I've just had the big 80 birthday and sneaked off on a bit of a treat trip. Last Wednesday my partner and I flew via Melbourne to Alice Springs where we picked up our treat passage on "The Ghan" rail train on it's last leg to Darwin. needless to say our passage was the best with a nice sleeper cabin, world class dinning and plenty of grog.
The Ghan is a full sleeper and dinner passenger train of 29 carriages and is 830 meters from end to end. Total train weight around 2900 + tone. So it is a bit of a monster. Our part of the train consisted of 3 sleeper cars each car with 5 cabins, a dinning car and a lounge that gave a maximum of 30 people in our group. It was luxury.
We spent half a day in Katherine Gorge which I've been to before and posted picks on my "Vic's Pic's" tread. Then it was onto Darwin, the trip taking one and half days. From Darwin we flew down to Adelaide to see a family fiend and then it was back home, arriving late last night. A very quick and long trip but it was worth every moment of it even if it was 40c in Katherine Gorge as we walked around. While in Adelaide I was delighted to see that my favorite artist Dale Chihuly who does wonders with glass, had a display of his works in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Wayne, your city has done you proud and some pic's of his works will follow over the next few days.