Adelaide’s Sunday morning was overcast and cool, with the ever-present possibility of showers. I went on the Barossa Valley trip by myself. Well… along with another eight Ghan passengers. Amanda met us in a little Toyota bus and we headed for the hills. First stop was the Barossa Sculpture Park at Mengler’s Hill Lookout, one…
We woke on our final morning on the train to a very different landscape. The arid Outback was behind us, replaced with green fields and puddles from the recent rain. At about mid-morning the Ghan rolled into Adelaide’s Parklands Station. From the bright sun of the Outback we were thrust into damp and cold. Adelaide…
On our way to Coober Pedy on both sides of the road small conical hillocks peppered the landscape like giant anthills. They are spoils from miners’ digs and look an awful lot like the cones we saw at the Breakaways. Walking around at night out here is very dangerous because of the mining activity and…
After our big day and evening in Alice Springs the train headed south and next morning it was stopped in the middle of an empty landscape with flat horizon on all sides. We were at Manguri Station. Due to the lack of infrastructure, I assumed that ‘station’ wasn’t a place where trains stopped, it was…
After our wonderful visit to the Desert Park at Alice Springs our coach driver took us on a short tour of Alice Springs (commonly abbreviated to “The Alice”). Alice Springs lies almost exactly in the centre of Australia, midway between Darwin and Adelaide. Surrounded by desert ranges and ancient landscapes, it began as a telegraph…
The Ghan travelled south through flat, uninspiring semi-desert as we enjoyed dinner and on through the night. The next morning we stopped at Alice Springs. Pete and I had been there just last year and visited the attractions in and around the town – Simpson’s Gap, Standley Chasm, and a quick lunch stop at the…
It’s only a few hours from Darwin to Katherine, with the train wending its way through the sclerophyll forest, crossing rivers and passing farms. Some of those hours were spent enjoying lunch in the dining car. Peter and I had visited Nitmiluk (the local name for the gorges) before. It’s an impressive place and I…
“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…
It’s always nice to visit your own backyard and there’s a lot of backyard in Australia. Especially when you can travel in comfort. A few days in Darwin, a trip from Darwin to Adelaide on the iconic Ghan train, then a few days in Adelaide sounded like a great idea. I’d never been to Darwin…
On our final morning in Singapore we visited the country’s oldest museum, with roots going back to 1849 when it began as part of the Singapore Institution’s library. The current building on Stamford Road opened in 1887, its neoclassical dome and wide façade obviously colonial. It was declared a national monument in 1992. Inside, the…