May 4, 2016. A ride on the Ghan!

LOCATION:  Somewhere in Australia's Outback

WEATHER:  Sunny and hot...100!

One of George's bucket list items was to ride a train across the Outback.  We had bought tickets for the Indian Pacific route a few weeks ago, but there was a freight train derailment on the route so our trip was canceled.  That would have been from Adelaide to Perth.  Undaunted, we changed our plans, flying to Perth, then to Darwin where we picked up The Ghan.  A 3-day, 2-night train ride will take us through the outback to Adelaide.

The train is quite elegant.  There are 33 carriages.  The train itself is almost a mile long.  

We have a private room with its own bathroom.  The couch turns into 2 bunk beds at night.  

All our meals, snacks and drinks are included.  So, as soon as we boarded, we were off to the lounge for some bubbly to celebrate the trip.

The train is called The Ghan, as originally Afghanistan camels were used to carry goods on this route.  Once they had more modern types of machines, they let the camels go free, and now there are 1 million camels roaming around here.  George is anxious to see them!

Included in the train tide are some stops with excursions.  About 4 hours after the trip started in Darwin, we stopped in Katherine.  We chose an excursion called "outback experience".  We went to a big ranch.  The cowboy showed us how he "breaks" a horse, then how he trains a horse to round up cattle.

Then, the cowboy showed us how he trains his Kelpie dogs to herd the sheep and cows. He is also a musician, so sang some songs on his guitar.  It was very interesting, but beastly hot.  

Most of the people on the train are our age or older, although there is one young honeymoon couple.  All are Australians, except us and a lady from Ireland.

For dinner, I chose croccodile sausage as an appetizer.  Good!  Main course was veggie lasagne.  George had barramundi, the popular fish here.  

While we were eating dinner, the staff made up our beds for a cosy night's sleep.