The Ghan Expedition – Kings Canyon

Alarm off at 5am again, breakfast at 6am and on the bus at 6:45am again. We were in Kings Canyon by 7am. Today’s activity was a walk at the canyon and there were two options. One was a walk around the canyon’s rim and the other was a walk on the canyon’s floor into the canyon. There was some difference of opinion about just how hard the rim walk was. The head guide was talking of a Mt Everest like assent requiring triathlete levels of fitness whereas his assistant was a tad more optimistic. As Jeanette was currently struggling with a cold, I talked her into the easier canyon floor walk.

Basic problem was that the rim walk took three hours and the floor walk took one hour so the floor walkers would have to wait in the car park for two hours for the other group to finish. After we had finished our floor walk, our guide suggested we might like to try a walk up to the rim on what she said was the easiest side to climb and come back that way so that’s what we did.

The walk into the canyon was very pretty with the recent rain filling the stream

The ascent however, was a fair way vertically up and was moderately challenging in places. It had fabulous views of the surrounding countryside and we finally made it to the top of the canyon rim where we turned around and came back down.

View to the Bungles Bungles-like rock formations.

Given my ageing knees and diminished balance, going down was a bit more challenging and I must confess to a couple of heart pounding moments as I negotiated around the edge of boulders and rockfalls with a rather scary drop on one side, but we all descended safely and felt a great sense of accomplishment .

Back at the resort by 11am we walked to the local pub for lunch and spent the afternoon relaxing in our cabin.

The Ghan Expedition – Chasms and Gaps

Alarm went off at 5am, breakfast at 6am and on the bus at 6:45am. Rain that had fallen over the last two days had closed the usual dirt roads to our bus so we had a revised schedule on bitumen roads which meant more hours on the road (oh joy). Today we were checking out a couple of the breaks that had occurred in the McDonnell Ranges

Our first stop was Standley Chasm which had been named after the first female teacher to work in the area. It was very pretty and the drizzling rain gave the rocks a lovely sheen.

We stopped at a heap of boulders in Standley Chasm

Then back on the bus to Simpson’s Gap which again was an impressive sight. Back on the bus again and after two and a bit hours travelling we stopped at Emu Station for lunch. This was for me a bit of a let down as it was not, as I had imagined from the program, an outback cattle station but rather it turned out to be a petrol station.

On the positive side they had some pet emus and Jeanette took to feeding one grapes which it seemed to like. I was somewhat surprised by this as Jeanette a few years back, was mugged by an Emu who snuck up behind her and stole a sandwich out of her hand and since that event she has always tended to have a rather dim view of that species. Time seems to have worked its healing balm here. The other amazing sights here were the huge cars towing giant caravans and the bus-sized motor homes towing trailers with sedans on them, pulling in for petrol.

Anyway back on the bus for another two and half hour stint to Kings Canyon. With the wet summer and recent rains the country was really looking its best and I was struck by how pristine and untouched it looked for hundreds of miles.

At our accommodation at Kings Canyon wondering where the restaurant is

We got into our Kings Canyon accommodation around 4pm.

I should note that I have had a defect occur on my camera sensor resulting in a large circular moon shaped like blob appearing in the middle of all the photos. As a result, from this post onwards, Jeanette with her iPhone has assumed the offical mantle of trip photographer. If you notice a dramatic improvement in the quality of the images, please spare my feelings and don’t tell me.

The Ghan Expedition – Alice Springs

After a night traveling on the Ghan, we disembarked at Alice Springs around 9am . I had slept very well overnight, the vibrations from the wheels acting a bit like one of those massage chairs. As well as awaking feeling incredibly relaxed, an additional fitness boost was had as my watch on the side table had clocked up 12000 steps for the day before I had even put it on. Jeanette, however, had been kept awake most of the night by the noise of the train and was feeling a little secondhand.

We got off the Ghan, collected our cases and sat down in the terminal to wait for our tour. After nearly an hour had passed they showed up, we got on their coach and were driven to the top of Anzac Hill which overlooks the town of Alice Springs and were told we had 15 minutes to check out the view. After that we were driven to our hotel. It was around 10:30 am and that was it from the tour’s view till a gathering at 5:30 that evening.

