The Ghan, heading north

I'm not going to write too much about The Ghan here because I'll be writing about it elsewhere.

But as it was one of the major highlights of our trip to Australia I shall tell you this:

The Ghan is not only the longest passenger train in the world (1km long, give or take a metre or so) but it is also one of the world's great train journeys. It traverses Australia from south to north right through the continent's geographical centre at Alice Springs. Towed by two locomotives, it trundles along at between 50-80 kph taking two days and three nights to cover the distance from Adelaide to Darwin (or vice-versa of course, if one is travelling from north to south).

Passengers are mollycoddled from the moment the taxi pulls up at the specially built station a few kilometres outside Adelaide, until they are dropped off outside their hotel in Darwin, and no matter if they've left their money in their checked-in baggage (cabin sized bags are all that are allowed on board). They won't be needing any on the train as the price of the ticket includes everything from the sparkling Australian wine served as one awaits the departure, to the food and all the beverages, alcoholic or otherwise, served on the train. It also includes the excursions at Alice Springs and Katherine and the breakfast served alongside the train, complete with bonfires, to watch the sun rise over the outback at Marla.

But what I would like to say here is that the passengers were not all wealthy couples in their 70s, as assumed by someone who wrote a comment about an article in The Guardian centred on this rather expensive train journey. He complained that a left-wing newspaper should not be writing about a voyage that is out of most people's financial reach. In case this person should happen upon this blog, let me assure him that the passengers on this 996m-long train were far from the caricature he painted.

There was the dying woman who'd lived along the train track all her life and who used to wave to the train as it went by without ever imagining she would one day be a passenger on it. Her  three daughters who'd clubbed together to offer her this last journey, were with her.

There was the Dutch couple who were there because he's a train buff and desperately wanted to do the trip, she said it was too expensive, so he offered it to her as a birthday present so that she couldn't refuse!

On an earlier trip, an elderly woman who's lifelong ambition had been to travel on this train, had a heart attack and died on the platform at Darwin, her life's journey ending at the same time as the train's.

There were several gay couples under the age of 45, there were families, there were some very elderly couples, there was a woman in a wheelchair, there were some young women travelling on their own, there was a young couple expecting their first child. And from what I could observe the young staff were unfailingly kind and polite, without being obsequious, to all and sundry.

The only trouble is that when you get off the train, you suddenly have to take responsibility for yourself again and make decisions other than “shall I have the crocodile boudin or the salad for lunch?”

My husband and I were guests of Great Southern Rail.

Regarding the photo: this is what I could see from our carriage, the fifth or sixth from the front, of the back end of the train as we went round a broad bend.