Day 15 (5 May) to Day 19 (9 May)

Today we got a taxi from the caravan park to Darwin Rail Terminal and on to The Ghan.  The start of a 3 night and 4 day trip to Adelaide, and a 3,100Km journey.  We arrived at the station early and the train departed at 10.00am.

After the train departed we went to the lounge to meet the other travellers.  But “Nigel No Friends” was there by himself.  Poor Nigel.

The first stop south was Katherine after lunch.  It was a really nice meal and we met some lovely people.  We chose the Katherine Outback Experience for our off the train Katherine experience as we have done the Katherine (Nitmiluk Gorge) a couple of years back and intend to do it again on our way to Western Australia as we pass through Katherine.  This was advertised with a picture of a cowboy sitting on his horse strumming a guitar.  A bit corny.  It was not that at all.  He did sing but Tom Curtain runs a horse and cattle dog training business, so he gave us a demonstration on how he does that.  He had a young girl as his assistant, and she was excellent at calming a wild Brumby and getting to sit on him.  It takes about 6 weeks to train a wild horse for cattle mustering so that it is not startled by the cattle or other horsemen.  He also trains them for camp drafting (also called bulldogging) where the horse thinks for himself and rounds up the cattle into a pen.  It looked a bit like quarter horse type of horse work.  This takes about 2 years.  But the cattle dogs that he trains are just so cute and very smart.  He had 10 of them in the arena and called each by name to round up the goats and sit and guard them.  “Beth” was just full of beans and was busting to get in on the action even when the other dogs were doing their bit.  A fascinating afternoon and bloody hot.  “Nigel No Friends” put a wet iced towel on his head just to embarrass himself further.

Back to the train for a few drinks and dinner after that.  Met some great people again.  It was then an overnight journey to Alice Springs.  The sunrise next morning over the desert landscape was just spectacular.

Helen’s Highlights/Minnie’s musings

Today was a terrific day and my highlight was going to the Katherine Outback Experience. In a class; not all years or all grade levels, but fairly often: there is a child who continually pushes the boundaries, and you lose count of how many times in the day you have to speak to him/her. Well Beth the border collie was that child. Tom, the guy running the show could be mid-sentence to the audience and performing some routine and he would have to tell Miss Beth to go back to sit on her barrel. Many, many times. It became quite hilarious as the whole audience started saying her name. I loved Beth.

After breakfast we sat in our cabin and just watched the scenery.

We then chose to do the Alice Springs Experience Tour.  We have done some of the tours on offer before, but it was really nice being bussed around to the School of the Air (with a statue of Charles Stuart, the explorer, out the front), the Reptile Park, Anzac Hill and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

The School of the Air has about 100 children, most over 300km from Alice Springs.  When they first started the school in 1951 they did it with pedal powered radios.  Now it’s all internet based and the kids have face to face lessons via video link with the teachers.

The Reptile Park had lots of scary snakes, lizards and goannas, and a crocodile.  A fact we didn’t know is that although Australia has the 10 most venomous snakes in the world, they have very small, short fangs.  So, if you wear long pants and shoes when walking in bush, their fangs can’t penetrate.

Anzac Hill was a really well set up tribute to Veterans with the road up the hill adorned with metal structures depicting all the conflicts Australian servicemen/women have been involved in.  On the back of these structures is an artistic model depicting something that represents each conflict.

From there, it was to the Desert Park for lunch to meet up with the other tour groups that did different attractions.  This was in a very pleasant outdoor café catered by a local company with the train staff assisting.  The café was in the shadow of the West McDonnell Ranges.  Just stunning scenery and great food.

They had a kids’ play area there so we had to do the kiddy thing.

It was then back to the train for some rest before going out for dinner.

Dinner that night was at the Old Telegraph Station under the stars.  The setup was just stunning.  It was 5 Star service with camel rides, live music and marshmallow toasting over the fire tubs.  The food was out of this world as was the wine which was plentiful.  There was also a guide who gave a description of celestial navigation, showing us the Southern Cross and how to navigate by it.

Helen’s Highlights/Minnie’s musings

I don’t have enough space to put in all the highlights, suffice to say we are having a wonderful and memorable experience. The photos say it all…no need for words.

