The Ghan Day 1

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We were up around 7am on Easter Sunday morning. The Easter Bunny couldn't find us because the evil Easter Bilby rules Australia. We got up and finished off the last of our convenience store food for a quick breakfast. We double-checked our documents and found that between the original and the final copies, we had lost lunch today and our hotel transfer tomorrow. OK. Off we went to a couple of convenience stores open on Easter Day to buy a cold salami & cheese sandwich and chips for a lunch later in case. We left the Stamford Plaza a little after 10am. There is usually a cab line out front, but not today. I left Clay with the rolling duffels and when in to ask the Concierge. He picked up his phone and told me it would be a few minutes. In a few seconds, a cab pulled in dropping passengers and he waved us over and put the duffels in his trunk. We piled in back and we were off to Adelaide Parklands Terminal. It is not more than 10 or 15 minutes away. The fare was about 1/3 more than our Uber fare was. Check in today for The Ghan was to begin at 9:45am. We got there at about 10:30am and there must have been over 100 people there already. We did arrive at a slack time though and walked straight through check in with no line or waiting. That was not true 15 minutes later! GSR had live music inside and they were serving coffees, orange juice and sparkling wine. Clay ate half the sandwich with an orange juice and threw the other half away. He did it because the woman that took our check in bags told us that they would serve us lunch onboard the train. GSR really needs to work on communications. It was too noisy inside for me. We found seats at the end of the platform outside our car R. It was about 6 from the front of the train. Later they added 2 car carriers between the train cars and the engines. The other half of the train, the back half, was at platform 2. They said they had 310 passengers today. I don't remember if I said but we booked The Territory Complete package from Great Southern Rail. We booked Gold Level. I can't imagine that Platinum was worth the price difference. We have an odd number cabin this time and they are forward facing seats. I don't know if that always works out that way. But, odd numbers are still a better layout because even numbers have the closet behind a table and the ladder so you can't really get in and out of it or the luggage storage nook.

The Ghan loaded about an hour before scheduled departure. Our car hostess came out and invited us who were standing and sitting nearby to come over if we were in R. When she checked us off her list, she remembered that she had served us in the restaurant last week coming from Sydney to Adelaide! In the event, she didn't have to spend any time with us in the cabin since she knew we knew how it worked. We had lanyards but no tour cards. I asked and she said we don't get any tours. I asked about tomorrow morning and she said everyone on board gets that. OK. She pointed out that our meal assignment for lunch was at 2pm, Monday brunch was open from 10am to 1pm and the restaurant manager would be by to assign our dinner time. We sat and waited for her. She came in a timely manner and informed us that we would dine at 8pm. No discussions, no other options. We just said OK.

We departed and backtracked for a while over the same route as we had entered Adelaide. At some point we veered and the tracks were indeed smoother. The wooden sleepers had been replaced by concrete and the tracks relaid in the 1970s or 1980s I think. I don't know if it is true or a joke, but the Broken Hill bus driver said the Sydney to Adelaide tracks were all original and over 100 years old. We believed it from the ride. The Journey Map they handed out this time seemed more informative and the train commentary was played which we felt had been forgotten on the Indian Pacific segment we took. The downside was the lack of wildlife. From Sydney to Adelaide we saw dozens of kangaroos and wallabys, several emus and 2 nesting pairs of wedge tail eagles. This trip, into the outback I might add, we saw 2 live kangaroos, 5 dead ones, 2 dead cows, some horses, cows and sheep and a drone. We weren't the only ones who had been led to believe The Ghan would be the place to see kangaroos hoping in the wild. Oh well. We still have part 2, fingers crossed. Another thing learned is that every Australian I have told over the past month that I was taking The Ghan (rhymes with can) has said to me Oh the Ghan (a=ah). So I started saying that and people would correct me the other way. Today we learned the GSR calls it the Ghan (rhymes with can) as a shortened word from Afghan. Now you know.

