ghan runs a much longer route, available from either Melbourne OR Sydney, and is one of three major trains to use the lines in this south eastern part of OZ, all being run by a company called Great Southern Railway. The others are “The Overlander” – Sydney to Adelaide VIA Melbourne, and “The Indian Pacific” – Sydney to Perth (Jeez, that’s a fair poke) via the Nullarbor Plain with its unique stretch of the world’s longest straight railway line.
The new Ghan route still takes in Port Augusta (SA), which comes about 3.5 hours after Adelaide, but the standard-gauge Ghan line parts company with the route of the old one here and stays apart until only a few kilometres outside Alice Springs (NT). Oh yes, AND it uses concrete sleepers – sorry ants.
WHAT’S THE TRAIN LIKE?
Anyone expecting the Orient Express and walnut veneer had better stick with the Orient Express or Spain’s “Al Andalus”. This train is an 18-car stainless steel tube made to a US design with 1970’s-style detailing – you know the sort of thing, all melamine surfaces and Venetian blinds. Each coach had tea/coffee facilities near the end vestibule, and anyone who has read Eric Newby’s “Big Red Train Ride” about a trip from Moscow to Vladivostok will be familiar with the ever-ready tea Samovar principle.
Accommodation falls into three categories – the bargain basement end with reclining seats, shared showers and toilets, and “bring yer own tucker”. Then there’s Red Kangaroo Class – own cabin with washing/toilet facilities, and use of a dining/buffet car on a pay-on-the-day basis, and then there’s Gold Kangaroo class (which is what we chose) with own cabin, washing/toilet/shower facilities, access to a club car, all meals in the dining car (just pay for own alcohol) and a guided tour of Adelaide including lunch during the 5 hour lay-over.
THE TIMETABLE
We checked into Melbourne’s Spencer Street station in time for a 10 pm departure. Main baggage is STRICTLY limited to 25 kilos, and I mean strictly. We had to off-load 2 kilos to our hand luggage before they would take it. The purpose of this exercise is to un-encumber you from bags you won’t need access to on the journey, as these will then ride in the baggage van.
You are then ushered to your cabin, and invited to join the others in the club car for a supper snack, whilst the attendants “turn-down” the beds. All this sounds very genteel. In reality the club car isn’t big enough if everyone goes there, and old hands bag the seats (and all the Stilton) before you can say “cheese” or more to the point, “where’s the cheese?”
Leaving Melbourne seems to take an eternity. Despite having a smaller population, Melbourne occupies an area akin to Greater London, and at little more than walking pace, this gets a bit tedious – it’s enough to send a lad off to sleep!
The next morning sees us waiting in a loop in beautiful hills outside Adelaide waiting for the Sydney-bound Overlander to come the other way. Much of this journey is done on single lines with passing loops and you get used to this after a while. This particular stop enabled breakfast to be served without any “Waiter, there’s soup in my fly” jokes. Breakfast is the traditional hearty variety much loved of restaurant car buffs in the UK.
Then comes to 5-hour break in Adelaide, which takes us up to about 3pm, after which the train departs for Port Augusta, where it arrives some time after 7 pm. I assume this is to facilitate crew changes and for anyone wanted by NT’s police to jump the train. Dinner comes in two sittings, and is a great chance to meet other guests, mostly Australian retirees, a large proportion of whom had politics slightly to the right of Genghis Khan, it appears, especially if you show any interest in learning more about Aboriginal culture! The food here is excellent, with traditional AND cosmopolitan cuisine. Aussie wine is very reasonably priced – one of the knock-on benefits of being nearer to where it’s made!
And so to bed. This gives a new meaning to “whose turn is it on top?” and I haven’t climbed into a top bunk for about thirty years. You could probably get a joke in there about bunk-ups but I don’t think I’ll bother.
Breakfast the following morning apes the same pattern of two sittings, the later of which still gives you time to have a leisurely tidy-up before arriving in Alice at around noon.
THE OVERALL EXPERIENCE
Yes I would do it, or something similar again. These feel like “real” journeys, and you do feel like you just “blew in” from somewhere as you step down from the train at Alice – and I do mean step down, this being a rail-level platform, or “no platform” as it’s sometimes known!
After 2300 kilometres, you almost feel like walking to the front, patting the locomotive's nose and giving it a sugar lump – I didn’t because that would be silly – anyway, it was about 300 metres away!
The cost was about £400 each, which does not rack-up against the airfare very favourably, but as I said before, you don’t do it if getting to Alice is your only goal.
The way I see it is this.
a) It was something that I’ve always wanted to try b) You get 1.5 days hotel-standard accommodation and dining c) You get a guided tour of Adelaide d) You get to see all manner of scenery at a fairly leisurely pace, including a fantastic sunset over South Australian plains, and a sunrise over Northern Territory red desert. e) You get to meet all sorts of people, since the dining is strictly in fours f) You get “prestigious” goodies like toilet bags with the Ghan logo g) And, yes, it does carry you 2300 kilometres into the bargain.
Only trouble is, I’ll have to go back. This transcontinental overland travel bug has got me bad. Why, I even want to drive from Alice to Darwin (remembering of course, not to pick up hitch-hikers at Tennant’s Creek!)
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