Local Travel. The Ghan

The Ghan.

I left Maroochydore Airport on the 11th October for another exciting holiday. I flew to Melbourne, had three days there, then caught a bus to Adelaide, three days there before joining the Ghan train which took me to Darwin, three days there before flying back to Brisbane, two days there and then home.
My flight from Maroochydore Airport on a Virgin Blue flight to Melbourne gave some great views of the Sunshine coast and beautiful Mooloolaba beach; it was still low enough for me to catch a glimpse of my place. The 2-½ hour flight soon past and we landed at the multi-culture city of Melbourne, a twenty-minute Sky bus got me into down town and the Enterprize hotel for the next three nights. After collecting some brochures on the city I decided on a city and Dandenong forest tour for the next day. A walk around some of the cities landmarks, then I decided it was time for a nice cooling beer, to my surprise as I walked to the pub I heard my name called out, I thought nobody would know me here, I soon recognised Jason, a young chap who had worked with me in a garden centre in New Zealand and he now is a fitness instructor, we had a few drinks together, his brother Darryn who also worked in the garden centre now lived and worked in the city, amazing how chance meetings happen.
Glorious mornings with temperatures which are suppose to reach 32 degs. After enjoying a leisurely breakfast in one of the many eating-places I visited the observation deck on the 55th. Floor of the Rialto Towers, the tallest office building in the Southern Hemisphere. There is a 360 –degree view of Melbourne and surrounds. The discover Melbourne tour started with a circle of the city passing Victoria markets, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Federation Square, many lovely parks and gardens, Captain Cooks Cottage, the shrine of remembrance, nice shady tree lined streets then on to the fashionable suburbs of South Yarra and Toorak, finally a drive to the Blue Dandenong’s, noted for it’s tall mountain ash and eucalypts, tree ferns, beautiful traditional gardens and small villages. I enjoyed the hundreds of colourful birds. It was a treat for me to enjoy the cherry blossom trees, daffodils, blue bells and snowdrops that sadly don’t grow on the Sunshine Coast. Met people on these tours, some from England and a happy couple from Argentina, later that evening I joined some of them for dinner in a nice restaurant. It had been a very warm day and the mountainous tour was welcome with all its shady trees.
Next morning the temperature had dropped 10 degs. This only happens in Melbourne the locals say, I decided on a trip on the local free tram that circles the city every hour and has many stops where you may get off and on. My first stop was to visit the Victorian markets but unfortunately they were closed on Wednesdays so catching the tram again I made my way to China town and federation square, Fitzroy Gardens and Cooks Cottage, the Telstra Dome and World Trade Centre. Finally I stopped off in Burke Street with it’s hundreds of shops and department stores, beautiful ornate malls and exclusive boutiques. Everywhere the promotion had started for the November Melbourne Cup, large horse statues, beautiful flower displays and advertisement in some shops. The place to meet people is in pubs; at least that’s my story. I met a chap while enjoying a well-earned drink; he came from Tewantin, about 40 klms. from Mooloolaba.
Next morning I caught a McCaferty’s bus for an 10 hour trip to Adelaide, heading out of Melbourne via two huge overhead bridges gave a great panorama view of the city, we were soon in lovely green countryside of farming and crops. The first stop was the industrial town of Ballarat, a Ford assembly plant along with furniture and textile factories. I would have like some time to explore the recreated Sovereign Hill, a 19th century gold mining town, plus the replica of the Eureka Stockade, I guess this means another visit. But I did manage to admire all the beautiful ironwork of the balconies of the buildings. The highway was nicely landscaped with lots of native trees and shrubs. We passed many smaller towns like Horsham and Bordertown, we were now in South Australia, the next big town was Keith which is surrounded by lots of newly planted crops awaiting to flourish as soon as there is some rain. We crossed the mighty Murray River into rolling countryside, and then a long tunnel on the freeway into Adelaide, there is a time change of minus half an hour.
My friends for many years, Barry & Shirley Bywater were there to meet me and I was soon enjoying the colourful gardens of the city, quite a change from the parched landscape of the Sunshine coast where some good rain is badly needed. It was nice to relax after the long journey and catch up on what we have been doing over the years.