Problem was that our room at the hotel would not be available till 3pm in some four and a half hour’s time. The hotel was situated along the banks of the Todd River some twenty minutes walk from the town so we had our baggage stored and walked into Alice.

It was a pretty walk into town by the river gums with the broad sandy expanse of the Todd river alongside us. We passed by their Botanical Gardens which looked much like the surrounding country side, the only difference being it had a fence around it. There was a small rocky hill on our right before the bridge into town and there on a ledge above us. Jeanette saw a Rock Wallaby enjoying the morning sun. Me, being of a cynical nature, suggested that it might have been a stuffed one superglued to the rock by the local tourist bureau, but it moved its head and we sighted three more of them each sitting in the morning sun on their particular rock observing the world passing by below.

And so into town. We found a place that did good coffee, wandered around the town and then walked back to our hotel arriving shortly before 1pm. I pleaded with the receptionist and we finally got given access to our room where I worked on the previous day’s blog post while Jeanette got acquainted with the hotel’s laundry.

At the 5:30 pm briefing I think I managed to get ourselves labeled as the group’s troublemakers by going head to head with the tour guide on the question of luggage. The brochure sent out by the tour company had a page dealing with baggage limits . Essentially it said each individual was entitled to bring a bag weighing less than 16kgs and with the total of the cases height, width and depth not to exceed 150cms. We had carefully complied with that but having arrived in Alice Springs with our two complying cases, our guide now claimed that the baggage allocation was one case per couple. After some back and forth he agreed that while we were in fact entitled to two cases, he didn’t have room for them on the bus so some extreme late night repacking got us rearranged with one bag to take and one to go in storage. The vibes with this outfit are not great.

The Ghan Expedition – Gorgeous Katherine

A bit of excitement to start the day when our 8:15 pickup to join the Ghan showed up at 7:50am, still thanks to the Orgainised One we were all packed and ready to roll. The station is a fair way out of town and the bus first dropped us at the engine for some photo opportunities then back on the bus to transport us down to our carriage.

Around 10am we pulled out and shortly after finishing a rather nice lunch we pulled into Katherine for our trip to see the famous gorges. Katherine is a few degrees hotter than Darwin and the weather was rather oppressive.

We arrived at Nitmiluk National Park and boarded a large punt-like craft for our trip down the first gorge. At the end of this we walked some 450 metres across a large rock bar to pick up another punt and explored the second gorge.

On the cliffs overlooking the rock bar were some amazing ancient rock paintings. The views in both of the gorges were spectacular and I can highly recommend a visit here. We were fortunate to have a very knowledgeable guide.

We noticed on the way in signs saying the gorges were currently closed to swimming and canoeing. Apparently during the wet season the floodwaters cover the rock bars separating the various gorges and salt water crocodiles can move up and take residence in the gorges. At the start of the dry seasons, the authorities conduct a six week survey period (they were currently in week four) where they apply various techniques including traps to see if any salties have taken up residence. If they have not found any trace after six weeks, they open the gorges to swimming etc. Our guide told us that then, after at least 200 tourists have gone swiming, the locals start using it.

We headed back to the train to cool off, have a beautiful dinner and start heading down the track to Alice.

The Ghan Expedition – Darwin in the Dry Season

Our hotel is a building which could have been kindly described as an architectural disaster even when it was built back in the 1980s. It has not weathered the tropical environment very well, maintenance apparently has ceased several years back and it is now very tired. Our room has two levels with the bed up a flight of stairs . As the head of the stairs arrives near the foot of the bed, night time expeditions take on certain element of risk

We headed out around 10am to catch the Hop on Hop off bus. We had an interesting ride around Darwin’s environs. It is unrecognisable from the Darwin I knew 50 years back. One shot l thought you might like. This is called the Duckpond and is where the fishing fleet docks.

We got off the bus at Cullen Bay where we planned to have lunch. We had lunched here 10 years back and had been really impressed. Unfortunately, something, I assume we can safely blame Covid, had sent almost all of the restaurants and shops there to the wall. There only seemed to be one restaurant operating and that one only just. It was all very depressing.

