Using a train as a means of transport in Australia seems counterintuitive. The distances are enormous, there is no railway network worth mentioning. Nevertheless, or perhaps because of this, you should take a trip with “The Ghan”. The train that connects Adelaide and Darwin is not only one of the oldest means of transport, it also offers a cross-section of the continent. Rattles past tropical forests and the coast, traverses the desert with its red rock formations. Which doesn’t mean that you only have to stick to the window. With individual cabins, lounges and a wood-panelled dining car, the Ghan has been upgraded to become a rolling hotel with an Orient Express feeling. And as always in Australia, you immediately get into conversation with everyone. With a woman who sold her house at 65 and now only wants to travel. Or with the woman who, over tea, talks about the forces of nature in her home country like others talk about the weather. In the 1990s, she experienced a cyclone in Katherine, after which everyone had to leave town. Her newspaper kiosk was also papier-mâché, except for the one that was shrink-wrapped playboy have survived. After three days covering almost 3000 kilometers and four climatic zones, seeing old telegraph stations and learning about the alleged Afghan drivers of the camel caravans that once transported goods along this route (hence the name Ghan), where you ate a lot and talked even more, so after these three days an old realization sets in: the journey is the goal, and when traveling that’s the time you spend in public transport.
Travel: By train through Australia – journey