We did have lunch late. We had it with our next door neighbors in R4. They were also the couple who we had seen waiting in vain for the 98A bus on Good Friday and later at the zoo! They are Australians. As far as we could tell, most of the passengers were Australian. Some were from New Zealand or the UK, but we were the only Americans that we overheard or heard about. It was definitely a down under experience. We survived the late dinner though it killed Clay to know he wouldn't have his bed before 8:30pm. We had an early morning on Monday! The train stopped in a spot called Marla around 3am. As far as we could tell there was no town or station there. The Ghan stops at another spot like this around 1am, but we missed that and slept through it. We woke up when we stopped at 3am and stayed stopped. I don't know why except fear of oversleeping. We needn't have worried. At about 5:45am, we got a very light tap on the door to wake us. We were already up and showered and dressed. At 6:15am, everyone had to be in their respective lounges to be led outside. There were only 2 points of exit on the train as far as I saw. There was a guy with a list who checked everyone in and out. We were meant to be outside in the dark for sunrise but there were so many people through the chokepoint that we watched the best of it through windows reflecting interior lights because we were stuck inside in the queue. I think they should have started earlier or on time. We did not leave the lounge at 6:15am as promised but at least 5 to 10 minutes later. GSR served juice and coffee and tea out there. They had 2 big bonfires going. It was not cold at all. It was barely cool. It was nice out. They walked around serving bacon & egg sliders. Bacon here is ham. They were fine, but messy. On the picnic tables, they had set up boxes of warm cinnamon rolls or pinwheels. NOT. They were vegemite! A real Aussie experience. They weren't bad, it was just an ugly surprise as I was really expecting cinnamon and hungry for it after expecting it. Our neighbors thought it was very funny and it was. We considered that breakfast since it was.

All aboard started around 7:30am. We must have all been aboard because we started off again at 7:45am. We went to the restaurant for brunch at about 11:30am. We wound up eating our final meal with our neighbors in 4 again. They had breakfast and we had lunch. In fact, Clay had kangaroo! He liked it. The food on this segment was better and better described than the previous one, we thought. The staff was not as willing I want to say on this segment. It came with attitude and complaining which was completely unprofessional and quite discourteous in my opinion. We were both appalled at some of the bar/restaurant staff and the comments they made to us or the pointedly ignoring us. I have no idea why such a difference unless they were just bent out of shape to be working a holiday.

Which brings me to an interesting phenomenon that I failed to address earlier. All weekend we have been paying a 10 to 20% surcharge for doing business on a holiday. This started at the zoo and continued through the Pancake Kitchen. Clay asked our Aussie neighbors about it and they thought it was normal and didn't know why it would bother us. It bothered Clay because he felt it was profit-taking. I told him I thought it was because of the whole living wage/no tipping culture and if employers had to pay employees more to work holiday weekends then they weren't profit taking. He thought about that and agreed it was the only thing that made sense and was acceptable. He still didn't like it though!

We got into Alice Springs about 15 minutes late. I think everyone got off the train but maybe not. They did not announce that you had to get off as they were moving and locking the train for hours as they did in Adelaide. They to got Alice Springs at about 2pm and leave again 6pm to go on to Darwin. So even the people staying on the train mostly got off to do one of the included or optional cost excursion provided by GSR here. The package we bought clearly said we had a hotel transfer here, but our train hostess assured us that no one had that. She told us to collect our checked luggage and go to the hotel shuttle bus and pay the driver $16 for the 2 of us. He actually charged us $16. He dropped at about a half dozen hotels which must have been every one in this town of 28,000 or so people. The bad news was that ours was the furthest out of town and so his last stop. We got here to the Lasseters Casino Crowne Plaza at about 4pm. Since there is nothing nearby, we ate here at The Juicy Rump. It was another all Aussie experience. It appeared to be a hotspot for locals in cars and on bikes and mostly for the bar. We sat outside since it was nicer out than in and enjoyed the spectacular scenery. It reminded us both of Springdale, Utah at Zion National Park. We don't know what we're going to do when we get back here after Uluru and have 2 or 3 more nights here. But, that is a problem for another day! On the other hand, it is a big spacious room with both a tub and a shower stall in the bathroom. It has a guest laundry ($6AUD to wash and dry 1 load.) and an ice machine with an ice bucket in the room. It is nice and we're told recently sold and renamed Crowne Plaza.

We have breakfast included here at 6am tomorrow. Clay is snoring and bed is calling me too. We get picked up by AAT Kings, who I guess GSR subcontracts for the non-train portions. We have about 6 places in our GSR The Territory Complete itinerary where we have to call AAT Kings with our booking number 24 hours in advance to find out when and where we get picked up. Not great. But it is the way it is. Now you know. So tomorrow we get picked up at 6:55am and dropped at 4:30pm at Sails in the Sand (which our itinerary says Ayers Rock Resort) so we really hope they're the same place. We have a one medium sized 20kg bag pp luggage limit on this 4 day portion. We have taken about 5-6 kg out of each of our rolling duffels and put it into 3 small bags we had to store here until we return. Here's hoping that our 16 to 17 kg rolling duffels will pass muster or at least fit in whatever shows up to get us tomorrow! Fingers crossed. Bad news is that Uluru is forecast to have a high chance of rain/thunderstorms the entire time we'll be there. Bad news since you go there for the landscapes and scenery and I don't know what to expect now. We'll see. If we have Internet, I'll try to post daily. In the event we don't, I won't post again until we return here on the 21st. Don't worry.

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