• Paula King-Foullie
  • Paula King-Foullie

The Ghan

What better way to celebrate a birthday than another amazing adventure. This time in this amazing country we live in, starting in Darwin for 5 days before heading off on the world renowned train adventure, The Ghan, ending with 4 days in Adelaide. Baca lagi
  • To Adelaide we go

    2 Mei, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    This morning we woke up a little later than normal as breakfast service was later. We woke up to rain! We got ready and headed off to the dining car for the very last time.

    We stopped off in the lounge to have Aaron make us another amazing cappuccino and hot chocolate that would be delivered to our table in the dining car.

    One last amazing breakfast made for us and it definitely didn’t disappoint. I have vanilla yoghurt and banana for entree with bacon and eggs on toast with poached eggs for mains while Dave had toast for entree and the same as me for main.

    We enjoyed this amazing breakfast before heading to lounge for yet another hot chocolate and cappuccino. I think we were not wanting the train experience to end. We talked to a few of the fellow travellers before heading back to our room, backed the last few things and just watched the world go by out the window for the next few hours. We were delayed about an hour due to a medical emergency for a fellow traveller where the ambulance needed to attend on the at Port Pirie. We weren’t alerted to this until after the event.

    And then in a blink of an eye we had arrived in Adelaide which means sadly our trip on The Ghan had come to an end.

    Whist the train experience is highly targeted to the over 70’s, we have had THE most amazing time, made so many lifelong memories, talked to so many different people, shared adventures (and put many more places on our bucket list from these stories), experienced the most amazing food, taken part in many memorable off train experiences with Dinner Under the Stars being the absolute highlight of the trip and seen some amazing countryside. Plus so many photos taken with only about a tenth making our blog.

    Now to explore Adelaide until next Wednesday!
    Baca lagi

  • Our first glimpse of beautiful Adelaide

    3 Mei, Australia ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

    Yesterday after we arrived and unpacked, we headed out to Woolies to purchase food for the next few days as we have a kitchenette in our room.

    After we found Woolies, it found it was 2 stories but only a very small Woolies, so small it only has baskets and not trolleys. We found everything we needed though. It was raining when we came into and Adelaide on the train and it was still raining. I nearly fell a few times walking to and from as the pathways were very slippery.

    As it was raining, and it was getting late afternoon, we stayed in for the rest of the day and just relaxed.

    After a pretty good nights sleep even though Dave and I both missed the constant rocking of the train to put us and keep us asleep.

    Unfortunately washing doesn’t go on holidays when you travel so we headed to the guest laundry to put our washing on while we ate breakfast in our room. Man wasn’t that a huge reality check, cereal and banana instead of being waited on with a cooked breakfast.

    Once we were ready, we headed out to explore the streets of Adelaide. With a beautiful crisp breeze in our faces, we headed off without any plan other than to explore the city.

    And what a beautiful city it is, so many beautiful churches and cathedrals, stone buildings and amazing old buildings. We walked past Adelaide oval and took a photo from the gate. Even though everyone says we need to do a tour, Dave and I aren’t real cricket or AFL fans so this will be all we need to see.

    The Adelaide Marathon was on today which we didn’t realise so the riverwalk was very busy so we will explore that tomorrow.

    A quick stop off out the room to have lunch before heading out again to explore more of the city. We stopped off at the Cooper’s Bar for a pint, well Dave did.

    We stopped off at St Francis Xavier Cathedral and had a look around inside. I did have a bit of a chuckle as when you walk in there are eftpos machine for the offering. So different to passing around the plate for the offering.

    We did a bit of window shopping in Rundle Mall before the rain chased us back to our room.

    Looking forward to another day of exploring tomorrow.
    Baca lagi

  • River walks and beach vibes

    4 Mei, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    We had a very much needed sleep in this morning and woke up to rain. We had planned to walk along the river this morning but really didn’t want to do it in the rain.

    We relaxed in the room for a while before deciding to get ready in the hope the rain would ease. And as luck would have it, the rain cleared and we were off.

    First port of call was a cappuccino and hot chocolate from the coffee club then off for a long relaxing walk along the river. We made our way up to the Adelaide Zoo before turning around and making our way back to our room. We saw so many beautiful places along the river, memorials and churches.

    Back for a quick lunch in our room before heading out to catch the tram outside our hotel, Glenelg bound.

    It didn’t take long and we were in the beautiful seaside suburb of Glenelg. It was a very windy day and there was a lot of seaweed on the beach. We made our way onto the jetty and when we were at the end of the jetty we turned around and behind us were 2 fellow travellers from The Ghan there who not only were on The Ghan with us but were on the same carriage as us - what are the chances of that. We chatted for a while and headed off.

    We walked along the Main Street before heading to Copenhagen ice cream for a little treat. We haven’t had Copenhagen ice cream in over 20 years and it was as good as we had remembered.

    We then went for a walk along the esplanade to see how the other half live before stopping off at a bar for a beverage. It was then time to head back so we headed to the tram which runs every 10 minutes.

    We were nearly at our stop when I said to Dave that I needed to get off as I was feeling like I was either going to faint or be sick. Yes it was a little cooler day but just like a spring day but this tram had the heater going and it was just too much. As soon as I stepped off, I felt instantly better!

    Big day of walking so we spent the rest of day relaxing in our room. Hahndorf bound tomorrow.
    Baca lagi

  • Getting our German 🇩🇪 on

    5 Mei, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    To celebrate my 53rd birthday, we decided to spend the day at Australia’s Oldest German Town of Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills.

    We caught the T801 bus from just outside our hotel about 10.00am and we were in Hahndorf. It was such a relaxing day just taking in the beauty of the township, walking through all the shops, spending too much money at the Cuckoo Shop (though could have spent a lot more, enjoyed lunch at the Hahndorf Inn and taking lots of photos.

    Back to our room to pack, which means only one thing, an absolutely amazing holiday has come to an end, another amazing adventure with many many many memories made.

    Until our next adventure …..
    Baca lagi

  • Home Sweet Home

    6 Mei, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    And just like that we are home and settled back in to non travelling life.

    The flight from Adelaide to Brisbane was shorter than our time in the Adelaide airport and significantly shorter than our trip home in the god damn awful Brisbane traffic.

    Two very excited puppies were waiting for us once we got home, that is after they realised who we were.

    Now to get back into healthy eating instead of holiday eating 😂
    Baca lagi

    Tamat perjalanan
    6 Mei 2026