The Ghan and West Coast - The Plan

We’ve wanted for some time now, after our travels on the Indian Pacific which we loved, to travel on The Ghan train from Darwin to Adelaide (or vice versa).  Unfortunately, on that Indian Pacific rail trip we didn’t get to Perth because of a derailment ahead of us and we had to return to Adelaide.  Nevertheless, we had a great time and met some great people.

So our next adventure will include a trip on The Ghan.  The plan is shown on the map below:

Which way we go to Darwin will depend on the current cyclones across the north of Australia. Cyclone Ester has broken up and is moving back across the centre of the country and Cyclone Ferdinand has come back from out in the Indian Ocean and is heading towards the north west of Western Australia.  At this stage we leave Yass on Monday 30 March and drive direct to Darwin via Bourke and Longreach.  The alternate, depending on floodwaters in Queensland, is go straight up the centre of Australia.  I’ve planned 8 days for this 4000 km leg as we don’t intend to do much, if any, sightseeing having done both these legs a few years back.  We leave the car and caravan in Darwin, then do a four day/three night trip on The Ghan from Darwin to Adelaide.  

After a night in Adelaide we fly back to Darwin to pick up the car and caravan before leaving on the 4,100km leg around the West Coast from Darwin to Perth.

We’ll be visiting some places on our way across the top including Lake Argyle (Kununurra) and then on to Broome.  We leave the caravan at Broome for a couple of nights and drive up the 200km dirt 4WD track to Cape Leveque where we’ve booked two nights at Kooljaman Resort in a safari tent on the beach.  After returning to Broome and collecting the caravan, we visit a few stops on our West Coast travels including Ningaloo Reef, Monkey Mia, Kalbarri National Park and The Pinnacles before arriving in Perth.

After we reach Perth Helen will then fly back to Canberra and Yass as she has commitments with her tutoring and by this time we’re well into the next term of the school year.  So Annette offered to fly over and travel across the Nullarbor with me if I pay for a plane ticket for her from Canberra to Perth (what a kind thought she had!).  After 5 days travelling the 3,600km leg crossing the Nullarbor and returning home with Annette, we arrive back home on Sunday 16 May.

A lot squeezed into 7 weeks and a lot of driving.   Probably over 15,000 km but seeing places we have always wanted to visit and incorporating a long held wish to travel The Ghan.