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| Darwin
- Adelaide |
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2
days - 2 nights
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HE GHAN DEPARTS DARWIN late morning on
Wednesday, making two other stops en route to |
Adelaide... On the first day you visit Katherine,
about 200 km south of Darwin, where tours of Nitmiluk national
Park's famous gorges are available by boat or helicopter.
A two hour cruise upriver will give
you a taste of this natural wonder. Dizzying monoliths
of rose, ochre and charcoal rock plunge into quicksilver
water so dark and deep and rich with nutrients
that 40 species of fish reside here, as well as
freshwater crocodiles. At the cliff summits, you'll
see craggy rock formations brooding like carved
saints atop some Roman monument. |
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The arrival at your second port of call is heralded by the
MacDonnell Ranges, whose ancient spine was once as high as
the Himalayas. The ranges preside over Alice Springs as a
constant reminder of its edgy relationship with the desert
and form an imposing backdrop for the Alice Springs Desert
Park, about five minutes out of town. This is an inspiring
exhibit: at your feet bloom comically alien-looking Sturt's
desert peas; above, a wedge-tailed eagle soars at full stretch.
In town, galleries display paintings by Aboriginal
artists such as Barbara Weir and Minnie Pwerle,
whose art adds more layers to your brief experience
of the country through which you're traveling.
About 150 km out of Alice, the Ghan crosses the
Finke River Bridge, passing over the dry bed of
one of the world's oldest river systems and prone
to occasional and dramatic flash flooding. A measure
of vast dryness of inland Australia is the fact
that along the whole journey of 1,555 kilometres
from Alice Springs to Adelaide, The Ghan crosses
only two major watercourses. They appear on the
maps as the rivers Hugh and Finke but for most
of the time they are rivers of sand, with hardy
River Red Gums driving their roots deep into the
river beds in search of moisture deep underground.
Then, the Ghan passes the 1170 km peg where passengers
are alerted to the Iron Man, a metal sculpture
marking the site of the one millionth concrete
sleeper laid between Tarcoola and Alice.
Then it's over, after two days and nights of
unfurling landscapes, monolithic eruptions of
rock on the flat horizon, a car's headlights in
the unfathomable distance, flyspeck townships
neatly lined along the track and Port Pirie glinting
under a rainbow.
As you pull into Adelaide, you will have been
on The Ghan 47 hours (not including stopovers)
and traveled 2979 km through the heart of Australia.
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