Around The World Without Flying: The Ghan - travelling 'up and down' the length of Australia

I am finally able to make some time to start talking about my adventures exploring the Australian Outback (also known as the Australian Bush). By ‘Outback’ we mean remote regions that are hundreds or even thousands of kilometres from our major cities. Little townships and Aboriginal settlements may be found in these regions, but all are long distances from one another. Here cattle stations and sheep properties are vast, occupying areas of many hundreds of square kilometres, because the feed and water are so sparse. There are some major highways as well as many unmade roads linking these parts. A station owner might travel a couple of hundred kilometres along a bush track to have a cup of tea or a beer with their nearest neighbour. Telecommunications are patchy; in some areas you can only communicate by satellite phone. Moreover, many people working in this region can only obtain electrical power using solar panels and storage batteries or diesel generators. And many children learn their lessons through the ‘School of the Air’.

Understandably, most Australians live in our coastal cities. But that is not to say that people living in the Outback live a life of deprivation and hardship. What they miss out on in terms of ‘mod cons’ they make up for by living in a ruggedly beautiful, unique landscape with wonderful rich colours, pure air, and little traffic and noise. But you would not know or appreciate this unless you travelled through this territory by land instead of by jet. That is why I have thoroughly enjoyed the three trips I have made on our famous train known as the Ghan.

The Ghan is named after the Afghan cameleers who helped our early explorers discover a route through the interior from Adelaide on the south coast to the north coast of Australia. Tragically some of the earliest explorers died making the attempt, which challenge they undertook not only in a spirit of curiosity and discovery but also so that the early settlers could communicate with the rest of the world through a telegraph cable that had been laid under the sea near our north coast. Otherwise they had to wait months for ships to arrive with their mail.

Today the Ghan travels between Adelaide and Darwin, a journey that takes three or four days depending on what touring you do along the way. It is nearly a kilometre long and pulled by two massive engines. There are different classes of travel. Platinum Class is the most luxurious, of course, followed by two levels of Gold Class. Platinum and Gold Class passengers have access to comfortable lounges, where drinks and nibbles are part of the package, and dine in fine style in dedicated dining cars. The remaining passengers do not have their own cabins and buy food from a kiosk. This is the way to make the journey on a more limited budget.

The first time I went on the Ghan, which was in 2013 from Adelaide to Darwin and back, I made the mistake of booking a single cabin. Even though it was in Gold Class, you had to share a shower and toilets with all the other passengers in the same carriage (about 21 others). And once the bed was pulled down and made up by the steward whilst you had your evening meal, the room was so small you had to be a contortionist to get into the bed from the door! Getting something out of your luggage at that late stage was an almost impossible challenge. So when I went on the Ghan from Darwin to Adelaide in 2015, I booked a double cabin, and all was good. Apart from being a much larger cabin, I had my own toilet and shower too, though the shower was a challenge to use, especially as all the time the train was going ‘bumpity bump’ on the tracks. Thus my advice is - if you can afford it, go Platinum!

In the two years in which I travelled on the Ghan, the train only stopped at Alice Springs and Katherine Gorge. Whilst it took on fresh food and water, refuelled and pumped out the wastes all the passengers went on tours. These tours, which lasted about four hours, were part of the fares for Platinum and Gold passengers, and were just great. I will talk about mine in the next two or three posts. Nowadays you can do a range of interesting side tours as well.

Some people asked me if I was bored during those journeys, travelling for three days mainly through a dry desert environment, but my answer is - not at all! I found the landscape fascinating, and met some interesting passengers. Sometimes people that are encapsulated with you in a train will tell you things they would not normally talk about. In fact I will tell you the story of one inspiring lady I met in my next post.

Unfortunately I have very few photos of the Ghan and the landscape we saw, which photos were taken in 2013, but I hope they will give you some idea of what it was like.