Current Mood: Bored & Tired

Running around trying to decide what to take for food on a train journey is quite difficult when you are doing it at the last minute – packing for 15 hours in the same carriage and the same seat.

The taxi picked us up on time, we had to get two taxis because of the sheer amount of stuff that is being lugged around at the moment.  I swear to god that Scatt’s bag is like a mobile home at the moment, she too has bought a trolley for it, but it screams out in pain everytime the bag is loaded onto it, then there is the seperate toiletries bag, the food bag and finally the day rucksack.  So there was no way we were going to get  1 taxi between us.  Emma and I got the first one and await the girls at the Gahn train – a little worried as we had noticed a sign saying max 20kg on the way in!  Uh oh…

Luckily this meant that each ‘individual’ bag had to weigh no more than 20kg, so luckily Scatt didn’t have to throw away any of her belongings this time (phew!).

Checked in we went and listened to the crew saying hello and introducing themselves out on the platform and then climbed onboard.

It was more spacious than I had pictures and a lot more comfortable, the seats swivelling round so that we could share Cheese and Wine with the others.  The rest of the carriage looking on with envious eyes ;).

We sat, we read, we sat, we read, we read some more and we sat…  There would be a moment of stupendous excitement when one of us would go and get a cuppa tea, but apart from that we sat, we read, we chat, we read, we sat…

The evening drew on and the sunsetting was beautiful, I tried to take a few pictures, but the trundling along of the carriage made it a little difficult to do so.  Then came the night and even though the seats were uber comfortable to sit on during the afternoon and early evening, they were a killer to lay on.

[zp]the-ghan[/zp]

Emma couldn’t get comfortable, so I said I would go and read some more of my book in the lounge car so she could have a nap.  So at 11pm I went into the lounge car and read some more of my book (Mr. Murder by Dean Koontz!) and only got up at 2.30am when I thought I would fall asleep where I was!  Em was fast a kip and very reluctant to move, even though she was going to rest her head against my arm – completely destroying my chances of catching flies.

It was pretty surreal just rumbling along in the dark, no cabin lights and only a few on the exterior of the train, made it feel like we were on the surface of the moon as it lit the outback floor and showed up all the pits and scrapes.

As the sun lifted its head over the horizon, I felt like an insomniac jacked up on Redbull – dreary eyes with bags you could take your shopping home in.  The sunrise made up for a lot of it though.

Em surprised me with a Scrambled Egg, Bacon, Sausage and Tomato brekkie which was delicious (oh and a cuppa!) and we chat until we arrived at the station in Alice Springs.  Stepping out of the train was like stepping into a dry oven.  What HAVE we let ourselves in for!!!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.