Onwards to Alice Springs

First night sleep on The Ghan was pretty good, it was a little warm in carriage so we both were awake for on and off. Plus the train stops for long periods overnight so as soon as it stops, the no movement wakes me up.

We were both up at 6.00am to watch the su rise from our window and it did t disappoint. After watching the sunrise, it was time to have a shower and freshen up for our 2 course breakfast. I had chia and mango parfait and full continental breakfast and Dave had cereal and full continental breakfast. We sat with Julie and Andrew again.

Before long it was time to get on our coaches for our day’s adventure in Alice Springs. Our tour guide for the day was Bluey who has lived in The Alice for 51 years and 40 of those years was as a tour guide so you could imagine his stories. It was great listening to him but after a day of full commentary, it got a little overstimulating.

First stop was Standley Chasm where local native guide Jacob took us to the Chasm showing us all different kinds of bush tucker along the way. Whilst at the Chasm we had free time to explore and take photographs.

From the extensive travel we have done as a couple, Dave and I are learned how to take all our own selfies using a 10 second timer. I found a large rock to stand on to try and get the water at the bottom of the Chasm in the photo however the rock was pointy making Dave and I wobble around causing us to crack up laughing. Well the phone caught the perfect shot, one of our best photos taken and one we will treasure forever.

Back at the kiosk at Standley Chasm, we sat down for another amazing meal. I was worried I wouldn’t be catered for being gluten free but nothing has been any trouble and they always have an alternative, delicious at that, for me. I had an amazing chicken and cream cheese sandwich with sundried tomato and an antipasto vegetarian sandwich. For dessert it was a lemon cake with cream. Dave had a huge selection of wraps and sandwich with wattle seed scones with jam and cream as well as wattle seed sticky date pudding for dessert.

After eating way too much of this yummy food for lunch, we hopped back into the coach for our next stop, Simpsons Gap. As we were running ahead of schedule we stopped off a the largest ghost gum believed to be in Australia.

Once at Simpsons Gap, we were meet with another local indigenous guide who taught us about song lines and I was pulled up to show how song lines work. Very similiar to Chinese whispers where the story is told differently by each generation. He spoke about leaving The Alice as a 7 year old to attend school in Adelaide only knowing language. He said it was very difficult for him until he learned English. He came back to The Alice after schooling and has lived there ever since. He also explained that in Aboriginal culture you just don’t have 1 mother and 1 father, all your birth fathers brothers are your fathers and all your birth mothers sister are your mothers. And all the children born from all your fathers and all your mothers are you siblings. Cousins come from the next blood line. We then had time to explore Simpsons Gap at our leisure before heading back on the coach to the Alice Springs terminal.

We had a little wait at the terminal as the north bound Ghan was in the station. Once all those people were onboard, and that train had moved away, our train was able to come into station for us to reboard and get ready for our Dinner Under The Stars at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station.

What an absolutely amazing night it was, the highlight of the trip. The atmosphere, the food, the drinks, the ambience, the band was absolutely spot on.

Back in the coach at 9.00pm and back in our room by 9.30pm to shower and wind down from a night to remember.Read more