The Ghan (Jackson)

Leaving Alice

I’m sitting in The Ghan looking at the sunset over an almost featureless desert. The train left Alice Springs about 45 minutes ago and is due to arrive in Darwin tomorrow evening.

I started getting excited about The Ghan last night while I was lying in my tent in my sleeping bag. Every now and again I’d jump with excitement when I thought about going on The Ghan. This morning I got up early with excitement flowing through me. After a quick breakfast Dad drove me to Anzac Hill so we could watch the Ghan come in from Darwin. Later in the day, after we’d packed up, we drove in the other direction to The Gap to watch our train arrive in Alice Springs from Adelaide. We drove along beside it. It is extremely long.

We drove to the station because we had to get the car there early so they could put it on the train. We had to take the roof rack off and put everything we weren’t taking on the train into the car. We then had about an hour so we wandered over to have a drink and some chips at Monte’s, our favourite restaurant in Alice Springs.

Our car is on the top right of the carriage

By the time we walked back to The Ghan it was time to collect our luggage and get on. We are in the very last seats in last passenger carriage of the train. There were 26 carriages, two engines and one carriage for the cars!

Overnight to Katherine

As night fell we got our blankets and pillows down to get ready for bed. It was really hard to sleep until after 10 because that was when they turned the lights out. I stayed awake until the train stopped at Tennant Creek and woke up again when we left there.

The moon was very full and bright. Because we are travelling north we were able to watch it rise on the right side of the train. When I woke up this morning the sun was rising and the moon was setting on the opposite side.

At 9am the train arrived at Katherine and we had three hours to get out and have a look around town. We got a big breakfast. I had bacon and eggs and there was heaps of it!

We went for walk and it was very hot. We are going to be going back there later in our trip.

After we left Katherine the train stopped for ages and we started to wonder why. After a while an extremely long freight train passed alongside us. It was the biggest train I’ve ever seen! We passed another freight train that was being loaded with huge amounts of iron ore from massive trucks.

Arriving in Darwin

The last thing we did on the train was play a family game of cards in the buffet car. Dad won! Eventually, after 24 hours of being on The Ghan, we arrived in Darwin. There was a beautiful sunset over the city and it was very very warm. I really liked The Ghan, but after such a long time sitting down I was glad to stretch my legs again!