The Ghan
We left Adelaide Parklands Terminal and had lunch on the train as it passed through the suburbs of Adelaide.
We were soon in farmland, largely a wheat growing area...
...and beyond that, it was just scrub n the vast outback.
And sometimes even the saltbushes had given up the struggle and there was bare earth showing through between tussocks. There was a water pipe running alongside the track taking water to Adelaide.
Empty desert.
The railway is single track, so there are passing loops. We stopped in one just before dawn to let a freight train go past and another Ghantravelling from Darwin to Adelaide. We had an opportunity to get off and watch the sunrise. There was a campfire, drinks and bacon rolls for breakfast.
A photo of the train lit up by the rising sun. It has two locomotives and 26 carriages. And it is slow. Traffic on gravel roads runnng alongside could easily overtake us. And the train has a lot of momentum so needs a lot of braking power and distance to stop.
Another view of the campfire.
Sunrise across the desert.
The locomotives.
Sunrise photos...
...and another.
More desert.
The border viewed from the train between South Australia and the Northern Territories.
Desert.
The Iron Man, marking the millionth concrete sleeper counting north from Adelaide.
A few trees, with grass growing in the shadeof the trees.
More grass under trees.
The Macdouall Range on the approach to Alice Springs.
More hills.
The pass into Alice Springs.
The iconic ASSOA, the first long distance school by radion with the largest classroom in the world at 1.3 million square kilometres.
The Telegraph Station.
The Reptile Centre.
A monitor lizard.
At the reptile centre...
...s salty, a saltwater crocodile behind bars.
A lizard on someones head.
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