The Ghan

 
The Ghan is the train link between Adelaide, South Australia and Darwin, Northern Territory via Alice Springs and was completed in 19XX. It completed a pledge by the state government of South Australia to the Territory to build a railway linking the northern capital with the southern capital back in XXXX.

It is named to commemorate the pioneering spirit and assistance given to Australia by the Afghan cameleers whose animals ran the supply routes between distant and remote locations and the colonised cities in the south. In fact a large bronze sculpture adjorns Alice Springs railway station to reinforce that memory.

We used the Ghan to travel between Alice Springs and Darwin and had been looking forward to the train ride given its reverence and popularity as well as the realistic and practical reason of travelling that vast distance (almost 1,200km). It wasn’t a cheap alternative with the most basic seat costing approx $220each for Red Service so had high expectations.

Unfortunately from my perspective it wasn’t anything to write home about with praise. I found it to be the biggest single disappointment of the trip to date costing a lot of money for what was essentially a train ticket. Although the seats reclined to aid sleep during the night, there was nothing supporting your feet so your body position was all wrong. Amber’s feet swelled up like a balloon as a result! It was a noisy carriage and whilst I appreciate this is a train, the squeaky chairs, rattling windows, continuous stopping and starting and loud hand driers in the toilets meant that whatever state of sleep you reached, you were soon brought out of it with a jolt!

The journey was also a blatant tourist trap. It was lucky that we’d had the presence to bring lunch and dinner with us as the costs of food & drink on board were a licence to print money. $8 for a small single glass bottle of wine and $8 for two slices of toast. I’d hate to know how much dinner was on board. A couple in front of us with two kids, didn’t seem to mind and seemed to be backwards and forwards getting everything under the sun. The loud speakers kept reminding us about all the tours that we could do, that at first seemed strange until they explained that the train was stopping in Katherine (the 3rd largest town in NT) on the way through for 4.5hrs. This wasn’t mentioned at all..

You could either do a tour ranging from a sightseeing cruise on the famous Katherine Gorge, helicopter visits over the top of it, relaxation and spa therapies, golf et, or wait in the waiting area at Katherine (!) or stay on board (being locked on!) or pay for a $13return trip to Katherine to look round. The distance between the station and the town was about 10km so too far to walk it…great! We went for the final option begrudgingly paying our ticket to be disappointed with the outcome. Katherine doesn’t have much to see within the town. It supplies the local Aboriginal communities with stores and administrative functions but also is the base for Nitmulik National Park, home of the Katherine Gorge.

After several hours and strictly being told to return by 1pm to embark the train ready for the journey north, it turned out the train wasn’t scheduled to leave until 2.30pm…another delay! By that time a freight train had got on the line so we’d have to wait for that to pass but it was okay, the controllers in Adelaide were trying their best to sort something out (my arse they were!). I was hopping and furious with all this messing about but had given up caring and starting counting down until it was time to get off.

The final kick in the wallet was to be told the railway line and the station was 25kms away from the city so had to pay another $10 each taxi to get to where we wanted. Again, not something that is divulged at booking or at the stations along the route. As to one of the great Australia train journeys, it says a lot about Australia train journeys. Due to the timings you’re only actually ‘seeing’ Australia between 2-6pm due to the light and of that it’s not that exciting!

If you’re thinking of travelling this way, make sure you rob a bank first and go first class and take lots of sedatives. Alternatively, don’t and fly..it’s probably much cheaper and more exciting.