- From: Katherine, Australie
- To: Darwin, Australie
- Distance: 316km
We spent the night in Katherine before catching the Ghan to reach Darwin.
The Ghan
This is a famous railway line very appreciated by the retired australian people. With the Ghan indeed, you cross one of the most iconic features of Australia, the outback, and you can enjoy a remarkable service on board (private room, restaurant, shower, …)
Well, this is for the passengers in the “premium gold platinium vip” service (who have paied around $5000 to take the train). For some evident reasons, we’ve decided to choose the backpacker rail explorer pass (only $500) which allows us to travel as much as we want on 3 railway lines (including the Ghan) and to reach many places in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaïde, Darwin, and Perth!). So it’s kind of cheap! Of course, the service is more basic (no private room, no fancy restaurant, …) but it’s still quite confortable! It’s even the most confortable train we had the opportunity to take so far. That’s good news, because with all the trips we’ve planned to do, we will spend a few days in that train…
After 5 hours in the train, this first Ghan experience brings us to Darwin.
Relaxing in Darwin
We’ll stay one week in Darwin for… for nothing in particular but having some rest! Being itinerant is fun, but sometimes you need to stop for a while somewhere. Our activities for the week will be reading, running, going to the library and the markets, etc.
AFL Game: Melbourne vs Freemantle
To really appreciate australian culture, we’ve bought some tickets to see an AFL game (australian football): Melbourne demons vs Freemantle dockers! We had a great time, it was fun to discover this sport and to spend this australian evening! If you want to know more about this sport and its rules: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football.