Smashing time
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2007
1
89
131
Trip End
Jun 2009
Alice Springs,
Northern Territory,
Australia
Thursday, September 18, 2008
As the journey commenced we rolled through the bright green pastures and crop fields of South Australia, it was fairly flat landscape until we finally reached Port Agusta, we were told that we would have a 1 and a half hour break in which we could stretch our legs, have a fag and it gave us an opportunity to see the whole train from the road bridge above. Back on the train, just as we pulled out of the station, we were stationary for what seemed like forever. Freight trains have priority over the line and as it is a single track, we must pull in to a siding and wait, and this is where we saw the sunset, from the train yard - nice!! At dinner time, the restaurant car had cooked 3 choices of food or there was snack food, we were told that the car was not big enough to seat everyone at once therefore it was a case of eat your food then shift. The food was absolutely dire, Kev's jacket potato was hard in the middle and my burger, instead of being freshly prepared, was a boil in the bag and it got nuked!! We chatted to a couple from south africa and they had done the journey before, he said that usually there is at least a lounge car as well, instead we had a restaurant car that only seated around 25 for 2 carriages of steerage - about 120 people I think!!
Back in our chairs, we had the displeasure to find that the bloke behind had taken off his shoes and had the stinkiest feet in the world, not really sure how his wife put up with them! Every time he moved his feet, we were treated the sweet smell of poor hygiene, wouldn't mind but there were showers on board. During the night we had to try and sleep as best we could, eventually sheer exhaustion took over, until 5 am when the woman behind decided to get her bag down from the rails above our heads, then proceed to rummage around until finally she happened upon her prize - an apple, which she thoroughly enjoyed crunching for the next 20 minutes!
We were relieved to see the sun come up and could take a look at the surrounding landscape. It had changed and quite dramatically too. Hard to believe we were in the same country as the lush green was replaced with arrid scrubland that would soon turn into desert. There were a couple of points of interest along the way that the train slowed down for so that we could snap away with our cameras, as well as a recorded commentary on the history of The Ghan. In the early days the train line would run just as far as Alice Springs, then if you wanted to continue north there were a group of cameleers who had been brought over from Afghanistan, who, quite at home in this sort of environment, would transfer people to and from the towns in the north - hence the name The Ghan.
We finally started to approach The Alice and slowed right down, but suddenly we were jolted forward and the train came to a standstill. After 20 minutes or so, we were informed that we had infact collided with a car, someone who felt they could outrun the train no doubt! We were told a little later that the woman and her child were uninjured but taken to hospital for examination. The train drivers, obviously shook up, and under protocol that they are no longer able to drive the train, had to leave whilst we waited for a new set of drivers. Rather frustratingly we were only 5 minutes outside of town and could have walked but we weren't allowed off. 2 hours later we finally rolled into Alice Springs, disembarked and were collected by a rather nutty employee of the party hostel in which we were to stay the night!
