Exploring the rail Australia on The Ghan

THEY were the ships of the desert camels loaded with essential supplies and led by mainly Afghan handlers to help open up the vast interior of this wide brown land.

escape ghan

THEY were the ships of the desert camels loaded with essential supplies and led by mainly Afghan handlers to help open up the vast interior of this wide brown land.

It's fitting, therefore, that these Afghan cameleers and their "ships" are immortalised in the name of The Ghan, for it is more than just a train a journey on it is more a cruise than a rail trip.

The clickety-clack of earlier train travel is no more welded sections of track have seen to that and as we ease out of Adelaide, it's not too big a stretch to imagine the swaying of our cosy "gold class" cabins could be due to a gentle swell. We're soon rolling over the Adelaide Plains, billiard-table flat to the horizon, on the first leg of a journey that will take us to Darwin, a whisker under 3000km away.

Train host Linley pays us an early visit to check all is in order with our dinky little home for the next few days. He explains the ins and outs of our snug, stainless steel "ensuite" the fold-up, fold-down loo and vanity and the nifty shower.

The cabin itself consists of a comfortable, high-backed, lounge-style seat providing enough room for one person to stretch out and another to sit back and watch the world go by, or maybe get started on that book.

Relaxing is what The Ghan is all about. It's a break from the hurly-burly of day-to-day living. No TV, no radio, no outside-world distractions aside, that is, from the unfolding panoramas of the heart of Australia.

Two hours into our trip we sample The Ghan's Queen Adelaide restaurant for the first time. We are summoned by the train intercom.

Tables on either side of a central aisle comfortably accommodate four people in the ornately decorated Queen Adelaide. Any apprehension about the food is soon dispelled as we mull over the menu.

Freshly baked lepinja bread filled with leg ham, brie, tomato relish and mizuna is a foretaste of some mouthwatering treats to come.

Our two chefs, Hoang and John, soon have guests marvelling at their ability to deliver such treats from their poky kitchen. Kangaroo tenderloin, roasted and served with sweet potato puree, beetroot relish and Ghan Shiraz jus, anyone? Or seared fillet of Tassie salmon, served with puy lentils infused with bacon and French mustard?

Lunch over, we're soon trundling into Port Augusta, where Great Southern Rail has a treat in store for us with a look at how things used to be on The Ghan.

A hissing, belching relic of another era is waiting for us on an adjoining platform. It's a steam locomotive with a string of lovingly restored carriages from early last century in tow.

These "cars" are a reminder of The Ghan's importance to our war effort from 1939-45, when hundreds of thousands of troops were moved north to Alice Springs to be taken further north by army transports to wartime staging posts such as Tennant Creek, Adelaide River and Darwin itself.

Though a departure from The Ghan's usual timetable we are on an Anzac/Easter weekend tribute on The Ghan trip the Pichi Richi Railway Preservation Society's historic trains are a great way to enjoy the grandeur of the Flinders Ranges.

We admire craggy gullies lined with wonderful old river red gums and marvel at the railway pioneers' feats in building sturdy iron bridges and at how they hacked through hard rock to provide deep cuttings. Our detour's destination is the historic hamlet of Quorn,where we hear a staggering 360,000 meals were served by the local CWA ladies to troops on their way north.

Back on The Ghan that evening, we learn over dinner that crew members are busily preparing our cabins for the night. When the time comes after a pleasant after-dinner drink in the lounge bar, where we enjoy the company of fellow travellers we call it a night to find our cabin's bench seating has been transformed into a comfortable lower bunk, while a pull-out top bunk provides a second bed.

A tricky, narrow ladder provides relatively easy access to the top bunk even after that nightcap though I wonder at just how those who might be a little less mobile may cope. However, it's an eclectic group in our carriage, ranging in age from 10 to an original Rat of Tobruk in Bill, aged 93.

Our inaugural Anzac tribute trip, which GSR hopes to make an annual event, had us setting out from Adelaide on the Saturday morning, whereas the normal Ghan schedule has it leaving on Sundays at 12.20pm.

As well as the Pichi Richi side trip, we also enjoy a couple of other excursions to Coober Pedy (Australia's weirdest town) and to the beautifully maintained tropical-garden cemetery and resting place of the more than 400 Australians killed in Japanese bombing raids on the Top End in World War II.

Our stretched timetable also has us pulling into Alice Springs around 3.35am on the Monday (Anzac Day), as opposed to the regular schedule that has passengers arriving in the "capital" of the Red Centre at 1.45pm.

Any slight disappointment on missing out on the desert landscape as we cruise through the night to Alice is offset by the wondrous setting of the dawn service we attend atop Anzac Hill. As the morning sun creeps over the MacDonnell Ranges, a lone bugler sounds the Last Post. It is a spine-tingling moment as townspeople and Ghan travellers alike bow heads.

As the desert morning chill thaws, we enjoy an outdoors "gunfire breakfast" at the Alice RSL as the trip's special guest, country singer John Williamson, entertains us with his songs of the Outback and the bush. There is hardly a dry eye as he settles into Eric Bogle's poignant reflection on war and Anzac Day, And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda.

It is a treat to be repeated the next day as Williamson gives a concert on the banks of the Katherine River as we return from one of The Ghan's special whistlestop tours an unforgettable cruise through the sandstone grandeur of the Katherine Gorge (Nitmiluk). We're soon back on The Ghan, rolling though a lush, subtropical landscape, a tantalising entree for those staying on in Darwin.

We berth at a nondescript modern station in an industrial area 10km from Darwin and a coach ferries us to the city. It's a minor quibble, but this reborn ship of the desert seems deserving of a Top End port on a grander scale.

Go2: THE GHAN

For information on The Ghan services, including fares and timetables, see www.gsr.com.au

Follow links for options and prices of whistlestop tours of Alice Springs and Katherine. Everything from desert camel rides at Alice to nine holes of golf or a helicopter flight over the Katherine Gorge are available.

For information on GSR event trains, including 2012 Anzac Tribute trip, ph 13 21 47.

Pichi Richi Railway, see www.prr.org.au

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