Off To The Red Centre (The Ghan)

We got up very early on the Wednesday of the 22nd, as Dad was dropping us off at Darwin station, which is 20Km out of the city in the middle of nowhere. After a bit of hanging around in the early morning drizzle, we boarded the train (which was 27 carriages long, 600m or so long) and found our seats. The main engine that was pulling the train was called the Steve Irwin, after the croc guy, for some bizzare reason.

The journey was going to be just under 24hrs, of being sat in a big chair on the Red Kangaroo service. Within 6hrs of setting off we stopped in Katherine, for 4hrs! We'd only just got going and here we were having to wait around in the tiny back-water like Katherine. They bused us into town, as the station isn't in the town, again!

Once in Katherine Sam and I wandered down main street, which took all of 5 minutes. They piped music through loud speakers in the town, so we were treated to a bit of Boney M, and a variety of 'country' music. It started to rain, and we'd reached the far end of main street, which is actually the Stuart Highway that runs north to south, Darwin to Adelaide. We found shelter in a 'hotel', what we'd call a pub.

The Katherine Hotel was not much inside, an assortment of pokies, pool tables and pissed-up Aboriginals. We wandered through to the back bar, an sort of half inside half outside tin shack affair. The barman was a guy named Doylie, a full-on Aussie bloke, blue singlet and the lot. Here 'wine' was a dirty word, only beer and spirits for sale. Anyway we ordered a stubby and waited until it was time to get the bus back to the train.

While at the bar we got talking to a bloke called Gary, who was moving from Darwin to Alice Springs to start a new life. He was sat only a few seats behind us on the train, so we hooked up.

Once back on the train we carried on our journey and our drinking, by sitting in the lounge car. There we got talking to some more passengers, one of which was a Aussie bloke born in North Ferriby, just outside Hull! The drinking continued until it was time to try and get some sleep. Not so easy on a chair that doesn't recline too well. Anyway, by around 10 the next morning we crawled into Alice Springs.

Jumping off Sam spotted someone holding up a sign for Annie's Place, a backpacker hostel that she'd heard of. So we decided they would do for us, and went and waited with others to be taken into town.