The Ghan - Darwin to Katherine.

Journey Beyond organised a number of shuttle buses to the rail terminal outside of the city one of which collected about 20 people from the Hilton Darwin where I was staying. Even at 6.30am it's hot and humid.
Once at the station the check in process was well organised and relatively pain free. I'm in carriage N - the last passenger carriage on the train. You needed a bus to make your way once boarding was announced.
Breakfast of muffins, mini quiches, croissants, fruit was on offer as people arrived plus glasses of Bollinger champagne. Yay - with refills.
While I was waiting for the farewells to be said, I was approached by Sally (from South Hampton) who said " you were on the Hurtigruten NW passage trip last year. In fact it was you who recommended that we (plus husband David) do the Ghan from Darwin to Adelaide not vice versa". So here we are 8 months later on the same train! How small is the world getting??
The gold single cabin is very small. It does have some storage and a hand basin but not much room overall. Once the bed is made I might have to open the door to do anything. It's also 4 carriages away from the club car and 5 from the dining car. However, the showers and toilets are almost next door so that's good.
Strangely enough, I have found the club car and the barman seems to know my preferred glass of wine.
Staff are very accommodating and helpful. We had a late brunch as we arrived in Katherine just on 1pm. The off train excursion I had booked is not available yet so there's a few of us still on the train.
I must say moving around on a fast moving train is a bit like being on a ship in bouncy seas, I already have bruises from when we apparently hit a Buffalo and the whole train jolted. I was moving into the dining car when this happened.
Will update the rest of the day later.Read more