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During our return to the UK from New Zealand, we spent three weeks in Australian campgrounds. The first leg of our journal involved a 24 hour train journey from Adelaide in South Australia to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory's Red Centre.

Our hotel was litterally in centre of Adelaide. We grabbed lunch on Rundle Mall and then took the tram to Glenelg, where we saw dolphin swmimming off the pier. In the morning we bought supplies for our train journey from the large and colourful Central Market. Gavin had arranged a hire car and drove us first to Mt Lofty for views over this city of 1 million inhabitants, and out to the coast. Handorf was next, drawing tourists on the basis of the towns early German history and plying them with cakes, sauerkraut and bratwurst. We stopped at several wineries in the very green MacLaren Vale before returning to the city for dinner at The British.

Glenelg is a short tram ride from Adelaide's centre

There was time in the morning for a brief walk with the Carmonts before catching a taxi to Keswick train station for The Ghan check-in. On the Red Kangaroo service we had a two-berth sleeper cabin with shared toilet/ shower facilities. The cabin itself contained two chairs in "day" configuration, and two bunks in "night" configuration; some of the older passengers must have been more agile than they looked to get into the top bunk! There was a pull down sink and compact wardrobe, and a noisy air conditioning unit that lacked any form of control. The window could not be opened and there was no viewing deck, so all photographs had to be taken through 2 or 3 panes of glass. Standard Australasian power sockets were available, but a surge protector was advised for laptop use. We were confined to the train for the duration of the trip, so in that sense it was like taking a zero altitude aircraft.

The Adelaide Plains were vast and green, but well before sunset gave way to semi-arid vegetation and red earth. We caught glimpses of the coast between Port Pirie and Port Augusta, keeping the 340km long Flinders Ranges to our right. Port Augusta, with a population of 15,000, is considered the gateway to the outback, and is the last settlement of any size north to Alice Springs and west to Kalgoorlie. Just 1% of the S.A. population live north of the 32nd parallel (demarcating the outback proper), just outside of Port Augusta. The Ghan stopped periodically, for no apparent reason, but in fact to allow freight trains to share the same tracks. The train set a sedate pace into the outback, often overhauled by cars on the adjacent highway.

The endless green expanse of the Adelaide Plains

The Northern Territory/ South Australia border is 974km from Port Augusta. Before reaching the border and during the night (a long one, due to Bruce fainting and vomiting) we had passed by Coober Pedy, famous for opal mining and its underground dwellings. For this, like the subsequent Iron Man monument (commemorating the laying of the millionth sleeper) the train deliberately slowed. We were frankly surprised at how much vegetation there was—there were no stretches of bare dune in sight, with frequent evidence of the erosive action of water in the ditches either side of the track. Wildlife was comparatively sparse, although we did spot an emu, several roos, and the occasional beef carcass.

Spinifix grass and slender juvenile desert oaks

We crossed the Finke River, or the dry bed thereof, said to be one of the oldest rivers in the world because its course has not changed over the millennia. About 30 minutes before arriving in Alice we saw the white domes of the US spy base at Pine Gap. Heavitree Gap provides a route for vehicles and The Ghan to cross the MacDonald Ranges into Alice (population 27,000).

The Ghan is so-named after Afghan camel herdsmen

Entering Alice we noted lots of high fences, keeping what (or who) out we did not discover. The road to our hotel ran alongside the Todd River, which was dry as a bone—but like all outback rivers prone to flash flooding. We walked down Todd Mall and looked down from Anzac Hill towards Heavitree Gap and onto The Ghan, shining in the afternoon sun like a long silver snake. We did find the Royal Flying Doctor Service building, but unfortunately after the museum doors had shut. We ate at the hotel and repacked for the outback, leaving our case at reception in the morning when Wayoutback came to collect us.

Continues here.

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