The Ghan

One of the Great Railway Journeys of the World, covering almost 3,000 km from Darwin to Adelaide.

We joined in Alice Springs for the journey to Adelaide, which takes just under 24 hours.

The temperature at the Station was 43C when we had our picture taken under the statue of the camel and driver on the platform.

After a glass of champagne in the lounge coach we trooped down the platform some 4 coaches back to coach D berths 11 & 12. The compartment was compact, with the tiniest pull down toilet and hand basin with shower in a cupboard. Sleeping was in bunk berths with almost no room to move at all.

Meals were served in a restaurant in the next coach to the lounge over 4 sittings, we got lunch at 2:15 and dinner at 8:45, 6 ½ hours between meals.

The scenery was shall we say consistent, scrub, scrub and more scrub. Once out of Alice it was 6 hours before we passed under a bridge carrying the Stuart Highway, which also runs from Darwin to Adelaide. About an hour later we came to stop in a passing loop and one of the train staff got out to operate the points to let a freight train pass us and then had to walk the length of the train to join the locomotives at the front.

The next morning after breakfast we had some more excitement, a kangaroo jumping along in a massive field alongside the train (we had passed into arable country) and a ‘willy willy’ which is a small circular sandstorm.

We arrived in Adelaide about ½ hour early, George had his picture taken in the compartment and I got a shot of the nameplate which is on every coach. I couldn’t get down to the locomotives which were some 18 coaches forward; The Ghan is an enormous train 30 coaches long, getting on for ½ mile.

Alice Springs

We arrived after very short flight (30 minutes) but we still got a bun and a cup of tea.

We took the Alice Wanderer Shuttle into town and found it was closed; New Year’s Day is a public holiday in Australia but Alice Springs goes to town and a lot of places close until 19^th January, including 2 of the 3 tour companies, apart from special bookings. We tried to get a Town Tour from the 3^rd company - AAT Kings again, but they cancelled 2 minutes after taking our booking, we were the only people booked.

Our hotel was the Lasseter’s Hotel and Casino and on New Year’s Day they were very busy with a special offer on Steaks of A$18, they called it Tight Tuesday !

We tried walking to the Town Centre attractions but in the heat even at 9:30 it was too much, so we hired a car which was cheaper than the tours anyway and we got to visit an extra place.

We visited the Reptile Centre seeing lizards and snakes, there was a python called Monty (see below) and a saltwater crocodile in a tank called Terry, he did not look happy.

Next was the Royal Flying Doctor Service which was founded here in 1929. We saw a very interesting video and looked over a mock up front half of their latest aircraft a Pilatus P6 made in Switzerland, very powerful and with extremely short take off and landing capability. After that we spent a lot of money in their shop, they are a very deserving cause. There are over 60 RFDS stations in and around Australia, they even cover Christmas Island.

Next visit was the School on the Air which started in Alice in 1951, using the radio technology pioneered by the RFDS.

From Alice they currently have 138 pupils within generally a circular area of 600, the furthest pupils are from their classmates at the moment is over 1,400 kilometres.

Nowadays the radio has been generally superseded by the Internet and Video and are taught as classes using video, chat and whiteboard technologies.They have 3 studios and 11 teachers covering 4 ½ yr. olds up to 14 at the moment, when pupils switch to either correspondence courses or boarding school.

The children have a classroom of their own at home or on the station where their parents work and have a helper (usually mother) to help them.

Their home classroom is equipped with lap top and fixed computers, router, printer and a large satellite dish for 2 way communication.

 

The children come into Alice 3 or 4 weeks a year accompanied by their parents to meet and work directly with their teachers and classmates., it is a strong and expensive commitment by all parties.

They get a lot of visitors some very famous others like ourselves less so.

We tried to get to the Telegraph station which was a repeater on the Adelaide to Darwin line set up in the 1890’s, but it meant a lot of walking and the temperature was 45C, we did get a picture though. 

The telegraph reduced the turn around of communications between the colony and London to a couple of hours from 16 weeks minimum.

When the station was built there was no town, and it developed into a small township before the town developed about a mile south between 2 rivers, which of course are dry 98% of the time. The telegraph station was built next to a natural spring which was named after the telegraphists wife Alice, hence Alice’s spring became Alice Springs.

Next stop to last was the War Memorial set on ANZAC Hill overlooking the town giving a good view of the town and surrounding hills.