After a good nights sleep my friend had quite a itinerary planned, it was a little cooler, good for travelling we drove through the lovely wine countryside, passing many small towns with lots of character, Willunga had grapes growing along the shop verandas, passing on through lush pasture and vineyards we arrived at the seaside town of Victor Harbour, an unusual feature here was the horse draw tram that plies the causeway between Victor harbour and Granite Island, Point Elliot was a nice place for a seafood lunch, then on to Coorong National Park , close to the mouth of the Murray River and the man-made causeway that controls the water flow around Hindmarsh Island. Our return journey was through Mt. Barker, then the historical town of Hahndorf, settled in 1839 by Germans seeking religious freedom and land. Today it is a popular market town of traditional German-style lovely old buildings, lined with majestic old elm, chestnut and plane trees. There are lots of interesting places, for example the candy and soap, antique and cuckoo clocks, a German Trainland and the German Arms Hotel, which dates back to 1860.
Another day of sunshine, Barry & Shirley continued with another interesting tour, we headed for Port Adelaide with it’s many wrought iron balconies of the many hotels and colonial building, the nicely planned Queens wharf and lighthouse. The area was very quiet for a Saturday but good for exploring. Lines of new cars awaiting shipment to other countries. Lovely peaceful canals make a setting for elegant homes around the port. Henley Beach Township has a tram service that travels back to the city. We found a popular Subway eatery for lunch and then called to visit more old friends, Joan & Peter Pritchard who were on a tour in America when I met them all. Peter was playing bowls but we enjoyed raiding his beer frig. Driving back to the city there was still time to enjoy the malls and markets along with the many old stone and brick buildings, and the many churches. The high-rise and colonials seem to blend together quite well. A well-known Adelaide specialty is called a “pie floater”, which consists of a meat pie floating in a dish of thick green pea soup and tomato sauce. , usually bought from a pie cart late at night. A bus on rails operated by a pulley was something I never got to study closer but seems a good idea.
A stunning morning with a pleasant temperature and time to say goodbye to my friends and spend the last day with Joan & Don. Ross originally from New Zealand, and we have known each other most of our lives, perhaps it has been about 50 years since Joan and I used to work in the same town and went to the Saturday night dances but the time lapse brings back lots of fond memories of those teenage years. After a while catching up on the past and exchanging photos there was more touring for the day till the train left. Firstly we drove into the country and on to Mt Lofty in the Adelaide hills to view the city from above, a great sight and well laid out. This is the area, which was named Ash Wednesday, where in 1980 fires destroyed 8,000 hectares causing millions of dollars in damage. We travelled back to the city through some lovely rolling countryside and enjoyed a nice luncheon together before taking a visit to the city Museums, which had lots of interesting information on Adelaide, a wartime area was very interesting and historical.
After viewing more of the cities lovely old ornate buildings, it was time to say goodbye to Joan & Don and board my Ghan train experience which was to take me on a journey through the red centre of Australia to Darwin, a mere 47 hours travelling north to Port Augusta, Tarcoola, on to Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine and finally arriving at Darwin. It was only in February of 2004 that link between Alice Springs and Darwin was completed giving an overall journey that covers 2979 kilometres. The service is twice weekly each way pulling a total of 30 carriages, which included sleepers and day seaters. I had booked a seat only which reclined for comfort and sleeping, I did find that the seats were quite hard and short of leg room, not to the standard of the Sunlander train I have taken from Cairns, this meant I had to spend a lot of time in the club car where there was great view of both sides, lots of people to talk to and enjoy some cooling drinks. Somewhere past Port Augusta the train stopped and a guard slipped while disembarking and broke a leg, there was a two and a half hour delay while we waited for an ambulance to arrive, the poor chap had to be stretchered across the desert to the road.
There was only 1 ½ hours in Alice springs, not enough time to go into town, luckily I had been there before, a cousin of mine waved as the train left the station, shame, it would have been nice to spend a bit of time with her, she sent me a text saying she saw me on the train, I do remember people waving. There was a stunning red sunrise next morning reflecting on the red of the desert. Met an English lady on the train who was on the bus trip to Adelaide with me, she had met her son from Holland in Adelaide and they departed the train in Alice and hoped to drive to Cairns, don’t know if they new how far it was! The scenery didn’t change much the next day so it was a chance to catch up on some sleep, there was a ninety-year-old lady in the seat next to me who either snored or talked all night. At Tennant Creek the police were called on board to take care of an old chap with Alzheimer’s who kept trying to get off the train, the poor fellow was very stressed and didn’t know where he was and threatened to break a window, a guard said his daughter had put him on the train and reckoned she now had to come and fetch him, the police also had to remove a drunken person, I think he had a private supply of liquor.
We had a four hour stop at Katherine, time enough for people to make a trip to the beautiful gorge, I had already seen it so decided to go into the town for a walk around, it is not a very large place, many aborigines wandering the streets, being very warm and I spent a lot of time in a shopping mall enjoying the air condition.