Back to the train on the bus after that for a session of nightcaps and then bed.  Next morning we stopped some distance out of Coober Pedy on private land called Manguri.  There were a number of busses to take us to the various attractions in and around Coober Pedy which is 32km away.  We chose The Breakaways and the Opal Mine Tour.  The road out was a dirt track leading to a dirt road and on to the sealed Stuart Highway before back onto a dirt road again.

The Breakaways were magnificent.  They are called that because they appear to have broken away from the surrounding reserve.  They have a number of names – frilled neck lizard, old man, two dogs, camel, and others because they look like those creatures.  Colours are just stunning.  And the flies carried you away.

There was morning tea laid on for us too.  Most of it was alcohol and few people had tea or coffee.  Now that’s what I call a morning tea!

Then it was off to see the mounds called Two Dogs.

We met these really nice people David Keating and his partner Sue.  David lived in New Guinea and by some strange coincidence he knew a friend of mine Greg Ison.  He also knew Neil Turner who I do Pilates exercise with and lives in Yass.  He also knew my uncle Joe Shaw from the time Joe worked for the PNG Chief Administrator before independence.

Off to see the Dog Fence.  This is the longest continuous fence in the world and stretches 5,300km through the centre of Australia to protect the sheep in the east from the dingoes in the west.

After that it was off to see the underground mine in Coober Pedy and have a late lunch.

We were introduced to the guy named Rudi who had been working mines in Coober Pedy since the 1960s.  He explained how they used explosives using gelignite in the early days to ammonium nitrate today.  After the explosion, they suck out the dirt with a large industrial-type vacuum cleaner on the surface, through a pipe that runs down the mine shaft to the work face.  Tough and dangerous job.

After this we toured an underground house and experienced pitch darkness when they turned out all the lights.  Then it was lunch.  By this time we were all starving and the food was just sensation in a setting underground inside the mine.

Then back to the train after a long hectic day.  They stopped on the other side of the tracks to give us a view of the full length of the train.  We got out, wearing our shorts and t-shirts, only to be blasted by this god-awful blustery freezing wind and light drizzle.  Quick photos and back inside the train.

That night on the train was our last and most of the train passengers partied well into the night.  We left about 11pm but others were there well after midnight.  We almost drank the train dry on Bailey’s Irish Cream and they had to raid someone else’s stock on the train.  Next morning it was up a little later, have brunch and depart the train in Adelaide.  We all had to go through a police security inspection on arrival and all those who were from New South Wales (that’s us) were singled out and subjected to further questioning because of a Covid outbreak in Sydney.  We were fine but I had visions of being in the lockup for the rest of our trip!

We checked into the Grosvenor Hotel in Adelaide and that evening met up with Jeff and Jill Schultz for dinner in the pub next door.  This area we were in on North Terrace Adelaide is where the Covid quarantine hotels are situated.  Let’s hope there’s no outbreak like in Sydney.

Helen’s Highlights/Minnie’s musings

It is a very strange feeling as it feels like the holiday is over as the whole holiday was planned around the time we could get on the Ghan and now we have lots of new places to see around the west coast.

The Ghan has been a once in a lifetime experience and my highlights are many but the main ones were experiencing more of the beautiful outback and meeting really interesting new friends.

Next morning we got up at 5.15am and got a taxi to the airport to catch our flight to Darwin.  We had to wear masks in the terminal and on the 4 hour plane flight.  Damned uncomfortable things.  The plane was about 75% full and, being a Sunday, I was expecting it to be relatively empty.  Not so.  Anyway, we arrived in Darwin to be greeted by 33 Degree heat.  Off with the jumper, but luckily we came prepared wearing shorts and a t-shirt underneath.

That Sunday evening we went to Mindil Beach Markets, an iconic Darwin attraction every Sunday night.  Lots of food and a few market type stalls.  It should be called the Mindil Beach Food Markets as there was an unbelievable array of food types.  We got there about 4.30 and it was reasonably quiet but by the time we left it was wall to wall people.  We watched the sunset sitting on the beach and were greeted to a stunning display of colours.

Tomorrow we leave Darwin and head down to Katherine before turning west to Western Australia.

Helen’s Highlights/Minnie’s musings

My highlight was coming back to the caravan and doing 3 loads of washing…………...NOT.

The good part was it all dried on the clothesline very quickly.

Bring on the next part of our outback touring.