The Ghan

The legendary Ghan, whose name supposedly honours the pioneering Afghan camel drivers who arrived in Australia in the late nineteenth century with animals imported from India, is one of the World’s greatest railway journeys. With thirty eight carriages and stretching a kilometre in length, this hotel on wheels runs through the heart of the country. The train is hauled by two locomotives and three power vans. The kilometre long train contains four kitchens, five restaurants and five bars. Australia’s Red Centre is one of the most charismatic wildernesses in the world, and The Ghan is unquestionably the most comfortable way to see it. 

My journey begins at Adelaide station, a few kilometres from the city centre, and the train is soon bowling across the farming country of the Adelaide Plains, passing the turbines of Snowtown Wind Farm along the Hummock and Barunga ranges. To the north the Flinders Ranges comes into view. By Crystal Brook, sheep have been added to wheat. Unlovely Port Pirie is the centre of South Australia’s heavy industry with colossal silver, lead and zinc smelters dominating the landscape. The estuary-like Spencer Gulf is within view for much of the way to Port Augusta, gateway to the outback and its vital supply centre. This was the southern terminus of the original narrow-gauge Ghan service to Alice Springs.

Darkness descends as the train winds through sand hills and scrub forest, so I retire to my cabin to be rocked to sleep by the locomotion of the train...