The last four hours of my journey slipped by as the scenery became a bit greener, we passed Adelaide River Township where there is a large War Memorial Cemetary for those who lost their lives during the air raids on Darwin during the Second World War. The train arrived on time at 4 pm. in Darwin and my friend of many years Craig Coley was there to meet me, it was great to see him again and we were soon at his home and receiving a very warm welcome from his Japanese wife Hiroko. I had met her once before in N.Z. so we weren’t complete strangers, she cooked a very nice meal of her homeland, which was a nice change from train food. There was lots of talking to do but I was soon looking forward to bedtime.
Next morning Craig took me into the city before he went to his job as a tutor at the University. It was a very warm and humid day so I decided to explore by the very popular open Tour Tub Bus which circles the city approximately every hour, the driver gave a very good description of the places to see, he had lots of humour also, he kept referring to crocodiles as snapping handbags, my first stop was the Museum and art gallery, a very interesting section was the story, photos and short movie on Cyclone Tracy which flattened Darwin on the 24th December 1974, forty-eight thousand people were made homeless. Today the city has been rebuilt and the physical scars of the cyclone have all but disappeared, there was also an excellent wild animal and bird area which included the stuffed remains of a local icon called Sweat-heart, a huge crocodile which attacked many aluminium dinghies in a popular fishing spot, it was caught in a trap but drowned while attempts were made to haul it ashore. My next place to visit was the Military Museum, the story of how W.W.2 reached Darwin in 1942 with Japanese aircraft bombing the city and harbour, sinking eight of the forty-five ships in port at that time, it was estimated that 900 people were killed and hundreds injured. Over the next two years there were over two hundred raids. Australians knew very little about the effort to try and keep the Japanese out of the country as they hade captured most of the Islands to the north.
Catching the bus again my next on my list was the old Fannie Bay Gaol, which dates back to 1863 till it closed in 1979. During cyclone Tracy the prisoners were moved into town to the underground cells of the police station, but were used in work parties to clean up the streets. There was a Gallows used for the hanging of two men for the murder of a taxi driver. A stop off at the Aqua scene to view fish feeding unfortunately the tide was wrong. I did enjoy this way to see the city highlights. In the evening Craig, Hiroko and myself enjoyed a lovely meal in one of the many restaurants down by the wharf.
The following morning Craig took me back into the city where I explored Smiths St. Mall, lots of souvenir shops, I found the old pub which brought back memories of a past visit where a whole group of us on a Safari trip around central and north Australia had enjoyed a great pub lunch, for old times sake I enjoyed some nice cool beer and a small flutter on the pokies, it was nice and cool inside and I did win a few dollars. This is my last day so it was packing up time, we went to the last Mindil Beach markets for the season and managed to catch a glorious sunset, we enjoyed one last meal out together, this time Taiwanese and beautifully presented, then off to pick up my case and go to the airport for my 1.30 am flight to Brisbane.
The Virgin blue flight arrived in Brisbane at 5.30 am, no sleep on this trip, the guy next to me snored the whole way, I guess I shouldn’t complain being accused of the same thing many times. My friend, ex-kiwi Bruce Laurenson was there to collect me and take me back to his home in Brackenridge, after breakfast Bruce and his wife Dolsie took me on a sight-seeing tour of the northern parts of Brisbane like Woody Point, and Sandgate where a friend of mine Janet lives but she was at work, we drove onto the seaside suburb of Redcliffe, with its very well laid out shoreline and long jetty, it was a glorious day and lots of people enjoying the sea air. We found a nice luncheon stop at an old pub with sea views. I had a welcome afternoon sleep, as it was very hard to keep awake after over thirty hours without sleep, I awoke refreshed and enjoyed a tasty pasta meal. .
Another warm day, we drove into the city, over the Victoria Bridge and enjoyed a wonderful panorama view of the city from Mount Coot-thar. Took a look at a Eiffel Tower in miniature which is the centre piece for some nice restaurants, the Golden Circle fruit factory warehouse was open and had lots of good bargains to be had so I stocked up some goodies to take home.
Saturday evening we drove back into town and the South Bank where we embarked on the Kookaburra Paddle Steamer for a cruise and dinner on the lovely Brisbane River, being Bruce’s 50th birthday there was something to celebrate, only wish it was mine as the big 70 comes up for me in December. It was a perfect evening, a warm breeze and lots of great views of the city; some friends of Bruce & Dolsie, New Zealanders who have lived here for many years, joined us.
Next morning my holiday ended with Bruce & Dolsie taking me home to Mooloolaba after a very enjoyable adventure with lots of new places having been explored. I just might stay home for a while now and study more areas of this huge country for future visits.
Till next time.
Cheers
JIM