So we fed the fish and Jeanette patted the brass crocodile and we waited for the hop on bus to arrive and beam us out of there. This it duly did. We boarded the bus but when we went upstairs we noted some of the seats had been wet by rain so we retreated downstairs. At the next stop a large group got on and headed upstairs, the bus moved off then the rain hit us. At the next stop all the upstairs lot came down looking like drowned rats. The rain continued to grow in intensity till the water was starting to come through the floor above us in increasing quantity.

We abandoned our sinking bus at the Waterfront precinct , sprinted through about 5 yards of torrential downpour to the verandah that ran around one side of the precinct, found a nice restaurant and settled down to lunch and to wait out the storm which lasted around two hours.

After around two hours the rain stopped, the sun came out and the humidity just went off the scale. We walked back to our hotel. Unfortunately this route took us past Paspaly pearls and it proved a little difficult to persuade Jeanette to keep walking.

At 5pm got picked up for an evening dinner cruise on the Harbour. The water was like a millpond and the cruise operator was very efficient with great staff. As we set off on the cruise we passed by a Royal Navy River Class patrol boat , the HMS Tamar. I doubt getting from England to Darwin in a vessel that size would have been all that easy.

We had a great night. The views of the city were amazing.

The Ghan Expedition – Getting back on the horse.

With our travel plans upended over the last couple of years, we decided to gradually get back into the travelling gig with a trip on the Ghan from Darwin to Adelaide with stops at Katherine, Alice Springs (to check out Uluru and Kings Canyon) and Coober Pedy.

So it was an early start and off to Tullamarine Airport. I am always interested to see the march of technology in air travel and this trip did not disappoint with humans now totally eliminated from the check in and baggage drop phase.

We boarded our aircraft then had to sit on the tarmac for around two hours while they sourced a replacement for a missIng crew member.

This delay meant we did not get into Darwin till around 5pm. We checked into our hotel then went for a walk along the edge of Darwin’s Harbour and watched the sun set.

We then had a very nice dinner (barramundi, of course!) in the front garden dining area of the Novotel Hotel.

European Mountains and Rivers Days 28 & 29-Amsterdam to Home.

We nearly didn’t make Amsterdam in time for our flight home. Our departure from Antwerp being delayed due to a late returning bus, we missed a bridge opening time and were stuck in a canal waiting for a road bridge to open for around 3 hours.

This delay meant, on our normal travel time, we would not get to Amsterdam in time to get to our flight and plans were being made to toss us off the boat in the early morning hours to bus us to the airport. Fortunately we had a lucky run with the locks and our captain went flat out all night and we got in on time.

Our flight home with Singapore Airlines was as good as could be expected with their magnificent staff looking after us and we only had a two hour layover at Changi. It’s still an awfully long haul and we arrived home fairly wrecked. It’s great to be home.

European Mountains and Rivers Day 27 – Antwerp

This morning we woke up in a canal near the center of Antwerp. The skies were grey and an icy wind was blowing.

We had chosen to do the walking tour of the city. Our start point was by the river. It was interesting to note a concrete wall approximately 3 feet high with steel gates that could be slid shut to close the gaps in it. Our guide told us they have to close these gates about 4 times a year to stop the river flooding the city.

Most historical buildings you see have scaffolding somewhere. The remnants of the castle guarding the city’s entrance was an extreme example.

As we walked into the town we could see spots where the old city walls had been incorporated into the buildings that had grown around it.

This building was the Butchers Guild Hall and is known locally as the Bacon Building.

A fair bit of Antwerp was destroyed in the closing days of WWII when the Germans tried to prevent the Allies from using its ports. But a lot of old parts survived. Here are some of the old Guildhalls facing onto the cathedral square. The statue depicts a Roman soldier who legend has it defeated a giant that lived here and thus permitted the city’s foundation. Our hero, here having chopped the giant’s hand off, is tossing it into the river.

And here we are navigating an old medieval street.

The cathedral is home to a number of Rubens paintings and it is a magnet for lots of Japanese tourists. Apparently there is a widely read children’s story book in Japan that tells of a little boy and his dog who lived in a town outside of Antwerp. The boy wanted to see the big Rubens painting in the Cathedral but it was usually kept locked away. It was displayed at Christmas however so he set off with his dog through the snow to see the painting and was so enthralled with it he stayed overnight and froze to death. This sculpture out in the front of the cathedral is a great favourite with the Japanese tourists.

