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Australia: Going, going, Ghan
As the sun over red sandy hills scattered with spiky spinifex bushes and stunted eucalyptus trees, the harsh beauty of the Australian Outback is bathed in a warm amber glow. It's a stunning sight to wake up to in a cabin on Australia's transcontinental train known as The Ghan. One of the first questions people ask when they hear you've made the cross country trip for two days through largely uninhabited territory is "Weren't you ?” Not for a moment.
The lonely desert landscape is just one set of scenery that rolls by the train's window as the ever-changing backdrop for a two-day, 1,851 mile trip from the southern city of Adelaide to the port of Darwin, on Australia's tropical north . The view slowly evolves after the train leaves Adelaide's Keswick rail terminal, from the city's suburban sprawl into parched, harvested wheat fields and then into salt-encrusted plains near Port Augusta, an industrial town, calls itself the gateway to the Outback. Meanwhile, passengers on the train chat, eat meals freshly cooked by on-board chefs, and sit or sleep either in reclining airline-style seats or private cabins with foldaway beds. For those in the most expensive Gold Kangaroo class, there is a private mini-bathroom, with shower, sink and toilet, squeezed into a cubicle the size of a phone booth. The new service was inaugurated February 1, with the first train completing its historic journey without a on February 3. But it wasn't always this easy.
The train's name honors Afghan camel drivers brought to the country in the 19th century to help blaze a trail into the harsh unexplored vastness of the interior of the continent. Originally camels were the only of burden capable of surviving the hot, dry conditions as pioneers built a north south telegraph line. But in 1929, a railway was built between Adelaide and the central city of Alice Springs. The link to Darwin just last year. These days, two powerful red diesel locomotives do the hard work, hauling the train's silver carriages – each emblazoned with an image of a camel and its rider, just in case anybody forgets the line's humble beginnings.
After Port Augusta, 190 miles north Adelaide, the Outback begins in earnest, with vegetation fading away to spinifex, a spiny bush that was the bane of early , and short eucalyptus trees whose pale trunks stand out against the famed red earth of central Australia. As the sun , darkness tempered only by moonlight descends. One of the only things missing from the train is a glass roof to allow passengers to take in the splendor of the star-splashed out back night sky, unpolluted by any artificial light.