Day 10: All aboard The Ghan

It was another early morning as I needed to be ready to catch the bus transfer to The Ghan at 06:30. Of course, I was incredibly excited and hardly slept the night before.

The Ghan is one of the great train journeys of the world, and certainly Australia’s most iconic. It takes four days to travel the 2,979 km between Darwin and Adelaide, and is more like a cruise on land than an actual form of transportation. With my love of trains, it was one I had on the list for quite some time.

We rolled into the station, located about 20 km outside of Darwin, at about 07:30. Our bus was the first to arrive, so it provided a great opportunity to go up and grab a photo of the locomotives that would be taking us down to Adelaide. I was told that it’s very unusual to have two Ghan-branded locomotives for the trip, as usually one of them is a generic Pacific National loco.

Our consist of The Ghan was just under 800 m long, and had about 250 passengers in addition to 50 staff. The low ratio of staff to guests was indicative of the service we would receive on the trip.

We lurched out of Darwin at 09:00, right as scheduled, and started making our way down to Katherine, where our afternoon stop was. I settled into my seat and had a little nap before brunch.

At 11:00 I made my way down to the lounge car to be seated for brunch. All meals are scheduled on The Ghan, so I would make my way to the lounge about 15 minutes before my time to grab a drink. Each restaurant car serves four carriages, and mine was right at the front of the train, so I’d have to walk through all the other carriages in the group to get to the lounge car.

I had a wonderful buffalo curry for lunch, and was glad I ordered it since we were told afterwards that this first meal would be the only chance to order it. Each meal is a communal experience with three other people, and it provided a great opportunity to meet and chat with someone new. That being said, I was the youngest person onboard (minus the seven month old), and the average age seemed to hover in the 60s.

Around 13:30, we rolled into Katherine, the fourth largest settlement in the Northern Territory. With a population of just over 6,000, it shows just how sparse the Territory is.

Each day on The Ghan had a stop with multiple options for excursions. Most were included with the price of the train, although you could also choose to do some at an additional cost. For the stop in Katherine, I had opted to do the Nitmiluk Gorge cruise.

Nitmiluk Gorge is a part of the Katherine River that cuts through the sandstone landscape. Nitmiluk is a local Jawoyn word meaning “land of cicada dreaming”, although I didn’t hear any cicadas here.

Our tour would take us on a cruise through the first two gorges, although since it was the dry season, we would have to get off the boat to walk between them.

The walk between the two gorges was a bit uneven, but thankfully there were quite a few places to hold onto. I managed for myself, but many people on The Ghan had much lower mobility than me, so some opted to stay behind and wait for the return boat.

Our tour guide, Russell, was very informative, and full of dad jokes to keep us entertained. During the wet season, saltwater crocodiles make their way down into the gorge and make nests in the sandy banks further upstream.

During the dry season, freshwater crocodiles call the river home. Compared to the “salties”, “freshies” are much less threatening, and are very unlikely to attack humans. We saw one on the way back, although I was unable to get my phone out in time to snap a photo before it went back underwater.

Before long, we were on the coach heading back to the train. It was a long walk from where we were let off to my carriage, and it felt great to be back in an air conditioned environment.

It’s hard to capture the scale of just how long The Ghan is, and ours wasn’t even as long as it could be. In busier seasons, it could be up to 1.1 km long!

About an hour after leaving Katherine, it was time for dinner. I made my way down to the dining car, and ended up being seated with a family, from Sydney. It was two parents travelling with their adult son, and they were one of my favourite groups I ended up meeting.

For dinner, I had crocodile dumplings and a braised beef. I wanted to give the crocodile a second chance, and while the dumplings were better than the burger I had in Darwin, it’s still not something I’d actively seek out.

I was pretty exhausted from the long day, so I went back to my room to find the bed made. Rory, the cabin attendant, had set up the room for sleeping while I was out for dinner. The service on The Ghan is quite excellent, and all the staff I interacted with were quite attentive and happy to be there.

Today by the numbers

Steps taken: 7,336

Distance traveled: 312 km

Daily high: 38