The Ghan - Luxury Journey through the fifths continent.
A train journey through Australia
Darwin to Adelaide on the Gahn (2022 journey). Taken from Journeybeyondrail.
Australia has a wide and diverse landscape. As the country is a continent, it is natural that some cities and regions are located thousands of kilometers apart. You can take a quick fly, book a ticket on one of the long-distance buses, adventure out on one of many epic road trips or as I did take a continent crossing train. There is a couple of great luxury journeys to take in Australia. Journeybeyondrail offers in total four different longer or shorter train journeys. The Overlander is a train frequently traveling between Adelaide and Melbourne, I actually accidentally took this train from Melbourne towards the Grampians as it was the only train in 2013 traveling from Melbourne towards the Grampians. The ticket I got at the Melbourne train stations a couple of hours before the departure. The train itself is a bit more luxurious than the standard carriages normally traveling in Victoria. The one journey, which is still on my Bucket list is the Indian Pacific, a 4-day 4300 km long journey from Sydney to Perth or vise versa.
The most iconic journey is the Gahn, a 3-day trip from Darwin to Adelaide or vise versa through the hearth of the continent. I took this journey end of November 2013, so already along time ago during my Work&Travel year.
Darwin
I flew from Sydney towards Darwin a couple of days prior to the departure of the train. I didn´t only want to arrive in Darwin to directly board the train and leave the city again. That time I really underestimated the wet season. Still, on the plane, I experienced the first major wet season event a large cyclone. That fly is still the worst fly I ever took in my life. First, we sad 2 hours on the runway in Sydney as we didn´t get permission to start, because of the cyclone in Darwin. Then after 2 hours, we had to start as the airport was shutting down, because of a major thunderstorm above Sydney. The flight included a 1-hour bumpy start through a thunderstorm, only a 1 1/2 hour quite nice fly over the outback and another 1 1/2 hour bumpy flight through a cyclone. Normally, I´m not afraid of flying, but during this fly, I actually thought I will never arrive and die. In Darwin, everything was closed because of the cyclone I spend 2-days in the hotel room. The only time I went outside was to go for dinner and one evening to watch a movie. Saying so, I actually haven´t seen much of Darwin in my time there. After the cyclone, I made 2 tours, one to Kakadu National Park and one towards Litchfield National Park with AAT.
KAKADU NATIONAL PARK
Aboriginal rock art in Kakadu National Park.
Kakadu National Park is one of the most famous parks in Australia due to its vast variety of flora and fauna. Even the Unesco declared it natural as well as cultural world heritage. During the one day trip, which is a little bit too commercial for me, you visit Aboriginal cultural sides as well as billabongs.
With the bus tour, you make a stop before the park at a small farm, where you can buy food as well as a large number of souvenirs and stuff like that. Afterward, the tour stops at different nice short walks, where a tour guide shows and explains the rock art and the history of the land. All walks are quite short and very good signposted as the tracks are takeable for all ages, only people with wheelchairs can´t take these walks. Sadly, the bus tour only takes the main highway through the park, therefore a lot of secret little places like waterfalls and some more isolated rock art places. If taking a tour like that, remember that you mostly see the spaces which are crowded with people. Nevertheless, tours like that give people without a car, like the 18-year-old me, the chance to see these magnificent places and learn first hand from the Aboriginal tour guides about their heritage. Interestingly the Aborigines don´t have a written language. Their culture is based on vocally passed down knowledge and rock art. There are legends about the rainbow snake, one of the most important spirits in the “Dreamtime”, living in this area, also Kakadu involves one of the No-go areas of the Aboriginals. The Aboriginals know this area as a toxic, sickening piece of land. When the first white settlers arrived, they didn´t listen to the Aboriginal warning and discovered the largest Uranium deposits in the world. Therefore, one of the biggest mines for Uranium is located inside the park boundaries.
The views over the Kakadu National Park from one of the many lookouts.
Kakadu not only involves rock art and woodlands, but a large part of the park also includes Billabongs (waterholes). One of the most famous and most accessible is Yellow water, it’s close to the visitor center and hotel as well as a large campground. You can take your canoes or kayaks out on the water or take a boat cruise. I would recommend a boat cruise as there a quite a lot of crocodiles, freshies (freshwater crocodiles) and salties (saltwater crocodiles), and I don’t want to encounter them in a canoe. A boat cruise with lunch was included in the tour I booked and we spend a great afternoon out on the water. Besides the already mentioned crocodiles, you can see a lot of different native bird species, some of which only live in Kakadu.
LITCHFIELD NATIONAL PARK
One of the largest termite mounts in Litchfield National Park.
