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Teil I Le­se­ver­ste­hen

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Le­se­ver­ste­hen

The Ghan: Rail­way ad­ven­ture through Aus­tra­lia

It’s a great train jour­ney right across Aus­tra­lia, from Ade­lai­de in the south to the nort­hern port of Dar­win, a trip through the vast, empty Out­back in Aus­tra­lia’s heart. The Ghan is the name of the train that tra­vels this ad­ven­turous route. It comes from the Af­ghan camel dri­vers who, to­ge­ther with their ani­mals, hel­ped to ex­plo­re the Out­back in the 19th cen­tu­ry be­fo­re other means of trans­por­ta­ti­on exis­ted. The first Ghan train line was opened in 1929, and ran from Ade­lai­de to Stuart, a town cal­led Alice Springs today. The steam train car­ri­ed goods and pas­sen­gers and took two days to ar­ri­ve.
 
This old Ghan ran through dif­fi­cult coun­try: floo­ding be­cau­se of pou­ring rain so­me­ti­mes wa­s­hed away the tracks. Ter­mi­tes ate away the woo­den slee­pers* . The ser­vice was far from com­for­ta­ble. There is a story that the old Ghan got once stuck for two weeks, and the en­gi­ne dri­ver shot wild goats to feed his pas­sen­gers.
 
There had al­ways been plans to build the rail­way as far as Dar­win, but the final stretch through the Nort­hern Ter­ri­to­ry could not be com­ple­ted until 2004. It was so­me­ti­mes so hot that work had to be car­ri­ed out at nights under lights, with workers sleeping du­ring the day. Al­to­ge­ther, the new sec­tion from Alice Springs to Dar­win cost 1.3 bil­li­on Aus­tra­li­an dol­lars to build. The im­pres­sing train with 40 car­ria­ges is pul­led by two lo­co­mo­ti­ves.
 
Today’s pas­sen­gers don’t need to worry about get­ting stuck or ea­ting goat’s meat: The new Ghan is re­lia­ble and very com­for­ta­ble. Chefs on board the train cook ex­cel­lent meals ser­ved by fri­end­ly wai­ters. Pas­sen­gers can choo­se bet­ween the lu­xu­ry Gold Ser­vice pro­vi­ding a pro­per bed for each pas­sen­ger and the chea­per Red Ser­vice. No­wa­days the trip is of­fe­red twice a week, and the track is fur­ther west than the ori­gi­nal Ghan, with less dan­ger of floo­ding.
 
You couldn’t sit on a train for two days? There are se­veral stops where you can get out and go on a tour. In Alice Springs, e.g., the train has a lon­ger stop, and pas­sen­gers can use the time to visit the wild­life park or do a he­li­c­op­ter tour.
 
Tra­vel­ling by the Ghan is de­fi­ni­te­ly not for peop­le in a hurry: a flight from Ade­lai­de to Dar­win takes less than four hours and is much chea­per. But it’s not the get­ting there that’s im­portant – it’s the trip, and the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ex­pe­ri­ence the Out­back, one of the world’s last great wil­der­nes­ses.
 

(416 words)
Ad­ap­ted from: Read On, April 2008

An­no­ta­ti­ons: *slee­pers – Ei­sen­bahn­schwel­len