The Ghan cuts down the very middle of the Australian continent from Darwin to Adelaide via Alice Springs.
The name derives from an earlier nickname, the Afghan Express. ‘Afghan’ referenced the camel herders who participated in the exploration of the desert interior of Australia by white settlers like Burke and Wills, Sturt and Stuart. ‘Express’ was a sarcastic insinuation as to the reliability of the service in its early days.
I love train journeys and finally got myself organised to take this one.
My trip started in the tropical madness of Darwin. Beer tastes better in Darwin. And most things are bigger in Darwin, take Crocosaurus Cove where you can swim with Wendell and Chopper, two 5.5m long crocs, protected only by a Perspex tube. No thanks!
The muddies get pretty big here too. I had one beautifully prepared Singapore Chilli style at Cathy’s Place, a restaurant located on an old wooden pier with plastic chairs and tables, no roof, cutlery that includes a hammer, where you help yourself to a beer or a glass of wine from the fridge (everything is $5).
The Ghan stops at Katherine for a boat trip up the gorge where the sandstone, formed in an ancient sea before the Cambrian explosion and therefore without fossils, is the canvas for Aboriginal paintings thousands of years old.
In and around Alice Springs for a day, walking through a sparse copse of ghost gums growing in dry creek beds, Simpson’s Gap, wild budgerigars, sunset dinner in the desert, Bourke and Wills and camels, initials in the tree, and there’s a cowgirl in the sand.
After a day at Coober Pedy there’s nothing like parking your 900m train in the middle of the desert for a few sundowners, with a log fire and an ever changing, ever amazing, big sky of blues and orange fading into the night.
Where I ate: Cathy's Place (Darwin).
Tour organisers: Journey Beyond Rail.