Antwerp is famous for its railway station which is claimed to be in the top three in the world. So we set off on our own to walk to it .

It was a hazardous journey not only due to the freezing cold, wind and a great part of the road being dug up. The biggest hazard was that all the jewellery shops are up this end and Jeanette was in grave danger of emulating the little boy only she would have had her nose frozen to a jewellers shop window.

The station is an amazing building with a very elegant interior .

The area where the actual trains pulled in was over four levels, top one had trains, next one shops and the bottom two levels were also trains.

We then beat a retreat back to the boat to thaw out.

European Mountains and Rivers Day 26 – Veere

A real bleak grey overcast day today. We stopped at a town called Veere on an island near the North Sea. The waters around the island have been cut off from the ocean by the Delta Works storm barriers.

The town has a fascinating history. In the 10th century the fishermen from here starting selling part of their catches into Scotland. The relationship grew till they were appointed the offical port to handle all imports of Scottish wool into the Netherlands.

So the town boomed for a while and to show its importance they tried to build a church bigger than any in the neighbouring towns. Unfortunately they ran out of money and it was never finished. It is a concert and exhibition space today.

The town itself is like you have walked into a story book. The school and kindergarten don’t have any fences around them.

Here is a shot of their town hall

Our second last night on the boat tonight and we are having the farewell dinner. It has all gone so quickly.

European Mountains and Rivers Day 25 – Arnhem

Today Jeanette and I went our separate ways. I was off to the Airborne Museum and Jeanette headed for the Dutch National Heritage Open Air Museum.

It turned out that Jeanette had the more exciting time but I will tell you a bit about my day first then hand over the keyboard to Jeanette.

The Airborne Museum attempts to provide a history of the largest Airborne operation every undertaken when the Allies tried to capture the bridges across the Rhine at Arnhem. Due to an underestimation of German fighting capacity and poor reconnaissance, the lightly armed airborne troops were dropped right on top of two German armoured divisions and the mission failed.

The Airborne Museum is in a Chateau that the General in charge of the British Airborne Division chose to use as his headquarters. Seeing it I could not help thinking of Field Marshall Bill Slim in one of his books confessing that as a Lieutenant in WW1 that he used to imagine if he ever made General, he would direct his battles from a chateau where he could sleep on clean sheets and have a nice wine with his lunch. He wound up as a General fighting in the desert and in the jungle so his wish never came true and I don’t think the General here got to enjoy Chateau life much either.

The museum had some interesting artifacts but had mostly succumbed to the modern trend of large blown up photos with flashing lights and interactive computer games for the kiddies.

Our group also visited the war cemetery where the British and Polish troops who were lost here are buried. A very impressive place. The thing that struck me most were the wide variety of corps and regiments that were involved here.

Here is a photo of the Arnhem bridge. The bridge today is a rebuilt version as the original was destroyed in the subsequent fighting. It is now named the John Frost Bridge after the Lt Colonel whose men managed to capture and hold it for several days

Jeanette ventured out to the Netherlands National Heritage Open Air Museum – The bus assigned to our group came to grief not far from the port. Lots of cars were honking their horns at us and one driver managed to tell our bus driver, while we were stopped at the traffic lights, that there were plies of smoke coming out of the back of the bus. We could smell the awful smell but thought it was just the big recycling incinerator we were passing. They dropped us all out of the bus at a hotel, where they served us drinks as we waited for a replacement bus. Then we continued on our way.

They seem to go in for open air museums over here and this one was fabulous. Set on 108 acres, it had a collection of trams that used to ply the streets of Rotterdam until the 1960s, on a circular route around the site, where it was possible to hop on and off at various locations. The museum depicted life in the Netherlands over the last 100 years – there was a health centre with all sorts of gruesome medical instruments, where they managed TB infection and monitored babies and young children, as well as general medical care. The displays were very lifelike.

There was a working blacksmith, an amazing laundry with big timber mechanised washing wooden barrels that pummelled the life out of the clothes, sheets, etc.

There was a beer brewery, which gave us a taste, a paper making outfit, strange looking sheep, lots of wind mills, and family homes, and even a wayside chapel the size of a cubby house.

There was an activity centre for children where they could learn to milk a cow and do the washing the old fashioned way (ie by hand). So much to see and very well done.