All aboard

“Regarded as one of the world’s greatest train journeys, The Ghan delivers so much more than an extended train ride. It promises access to parts of Australia no other holiday can come close to – the perfect balance of comfort and adventure, culminating in an experience that will move you in every sense of the word.” Read more at the website.

So. Here we are at the train station ready to board the Ghan. She’s standing there on her tracks, two big red engines and a trail of at least 30 silver carriages, already powered up to keep the drinks cool and the lights on.

First things first. It’s pronounced GAN, not GARN. Named after the Afghan cameleers who helped to open up the outback in the nineteenth century, the train was originally called the Afghan Express. (There are a lot of feral camels roaming central Australia. You’ll find camel races in many outback towns. The animals are so good we sell them to Saudi Arabia.)

We’d been on the Ghan before, last century, before the line went through to Darwin. Back then it stopped at Alice Springs. We remembered a great trip, just a commute from Adelaide to Alice Springs with no off-train experiences. Journey Beyond Rail has done a great job in making these trains – not just the Ghan but the Indian-Pacific and the Southern Explorer – into holidays of choice.

The rail track from Darwin to Adelaide is 2,979km. (Let’s say 3,000km). If you started in Lisbon and headed east you’d go through Portugal → Spain → France → Italy/Switzerland → Slovenia/Croatia → Serbia/Bulgaria → Turkey. If you started in Lisbon and headed north toward Scandinavia you’d go through Portugal → Spain → France → Belgium/Netherlands → Germany/Denmark → Sweden/Norway. For my American friends going straight south from the 49th parallel (border with Canada) you’d end up a few hundred kilometres north of Mexico City.

It’s a long way.

It’s a big operation getting about 180 people registered and into their allocated cabins, reminiscent of starting a cruise. The big difference is space. There’s not much room in a cabin. We’d been told to pack requisites for our 3 nights and four days in a smaller bag that would fit into our cabin, so we’d spent some time at the hotel transferring clothes we wouldn’t need to our big bag. All the luggage that wasn’t going to cabins had to be loaded into a carriage down the back and would not see the light of day until we stopped in Adelaide. So don’t pack your medicines in the big bag.

The not-really-a-platform next to the train had seating for the guests and Journey Beyond Rail provided an array of finger food such as little quiches, cheese, rolls, fruit, pastries, as well as tea, barista coffee and (this being Australia) sparkling wine, wine and beer, while we waited our turn to board. Meanwhile, we chatted with people we’d already met in Darwin. (Staff provided steps to get up into the carriages and helped lifting luggage.)

I vaguely remembered having heard about sand flies at the station, so when a tiny critter landed on my bare arm I thought I knew what it was. “Sand fly,” I said to Peter, pointing. “Nah,” he replied. If there were sand flies they’d be all over me.”

What can I say? They were, indeed, sand flies and the little buggers bit a lot of people. They’re so small you don’t know it’s happening. Two days into the trip there were many complaints of itchy, swollen welts. Peter counted 22 just on one leg. Here’s an article about sand flies.

Me? I’m still pondering why I wasn’t bitten. All I can suggest is that I’d just finished a course of antibiotics. So, perhaps they bit me but I didn’t get the reaction.

We elected to travel Gold Premium which is kind of business class. (Gold is economy and platinum is first class.) The size of the cabins is obviously limited by the width of the carriage. For day use we had a comfortable lounge which the staff converted to two bunks while we were at dinner. A step ladder next to the window allowed the top sleeper (me, in our case) to get up and down. Negotiating that step ladder was a great incentive to not want to visit the loo in the middle of the night. The blind at the window hangs between two panes of glass and when the train travelled over rougher parts of the track it rattled. The only solution was to raise the blind and take the risk that some nocturnal critter might wish to peer in.

Some people think that the movement of the train lulls them to sleep but we didn’t find that. It’s not a particularly smooth ride, better in places than others, so sleep was sporadic, especially on the first night. I had a little rail to pull up on the top bunk to stop me from rolling out of bed. The biggest drama was shuffling my backside along the bunk to about where the pillow was to get my foot on the first of the steps to go down. Fortunately, no pictures were taken.

The ensuite was small, but adequate. A shower curtain inside helped to keep the toilet dry – but water collected on the floor, anyway, so it was wise to do toilet visits before showers. It was also wise to avoid knocking the control that turned on the shower while visiting the loo. Being drenched in cold water while seated results in unhappiness. It might also have a deleterious affect on the toilet paper.

Getting dressed or undressed was interesting. It helped to be on good terms with your partner and it would probably help even more if you could dance. With the bunk beds in place, it was impossible to sit on the bed without hitting your head. Several times. Best to just go to the lounge.

To reach the lounge we had to walk through three other carriages down a narrow walkway on one side of the carriage. If you met someone going the other way, someone had to back down. As it happens, the only time that happened to me was at the door to the next carriage where there’s a small foyer.

We tended to spend more time in the lounge than in our cabin, chatting to our fellow travellers. And we spent many hours off the train for off-train activities. Once you’re on the train, everything is free (or should I say paid for – it’s not a cheap trip). That includes all wine, beer, spirits (Chivas, not crappy JW), barista made coffee. And all meals, on or off the train. Booze, in that Australian way, is available all the time – since the sun is past the yardarm somewhere in the world. The only complaint from our cohort was that they hadn’t stocked enough Great Northern (the beer from up here). They had to make do with Furphy, or XXXX, or Heineken.

The food was first class, especially given the circumstances the chefs worked in. And the staff was great. They were young Australians, mostly Caucasian and they worked hard, all pitching in with all the jobs – waiting on table, making beds, and no doubt all the messy jobs when we passengers were off the train, like laundry and re-stocking. They work long days but they get a week off after return trips.

The passengers were great, too. Most were older but some were in their forties and fifties, and there was one German couple with seven-year-old twins. We met quite a few lovely people.

So… we’re on the train, the driver blows the whistle, and off we go for our first stop, not far down the track at Katherine.

By the way, if you’ve happened across this post by accident, see the whole trip here.