Last stop was the Old Ghan Museum which ran to and from Adelaide from 1929 to 1980, when the new standard gauge track was completed carrying passengers on the famous Ghan and of course huge quantities of goods, the service was extended to Darwin in 2004.

The name Ghan comes from the camel drivers who were superseded by the railway who were mainly Afghans. After the camels became redundant they were set free and there are now an estimated 1,000,000 feral camels in Australia, we saw one in Uluru.

The hotel was pretty good and boasted a very nice pool which Gwen swam in several times, once there were 2 robot cleaners in the pool and she had to keep changing course to avoid them.

Alice Springs is almost exactly the geographical centre of Australia and is about as far from anywhere that you can get.

Nearest civilisation is Yulara, the resort for Ayers Rock at 250 km southwest, the next in this easterly direction is Kalgoorlie, one of the goldrush towns another 1,000+ kms away.

Next is Tennents Creek 500 km north also a telegraph sation. Coober Pedy is about 600 km south and is where Opals are dug.

East would be a township in either Queensland or New South Wales, probably 1,000 km away.

We have never been so far from anywhere.

Uluru - Ayers Rock

Our flight from Cairns was very pleasant, we even got a decent breakfast and arrived at the hotel about 11am.

Checking in we were told that rooms were not available until 3pm, but all Gwen’s swimming gear was in one of the main bags, had we known it would have been in our carry on’s.

Gwen got her stuff and went swimming, the pool was just outside reception and she enjoyed the swim but said it was rather cold when the air temperature was 39C.

I went to reception to see what the room we had just learnt about was, needless to say it was a totally unsuitable 3^rd floor with a long walk from the lift. The manager said he would find us a ground floor room close to amenities to cut down on my walking.

I waited in reception after a promise that as soon as the room was ready I would be told; another cock up, the bags had been in the room for half an hour before I found out and the room was so far away that Gwen was out of breath after walking there and back.

Back to reception to complain, to be told that no other rooms were available and that they were packed solid; luckily a lady with a badge of “Executive Housekeeper” heard the discussion, took charge and in less than 1 minute gave us a room less than 20 yards from reception which was ready for occupation immediately.

We had been assured that AAT Kings (Tour Operator) had all the special requests both from our travel agent and their New Zealand office but yet another black hole; Rant over till we get back.

That afternoon a helicopter trip to and over the Rock, a Birthday present from our Travel Agent, it was fantastic with some features I‘ve never seen on the TV.

There was a view of Uluru’s “Twin” known as the Olga’s (more later) the resort, and our hotel on the way back to the airport.

That evening we went to the “Sound of Silence” dinner in the desert after the Uluru Sunset which due to low clouds in the west was not spectacular, in fact very little colour changes at all.

However we got wine and a Didgeridoo player.

The dinner itself was good but being almost in total darkness the only picture we got was of the final sunset itself.

Next morning was the trip to watch the sunrise over Uluru and was the second 3:30am out of bed in a row and with an 11pm back last night left us pretty jaded.

The sunrise was spectacular, I’ll let the pictures tell their own story.

 

We even got a picture of the Olga’s waking up.

We then went on a tour around Uluru and again let the close up pictures tell their own tale; all the features are caused by erosion (wind and water).

There are many resting points around the rock with seats made from timber collected after Typhoon Tracey which devastated Darwin on Christmas Day 1974.

Lastly we went to the climbing point but it was closed due to high winds at the top which are strong enough to blow people off. 38 people have died in recent years attempting the climb which the aborigines in particular do not want, they consider it desecration of their sacred sites.

In the heat of the day Gwen went on a ride on a Harley Davidson to the Rock and enjoyed it so much she talked about for hours (days) afterwards.

In the afternoon we went off to the Olga’s, more correctly known as Kata Tjuta about 30 miles away.

This is now a collection of rocks, some much taller than Uluru itself; they are both the tips of enormous rocks which extend some 6 kilometres underground, but due to their alignment have eroded much differently; Uluru apparently tilted to 90 degrees in the geological event that brought them to the surface and has remained in one piece, the Olga’s stayed horizontal and became 38 individual rocks above ground.

Gwen did the walk into the gorge, very impressive but boring.

Finally that evening we were taken again to see the sunset at Uluru (another cock up) and the only decent picture we got was through the coach front window, out of focus but shows the pink colour that Uluru is famed for.

That night we went to eat in the hotel and Gwen had organised a birthday cake for me.

Tomorrow we have a lie in, our flight to Alice Springs isn’t until 10:30.