The next day I went to Litchfield on a small tour. We had a small 6 person bus and I forgot my swimming wear. Forgetting swimwear is a major problem in this national park, as most of the attractions involve waterfalls and rivers you can swim in. So for me, swimming in underwear. The tour, therefore, is shortly summarized: swimming, waterfall, lunch, swimming that's it and it is great. One magnificent place, besides the waterfalls, is the termite mounts at the entrance of the park. They are special in size and orientation. They are the only termite mounts in the world which are strictly orientated north to south to shield of the sun
For me, the main attractions are the waterfalls and swimming holes. Each side has something magical and special. Some places involve a little hike down towards the base through the jungle. One encounter I will never forget is a snake attacking and eating a wallaby directly next to the trail.
BOARDING THE GAHN
On the starting day of the train journey, you will be picked up at your hotel in Darwin (depending on your travel class) by a bus or car. I booked the Gold class, the business class on the train. I got a single cabin with a nice large chair and a nice ottoman with a small table. Also, the cabin offers a sink and cabinet, as well as a phone to call a staff member if you want to order a drink or so.
Single person gold class cabin on the Gahn. (2013 interior, I think they were updated since then)
When you arrive you will find a lot of informational brochures about the journey and the off-train trips you can take along the journey. For the single person cabins, there are no showers and toilets inside the cabin, instead, they are located at each end of the carriage. If you book a double gold class cabin, you have a toilet as well as a shower inside the cabin. The gold class single cabin includes all drinks and food on the train as well as all off-train excursions. These inclusions where the reason I booked this class. The lower, red class, is only a standard train chair, you need to buy food at the onboard restaurant and no off-train excursions are included. For a 3-day journey not exactly what I wanted. Back to the gold class, every morning you could decide in which group you want to be for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all meals were served in the restaurant car a la card. The meals I had on the train were by far the best I had in the whole time in Australia. We had things like Kangeroo stake water buffalo or snake. Quite fast a German travel group picked me up and I joined most of the time for lunch and dinner. During the ride, you could either enjoy the views out of your cabin window or sit in the lounge or bar car enjoying the view with nice talks and drinks.
Wet season view.
FIRST STOP: KATHRINE
Already after a couple of hours, the first stop comes into view. Kathrine a small town on the Stuart Highway, the last major town before Alice Springs. When we boarded the train we could decide which trip we wanted to take, we had a choice of an Aboriginal art tour, a boat tour through Kathrine gorge or a canoe adventure. I took the boat tour through the gorge as it offered a bit of all.
NIGHTS ON THE GAHN
During the trips the crew of the Gahn will prepare the train for dinner. As soon as you come back, you can freshen up, pick a couple of drinks and get ready for dinner. I should say, that there is a bit of dress code in the gold class for dinner, with long trousers and long sleeve shirts. As the train rolls through the Northern Territory landscape you get served a 3-course meal with a great selection of local Australian wines. As you sit back and relax at dinner, the train crew prepares the cabins for night. The seats get converted into beds.
Bed configuration of the single gold cabin.
The evenings I spend with the other people in the lounge car, talking, playing cards and drinking another couple of drinks. You can’t say no to free unlimited drinks. When you return to your cabins, the train will slowly rock you into sleep, while looking at the stars from the large windows directly next to you. You can close the window shades, but I would advise you to leave them open, to witness a stunning sunrise over the central Australian desert.
For breakfast, you have a wide choice. From muesli over bacon and egg all the way to eggs benedict, or all together if you wish. After breakfast, you have a couple of hours on the train. Again you can just enjoy the views or join one of the talks given by Aboriginals or different experts on their fields, like biologists or geologists, before arriving at Alice Springs.
ALICE SPRINGS
We arrived in early afternoon, just after lunch in Alice Springs. Here you have a great choice of different off-train trips. I joined a trip towards the Alice Springs desert park, which was actually my last choice. I was to slow to put in my trip choice and couldn’t land a place on the scenic flight (which is included if you are fast enough) around Uluru or a in depth tour of the flying doctors. Nevertheless, the desert park is still worth a visit. We got a nice tour with a lot of nice explanations. A highlight was an introduction into the wildlife of central Australia. The show included discos, hawks and a lot of interesting birds I have no idea what they are.
ALICE SPRINGS TO ADELAIDE
This was the last leg of the journey for me. Nowadays there is another stop and off-train trip between Alice Springs and Adelaide, if going up from Adelaide towards Darwin. I enjoyed a later brunch on the train before packing up my stuff. As you come closer towards Adelaide the scenery drastically changes from desert to lush green hills. Around Adelaide there are some of the best wine regions in Australia, so always worth visiting.
For me the trip was totally worth it, its a nice trip, I met great people and had fantastic food. Nevertheless, with a price point of 2500 AU$ (1.700€) for the train and all trips (including Kakadu and Litchfield) it’s nothing you can do everyday. For me worth it, but I’m also a fan of long distance train journeys.
More pictures of Australia can be found in my galleries! I have traveled to this diverse country a lot in the last 10 years and have some stories and memories of nearly every state. While Victoria is closest to my heart, with most of my friends living there.
My personal best ones you can find in my portfolio.